Here are some basic recipes for common styles brewed. Search for "homebrew" for more info or checkout realbeer.com for many other recipes.   Style: Pale Ale This style is brewed most by homebrewers. It is a forgiving beer, in that if you brew with less than perfect water at a warmer temperature than you should and use dry yeast, you can still get a good beer. It's a good first beer. Ingredients: 2 3.3 lb. cans of light malt extract. 1 lb. crystal malt 1 oz. Centenial Hops 1 oz. Cascade Hops 2 packets dry yeast, or for better beer, Wyeast Ale liquid yeast Steep crystal malt, in a mesh bag, in close-to-boiling water for 30 minutes. Pull out grain and rinse residue on bag back into pot. Add liquid malt and Centenial hops and bring to boil. Boil for 45 minutes. Add Cascade hops and boil for 10 more minutes. Cool wort to 75-80 degrees and transfer to fermenter. Add yeast, shake well and let ferment completely (1-3 weeks depending on environment and yeast). Bottle and let age for 2 weeks. Drink. Style: Stout Excellent beer for 2nd-time brewer. Another fairly forgiving beer. Try to use filtered water, though. You can add many different ingredients and still get good beer. This is a simple, but tasty, recipe. 6 lb. Dark Malt Extract .5 lb. Roasted Barley, .5 lb. Black patent malt 2oz. Kent Golding Hops 2 packets dry yeast, or for better beer, Wyeast liquid yeast   Steep roasted barley and black patent malt in close-to-boiling water for 30 minutes. Pull out grain and rinse residue with water back into pot. Add dark malt extract and 1 oz of Kent Golding Hops and bring to boil. Boil for one hour, adding the other ounce of hops in last 10 minutes. Let cool to 75-80 degrees F and transfer to fermenter. Throw in yeast and shake up well. Allow to fully ferment (1-3 weeks, depending on environment). Bottle and let age for 2-4 weeks. Drink. Style: Lager With the vast majority of beers being consumed being Lagers, you would think this would be the most common style homebrewed. It's not, for a couple of reasons. To get a pure, clean lager, you must do exactly as the name says: Lager it. This is a procedure of fermenting the beer at a very low temperature. The warmer beer ferments, typically, the more esters and off-flavors result. This clovey, banana-like smell is ideal for ales, but is unacceptable for lagers. To ferment at such low temperatures (from 40 degrees f all the way down to 35 degrees) slows down the fermentation process and results in a much longer fermentation process (8 weeks isn't uncommon). To get this optimum temperature typically means you need to put fermented in a refridgerator with a temperature controller. Not cheap. But, if you have the money to invest in this style you can brew beer that will astound your friends. It's worth a consideration! Basic Lager Ingredients: 4 lb. can light malt extract 2 lb. light dry extract 2.5 oz. Saaz hops. Use ONLY liquid yeast for this style Bring water to boil, add malts and 1.5 oz of hops. Boil for 55 minutes. Add remaining hops and boil for five more minutes. Remove from heat, cool to 70-75 degrees and transfer to fermenter. Pitch liquid yeast and shake up well. Once fermentation is nice and active (3-6 hours) drop temperature to 45-55 degrees, depending on yeast. Ferment for 2-3 weeks, transfer beer to secondary fermenter and drop temperature to 38-42 degrees. Lager for 4-6 weeks. When fully fermented, transfer to bottles. Let age 1-2 weeks, enjoy! Check out one of Albuquerque's better microbreweries...     Thanks for visiting!