Am I normal as a noob? 50 Gals brewed in 3 months

[bulldogbrit]

Ive never been one to take on a new hobby lightly (one of my favourites was becoming a professional bar tender three summers ago for no reason other than to enjoy the training).

I started my homebrewing journey May 14th this year. Since then Ive brewed 10 5gl batches of the stuff. The materials I have acrewed are as follows:

4 glass carboys.
1 plastic primary.
1 plastic bottling bucket.
Numerous airlocks.
2 hydrometres (my first broke after 4 uses).
60 blue Grolsh type litre bottles.

I tried one normal IPA homebrew kit and then started experimenting, ginger ales (my faves - as I cant get Blandford Fly in the USA where I now live as a brit import), honey browns, cherry ambers, honey stouts, seriously hoppy IPA's and not a single lager.

Ive read Paizans book #1 twice, Ive also read Wilf Newsome The Happy Brewer book - which I LOVED by the way despite its age (thats actually his name by the way not his hobby ) and Ive spend countless hours on this bad boy of a forum reading up and learning as I went.

My new hobby has cost me roughly 5 hours a week for the last three months (usually a saturday or sunday afternoon) and produced about 400 pints of the good stuff. When Im makin it - Im not drinking it (ok I usually am - dont tell the wife) Ive not made a beer I dont like (though I had a bock with an additional can of malt extract that is sickly sweet at the moment but getting better with time). My wife still loves me (I brew in my basement using an electric hob) and I NEVER wake up with a hangover from my own stuff.

Just wondered. Am I normal? What should I expect next in terms of seemingly irrational pursuits of a fantastic hobby?

BDB.

 

[marubozo]

It's not a hobby, it's an obsession.

I'm sure you're not alone. I started out with just a basic kit that came with a bucket and a bottling bucket. After brewing one batch I soon had 3 buckets and 3 better bottles, about 250 bottles, and brewed up about 30 gallons in a little over a month Even went on to build a wort chiller myself and I'm not very handy at all.

The fun is just beginning. Just wait until you want to start making lagers, moving to all grain if you haven't already, and of course, kegging. You've just scratched the surface

 

[enderwig]

Am I normal as a noob? 50 Gals brewed in 3 months

YES










.......

 

[RLinNH]

Very Normal indeed. I started brewing back in 1993, and have gone the full gambit. Started with Extracts, went on to Partial Mashes, then I landed where I am today. All Grain Brewing. Personally, I think that the biggest time saver of them all is going from Bottling over to kegging. I kegged 10 Gallons of an Irish Red this morning in just under 30 minutes. Welcome to the club!!!

 

[zacster]

Maybe you'll slow down when you've added 5 inches to your waist.

Have a party, it'll go really fast.

 

[WenValley]

Great Post! I started brewing about three months ago. I now have six corney kegs in the keezer, all on CO2, each with it's own tap. Two better bottles, two glass carboys, two plastic fermenters, two 20 pound CO2 tanks, 75 used Grolsch bottles, autosiphons, funnels, pyrex cups, and other "stuff". I bought a turkey fryer setup to cook outside. I borrowed two ball lock kegs from my brother as mine are all full, and I'm working on buying more pin lock kegs. I'm dealing tomorrow on two 15.5 gallons stainless kegs to cut into a bigger brew pot.

I have another IPA recipie ready to go, and I bought a 50 pound bag of two row malt three days ago. A buddy of mine has a grain grinder.

My wife thinks that our beer is the best around, and we've had a HOOT brewing and enjoying our homebrew. I just need more friends.

Good Luck... you're not alone. They can take my brewpot when they uncurl my cold dead fingers from it.

 

[brewssuds]

50 gallons in 3 months seems incredibly low. I'd advise you to step up production, post-haste.

 

[rico567]

Well......50 gallons in 3 months......seems to me as if you're on track to make your 200 gallons a year. I may have brewed 50 gallons in some 3- month period over the last two years, when I was trying to fill up my pipeline- maybe.

 

[RedOctober]

50 Gallons in 3 months is impressive. I have been doing 10Gal AG's and still have not beat that. I average about 10-15 a month

 

[Jsamp]

50 gallons in 3 months seems incredibly low. I'd advise you to step up production, post-haste.

I lol'd

Its definitely an obssesion. I'm only 3 batches in and all I can think about is whats next. My woman would kill me if I made that much in a short amount of time. She already does and after a month I'm only on 15 gallons.

 

[bulldogbrit]

I lol'd

Its definitely an obssesion. I'm only 3 batches in and all I can think about is whats next. My woman would kill me if I made that much in a short amount of time. She already does and after a month I'm only on 15 gallons.

My trick is to get the pipeline full and then drink the evidence - thanks for the responses - looks like Im fairly normal afterall

 

[Grinder12000]

Normal. I slowed down at the 6 month mark a little and then went THREE WEEKS with out brewing at one point.

I ended up at 2.9 gallons per week after year 1. 140 total.

Looking at my spreadsheet - brewed 45 gallons at the 3 month mark.

 

[TheMan]

you sound normal lol...I've been brewing for roughly 5 months with 2 other friends. We've made 85 gallons so far...got a 25 gallon brewpot, 10 gal, and 5 gal....jumped to all grain, got grain mill...numerous fermentation vessels, we have two propane burners. We brew from 10-20 gallons in a weekend. Having two others helps to lower the cost a bit, but it's still been very expensive. On my own I got a keezer and 4 kegs (3 on tap). All in 5 months time.

Fantastic Hobby/obsession. If you keep up you will probably beat me and my friends! And that would be impressive, not that your 50 gallons already is not lol.

 

[Grinder12000]

TheMan fails to mention that he and his friends have doubled their weight in LESS then 5 months.

 

[HillbillyDeluxe]

Your normal. Your going to become a drunk..... but your normal. I make 15-20 gal a month and i have been brewing for years. I started with a Mr beer and 6 months later finished my brew sculpture(AG baby!!), have a kegorator(3 tap) 1 portable system, 5 brew buckets, 10 corneys, and 100 grolsh bottles(drank them, didnt order them). I also have a wort chiller and every hydrometer and thermometer you could want. next a refractometer and a fermentation chamber9current project, bought a new house to do it.). i am switching to 10 gal batches soon and will be putting a homebrew store in next year. Nah... your normal..... I however am obsessed!!!!!

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

This is perfectly normal. I started about three months ago and have done at least 50 gallons. I have had 25 gallons going at once in my laundry room which is a constant 68 degrees.

In the three months i have accumulated:

5 plastic buckets
2 bottling buckets
4 five gallon carboys
1 - 25 gallon pot
1 - 10 gallon pot
1 - 5 gallon pot
10 gallon igloo cooler with copper manifold
1 - 4" grain gobbler
2 - propane burners
tons of miscellaneous crap - tubing, bottling wand, racking canes, caps, sanitizers ...... etc.

 

[lucky2balive]

You are definitely NOT normal. Normal is boring. You're a homebrewer. It's better than being normal!