bekellog81,
I may be new in the smoking world, but I've been home brewing for a few years now, and you're right there is no more perfect combination than beer and smoking meat. And everything the earlier posts say is right, but if you ask me for the best resource for learning, find a brew shop near you, and whomever runs it should know everything you'd ever need to know, so ask questions. Just be aware cause they are trying to sell you something. start off with a simple kit, you definitely need two fermenters, like the last post said two-stage fermentation is the way to go. Shouldn't cost more than or at least much more than 100 bucks.
To start I would recomend going with an extract with speciality grains recipe. This isn't truely a partial mash recipes, because with partial mash you are actually converting starches from the grains into sugars and getting some additional sugars from extracts. extact with speciality grains means that basically all the sugars come from the extracts and the speciality grains or usually crystal malts add characteristic flavors to that beer. And the whole process is no harder than doing a simple extract beer so it's perfect for a beginner.
riz9
modified silver smoker
