How'd you get your start?

OK here's an idea for a new thread. I'm curious how everyone got interested in brewing. I'll start...

I've always been interested, and several times I almost ordered one of those beer kits you see advertised in magazines and what not, but since I'm not a huge beer fan I never did it. Then I saw a article in Mother Earth News (my wife subscribes not me) for Hard Apple Cider. That interested me enough that I ordered some equipment from leeners.com and am making my first batch of cider. Now, I'm reading everything I can find on any kind of brewing. It's true what they say:

"Give a man a beer and he'll waste an hour, teach him to brew and he'll waste a lifetime.

the history channel got me interested. they had the modern marvels on one night and after a marathon of reading and searching (a lot of it on this site) i had my first beer in the fermenter the next week.
weird thing is that i'm no big drinker, of beer or anything else. most likely because i don't really like what my friends and my brother drink. but when i got a hold of some good ales i was hooked and started to drink more.

I've always been a beer lover. Then I started playing poker with some guys who have been brewing AG for like 15 or 20 years. They got me thinking about it. I mentioned it to SWMBO, and *bang* two hours later SHE had found the stater kit online. The rest is history.

My brother started started brewing and I went and helped him with a batch. After that I went to a "teach a friend to brew day". I found a set up on craigslist from a guy getting out of the hobby the rest is history.

I got a urge to give it a go.
I did a brew in a bag beer years ago and it was good but worked out at £1 a pint. It was ad water and serve from the same bag.

I recalled my dad did it years ago when I was a wee lad.

I bought a Mr Beer and after 3 batches went AG.

Always been a beer drinker (other than the BMC my friends drink). I heard someone on another board I frequent (music related) talk about homebrewing. I was intrigued and started reading. 3 months later I received a Mr. Beer kit as a gift when I had "homebrew starter kit" on my x-mas list.

I did that one brew, then scored with a craigslist find. Went AG on my 5th brew. I am completely obsessed now.

I had been considering it for years to piss off the wife. She finally relented and suddenly there are taps downstairs.

I was in Alaska fishing in August when someone there offered me a HB. I thought dam this is good and when they started to explain the process I knew I had to do it. Later that night I was on my laptop searching for active forums and found this site and the Green Board to be the most active so I started researching. 2 days later while still on vacation I ordered a starter kit and 3 extract kits w/specialty grains.
I must have spent hundreds of hours reading the boards and soaking up info. My second extract brew was a full boil and my 3rd a lager. Then I made the move to AG.
Now I have canned wort for starters, mill my grain and am brewing my first 10G batch tomorrow. Not to mention a garage full of brewing equipment.

I was fasinated at the posiblity of making my own alcohol. I was 20 at the time so I was really into the alcohol stuff not the taste. I knew that I didn't like "normal" beers and thought that I could make something I liked. I knew a guy that did and he said I could probably do it too. I brewed a batch of beer five weeks before my 21st birthday (mom bought my starter kit from the LHBS) and it was my second legal beer (after going out at midnight). I've been making beer ever since and after a year I went all grain. I'm so happy that I found this site when I did. And that the polieses are now enforced that weren't back then (must be 21 or older in order to post if in America). And that I'm now the Senior active member of this site.

I grew up touring wineries with my grandmother, and have always loved wine and cider... I always wanted to own a winery one day... then moved up here to Maine and found that I had apple trees on my property, and that was the perfect excuse to start the winery... beer is in the near future...

sause said:

I was fasinated at the posiblity of making my own alcohol. I was 20 at the time so I was really into the alcohol stuff not the taste. I knew that I didn't like "normal" beers and thought that I could make something I liked. I knew a guy that did and he said I could probably do it too. I brewed a batch of beer five weeks before my 21st birthday (mom bought my starter kit from the LHBS) and it was my second legal beer (after going out at midnight). I've been making beer ever since and after a year I went all grain. I'm so happy that I found this site when I did. And that the polieses are now enforced that weren't back then (must be 21 or older in order to post if in America). And that I'm now the Senior active member of this site.

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yeah right sause, we all know you're still 14 making your hooch under your bed.

I started when me and my roommates were discussion something in a drunken stupor and stumbled upon this site. 2 weeks later I was brewing.

I got interested in brewing maybe 20 years ago when I found a book on brewing. The process used prehopped LME. But I couldn't find any so gave it up. Fast forward to the Food Network and Alton Brown. My son saw the same show as I did and wanted to do it. But his wife told him "not in my house". So I said we'll do it at mine. Now I brew and he drinks it for me.

My son-in-law was a chemist in college and he brought some HB over for some get together like Mother's Day so such about 14 years ago. My wife asked me how I liked the beer I said it was good.

I've always drunk the German Hefe Weizen at $2.00 a bottle. I got a basic package for my b'day and the rest is history.
I still drink HW, but now I pay only $0.50 a bottle.

My business partner got her SO a Brews(u)ck for his birthday and got one for me as well. They were bad, really bad. Fortunately. Bernie and Homer at the Oak Barrel set us on the true path.

I ran across an old copy of Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing. After reading most of it, I decided I needed to give brewing a try. $100 and an "Ale Pail" kit later, I was hooked! After I found that the hobby lends itself to DIY projects, I was obsessed!

We had a small little HBS open in my small little town back when I was 14. I wanted to make beer for my father and drink a couple every now and then, so I bought a John Bull kit and a starter home brew kit (you know the bottle, trash can, racking tube, etc....). After two extract kits and two more years, I had started to acquire what was needed for AG. My junior year in HS I finally had the chance to start AG and haven't looked back since. Once I worked at the brewery and hung with all those home brewers in their favorite gathering place, it really took my skill level up. Now, I have this site to hone me to a razors edge and soon (by spring) will be bottling for competitions. Can't believe I'm 32 now and haven't brewed more batches than I have. I am damn sure catching up now.

My BIL was an extract brewer, as was a friend. That piqued my interest, and one year SWMBO got me a starter kit for Christmas. some 12-odd years and oodles of additional "toys" and I am still obsessed. BTW my BIL and friend each no longerbrew.

I've was a faithful Bud Light drinker for 25 years. I was getting bored with that beer. There is a Liquor store near me that brings in beers from all over the world..I started trying lots of different German and Belgian beers. One night i saw a commerical with Jim koch of Sam Adams talking about a homebrewing..I went on there website saw him brew a batch a beer and was like WOW!!!I picked up a kit and have been hooked ever since, and haven't had a BudLight either.

Budweiser lost a steady customer that night..Thank god bud spends ten's of millions of dollars on marketing, because if the word got out they wouldn't be in business with the crap they make..

I got a DME kit (don't remember the brand) about 4 years ago for Christmas and even though it turned out like crap I was hooked. I started reading The Complete Joy of Homebrewing last year. Then bought an Ale Pail kit and slowly made the gradual steps into AG. I enjoy the whole process of crafting a product that I can drink and share. The problem I have now, is that I want to brew every recipe I see.

I was a beer lover long ago. My German mother-in-law gave me this book 20 years ago.



It's out of print, but an excellent read and very entertaining if you can find it.

After reading it, the rest is history.

In July of 2006 for my Birthday, I bought a Mr. Beer kit. I made the beer, and wasn't overly impressed but thought I'd give another batch a try. I was living in Hawaii and couldn't find any Mr. Beer mixes locally, and the cost to get it shipped was ridiculous.

At the same time I started buying/trying a variety of craft/foreign beers and realized how many different types of beer actually existed.

I went to the LHBS and made a couple small batch recipes using the Mr. Beer for a primary, then ordered my starter kit from Northern Brewer in Nov 2006. Been brewing since although not nearly often enough. Once I come up with the funds for AG and kegging, I see my production increasing sustantially. I look forward to having beers in different phases and levels of aging at the same time.

SWMBO's idea!Just wanted to save a buck to start and now it's an obsession of sorts for the both of us(60 batches or so later)!
Cheers

I had 'brewed' a couple of pre-hopped kits when I was in my mid 20s but it made mediocre beer and was labour intensive. Brewing was a 'been there, done that' thing with me until twenty years later when my wife said, 'Hey Dan, Google kegerator.' After my jaw came off the floor I googled 'Homebrew' and found you drunken obsessed bastards. I was home.

I think she was trying to redirect my energies from a more dangerous hobby that I was getting far too good at. Her plan was wildly successful and I'm grateful to her for it.

I like beer and was being cheap. If there's something I want, but don't want to/can't afford to buy, I try to make it myself. When the stuff I made tasted better than a lot of the stuff I could buy, well, you know how it goes.

Its a really long story and I'm sure it would be boring.

But, I got into brewing by distilling some corn. That takes a long time to get a drinkable product.. A friend brews HB, and I found this forum. I did a lot of reading, had most of the equipment already, so I've brewed about 20 extract batches. I've made some crap, but for the most part, its been good beer. I'm about to start with AG, just need a few more things.....

ps...I've quit the distilling. Too much work

I've wanted to brew my own beer for several years but living in Kiowa county, Kansas made it illegal. In fact, to this day having beer over 3%ABV is still illegal. So, after I moved to Arizona, I saw a show on the Food Network talking about Mr. Beer and how it made an ok beer. Not as good as a microbrew but better then most commercial brewed beers. My kids got it for me on Fathers day this year. Brewed about 3 batches and decided that I needed a bigger fermenter and wanted to brew more complicated beer rather then beer-in-a-can. I haven't tried AG yet but I've only been brewing since June. I've brewed several partial mash brews (Hefy, Pumpkin Ale) and liked it. So does my wife. As the saying goes, the rest is history.

fretman124 said:

ps...I've quit the distilling. Too much work

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Not to mention agin' tha lawr. Nothing like waking up to BATF agents busting down your door because you made some corn liquor.


Anyway...


I got ushered into homebrewing by a friend of mine. We're both big beer geeks, and he'd been brewing for a long time. Got me started last july, and here I am, a year and a half later, with 50 batches under me belt. He doesn't brew at all anymore on account of his gluten issues, though.

I used to drive past a LHBS for years, and always thought it was interesting that you could make your own beer, but not interested enough to research it. In college, it was nothing but BMC. Then, I found out what beer taste like when I had a Flying Fish ESB in a bar... It opened my eyes. I started trying new beers and then reading up on styles. The, I happened to marry a girl and her parents live on a street with a LHBS, and I went in... glad I did.

I've always been into beer. I knew a few people that were homebrewers and met one gentleman that started a local brewpub after being a homebrewer. Finally one day after my first child was born, I was watching Emeril on FoodTv and he had a show about beer. I got to thinking about picking up brewing as a hobby I could do around the house. Bought a starter kit off the web, and went all grain within a year.

I was really into beer and figured I could further my hobby this way. Now I'm more into brewing beer than drinking beer. That in now way means I'm not really into drinking beer...

I went to Germany when i was 16 and travelled throughout the country, and Belgium staying with random people and trying out different beers. My grandfather, who is Bavarian, has raised me with the utmost respect for the barley-pops. So after that fateful trip, which feels very reminiscent of the story of the founder of New Belgium Brewing Co., i learned the science and began implementing it at age 16 with my first truly good homebrew at 17.

The sad story though is that i am going back this Spring for 4/5 months and won't be able to brew. Oh, to shame.

friends got me into it, but i've brought it to the level we're at now. when i first learned the process, we were doing it SUPER half-assed.

i only started about 6 weeks ago but i can't really recall the catalyst. it just seemed like it would be a fun thing to do, i got the papazian book from my brother in law who used to brew years back, then it just sort of snowballed. it's going to get worse before it gets better, that's for sure.

I was always the person who would like to try new things. And not just beer. I did (and still do) like to try new foods, new events, new whatever, just to see what they were all about. So when I was in High School and College, I was the guy that would show up to the party with the six pack of something I found on the grocery store shelf instead of pulling off the Bud Light keg. I never knew much about beer styles or anything like that. At the time, beer was pretty much light, or dark.

Fast forward a few years and the fiance and I are on vacation in Eureka Springs AR. Not much to do in the town, but as we were walking along, we came across a book store and SWMBO wanted to go inside because she had been looking for some book. As she was looking around, I was kind of meandering around the store, I think I was looking at cookbooks or something, and there was a book laying there about how to brew your own beer. This definitely caught my eye, and it was only like 5 bucks or something, so I went ahead and bought it. It was probably less than 80 pages long and was essentially a how-to with what equipment you would need, a general overview of the process and some recipes using pre-hopped LME.

Anywho, I read that book pretty quick and when we got back, I was watching Good Eats and AB brewed up some beer on his show that I think most of us have seen. That pretty much sealed the deal for me and I bought a real homebrewing book. Of course, with my new found interest I was talking about it occasionally, and the following Xmas, my SIL bought me a Mr Beer kit. By this point, I knew that I didn't want to do Mr Beer, but I didn't want to offend her. So I made a batch, and it turned out not too bad. Actually it was pretty good. So, I needed another can of extract and I found a place locally that sold them. It turned out to be the LHBS here. I went in, bought my extract, got to talking to the guy, and the next time I went in, I bought my beginners kit and the rest is history.

My problem was that I liked the beer that I couldn't afford. I had Guinness tastes with a Miller budget. Started with a Mr. Beer kit in '02 and just rolled from there. I'm doing AG now and not looking back. I'm now in search of the best/ cheapest beer I can make while still maintaining the quality I've become accustomed to. Tip: Teach a buddy to brew. Sharing experience and expenses is the bomb!