Hiya guys!!

[Keefer]

I'm still a virgin when it comes to brewing beer, but this place looks like a terrific resource!

A couple days ago I was looking up how to make moonshine, just out of curiosity. I'm a broke college student, so a cheap buzz sounded neat. I was reading some articles online and stumbled on a book called Possum Living by Dolly Freed, just the kind of book a broke college student should be reading! Haha. Or someone who wants to start their own commune. So after reading through this I figured the moonshine operation would be a little too dangerous, and not really worth it. I stumbled on The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible not long after and maaaaan, after reading that I am really craving to get my brew on.

But alas, I figure I'm too poor right now to start making beer. I shall probably start off with a simple wine first, see how that goes. Currently trying to see if anyone I know has any extra Sparkletts jugs I can use, but no luck so far.

Just turned 21 last month, the 15th, and I was looking forward to being able to drink legally. But now that I've discovered home brewing I think I'm more excited than ever.

I hope to be able grow in experience with the help from this forum.

 

[slowbie]

Wine takes longer before it tastes good, but it certainly can be cheap and easy if you have the patience.

Have you found a homebrew store in your area yet? If so, one of the easiest things you can do is go to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or whatever similar grocery store you have around you, and buy a gallon of apple juice/cider in a glass jug. Take that to the homebrew store, get a properly sized drilled stopper, airlock and yeast (I use Red Star Montrachet based on EdWort's recipe) and take it home and put the yeast in the cider, add the stopper and airlock to the jug, and leave it for a month or more before priming and bottling. (If you want, you can add sugar like Edwort's apfelwein, but that will take longer to be ready).

 

[Keefer]

That's a good idea. I'm still trying to get a better bottle, though. I figure if I'm waiting a month I might as well get 5 gallons out of it.

Unfortunately the nearest homebrew store is about 10 miles away from me (unless I'm typing the wrong keywords in on Google), so I'll probably end up ordering stuff online.

This first batch is gonna be a budget batch for sure.