What got you into homebrewing?

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What got you into homebrewing? (Select all that apply)

  • A friend of mine who brews.

  • I tried Mr. Beer and it all progressed from threre.

  • I watched the brewing episode of Good Eats.

  • I researched it myself based on my own interest in brewing.

  • Visited a brewery and got interested that way.

  • Other (please post!)


Results are only viewable after voting.

bsay

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I am curious to do a poll on this subject. Simply: What got you into homebrewing? I got interested in brewing when I watched the Good Eats episode, but something seemed to be missing. Later, I was dog-sitting, and the dogs' owner had brewing magazines, which I read to pass time while hanging out with the dogs. It all progressed from there, and I ordered my starter kit two days ago.
 
My grandfather made his own wine and beer when I was a kid, that got my interest originally. But a few years ago I saw that Good Eats episode which rekindled that interest and got me started doing my research before starting my first batch.
 
9th grade bio class. we started cellular metabolism and the teacher went over anaerobic first, she used yeast as the example and until then I had never even thought about where alcohol came from. I skipped last period to get home and a start an experiment with some old bread yeast I had sitting around.
 
I was just always curious about it. My curiousity grew out of liking beer, but never being satisfied with the taste of BMC, even from my early days of being legally permitted to drink, which was at the cusp of the craftbeer boom. Then I got to travel the world a bit and got a taste of what other countries/cultures were drinking. My first Guinness was at a bar/club in then British Hong Kong. I thought, wow, this is dark!

At first, homebrewing beer seemed daunting with too much variability (from my perspective as a science guy), but I got to a point where I wanted a good hobby to take my mind off of my job at the time, so I made a determination to learn why there was so much variability and figure out how I wanted to brew.

I love drinking delicious beer made by my own means... and I like to make beer styles that are reminiscent of the delicious beers I've had in Europe, which aren't readily available here, at least as good as they taste before crossing the ocean.
 
A friend (and quasi-ex) of The Wife was a homebrewer, so subconsciously I may have been trying to compete! Good Eats was criticial in showing how approachable the hobby was, even if the information was flawed (I didn't follow his directions when starting to brew).
 
Since I clicked "other"....
I watched Beerfest. Before that the idea of homebrewing had never dawned on me. So thanks to the magic of the internet.... voila I have a new hobby!

Schlante,
Phillip
 
I read a novel about a winemaker when I was 17, and soon found Terry Garey's Joy of Home Winemaking. Most of my attempts were crap (so I stopped), and when I returned to homebrewing last fall, this website is what convinced me I could actually make beer. :mug:
 
My dad got all the stuff when I was a wee-one, and after making rootbeer bottle bombs, he never bothered to try a batch of beer.

Last Christmas my coworker brought in a couple bottles of "homebrew" that he had made at the local U-brew place, and I thought "Boy, making my own beer would be rad!"
 
I developed an interest in it after trying a whole punch of different style beers. I was drinking them and wondering why all the different companies Pale Ales and IPA's all tasted different from each other. I went out the next day and bought an irish stout kit and all the beginner equipment. Its been all down hill from there.
 
The Good Eats show did it for me. I was watching it with my father and said I can do that. Started to read up on brewing, looked at Palmer's book online and finally picked up the hard copy read it twice and gave it a go. If it was not for that episode I am not sure I would be homebrewign today. So for as many faults as that episode had it planted the seed.

Mike
 
I had made wine kits for a few years, with average results. It was an afternoon a couple years ago when I started researching making wine from scratch, which lead to the eventual question "Can I make beer from scratch?"

Since I have self diagnosed adult A.D.D. and O.C.D., I immediately dropped whatever hobby I was interested in at the time, and dove head-first into homebrewing, and within a couple batches was deep into AG.

It's been 2 years, and I'm still homebrewing, so now I only have the O.C.D. to deal with!

Speaking of which, time to start another batch!

Cheers to all,

Rhino
 
I needed a different hobby besides philandering and bank robbery. My stepdad homebrewed, and Plumply McBitchface thought I should try doing that instead. Best thing she ever gave me except for the two wee bairns.
 
Dad used to brew a few years back so i was always helping out...justa few years later i started doing it myself...A lack of good available beer help me along my path also.
 
A friend of mine gave her boyfriend & I Brews(u)cks for his birthday. We had been drinking craft ales for a couple years & she saw this "make beer in a plastic bag" things. We made one, it was really bad. We tracked down a brewing place & got a pound of DME to add to the second one. It was bad.

So, we went back to the Oakbarrel and bought makings, hit HD for a turkey burner.

It was good.
 
It was something I was always interesting in from talking to different people. I did some research on the internet and through books, but it was mind-boggling and confusing to me. It wasn't until watching the Good Eats episode that I started to understand the process and it really rekindled my interest. I actually wasn't planning on brewing until later this year but SWMBO bought me a kit last Christmas and it just spiraled from there.
 
Other:

I saw an interview show, don't remember which, that Jim Koch was the guest. He told his story about finding his grandfather's recipes, brewing at home, starting the brewery, etc. I was fascinated. I am a beer lover and enjoy craft beers but didn't know much about beer other than the types and flavors. I decided to learn as much as I could and brew. But it was watching Jim Koch and being infected by his obvious passion for brewing that made me go buy a book (Palmer) and a kit.

The kit has been replaced and has evolved into a mini-brewery in my garage and Palmer's book is curently being held together with tape and paper clips. This is an obsession.
 
I too watched beerfest, Dogfish Head's beers also inspired me to make creative brews.
 
I was 18 and wal-mart was selling brew your own beer and wine kits (think cheaper version of Mr. Beer) without checking I.D.'s.
I bought 'um followed the directions once, tasted like ****...got drunk :ban:
I didn't think about it again until later while in college researching ethanol fuel production. I Typed "how to brew beer" into Google and found John Palmer's website been brewing ever since.
 
I live in the weeds like an animal and there is no decent beer for 30+ miles. So I built a kegaretor and started buying 1/6 barrels of microbrews. At $70 a pop that got old in a hurry, so I found this forum and tada, a homebrew adventure began. I haven't bought a microbrew keg since January of this year. :rockin:
 
I was going to beer festivals (Hops and Props and WABL events) and talking to brewers while drinking their tasty concoctions and thought to myself "I should do this" I then bought books (Palmer's and Papazian's) read up on it for a month and bought a starter kit with some extras and enlisted my brother into the mix by giving him half the brewery as a birthday present.
 
I had dinner after fishing with a friend of the family. One of my most vivid memories. He brewed, and I had 4 brown ales from a converted fridge/kegerator. I was between 17 and 21, and was allowed beer at the summer house. I will do this one day, i thought.

On a heating(wood) forum that I participate in, a guy was worried about temp. fluctuation, and when he said he made beer, and needed even temps, I googled making beer, fouund this site, and that was it.
 
Dad used to brew

Buddy used to brew in college...he and I like drinking...he was moving, lent me his extract setup...I can't stop

and what really got me going was HBT....
 
Other.

I got into brewing... For The Beer.

It took many years of being led towards wheat beers and other light fare, and when I finally asked to just try and find something I actually liked from the row of taps at the local brewery (MBC), I found IPA and was addicted immediately. MBC being a very 'All About The Beer' place, I quickly made friends of everyone there, and learned home brewing from the 30 barrel Century-backwards, towards home brewing. It still took about 15 years to decide I would brew my own.

I have made hundreds of gallons of wine from late teens into the early twenties, as I had access to all manner of free fruit. I was actually scared into NOT brewing, because I was told that holding exact temps was going to be so hard....by the guy who I bought carboys, bags and yeast from, a LHBS.

A few years ago I was given a DME mini-kit that was absolutely horrible-metallic liquid. But during that time, I developed a hops addiction, and out of natural self-reliance, am putting together a full blown, single tier, 3 keggle, all stainless rig, with gearmotor driven mill and kegging system/kegerator.

It could be said it was because of the brewery, but it really seems to be 'All About The Beer.'
 
When I got interested in brewing back in 1983 the "hobby" was more voodoo than science.

After living in Germany for 2 1/2 years, the swill available in the US nearly forced me in to brewing. At that time, the cost for a 6 pack of imported Pils or Ale was about 6 or 7 bucks while you could get a 6 pack of BMC for a buck sixty nine!

I was basically doomed by my palate!

Oh how far we have come from that time.

Enjoy this time in brewing and just know it was not always this way.

Cheers,

knewshound
 
I'm a member of socaltrailriders.org and noticed people occasionally posted that they made beer at home. It got me interested or rather obsessed, like all my other hobbies, in making beer.

Keep in mind, I don't drink a lot of beer. Honestly I don't!!!

I think for me, making it is more fun but at the same time having it to drink when it's ready is fun too. I also can use it as an excuse to have the guys over for fight night and to help drink it.

I just want to make excellent beer, be known for making excellent beer and have a few every now and then... after that, I'll probably move onto something else. However I can see this as a never ending thing...
 
A few years ago, my then-roomate's dad opened a small brewshop and gave us a starter kit for Christmas. I mostly drank gin at the time, and knew next to nothing about beer. I fell in love with the process while making my first batch and immediately began to buy more equipment, try more commercial microbrews, and learn everything I could about beer and brewing. Homebrewing rules so hard that I've never looked back.
 
My interest all stemmed from my love of beer. I'm a total EAC when it comes to beer and I'm totally ok with that. I like good beer that is well made and the more I thought about it, the more I figured it was something I should be doing for myself. I knew my first batch wouldn't come out tasting like Duvel or Alesmith or Westvleteren, but I knew I could work towards making beer on par with the good crafts I have come to demand. So far, it has been a very interesting experience and it just keeps getting better.
 
my dad used to brew and then i saw brewing on national geographic and he gave me his equipment when i asked him about it. that was about 2 months ago...have made 5 batches so far and can't stop...somebody needs to drink my beer!!!
 
I chose both the "researched it myself..." option and "other" so here's my "Other".

THIS FORUM! After doing some research on the web I wound up here, and discovered that not only were there a lot of knowledgeable brewers on here, but they are addicted to replying to noob posts like it was crack or something! Very cool for me as it helped me with a few practical questions about starting up my homebrew adventures. So thanks all who replied to my noob posts (and those who will reply to my noob HERMS/RIMS posts in the future)!
 
I read an article somewhere that mentioned how easy it was to make mead. So I gave it a shot. One day in the brew store for supplies, the proprietor ask how come I don't brew beer to have something to drink while waiting on my mead. He told me how easy extract brewing was, so I gave it a shot, and never looked back.
 
I started brewing because of my pure love for beer. I don't drink any other form of alcohol, well I will when this batch of edworts apfelwein is ready. It started for me when i turned 21 and started going to bars where I just drank miller lite and corona, but turning into a bar fly I got to know the miller distributor who talked me into trying a Stella Artois, that moment alone taught me something that i didn't know, that there was better beer in this world than BMC. After that I expermented with everything I could beerwise, moving up from lagers like stella and grolsch to ales like smithwicks and newcastle, ultimately finding my favorite beer style which was strong irish stouts like guinness extra stout in the bottle. So at this time I was at a point where I found out that I loved alot of different beer that I didn't know exsisted so I started researching the internet looking for commercial beers that other people said was better than what I had already found out to be good beer, that inquiry led me to this site through a google search if im remembering correctly and the rest is history, I was about 22 when i found this site and i started learning the process behind making beer then, at 23 I started buying equipment, and at 24 a few weeks ago I did my first batch ever which was a oatmeal stout and allgrain at that, Im drinking one now and its great, and on my 25th birthday coming up on 8-18-2008 my stout should be at its prime just in time for the party!!!!!

I take back what i said, i think i had just turned 23 when i found this site not 22. Damn memory is a little foggy now, lol
 
My other was part my love of beer and that I have the best SWMBO ever. She got me the starter kit/equipment for my birthday because she knows how much I love beer. Its been a fast down hill slide ever since. She did buy me another keg for my b-day this year, and tell me that I will have to make 3 beers when I told her that I will have 3 empty kegs soon. Mmm…good beer and an understanding SWMBO, life is good.
 
Other
A Sam Adams Longshot commercial several years ago. I went to the Boston beer site and followed the link to purchase a kit. I told my wife it would make a nice B-day gift and she told me to order it. 80 batches later and still going
 
Woke up one morning and said "What the hell, i wonder what it takes to brew"

When i logged onto this site....it all began.
 
In the early 90's I was dropping off some laundry at the cleaners and noticed a small building next door that stated they sold homemade beer items. I went in to check it out and immediately decided I wanted to try it. I made beer for a year or so with my brother and left all the gear with him because I didn't like the way he wanted to brew. Recently a friend got my interest going again so I bought all new equipment so I could make it my way and have been going crazy since.
 
I was a beer lover, and found out I had Celiac disease (no wheat, barley, or rye). And, because the few choices for gluten free beer are not great, I decided to take things into my own hands.
 
I got into it because of my friend. He has brewed many years and invited me over one night to eat pizza, drink beer, listen to heavy metal, and brew beer.

I was hooked ever since, and I have grown to LOVE beer, whereas before I only liked it occassionally.
 
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