This may come off as a rant but bare with me here.
11 years ago after my family moved from California to Washington and we saw their home literally over run with wild blackberries. They talked about making jam and cobbler. My cousin told me we could turn those into booze.
This cousin took it upon himself to carry a tradition most families and movies show us as true life changing moments where someone passes on a piece of wisdom or a lesson they learned that could help you in life. My cousin decided to teach me what he called "Something I learned in prison and will make you friends should you ever end up there." So with two garbage bags, some sugar, a bag of crushed oranges and bakers yeast from the kitchen we made something that should never be drank by anyone living or wishing to leave this world.
It was enough to inspire me to take those blackberries and turn them into wine. Just you know...with an actual carboy and airlock vs burping a bag every few hours.
I made my first batch of blackberry wine, printed a label out on sticky paper and a letter so full of artful BS about waking up every morning at the first sign of light to gather fresh berries and inspect them all by hand. This stuff was potent as all hell and sweet. I found out at my grandfathers funeral he kept the bottle in his wine cellar and framed the letter I wrote up for the bottle. I was 22 back then and never thought I'd get back into brewing, just figured it would stand as a one off thing I did that was fun.
Fast forward to being 33 and back full force into something I never thought I'd try again. I have a storage closet full of carboys, brewing buckets, bottles, etc. I turned a fridge into a Kegerator and as of today after going to our state fair and entering my first brewing competition I not only took 2nd with two of my meads but 3rd with a braggot. I never imagined I'd be where I am with homebrewing right now let alone entering anything for judging.
I for a large part of my life could not drink beer do to a majority of them causing cluster migraines. My friends could all drink when we'd hang out I just couldn't risk it starting up a headache that makes drilling a whole in your head sound reasonable. I came to this forum after I had a few meads and ciders under my belt to see if I could change that.
If not for the help, feedback, and support of all of you I would never have found the love of brewing beer I now have. I went from exiling beer entirely to now having 4 on tap and two aging. That kinda blows my mind because I never thought I would be able to enjoy that without immediately regretting it. But this site, it's recipe and all of your comments/experiences really helped. I never thought I'd be able to pop a beer open and begin identifying hops and malts but damned if I'm not now.
It might be corny but honestly thank you guys for being so awesome to everyone who had a passing interest or just got their feet wet in homebrewing. Seriously thank you and cheers.
11 years ago after my family moved from California to Washington and we saw their home literally over run with wild blackberries. They talked about making jam and cobbler. My cousin told me we could turn those into booze.
This cousin took it upon himself to carry a tradition most families and movies show us as true life changing moments where someone passes on a piece of wisdom or a lesson they learned that could help you in life. My cousin decided to teach me what he called "Something I learned in prison and will make you friends should you ever end up there." So with two garbage bags, some sugar, a bag of crushed oranges and bakers yeast from the kitchen we made something that should never be drank by anyone living or wishing to leave this world.
It was enough to inspire me to take those blackberries and turn them into wine. Just you know...with an actual carboy and airlock vs burping a bag every few hours.
I made my first batch of blackberry wine, printed a label out on sticky paper and a letter so full of artful BS about waking up every morning at the first sign of light to gather fresh berries and inspect them all by hand. This stuff was potent as all hell and sweet. I found out at my grandfathers funeral he kept the bottle in his wine cellar and framed the letter I wrote up for the bottle. I was 22 back then and never thought I'd get back into brewing, just figured it would stand as a one off thing I did that was fun.
Fast forward to being 33 and back full force into something I never thought I'd try again. I have a storage closet full of carboys, brewing buckets, bottles, etc. I turned a fridge into a Kegerator and as of today after going to our state fair and entering my first brewing competition I not only took 2nd with two of my meads but 3rd with a braggot. I never imagined I'd be where I am with homebrewing right now let alone entering anything for judging.
I for a large part of my life could not drink beer do to a majority of them causing cluster migraines. My friends could all drink when we'd hang out I just couldn't risk it starting up a headache that makes drilling a whole in your head sound reasonable. I came to this forum after I had a few meads and ciders under my belt to see if I could change that.
If not for the help, feedback, and support of all of you I would never have found the love of brewing beer I now have. I went from exiling beer entirely to now having 4 on tap and two aging. That kinda blows my mind because I never thought I would be able to enjoy that without immediately regretting it. But this site, it's recipe and all of your comments/experiences really helped. I never thought I'd be able to pop a beer open and begin identifying hops and malts but damned if I'm not now.
It might be corny but honestly thank you guys for being so awesome to everyone who had a passing interest or just got their feet wet in homebrewing. Seriously thank you and cheers.
