banjolawyer
Member
I've been brewing for about a year and a half now. My first batch was a partial mash. After that, I jumped straight into all-grain. I've brewed about 30 differnt BJCP styles since then, no 2 the same yet.
Here's how I got into craft beer. I have a longtime female friend in Memphis I went to school with from about the 4th grade to graduation. I left town after graduation and have never gone back except for a few short visits. After about 10 years, we started talking again, and I met her boyfriend who was into drinking good commercial beers. I enjoyed them too, and he convinced me to sign up on www.ratebeer.com, where he was maintaining a log of all the beers he'd drank. I found the website to be very educational. I would look up what others were saying about a beer as I drank it and was amazed at the flavors that I could distinguish with a little help and power of suggestion. I started my own log, but was irritated that ratebeer was forcing me to write up a comment about the beer in order to give it a score. After a long day at work writing contracts, policies, and other stuff, the last thing I wanted to do was to come home and feel like I was working. So I started putting homer Simpson beer quotes in my comments, but that didn't go over well with some on the site who took things more seriously, so I stopped rating beers there, but by that time I'd had nearly 100 different beers and was hooked.
All the while, my buddy in Memphis kept saying how great it would be if we started homebrewing and started trading the beers we brewed. I was interested, but it took me about a year to visit a homebrew shop and ask what I'd need to get started. Here's what I left the store with. But by now, I've got a whole garage full of stuff. multiple converted kegs and kettles, burners, fermenters, chest freezers, etc.
Here's how I got into craft beer. I have a longtime female friend in Memphis I went to school with from about the 4th grade to graduation. I left town after graduation and have never gone back except for a few short visits. After about 10 years, we started talking again, and I met her boyfriend who was into drinking good commercial beers. I enjoyed them too, and he convinced me to sign up on www.ratebeer.com, where he was maintaining a log of all the beers he'd drank. I found the website to be very educational. I would look up what others were saying about a beer as I drank it and was amazed at the flavors that I could distinguish with a little help and power of suggestion. I started my own log, but was irritated that ratebeer was forcing me to write up a comment about the beer in order to give it a score. After a long day at work writing contracts, policies, and other stuff, the last thing I wanted to do was to come home and feel like I was working. So I started putting homer Simpson beer quotes in my comments, but that didn't go over well with some on the site who took things more seriously, so I stopped rating beers there, but by that time I'd had nearly 100 different beers and was hooked.
All the while, my buddy in Memphis kept saying how great it would be if we started homebrewing and started trading the beers we brewed. I was interested, but it took me about a year to visit a homebrew shop and ask what I'd need to get started. Here's what I left the store with. But by now, I've got a whole garage full of stuff. multiple converted kegs and kettles, burners, fermenters, chest freezers, etc.
