What got you into homebrewing?

CornyKegs 728
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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.
A friend of mine's stepdad always had wine sitting in the kitchen fermenting. Now, I dont' care for wine much, but was interested in how it all worked. He suggested helping me make beer instead. So I guess just a general interestin how things work. I'm a hobbiest at heart. I like to take things apart, put them together and just learn about stuff.

Brewing ended up being a bit more complex than I first realized it could be.
 
+1 on chics digging brewers. Even though im not sure if i've found one yet. That and the Sam Adams longshot contest comercial. I think it's funny 'cause i can't stand Jim Koch now, he seems so fake.
 
Did it myself, like most stuff. For me it was probably long overdue given my culinary background and that I am into tons of different types of fermentation (my gallery has a few pics of some of the stuff I do on a regular basis). I did one extract recipe I put together based loosely off of Palmer's Pale Ale. Second batch was an AG Oatmeal Stout of my own design. I have always made all of my own recipes.
 
My family came from Germany about 40-70 years ago (some came sooner than later). Some of them did their own brewing, and I wanted to embrase that part of my heritage. I love beer, and I wanted to be able to make beer like my family did. There is nothing more German than beer (well for quite a few varities!):mug:

Plus its a great way to spend an afternoon, weither your by yourself, with friends, or with family. Cheers to you my friends! :tank:
 
I was working at a Call center when i was like 22 years old. I had to take the bus to work because when I was a kid I got a DUI.

Anyways I decided to check out a little strip mall right close to work. I was early.

The guy at the HBS told me not to bother with all extract kits and told me about his store kits that were a partial mash.

I took the kit home and followed the instructions carefully and the beer came out amazing.

I then upgraded to a kegerator shortly after.

I always wanted to brew all-grain and read countless articles and many youtube videos until I did my first all grain in the winter.

It was a recipe I got off of the world cup 2006 book. English brown Ale.

It was so delicious and to this day my favorite beer I have ever brewed.
 
I moved into an apartment with one of my friends from the fire company, neither of us had alot of extra money and we both loved trying new beers but some styles we just couldnt get in this area. Barley Wines, Schwarzbiers, Saisons, North English Browns, English Stouts are very hard to find around here. Just alot of APA and IPA's so I bought an extract kit and got started there. My roommate quickly lost interest when I started getting to anal retentive about cleaning the brewing stuff and started getting strick on making sure we followed every recipe addition to the second. Basically, I got fully engulfed in it and he got pissed that I was taking it seriously. Owe well, I love it.
 
Other: So I can have a beer I like!

My first real job was in a pub in London, and I grew to love hand pulled ales and bitters. When I moved back to the US, I found that any of the BMC crowd gives me a headache after 1/2 a bottle, if I can choke it down. I honestly think its the force carbonation I hate so much. Hubby and I cook a lot from scratch (bread, sausage, cured meats etc) so homebrewing was a natural progression.

I'll buy Boddingtons with the widget, some Lambics, or most anything cask conditioned at the brew pubs, but generally I like our homebrews the best :mug:
 
Other: A user on a truck site had beer making down as another hobby, and gave me a link to this site......

The obsession took over then, and it's been downhill ever since.....:D


cheers :mug:


Chad
 
My father has always brewed. When I went to college I started also. So when I came home once I brought some of my brew. It kicked the pants off of his so I've been helping him with his method/recipes. It's a family thing. :mug:
 
Combination of the top two. A neighbor that used to brew, knew how much I liked beer, so for my birthday this year, he bought me a Mr. Beer kit. It took two batches and finding this website before I finally brewed my first extract batch. Already planning on going AG before the end of the year.
 
I'd entertained the idea of home brewing for a number of years, but never moved on it for one reason or another. There's no history of homebrewing in my family, but I developed a taste for craft beers during graduate school. I finally bought a starter kit after seeing a small craft brewery in operation up close, and set off to learn as much as I could. I'm about 6 months into the hobby, and enjoy every moment- good and bad.
 
I don't really remember what first sparked my interest, I do remember talking about it when I was 21 or 22. I've never been a big drinker, so it had nothing to do with making a lot of cheap beer or anything. I hadn't known anyone that had brewed their own beer until I talked about doing it myself, then I found out that a handful of people I knew did it, then at some point in the last year I mentioned to my grandpa that I was thinking about brewing my own beer and I found out that he used to do so himself. He ended up giving me 5 glass carboys, a bottle capper and a few other things, and then about a couple of months ago I started looking into what I needed to do (again, I had actually looked into it multiple times over the last few years) and took the leap into buying enough equipment to get started and brewed my first batch about a month ago.
 
OK...Interesting story. The guy who introduced me and my wife gave us a home brew kit for a wedding gift. That started me off. I had know some homebrewers in college, but never quite understood it. For example, I always wondered how they got the caps on the bottles. To me it all kind of ties in with cooking. Making anything I can that goes inside of me.
 
Doubleguns used to talk about it at work, he always made it sound like it was just about the best thing on the planet. Figured I'd give it try, oddly enough he was right.
 
I went to school in San Luis Obispo, California. There is a small microbrewery there called Central Coast Brewing. I went in one day to check it out and discovered that they did "Brew You Own" onsite as well. I did a couple of batches with them and then I graduated college and stopped for a while.

Then I saw the Good Eats episode, and proceeded to buy my equipment.
All down hill from there........
 
My brother got me a kit for Christmas one year. Interestingly enough, I was begining to get interested in it anyway, and he got the kit for me not knowing that I was interested already. Serendipitous!
 
About three years ago I was sitting around thinking about a kid my brother used to hang out with I remember his dad a redneck setup for making homebrew. That got me thinking about making my own beer. I got on the computer looked up found a brew shop here in town and its been good brewing ever since.
 
The wife and I walked into the Beer-Nut just to see what was in there, walked out with a ton of wine making equipment.....over the last 10 years or so, I have slowly drifted over to the dark side, and now just make beer..........well mostly beer.
 
SWMBO Bought me a kit at the LHBS took me a while to get going after a few really crappy batches but now... STAND BACK! I'm addicted.
 
My uncle worked in R&D for Miller as a microbiologist for 15 years or so, then left to work elsewhere. He started homebrewing, gave me a case for my college graduation along with an offer to teach me how to brew. Brewed about 5 batches with him, a couple with friends in CA during my Masters work, and now I finally have room in my house to do it on my own.
 
Other. I took a trip to Europe last year, and was amazed at how fresh and tasty the beers were. One beer in particular that amazed me was Heineken. I've never been a fan of the beer; I always found it to be awful and bitter. In Holland it was fresh, slightly sweet, and had a nice floral aroma.
 
I was torn between "I researched it myself" and "Other". I ended up picking Other because I actually stumbled upon it. I first became interested in really good craft (commercial) beer after joining the Beer Knurd club at the Flying Saucer. You basically try 200 different beers and then get recognition on the wall. I learned about some really great breweries and in my quest for better and better breweries I ran across some homebrewing stuff. Honestly, I was shocked when I kept reading that you could make homebrew that was as good or better than store bought stuff.

I still haven't brewed any homebrew better than any of my favorite breweries but I've definitely surpassed some of them, IMO.
 
Hmm, in the 80's I spent some time in Italy/Germany/etc.
Found out what real beer/wine should taste like.
In college I started reading the usnet homebrewing, and found it very interesting, I read and did nothing. Then in the early 90's I was in Georgia and drove by a "U Brew It" homebrew store. Did an illegal U-turn and that was the end of history for me. How can I remember anything with good homebrew at home.
 
A good friend of mine happened to bring Charlie P's TNCJOHB to work. I had never heard of home brewing until I saw that book. He told me to take it home and read it. I read it that night cover to cover. That was Wednesday. By Saturday I had my first batch in the fermenter. This was December 1994. I haven't looked back!:mug:

Meeting Charlie and getting to shake his hand was a true honor for me.
 
I got tired of the same ol bland buds, millers and so on, started buying alot of singles of sam adams, seirra nevadas ,blue moon, and many, many imports. you can actually taste beer WOW. So I searched youtube, you can biuld your own space shuttle with that site. watched alot of videos and decided " I can do that ! ". then my next trip to the beer store I saw they had the brewers best beer kits. bet I walked past them a 1,000 times and never noticed. then while on vaction in the outer banks of NC I toured the Weeping Radish brewery, talked with the brewmaster ( really great ppl there) and he really got me lined out to start my new life.
 
A uinque introduction, but a fairly standrad story of the the decent into Homebrewing Madness. (Cue the Dragnet music)
Mine was a combo of good eats and other. I wathced the good eats episode and thought that would be cool, but for got about it for a while. Then I googled an old comic I used to read a lot The Adventures of Ralph Snart, the author had a cool site about the comic and its history, but then he had a tangent page about his homebrewing and a link to the Palmer book on line. I spent a day at work reading the online book. Went to the LHBS over the weekend and bought Papazian's book The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. I read that cover to cover over the next week while on the commuter train. I was headed down a worm hole, the following weekend I bought a BB equipment kit and their English Brown ale kit. Started the brew made several noob mistakes. Freaked out and looked online for help. Found HBT and made the standard "is my beer ruined" n00b post. Recieved lots of nice responses, got a premium account with HBT, bought more ingredients, equipment, etc. Another poor slob hooked on the big HB.
 
My dad grows concord grapes and presses and ferments his own wines. My grandfather made brewed beer all through the 50's - 80's.

I started when I bought my first house in '01.
 
I worked at a newly opening brewpub/pizzeria, where I've been for ten years now. I wasn't as into beer then as I am now, and the brewery part of the place eventually closed after a couple years, but I suppose it laid the foundation. About two years ago, a brewer's supply shop opened up less than a mile from my (at the time) apartment, and it piqued my interest. When ahead and got a kit and started rolling. Also, I think the movie Strange Brew had an big influence on me, since I watched it a million times with my brother when we were kids. :D
 
Cape Brewing said:
I got into it for the chics.

Chics dig brewers. :rockin:
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too! :D

I had made a Mr. Beer type kit, and it was not very good, so I gave it up. When my teammate broke my leg during a hockey game, I learned she was a winemaker and told her that the least she could do was tell me how to do it while I was laid up. I started with wine, but then thought about beer again, and doing it the "real" way instead of Mr. Beer. That worked out ok for me, so now I make mostly beer but still make wine several times a year.
 
I got into it because I simply love beer and hate my job. I make good money and have partners willing to put up capital. I work as a mechanical engineer and I have worked in a brewpub for several years as a volunteer to learn how to run a brewery. I began studying organic chemistry and I have spent the last year developing my business plan it took me about 4 years to develop my recipes and I am almost ready to quit my job and chase my dream. Wish me Luck
 
Area51BrewCo said:
I got into it because I simply love beer and hate my job. I make good money and have partners willing to put up capital. I work as a mechanical engineer and I have worked in a brewpub for several years as a volunteer to learn how to run a brewery. I began studying organic chemistry and I have spent the last year developing my business plan it took me about 4 years to develop my recipes and I am almost ready to quit my job and chase my dream. Wish me Luck
Click to expand...

Wow, that's very cool...good luck with your endeavor! Oh, and be sure to post on here the progress of your operation. It's a kick to see people actually starting up a brewery or brewpub business. Check out Naked City Brewing if you get a chance: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=61611
 
Craft beer is $2-$5 per 12oz., median prices, here.

EDIT: Yes, I know I'm not saving money, but the possibility of good beer (then beyond my budget) got me interested, and an obsession with brewing took hold.
 
I voted other, the reason, I started making wine, and I figured that I had just about everything to make beer to, so thats how I got started.:rockin:
 
I opened a magazine and saw an add with an Irish looking fellow with a big old smile and a big mug of beer with great head retention and it said brew your own beer at home for pennies a piece. He looked happy as hell and like he had all the answers in life so I ordered his starter kit. That was about 17 or 18yrs ago, wish I could remember the name of the company. Started in my apartment closet and everyone laughing at me until they tasted it. 17yr s later my bro in law still says how great that first batch tasted. Ken
 
SWMBO and I went through the Jack Daniels Distillary years ago and I had no idea it was soooo easy! I love beer more then the hard stuff so I got the "bilble" How to Brew and the rest is history...


Loop
 

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