steve crawshaw wrote:
I have voted. I would say fermentation issues are number 1. Normally caused by underpitching, poor temperature control or failing to rehydrate dried yeast. Of course if yeast health is sub optimal due to the above factors, that also allows other organisms to gain a foothold before the pH drops from fermentation. Poor sanitary procedures are also an issue but I think most of us have that controlled and the modern sanitisers have improved this a lot.
I agree with all of this.
steve crawshaw wrote:
I do think that a lot of new homebrewers tend to get a bit over excited and try and brew extreme beers with lots of ingredients ( I did this).
This is also a very good point. If you can't get a simple beer nailed every time, you are mad to be trying extreme Belgian experiments. I think there are a number of forgiving styles, that you could class as beginner styles, that everyone should master before branching out:
Bitters
American ales
Standard strength IPAs (not Imperials)
Standard strength stouts (not Imperials or Foreign extra)
Porters (not imperial or baltic)
Brown ales
The unifying factor in these styles for me is that you can use forgiving yeasts that are not too fussy about their fermentation conditions. US05 is a good example as I have fermented this at temperature ranging from 18 c to 24 c and it still makes good beer. British yeasts in low gravity beers are also pretty tolerant.