What was your first brew?

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First homebrew was a cider but first beer I think was a wit. It turned out pretty good. Recipe I think was from a book and ingredients were LHBS. Friends liked it but I improved the recipe the next go around.
 
My first was not for drinking. I was using a 20 oz coke bottle with aquarium tubeing poked thru a hole in the lid to make a Co2 generator for a planted fish aquarium.As it turns out the crushed frosted mini wheat cerial and sugar after fermenting produced a smell that had to be tasted! it smelled better than it tasted but hey it was my first homebrew so to speak.my first real home brew was a Mr.Beer amber ale kit.My first all grain was a crazy Stout Recipe
 
Brewer's Best Tripel kit brewed in February '09. It was one my favorite beers but I still haven't done a kit since. It aged pretty well too. I cracked two bottles I saved open in 2011 and while it had lost some head retention it hadn't oxidized at all. I guess I just had that natural ability :D
 
I think mine was the Colorado Cowgirl's American Brown Ale from Papazian's "The Homebrewer's Companion." I know it was a brown ale but I'm not totally sure it was this one. I remember being pretty pleased with the results. This was in 1994 and I brewed it with a friend of mine who is largely responsible for my love of beer and is unfortunately now deceased. I need to either re-brew this or come up with something similar as a tribute brew.

I remember we did a porter that was called "Blackbeard's Butt" that I recall really liking. This was from one of the recipe books that were titled by style. In other words, they had a book called simply "Porter", one called "Stout", etc. Anyone else remember those books? I'd love to go back and brew some of those early recipes that I/we did just to see if they jog my taste bud memory.
 
A one gallon, all grain Irish Red. It was pretty good, and I decided that 5-6 weeks was way too long to wait for only a few bottles, so I went right back for the 5 gallon equipment. Then decided that bottling five gallons would be a pain, so got kegging setup. That was an expensive month.
 
1988, a simple brown ale recipe from the back of Charlie P's book. LME, steeping grains, and dry yeast. Wasn't great, but wasn't bad - the rest is history...
 
First brew was a coffee chocolate stout, extract w/ specialty grains and adjuncts recipe that I got from my brother. Turned out delicious and only had one or two massive boilovers :drunk:
 
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I only primary fermented for 10 days and then bottled. I also fermented too warm but the beer came out good for a first attempt! All 50 bottles were gone in 2 weeks!
 
First beer I made was the Mr. Beer West Coast Pale Ale kit. My brother and I got the Mr. Beer kit for christmas this past year from our uncle, but had I wanted to get my own equipment long before that. I figured I'd give it a shot since it was free and if it came out good that was a plus. All I have to say, it was cidery as hell but we drank all of em. Came with the American Devil IPA kit as well. I added some cane sugar to the boil thinking I was savvy, but it just ended smelling and tasting like cat piss in the fermenter. Didn't even bottle it.

First "actual" beer was Charlie Papazians Palilalia IPA from the Joy of Homebrewing. Pretty much followed the directions to a t and it came out pretty good. Undercarbed because I threw them in the fridge right after I bottled them, but I took them out and let them sit for a few days and they turned out ok. Definitely hooked. I have been doing partial mashes and for the last 3 batches I've been getting into doing full boils on my 7 gallon turkey fryer. When money allows I'll definitely be getting all grain equipment.
 
Newcastle clone kit put together by LHBS w/ Safale US-05. Notes don't indicate ferm temp but probably in the mid-70s. Notes also say it tasted metallic and not much like Newcastle. However, it was beer so I considered it a reasonably successful first attempt.
 
A porter, I guess you would call it... Munton and Fison dark LME, some chocolate malt, don't remember which hops, probably Fuggle or Cascade... Put some baker's chocolate in either my first or second, which was also a porter, but don't remember which one it was... Munton and Fison dry yeast which was, at the time, the best dry yeast you could get.

The first one was odd, didn't use enough extract for some stupid reason, second batch was quite good and my boss at the time (Larry Bell, I was actually already working in a brewery as packaging director) was very complimentary "Wow, that's good!"

This would have been (probably September) 1989. I was packaging director at the time and moved over to brewing very shortly after.
 
Simple pale ale kit thrown together by a local home brew shop.

It was delicious. Luckily a friends father who brewed beer came by right before I pitched my yeast in my still boiling kettle, could have turned ugly. LOL
 
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Love that Booster! LOL

A gift from the wife when I mentioned that I was interested in learning about this homebrew stuff.

Now she has no one to blame but herself for all the gear in the basement and the 20 ft. tall hops pole in the back yard ;)
 
Mine was a can simply labelled "Dogbolter." It had the hops already mixed in, and came with a dry yeast pack. This was around 1989.
 
Mine was a clone of Deschutes Red Chair Northwestern Pale Ale. Didn't turn back after that, came out pretty awesome for my first beer. I cheated a little though and kegged it.
 
my first was a brewcraft Munich lager. i fermented it in the mid 20's C (70's F). needless to say it was terrible
 
Back in the late 80's Papazian's book was about all I had, and my first beer was a simple extract pale ale attempt. I don't even remember the yeast or any details. I do remember that when I went to stick the airlock in the top of the bucket, I tried to force it and the grommet fell in the wort. I panicked and stuck my arm in there and grabbed it. I was sure it was ruined. Anyway, it being my first beer I designed a label and called it "Arm Sweat Ale", bottled it up and served it. My memory was it was pretty good, and my friends all laughed and drank it. No infection! Must have had a pretty clean arm. B-Brite was all I had to clean or sanitize anything in those days.
 
Back in the late 80's Papazian's book was about all I had, and my first beer was a simple extract pale ale attempt. I don't even remember the yeast or any details. I do remember that when I went to stick the airlock in the top of the bucket, I tried to force it and the grommet fell in the wort. I panicked and stuck my arm in there and grabbed it. I was sure it was ruined. Anyway, it being my first beer I designed a label and called it "Arm Sweat Ale", bottled it up and served it. My memory was it was pretty good, and my friends all laughed and drank it. No infection! Must have had a pretty clean arm. B-Brite was all I had to clean or sanitize anything in those days.

Nice! You know, I think there is something lost from those days. The internet is both a blessing and a curse... if you had had HBT at the time you would have been all over the forum, "Did my nasty arm ruin my beer?! HELP ME NOW!" (Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but we have all seen those posts). We had Papazian, our LHBS and maybe a few friends in local clubs... we shared ideas in a very outlaw/underground community kind of way. In some ways the beer now may be better, but I still get nostalgic...:eek:
 
Mine was Brandon O's Graff. It came out pretty delicious, used some local organic cider! I was scared I was going to be banned from homebrewing because of the multiple boil overs on our new glass top stove! It may of worked in my favor since the wife approved the purchase of a turkey fryer for some good outdoor full boil action!
 
Brewer's Best Witbier

On a side note my first beer ever was a Miller High Life tall boy. The high life will always have a place in my heart :mug:
 
6 lbs of Amber DME, 2 oz Cascade, 2 oz of Centennial, and a smack pack of 1968. Recipe was out of Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing, but I added extra everything.
 
wailingguitar said:
Nice! You know, I think there is something lost from those days. The internet is both a blessing and a curse... if you had had HBT at the time you would have been all over the forum, "Did my nasty arm ruin my beer?! HELP ME NOW!" (Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but we have all seen those posts). We had Papazian, our LHBS and maybe a few friends in local clubs... we shared ideas in a very outlaw/underground community kind of way. In some ways the beer now may be better, but I still get nostalgic...:eek:

Ha! No doubt, it was different then, totally agree.
 
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