My first batch of beer was good. One nice way to start is to buy a kit -- all the ingredients and the recipe come nicely packaged. A friend got my husband a beer-brewing kit for cheap a few years ago; it had two big 6+-gallon plastic buckets, the appropriate glassware & plastic piping, a hydrometer, etc. That and a big big pot for boiling water and preparing your wort are all you need. (I figured I needed to contribute to the family beer vault and we have slightly different tastes, so I made a great summer saison for my first beer.)
Experience: first batch always great. 2nd or 3rd or 4th goes bad because you get overconfident, fail to sanitize something, and something nasty grows. You realize sanitizing is important and have success thereon.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-st... looks like the kit.
Experience: first batch always great. 2nd or 3rd or 4th goes bad because you get overconfident, fail to sanitize something, and something nasty grows. You realize sanitizing is important and have success thereon.