I started a Belgian ale last Sunday; it’s still fermenting fairly lustily, with a starting gravity of 1.07. I’m going to add a handful of cherry wood chips soaked in cream sherry to give it a bit of a cask-conditioned flavor. I tried this last year with a smoke ale, and after about six months of aging in the bottle it’s outstanding. It should be even better with a Belgian.
People joke about Mr. Beer, but it’s a really great and simple way of getting your feet wet with brewing, and giving the novice a feel for the process. Once you’ve done a few Mr. Beer batches, if you’re really serious, you’ll want to delve a little deeper. It’s not that difficult, nor expensive to get started with extract brewing, and there are plenty of web resources for reference.
I did a few Belgian brews when I first started out. They did not turn out well, at least to me. They may have needed more bottle aging than I gave them.