How old were you when you started?

I saw this other post and it got me thinking - how old was everyone when they started? I'm 19, which is pretty young, but I'm sure there are others on here younger than me. I know it's a touchy topic for some people - and I just can't wait until I turn 21 so I can actually taste my beer instead of giving it away

EDIT: I actually made my 1st batch when I was 18, but that was just a few months ago

Started what? Drinking? Had my first beer at 8, second at 19! Started brewing at 48.

Started brewing at 40 been brewing for almost one month

23 for me.

Started brewing at 43.

first beer..... not really sure. sometime along time ago. started brewing this month at age 23.

<--B-->

First beer in a bar at 15.

First home brew 4 weeks ago at 37.

At 27. a few months ago

Had my first beer when I was 6 or 7 . A PBR ( purely blissful refreshment). Hated it, then learned to love it somewhere along the way. Started brewing at 35 with a Mr. Beer kit. Didn't try again until last April . Now, at 37, I'm an addicted homebrewer. There's worse things to be.

Sixteen. I had just inherited my grandmother's 1965 Corvair convertible and was on a double date with my best friend and two cheerleaders. We went...wait a minute...what's the question?

I had my first whole beer around 17. It was actually many MGDs....in a funnel with a hose attached....Then there was the drugstore vodka, whiskey, and Bacardi that didnt play well together and had something to do with losing my keys, but thats another story. Gone are the days.

I brewed my first batch with the equipment kit from Midwest when I was 20. Didnt know what I was doing and made a godawful batch of Belgian Honey. It had tons of sediment due to careless siphoning, tasted terrible as a result, and was warm going down. Who knows, it might have had wild yeast or bacteria, but I couldnt tell what made it so nasty.

I don't remember my first beer.
started homebrewing this year, 28.

Had my first beer when I was 14 or 15. Started brewing my own 3 years ago when I was 44.

Started brewing a couple months ago. Still 23 here. Had my first sample when I was small (7 maybe )

i started brewing around age 21, brewed for about 3 years, took an 8 year break and now i'm waiting for my stuff to come in the mail so i can start up again!!! no breaks!!!

First drink when I was 16. First brew at 18 (using Mr. Beer - don't tell anyone).

I don't count the sips my Dad gave me when I was less than ten - the whole purpose of those was to KEEP me from drinking the stuff. It was Iron City or DuQuesne (an old Pittsburgh area brew).

My first actual drinking beer was when I was maybe 13 or 14. I started brewing them myself just short of a year ago, at age 51.

Edit - attempted spelling correction.

First brew? 16. Haven't really done it at all since back then, only 3-4 batches at the time. I'm 25 now and have 3 in the primary, first attempt since then.

3 batches in the primary at once? Good lord, that's a lot. I hope you have a ton of empty bottles handy!

First taste of beer? maybe 8 years old.
First full can? 18 years old.
First homebrew? 22 years old.

-walker

Well, I have 2 6 gallon ciders going, the concentrate one and the really expensive juice one, and I also have a 1 gallon craynberry and grape one (2/3 craynberry, 1/3 grape) concentrate one that is being done just out of curiosity.

It also struck me... can you, instead of using a lot of bottles, just use 1 gallon jugs? Be a decent serving portion... no?

sure, you can use one gallon jugs. if plastic, they will allow oxygen through and who knows what could happen (premature stale brew, likely). If glass, I see no issues.

-walker

First beer at 15, in a pub frequented by undercover cops! My mates and I threw them back and left promptly!

First homebrew at 18 - tasted like vinegar!
Second attempt at homebrewing at University age 21 - tasted like vinegar!
Third attempt at homebrewing 3 months ago age 34 - tasted great - success at last!!

I was probaby 30 when my brother abandoned his homebrewing hobby. He gave me his supplies, and I did 22 extract kits over the next 4 years. I took two years off from brewing because I lost interest... THEN, I drank a porter at the local brewpub that made me want to brew again. I bought AG equipment and have brewed 18 batches in the last year.

So, at 37, I've found my true purpose in life!!! Brewing and consuming large quantities of homebrewed beer. Why did I bother with college?!?!

Started homebrewing early this summer at 22.

My mom tells me our neighbor gave me my first drink of beer when I was 4. Started brewing 10 years ago, made two undrinkable batches, quit and then picked it back up again about 8 months ago. I stored my equipment all that time, I deserve to be making good beers now.

Had my 1st beer at 17; offered by a friend of mine's older brother. Carling Black Label. Brewed my 1st beer at 19 with the friend whose older brother offered that 1st beer.

At that time, 19 was the legal age for beer and wine in Illinois.

You ask me, in this age of our piss-poor government sending kids off to die, 19 should be the legal age for beer and wine across the US. But, that's another thread.

Had my first beer, no joke, at 21. Luckily it was something good from a local restaraunt/brewery. Haven't looked back since. First homebrew last year at 25.

Legal age being 18 here, I had my first beer around 12. Drank a lot at 16/17 then just mellowed out soon as it became legal, going more for taste than to get wasted. First tried brewing orange wine when I was 21 (complete muck), then moved brewing high ABV muck for distilling. That worked quite well but I ended up neglecting my studies as it took sooo much work to get so little out of the still. Plus it was just flavourless moonshine/poitin, no art to it, no flavour, no chilling with a brew, just wastedness and flavourlessness..

Then my uncle showed me his brew setup when I was in canada in August for my cuz's wedding. I tasted his beer and it reminded me of belgium so much, I fell in love instantly. It had never occured to me before that I could make beer like that. So I bought a load of equipment over there and have been in the swing of it since, on my third brew now and I'm 22.

First home brew about a month ago, age 19, but I do not give it away, I drink every bit of it. I am somewhat of college "partier" but brewing my own beer has given me a new found appreciation for good beer.

I just started brewing earlier this year at 27, got 4 AG batches under my belt, none of which have been great, but I'm getting closer...

First beer at 17, took me a while to develop a taste for it. Before that, I was a wine drinker, liked reds a lot. Had my first wine at 3... Whenever my parents had guests leaving, they would spend half an hour chatting at the door... that was the perfect time to go to the dinner table and finish off their glasses... ahh, the good ol' days...

Greenhorn said:

I am somewhat of college "partier" but brewing my own beer has given me a new found appreciation for good beer.

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Ditto man. When I go to a party & people are drinking the hell out of some natty lite...

I just laugh at them with my 1 liter flip-top bottle of homebrew

But you've got to give some away! That's half the fun of it for me

I just started brewing, and I'm 28. At least at the homebrew shop I don't get carded.

Greenhorn said:

First home brew about a month ago, age 19, but I do not give it away, I drink every bit of it. I am somewhat of college "partier" but brewing my own beer has given me a new found appreciation for good beer.

Click to expand...

When I was in college, I would make a 5 gallon batch from a $25 kit and sell it to friends for $1 a bottle. If you unload half of the batch that way, the other half is yours for free. Of course, this is TOTALLY illegal, but I wasn't terribly concerned about the legality of a lot of things when I was in college.

-walker

Walker - how did you deal with bottles? Did people actually return them to you? Or were you constantly raiding recycling bins?

I was only selling to my friends, and they always returned the bottles to me. They also would save the bottles from any beer they bought in the stores.

I might sell a buddy a 6 pack of homebrew, and the next week he would bring me back more than 6 empties.

-walker

No no no... you weren't selling the beer, you were renting the bottles for $1, the beer just happened to be in them.

I was about 15 when I first tried to make an alcoholic beverage. I had no clue what I was supposed to do and ended up tossing a stinky mess of bananas, water and bread yeast in a Cool-Whip container.

Never got around to drinking until my sophomore year of college. I wasn't a big fan of hops in high-school, but did like Hops' cousin (a bit too much).

Always wanted to brew, but didn't get around to it until I turned 30. When I was 19, I did a story for my college TV show where I interviewed a local HBS owner. His story really took interest, but I never had the money to start.

I had asked for a Mr. Beer several times and never got one. Earlier this year, out of boredom I did a search, found an HBS and started making beers which have gotten progressively better.

This is funny... I didn't realize so many of us are so young and so new to this... the impression I got from my HBS was that beer homebrewers were a dying breed, if I wanted any advice (before I found sites online) I had to ask the old dinosaurs who still did it, guys in there 50s+... started to think no one my age (27) did this stuff...

My HBS is slowly fazing out their beer brewing supplies, going strictly to wine... heh, I was the only guy to ask for specialty grains in 6 months...

Maybe people get bored of it after a while, of give up when the beers don't come out well... Or maybe the older brewers don't know how to use the internet, I don't know. But I see lots of us here have just started in the last year, lets hope we never get tired of it!

P.S. No offense to the dinosaurs... :cross:

i started about 10 years ago, i brewed one batch before i joined the army, i brewed 2 batches(the same day) once in the barracks. then for some reason i stopped. i guess because i went to an army school, then i got married. i kept trying to start up again buying i piece of equipment here, buying a piece there. then i got deployed. now i'm in germany, land of beer!! (lol) and i choose now to start brewing again.(about 3 months before i leave here) and brewing that batch last night made me fall in love with this hobby all over again! i'm not stopping again. i love the smell of it all when its cooking, i love the smell of hops. we, i'm rambling, you guys get the idea!!!

almost forgot, i was 21 when i brewed my first batch and right now i'm 3 months shy of my 32nd b-day

We have dinosaurs here? Cool... where's my camera, Jurassic park here I come!

<and just for a bit more levity>

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/cartoons/10-18-2005.gif

Since he is supposed to be the older guy, it always strikes me as funny that they depict him as the dinosaur so often... oh well.