What made you start Homebrewing?

I was curious, what made you take the leap to brewing your own?

I left for Germany in 1978 and traveled extensively during my time there. Everywhere I went, I sampled the local brews and I turned into a real fan of well made beer. I returned from Germany in 1980 and searched long and hard for a good American brew with disappointing results. Besides Anchor Steam, there were few choices available. Imports were available, but had questionable age issues and skunky tastes and were wildly expensive. While on a service call, I noticed a store advertising "Homebrewing supplies". I was curious and went in to see what it was all about. The owner was Byron Burch and I blame him for giving me the bug.

The early 80’s was a weird time for Homebrewing. The “hobby” was only a few steps removed from Voodoo. Standards were being established, suppliers were few and far between and recipes were jealously guarded.

It has been very rewarding to see the evolution into a true Craft today and the spirit of co-operation that this site epitomizes. My hat is off to you one and all.

So, what turned YOU into a homebrewer?

Like great Beer?

Interested in the handcrafted aspect?

Or just cheap?

Cheers,

knewshound

All three of the above in the same order!

Quality is number one.

Also wanted to track down what I thought was an allergy to sulfites - sure enough, no such problem with HB!

Skol!

My Mom has that problem with wine. Gets hives from sulfites.

- tastes good
- enjoy thinking about recipes and brewing it
- satisfaction that I made it
- cheaper than buying store bought beer
- WOW! reactions when someone tries a homebrew

Denny's Brew said:

My Mom has that problem with wine. Gets hives from sulfites.

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pick up some wine made in europe... should solve that problem...

knewshound said:

I was curious, what made you take the leap to brewing your own?

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I was sitting at the bar at Tied House (Mountain View, CA) having one of their beers, and a man came in to chat with the brewmaster and drop off a couple of his homebrew beers for the brewmaster to taste. We ended up talking about homebrewing, and he gave me a bottle to try. I was very impressed by the beer, and I'd been looking for a hobby I could do with my dad. About a year later, I moved back to my home state of NC, and my dad and I started brewing together.

Just racked our 5th batch into a keg, and I'm having a great time with the hobby! Sure beats golf!

My wife decided I needed a hobby I guess and bought me a kit for Christmas a few years back. Been hooked ever since.

I have always been a big fan of good beer. Never could really drink domestics. My Best friends wife called me to come over to there house to watch an Alten Brown program on making home brew. I think it was the next day we were at the LHBS buying a True Brew kit and some grains to do a partial extract batch. Funny the store owner Ray let us use his mash tun to do a full wort boil in. Been some what of an addiction ever since. That was three+ yeras ago. Like Cheesefood I to have had my time of not saying "NO" to some very addictive things in my time. None of witch hold a candle to brewing. except maybe... Nahhh wont go there.....
JJ

I started homebrewing as my fist step towards activities that involve grain, water, yeast and some heat. Still havent made that step yet but gathing parts for it.

jaybird said:

Funny the store owner Ray let us use his mash tun to do a full wort boil in.

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you boiled your wort in a mash tun??

Budweiser and the like got my friend and I thinking we could do much better then them at a time where there was not a lot of good beer around.

"cheap".... hmmm.... havent been in this hobby for long huh

I stopped by the local Homebrew store to pick up some bottles for my uncle who brewed his own beer and walked out with a kit because I wanted to know how it was done. I have since enjoyed brewing my own and experimenting some. This hobby is also very forgiving and doesn't impose on my time, allowing me to brew/bottle at my convenience. It is also nice to have your work appreciated by others.

My uncle started making wine a couple of years ago and I always thought it was excellent. I had a slow week at work a little while back and started wandering around the internet to see the process just out of curiosity.

I saw all the beer stuff and got the bug, but was concerned that I wouldn't be able to make anything better than the garbage "just add sugar" kits that I've tasted in the past.

After doing a bunch reading, I'm convinced that homebrew can be top quality stuff. Now, I just have to see if MY homebrew can be.

About a week before Christmas last year, I was running around doing something. I felt like absolute crap. I was stressed out as hell. The mother-in-law was around, we get along but that always means a higher level of stress in the household. I'm working crazy hours and trying to spend as much time with my daughter as possible. The projects around the house are building up, all half-done, and it never seems like I can *get* to anything because I'm either working at the office or picking up the house or doing something just to help us get through the day.

I was absolutely miserable, I was constantly in a pissy mood with the wife, I was just on edge. So, one day I had an epiphany. I can actually remember the moment, walking down the basement stairs with a basket full of laundry. I came back up the stairs and told the wife,

"I need a goddamn hobby. I want to brew beer. Buy me a kit for Christman."

And, bless her, she said that she agreed wholeheartedly. I needed something in my life that COULD be a little selfish, something that would be a hobby for ME, something that wouldn't just be working and working and working. Something that I could relax and enjoy, so, she bought me a kit.

Took me a couple months to find the time to make my first batch, but now - I FIND THE TIME. And, it brought me to this site, which I enjoy greatly and visit too often. It's led me to spending too much money on brew stuff. But, I still have SWMBO in my corner, and in a few years I can expand on this and start making root beer and stuff like that with my daughter.

Funny thing is - it's not like I'm a heavy drinker at all. I'm not someone who always has beer in the fridge (well, NOW I do). I get silly-drunk maybe once a year. I'm a lightweight, but that doesn't make me enjoy this any the less.

I brewed my first batch back in 1992. I had friends that did the ubrew thing back then but the beer coming out of those places always tasted odd. I saw some kits for sale at a local home hardware store (the owner was a brewing nut, even had books on sale for building stills) and picked one up. I loved it. I also boght the Papisan book and read all I could. I brewed a few brews and loved it.

Then I found out my neighbor who had moved in recently was British and brewed dark ales because he couldn't find any for sale at that time. He told me that I could buy LME in bulk and hops at a new Ubrew that opened near by. He also gave me some pointers.

At the time I was to afraid and confused about AG brewing but I wish I had gotten into ot then since this ubrew was also a full serrvice HBS. All the grains you could want, liquid yeasts. That was also where I was told that dry lager yeasts (back then) were just neutral ale yeasts and to do a true lager I'd have to splurge on Liquid yeast. I don't know what my hang up was about AG, but for some reason I thought it was massively difficult.

Anyway. I brewed beer for about 6-7 years then moved to Vancouver (form Nanaimo, BC) and living in sauites and apartments with room mates while in school, I basiclally let the brewing slide. Several times I brought over my equipment but nver seemed to have the time and at that time it was hard to find HB stores. I finally got back into it last year after a 7 year break. Eak! I've been making up for it ever since. I started brewing last year in the beginning of fall, and I think I brewed enough beer to make up for the 7 year hiatus.

I switched to AG brewing around Christmas when I discovered that I could get grains from a brewpub, who also told me about Gambrinus Malting in Armstrong. Only 1 hr drive away. Well the rest is history (I also worked at a micro for a bit). I now do 10 gallon AG batches, sometimes twice a week. Am working on my brew stand and have actually ran out of carboys.

Dude was mentioning a lack of motivation to brew lately. I go through uips and downs. I'm trying to get beer stocked up so that when the temp drops again I don't have to freeze my A$$ of so often. Plus ruining two 10 gal batches because of bad yeast didn't help. Before I Acquired my Keggles I had actually ran out of beer. I had put off brewing till I had at least acquired on Keg as a kettle.

Anyway, sometimes I think I should just open a dang brewpub. Right now I'm excited about the new system I'm building and was to brew often, but once that excitement subsides I'll probably brew less often since getting quality yeast or any liquid yeast here is a pain in the but. Waiting for the new credit card to arrive so I can mail order some smack packs...

I had no life other than work, come home work on house crap, wife, kids. Bla! Needed a hobby. You can't do nada with a model airplane when it's done so this is a great hobby that others get to enjoy as well. My Bro-in-law got laid off at 62 and couldn't handle not working so went and got another job instead of calling it good. NO HOBBY! Sick Bassturd.

Also, some buddies of mine in CA brew their own and I was intrigued with the quality / taste and finally dove into it in '04.

Years ago my dad got a wine making kit for Christmas. I was always interested in the fermentation process and wanted to watch him make it but he never did. I didn't think about it again until about 25 years later when a friend brought The Complete Joy of Home Brewing into the shop. I read that book and was instantly hooked.

I helped brew my first batch in 1998. A buddy of mine asked if I would help him wash bottles......yea i got suckered into it. But as soon as I smelled the boiling wort I was hooked.

So thank you Theo (if you are reading this)....even though the student has now become the master

I'm curious by nature and have to know how stuff works...especially stuff I enjoy...like beer. After a few visits to some local breweries and just truly enjoying a proper beer I decided I had to brew my own. But never got around to it.

So my bro get's a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas and doesn't want it. So I get it and make some crappy-ass swill and think...I gotta be able to do better than this!

And off I went to the LHBS and ran home with a kit and made some beer. Unfortunately things weren't the best due to some water profile issues and some real serious fermentation temp issues so I had to put it on hold until I got out of an apartment.

Moved into a house and now I have issues with my basement being TOO cold. But I've worked a solution based upon distance from the floor and some other minor things and I can dial in my fermentation from 60deg. on up to 68.

It's a nice hobby as well because I can "git er done" while SWMBO is at work or sleeping and then it's all in the basement where she doesn't care...nice!

And WTF, drinking your own brew...how cool is that??

Lou
ya ... It was converted keg. We just pulled out the false bottom and went for it. What a good time that was brewing our first batch 10 gal. everything that could go wrong did, and it turned out great.
JJ

I was at a friends house and absolutely LOVED the pumpkin ale he made, a few weeks later he invited me over with a few other friends and we made 5 gallons of IPA. Immediately I was hooked. Then a few weeks later my wife and kids were out going to yard sales and found a 5 gallon bucket/glass carboy kit (with everything else I would need) for about 30.00. She called me from her cell phone to tell me about it and I told her to buy it immediately. Good thing, some guy was coming back with money in hand to pick it up. But the good negotiator my wife is, she got the price down to 20.00 before the other guy showed up.

Anyway, I tend to do things the hard, old fashioned way. I like to play my records on a record player, prefer muzzle loaders over assault rifles, still have 4 - 35mm SLR cameras (that means cameras with FILM), grow a garden every year and I shave with a straigh razor and shave brush (if anyone wants to know how to get a great shave, check out a forum I moderate, www.badgerandblade.com). Of course I have a CD player and a digital camera, but I just prefer the hands on approach when I have the opportunity and making my own beer is about as hands on as I can get.

This is quite an interesting topic. Somehow it make you all seem more real and human (no offense).

I'm not sure who we were talking to, but the subject of making beer came up. My wife, then girlfriend, said, "making beer sounds like something you'd like." I love cooking, love beer; the idea stuck. I was scouring the internet hte next day. I ordered my equipment and a half dozen ingredients kits. Wait 3 months, reading, researching, learning. Brew my first batch.

Now I am saving to open a brew pub, serving North West American-ish beers and taking a brewing course at Seibel this fall.

I was 18, and the Mr Beer was on sale for about $60 at the local Foley's. Since the legal age to purchase beer was 21, and the salesman told me I could brew at 18...SOLD. That first batch was terrible, but I soon located a LHBS and each batch has been better than the previous. Been 12 years since that first batch, and have learned a lot since then. Even given info to a few people I have seen eyeing the storebought brewing kits at retail outlets.

About six years ago, my best friend purchased two BrewSa(u)cks, one for Michael (AKA guzzleboy) and one for me. Michael and I were already drinking craft brews, (I probably started about the time they hit the market), so making our own was a natural step. We did the BrewSacks (actually added a pound of DME to the second one), tossed them out & went over to The Oak Barrel for real equipment, recipes and makings.

I was sitting at the bar at Tied House (Mountain View, CA)

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Small world, that was the scene of my first craft ale fest.

My wife and daughters bought me one of those home brew kits that they sold at Walmart during Christmas a few years ago. That sat around for a year or two until one day I found it while cleaning my computer room, needless to say I was less than impressed with a whoping one gallon batch of old (Questionable) ingrediants brewed in Polyethylene (milk jug). So off I went (with the wifes blessing) to purchase, what I thought at the time would be, all I needed to make Great beer. Well... The extract brewing turned to all grain brewing and I'll be damned if I have yet to aquire enough stuff. I find new things that I want on a daily basis and to tell the truth the wife has about had it with me and my Obsession, she just shakes her head and laughes. Now my oldest daughter is asking her when Dad can buy some new goodies so she can use it when we brew.

I started brewing so I'd stop womanizing so much. It's mostly worked.

Darling, if you're reading this, I'm totally kidding. KIDDING!

I'd expressed interest in brewing about a year ago. I thought it was facinating that we could actually make our own beer right at home! Originally I'd been looking at distilling, until the ATF crushed my hopes and dreams and I didn't feel like being arrested. For my birthday in December of last year (check join date) my step-dad bought me a starter kit and I've been hooked ever since.

I never drank before I was 21, I just never really had an interest in it. In college, my roommate and would have "pizza and beer" Mondays. He worked the night shift 10 hours, 4 days straight and Monday was the beginning of his "weekend." Every monday we'd order a pizza and get a 12 pack of beer. Somehow we always avoided the BMC, and we always tried to try something new from the beer aisle. Over the course of that year we also started to frequent a BJ's Pizza and Brewery, in Covina CA (partially because my roommate had a crush on a waitress there). We tried their brews and that was the first place I saw the entire brewing process.

Fast forward a couple years. I got married, but we would still go out every once in a while with my now ex-roommate and his girlfriend, soon-to be fiancee/wife (not the waitress!) and often, we'd end up at BJ's. I looked up homebrewing on the internet, just to see what it would cost. Then I looked in the phone book for a Homebrew supply place nearby. At the time I was living in Lakewood, CA and I found Stein Fillers in Long Beach. I walked in there sometime in late winter of '04 and talked to the salesperson there. I told him that I was interested in homebrewing and that I wanted to get a book, to learn the process. They directed me to John Palmer's How To Brew and I read it at least twice. By now my wife was pregnant with out first child, and so actually starting homebrewing was way down on the list of things to do. However, my wife, 7.5 months pregnant, went to the homebrew supply place and bought me the beginning homebrew kit for my birthday in late April. I waited a few weeks to do my first brew, which finally got started in May, and our son was born on June 5th, the perfect time to pass out homebrew instead of cigars. That was brew and kid #1. Now I'm at brew #24, still on 1 kid though

my story is not so elaborate as others but anyway.

my uncle brewed his own yrs ago. once when visiting him i tried some. it was ok, but nothing to write home about. that was about 1980.

fast forward 26 years and i got the bug. i had thought about it several times during my life but never acted. i guess the final straw was in a thread on a guitar forum, where a guitar player i know talked about his brews. then i started working with a guy who used to brew. enough was enough !!!

about a month later i mentioned i was taking a half day of vacation to go to my LHBS. Low and behold, another friend at work mentioned he had a brew kit he did not want. he only brewed once and didn't get hooked. i got it for a bargain $25.

now i got one in the primary, one in the secondary and planning the third...