When did YOU start brewing?

1/30/2009!

Time flies when you're brewing!

Jan 08 for me. I'm on batch #14, so about 70 gallons for me. I started out extract and steeping, and moved to all-grain about 6 months ago. :rockin:

cool thread. it got me reminiscing about my first homebrews

February 09. Brewed 5 batches so far, equaling 22.75 gal. After next weekend I will have brewed 32.75gal, 7 batches. All my recipes but my very first batch. Only 1 extract batch which was my 2nd brew, the Gluten Free brew.

As a student in Boston, around 2002, while drinking beer at Bukowski's Dead Authors Club Tavern, I decided I wanted to know all I could about beer. Then I found out in the internet I could brew m own beer. I bought a starter kit and have been obsessed ever since.

1997, 4 or 5 extract kits a year, kinda phasing in and out of interest. Got a friend interested, and he started making way better beer than I ever did. A little bit of friendly competition got me kick started. Went all grain a little over a year ago and theres no looking back, completely OCD.

Got 10 gals in primaries and 5 going into a keg later today, UPS showed up with 4 more cornies yesterday, and going to BYOB today to pick up the grains for BM's kona pale ale recipe later. lots of cleaning and cooking for the weekend!

I think it was around May or June 2008. 1 extract + steeping grains, 1 PM, all the rest have been all-grain; I've done 53 batches in that time.

In the fall of 1996 started out making wine then later the same year Beer.

About eight years. Output varies greatly year-to-year.

BigEd said:

1971

Damn, I have bottle capper older than most of you.

Click to expand...

Damn, that is long ago. So you grew up during the revolution of craft brewing huh? Very nice!! What are your best batches from each decade?

Since September 2007, and I have enjoyed every minute!

Sometime in 2005.

My friends started brewing in college and I joined in. I stumbled across this site when trying to formulate some recipes the first time. I lurked for a long time, and quickly amassed more brewing knowledge than either of my brewing buddies. I pretty much took over our brewing operation from there by building a cooler MLT, buying a turkey fryer ETC. I'm pretty much the only one left brewing now that we have all graduated. Fortunately, I'm living by myself now in a 1 bedroom apartment and have nothing better to do with my space than fill it with beer equipment!

Brewed my first batch, Brewers Best American Pale Ale and dry hopped it, Janurary 0f '08. Did my first AG batch in June of '08 after 3 batches. Been equipemtn whoring mostly with the keezer build and need to brew. doing 5G this weekend then hopefully 20G in a couple weeks in prep for a party.

an exgirlfriend got me a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas in 2005, my first brew was January 2006. i upgraded to a 5 gallon extract kit a month later, brewed that way until about 8-10 months ago, then i switched to AG. before AG i probably only brewed 3 or 4 times every 6 months, now its every other week.

August 1994....

brewed for a while... got out of it for a long time and have been back into it for about three years now.

First batch was a Mr Beer for Christmas in 2005.

I immediately went to extra w/steeped grain and did about 6 batches spread out through the next 3 years.

Went all grain in fall of '08 and have done 10 5G recipes since then.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

January 2008........HBT has held my hand all the way. Otherwise i would have most likely given up by now.

Click to expand...

I was a kit person until I got on this site trying to find a clone for New Belguims 1554. Well I never found that clone but I have since gone all grain seeing that it is just easier that way.

I too may not have been in this hobby if not for HBT.

Early 90's some time. Then a long break, took back up again September 2008.

Made my first 5-gal. batch of English Brown Ale (partial mash kit) in Spring of 2006; second batch in Winter of 2007; then 4 batches of wine. Wife is happier since wine doesn't smell up the house like boiling wort does. LOL

When we get our new house built (hopefully next year) I will have a dedicated brewing station in the basement, and will start anew.

It's nice to see I'm not the only one here who doesn't brew 50 Gallons every weekend!

IrregularPulse said:

It's nice to see I'm not the only one here who doesn't brew 50 Gallons every weekend!

Click to expand...

It is because you are still wet behind the ears. Give yourself a chance to grow up and the rest will come naturally.

I started officially in July of 2008 when I got a keggle and went straight into AG. I did five gallon batches until #5 and have been pulling a 10gal batch every couple of weeks since. I just did up another 10 of some Pale Ale in preparation for the heat and should be doing another here pretty soon in preparation of that first 10 going the way of the dinosaurs rapidly.

MrBeer since 06, then doctored MB, then extract kits, then one PM, now full AG this year and there's a noticeable improvement. Still use the barrels for fermenters if I run out of space, I'm thinking they'd be good for still Apfelwine.

-OCD

I started brewing in 1993, extracts, then extracts and steeping grains. I quit brewing in late 1996 about the time that my wife went on bed rest with a problem pregnancy.

I took it up again last August, this time straight to all-grain and kegging. I've brewed 22 batches since August, which is probably more than I brewed in that entire earlier three year stretch. My stuff is still hit and miss, but overall far more presentable than my earlier efforts, which looking back I have to say, sucked.

I started this year, my first brewday was 2/09/09 I am proud to say that I have brewed 6 times and a little over 30 gallons (I usually make a 5.25 gallon batch).

I am still using extract/specialty grains, and only made 2 kits before forming recipes using Beersmith. I aspire to go AG within a year (we'll see, space is at a premium at the home right now.)

I will aquire a 40qt pot and out door burner soon. When I decide on a pot I will build my IC.

And I just completed Anthony's Easy DIY Stirplate, because I have become a firm beleiver in starters and their benefits.

This is a GRRRREAT obsession!

1994

Back when Wyeast was know as "Brewer's Choice". The smack pack, how cool it was!
It was also when you got your equipment and ingredients from the local liquor store that just happened to sell the stuff. I remember for my first all-grain brews I bought grain directly from Breiss. Internet? Forums? Yeah, right. Joy of Home Brewing and a lot of luck is about what we had back then. Ah, the good ol days...

I started in November and am about to brew gallons 54-58 this weekend. Summer Ale...can't wait!

1989 - someone at work tried it then so did I. Did it for a few years then took a long break until I saw the old stuff packed away in my crawl space one too many times last year. Dug it out, convinced the SWMBO to get me a 10 gal SS pot for my poor man's mid life crisis, and now have caught the bug again. Mostly extract with steeping grains, but did an AG once and though I messed up the mash temps, it came out great (and I could bounce a quarter off of the head). Now slowly plotting the AG system.

The vulture is a patient bird...

2004: Freshmen year of college. A couple of friends had "brewed" up some rot gut hard cider using bread yeast and apple cider they smuggled out of a dinning hall. I was intrigued and started investigating brewing.

October of 08.

Early 1990's when I was going to school in St Louis. The homebrew supply store is still there in Lamp and Lantern Village. I brewed 1-2x/yr from then until early 2000's when I started doing AG. In 2002 I bought a 3 tiered system and went from 5gal to 10gal batches. Since 2002, I brew 4-6x/yr.

December 1989. Extract American Amber. Brewed for a couple of years, then life got in the way. Now both of my assistants are old enough (5 & 7) to really help out on brew day - for some reason, they enjoy crushing the grains so much that they actually fight over how long they each get to use the mill.

The girls also fight over who dug the most worms out of the garden when we go fishing.....My oldest caught 2 15"+ brown trout our first weekend out this year.

January 11, 2006. Only 28 batches so far, but I've recently gone all-grain and only see the brewing increasing from here.

The Winter of 2005. Fresh off of a trip to Germany and after meeting my (now ex) girlfriend's guy friend who brewed I knew I had to try it, if only to best him (he was a bit of a d***).

I brewed an extract Pale Ale consisting of two cans of 7 lbs. Pale Extract, some Cascade and Willmette hops and nottingham yeast. I used a Glacier Springs water cooler bottle as a secondary...

Ed's Apfelwein is sitting in that very bottle right now...

Got my first kit for Christmas sometime between 1996-98. When you get old like me you can't remember back that far. I went AG about 6 or 7 years ago.

i started in 1992 at the tender age of 11 helped my dad with everthing but the drinking, now i get to do that myself amazing what you remember by smell, alone, i smelled my first brew in the pot and it brought back so much about how to do the actual work. i was lost untill i smelled the extract boiling away. after that i felt like id done it 30 times already.

Jan 2009, 110 gal and climbing...

I guess I'm an old fart here. I started in 1988 while in graduate school in Seattle. Craft brewing was just taking off, Seattle was a hub, and I couldn't stand the notion of drinking BMC at home after I got used to all the great micros popping up at the time, so I started brewing. Went all-grain from moment one.

I did stop brewing for close to 10 years from 1996-2006 when my kids were little and there was just no time for hobbies. Now they're old enough to help!

2001. extracts. drinkable, barely. Fermentation temp control? really? don't squeeze the steeping grains? really?
SO glad I found the various forums, now they're pretty good. AG last year (2008)

I started making homebrew in 1978 but started making beer in 2005.

There is a big difference between making homebrew from a prehopped canned kit and adding a ton of sugar to making all grain beer.