RE: Liquid Simplicity; Brewing a SMaSH (Single Malt/Single Hop) with Home Grown Hops and Figs
All beer is made from malt, hops and grains. There are many types of all three, and mixing them up is what basically creates all the different beers out there, along with some variations on fermenting. Heineken is a pale lager, but brewed to be a very balanced hop to malt flavor, and using a very light malt and a small amount of hops. A maltier beer tastes, well, more malty :). British beers stand out as malty, so something like Bass perhaps. My smash is also a light malt, but heavier on the hops, so it has a hoppy bitter flavor. The hops I grow are fairly standard in taste, but some varieties taste piney, citrusy, dirty, etc. If you wanted to try to brew I would just get something like an American pale ale kit. Lagers are really hard to brew as you need temperature control equipment. Hope that helps.
Wow, thanks so much. So I'm going to have to practice on an easier recipe then work my way up to the pale lager type recipe.
That's very helpful!