When did you become a home brewer?

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McLovinBeast57

McLovinBeast57

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I'm curious at what age all of you became home brewers.
I'm actually 19 and I just started this year after I watched all the episodes of Brew Masters on netflix. Such an entertaining show, which I'm sure many of you have seen. Started watching videos on YouTube and my parents got me a kit for Christmas. I brewed the caribou slobber that came with it and had so much fun that I decided I really wanted to switch to all grain. It's been so awesome... Such an art and a really great experience.

Just wanted to know when you started out, and what your experiences were like!
 
It's 21 around here. Anyway,I started making wine at 15 with a kit pop didn't get around to. Did that till about 30. Then in December 2010,we decided to look at how home brewing was these days. Made our first in January 2011 & been here since February 19th of that year.
 
while on my final cruise before getting out of the Navy, sometime mid-1993, I read an article in Details magazine about homebrewing

started collecting the equipment, shipping it to my Dad's house and by the time I got out, had everything I needed to start brewing.

that was when I was 30

a couple batches in I had to quit when I moved in with my first ex-wife-to-be and didn't have the room for my equipment. it stayed in my Dad's basement until I moved in with my current wife into our current home

17 years after I quit, I gathered all my equipment together, added what I needed to go all-grain and started brewing again, September 29, 2012. I was 49

just bottled my 18th batch, not sure if financials will let me brew #19 until next year

I still have that magazine article

details magazine april 93_1_0001.jpg
details magazine april 93_2_0001.jpg
 
Theoretically, I guess I started back in 1995, got a "Beer Machine" for Christmas. Very similar to the Mr. Beer, only it also is used as the serving vessel. The beer wasn't bad, but the internet wasn't what it is today, so I didn't really feel like researching to find out how to improve it. I'm sure the biggest issues were the yeast and the fermentation temps I was using.

I still used it here and there though because craft beer still wasn't that easily accessible and it was a decent change from the BMC world.

Anyways, around 2000, I got a kegerator and the Beer Machine got put away for the most part and I never really thought much about brewing after that. Again, one of those things that I knew what I was doing wasn't the end all be all of homebrewing, but I didn't know enough to really research it.

Over the years I had met a few people here and there that brewed their own. A few were good, most were just OK, so I didn't really think much of it. That was until the craft beer boom really started to take over here recently. Especially since the surge of the IPA. And I had a friend who lived out east who really started to get into homebrewing. So I started to look into it and what it would take to convert my kegerator

That takes us to July of 2012, when I went to buy a keg of Miller Lite for a party and it rang up for $102! I just figured, hell, if I'm going to pay this much for Miller, I might as well kick it into gear and give this brewing my own thing a shot. I haven't looked back. The only thing I'm mad at, is that I didn't start looking into it a lot sooner than I did. I'll admit the first time I brewed it was about price. But as soon as I finished the first two, I was hooked on the whole process of brewing. I've said it on here quite a few times, but it is my golf. I can't think of many other things I'd rather do on a Free morning than brew some beer.

EDIT: Forgot to say, I'm 43 now, so I was 25 with the Beer Machine and 41 in my recent jump back in.
 
If I want to be technical, 1996, I was 10 and helped my uncle with a batch of saison. (I'm from Liège in Belgium.)

But when I actually started homebrewing it was 2009 when I got my deluxe starter kit from northern brewer :D
 
53.
I had all the equipment in my shopping cart at age 36 but put it back when I noticed the excellent selection of foreign and "craft" beer at the store. Instead, I bought two cases of singles and one case of 1991 Anchor Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
 
February of 2006 so I'm 8 years in. A friend of mine asked me if she got me a kit for Christmas if I would try it.
The rest as they say, is history.
 
Short story - on an off since about 1996 - I was 28.

Long story:
My Grandfather was a wine maker and a home brewer. I would visit him in the summer when I was a kid and help him (he lived in Northern Georgia, I grew up and still live in Texas). I went back to college and got my degree in the mid to late 90's and worked in a brewpub. I never did any actual brewing there, I was just a bartender and it was a small brewpub, just the owner and his wife brewed. I would help out in the brewhouse when the pub was slow. It interested me so started home brewing. That was around 1996. I started off with pure extract then to partial mash and brewed for a few years. Then career, family, kido happened. I started again until a couple of years ago. Did two batches of partial mash and quickly switched to all grain. I have since done 23 batches of all grain.
 
Started reading up on home brewing in August 2011. This site is my education and inspiration. Age was 53.
 
14 Months ago. It would have been sooner, but my wife insisted on making me wait for Christmas so she could get me a Mr. Beer kit. (Women.) I used the Mr. Beer kit twice, and then went and bought a 5 gallon kit. Then another brew bucket, then a carboy, then a wine kit. :D I've got over 20+ batches under my belt, and just did my first all grain batch.
 
I started about two and half years ago at the age of 34. Did about 20 extract batches before jumping to all-grain. Have done about 35 all-grain batches since then. This site has helped my brewing so much I can't even begin to describe it.
 
september 2013 - 6 months in at age 45. mr beer kit started it and after a few batches there then on to AG and 3 gallon better bottles going into kegs. been a wild (and kind of expensive) ride. best hobby i ever had (and i've had a few)!
 
January of 2012 for my 22nd birthday. I pieced together a set for 5 gallon extract. My homebrewing mentor convinced me to buy an 8 gallon kettle so I could step up to all-grain. He then sold me his mash tun half a year later which started all grain. Now I have my 3 keg setup and started brewing lagers 2 months ago. I love the brew life.
 
12 years ago, first wife got me a kit. (IPA). Hated it. Put the kit up and later gave it away.

Restarted 6 months ago as a hobby to deal with life when my son is not with me. Now at 43, brewing is a relaxation that I need every other week.
 
Started 20 yrs ago and it lasted for a cpl yrs. Moved to Italy gave it up. Started up Aug 13 just after AL lifted prohibition. 52 yrs old now.


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I started in July of 2013, officially when my wife bought me the Mr Beer Brewmasters Delux kit.

Technically I started in 2007 just trying to make cider on and off throughout the years.
 
I hate it when underaged people confess, and then it's apparent they are underage. Our forum rules are pretty clear you have to be 21 in the US, or of legal age in their area.

Remember when we were kids, when we had to pay a bum $5 to get PBR or Rolling Rock from the corner store for us because we were too dumb to realize we could make our own?!?! Oh, those were the days.

Of course, legal age was 18 for beer, and 19 for wine and liquor, so it probably was for the best I wasn't smart enough to make my own as I may have been fairly young.

I got my "Beer Machine 2000" when I was about 37, I think. I had been making wine for a long time before that, but beer seemed too hard. I gave up the Beer Machine in 2005(?) and started seriously brewing in early 2006.
 
Just a few months ago at age 34. I got 3 batches under my belt thus far. Kicking myself for not starting a long time ago.


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1989. I was 34. Have been brewing since. At one point, I was a regular columnist for Brewing Techniques magazine.

After all these years, I'm about to turn pro. I'll be the brew master at a new brewpub opening this year in the little mountain town of Idyllwild in So Cal. It's a dream that's coming true!

Cheers,
--
Don
 
1998 in San Diego. Brewed about 13-15 batches then life got in the way. After a very long hiatus and a trip to Portland I dove back in hard late last year.

I love this hobby!
 
My father brewed extract kits in the basement when I was still living there, probably mid to late 90s. Wanted to get into it for about 2 years before moving out on my own, but never got around to it, always something else taking up time and space.

Started brewing December of last year age 28, a double oatmeal stout kit. After 7 various extract batches decided it was time to start milling and getting grain sacks. BIAB method lasted about 7 or 8 batches before I gave up on that (and budget allowed), then got the false bottom tun. Now I'm up to batch 19 total, and not looking back. Just made a cider canned kit because I wanted to take the easy way out.

Still lots of exploration into styles ahead of me, thinking of getting a small AC for the brew room to make lagers possible over the course of the summer. Quickly gaining the reputation of being the guy who always shows up somewhere with a case of beer in hand. Hitting those OG numbers is occurring more and more frequently, and friends starting to come over and watch the brew day to learn for themselves.
 
'99. I was 20. I worked with a guy in Vegas that was talking about needing to bottle. I inquired & he gave me a quick run down and invited me over for a brew & bottling session. we went to the LHBS & got me set up. I knew both my grandpas made their own beer & wine, but I never really thought of doing it myself until then.
 
Brewed my first batch in high school science class. Don't even remember what it was (don't really remember a lot about high school!) but I remember it tasted like crap. The cider I made after was amazing. Not sure how or if the teacher got permission, but it was all supposed to be the focus of yeast and their life cycle... Or something of the sort. I could really give a damn at the time. 10 years after that I ended up with a mr beer kit under the Xmas tree, then stumbled apron a free how to brew basics class at my lhbs.... See I did learn something in school besides blindfolded 1 handed j rolling!


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1992, at the ripe old age of 35, we moved to a much bigger house and my wife bought me a kit from a local brewer(can't even call his place a LHBS). His method was simplicity: 1 can of extract, preferably pre-hopped, 1.5 pounds of corn sugar in a kettle. Bring to a boil, then immediately cool to 80F and pitch the yeast pack on top of the extract can directly into the wort. Ferment at room temp so it finishes fast. 3 batches of this swill and I knew there had to be a better way so I took to the "Book", The Joy of Homebrewing. Was all grain within 2 years, all this without internet forums or even meeting another homebrewer.
Been brewing steadily ever since, I think the longest I've gone without brewing was 4 months while we remodeled the house last year and all our stuff was piled in the garage on top of my brewery.
 
idylldon said:
1989. I was 34. Have been brewing since. At one point, I was a regular columnist for Brewing Techniques magazine.

After all these years, I'm about to turn pro. I'll be the brew master at a new brewpub opening this year in the little mountain town of Idyllwild in So Cal. It's a dream that's coming true!

Cheers,
--
Don
Click to expand...

Best of luck to you. What made you finally decide to go pro after all these years?
 
Let's see if I can remember back that far. I was at UCBerkeley. I was 21.. it was 1961.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was good beer.. but it sure had a kick.. College students like 'kick'.
 
June 2002, I was 27 when I started and I has been a long journey. Creating a business plan to open up a small brewery soon.


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At 21. My dad's friend stopped drinking and sold me all his stuff to replace my Mr beer kit.
 

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