How did you get into home brewing?

[flars]

A long time ago on a fishing trip in Canada with my Dad, we went to town to buy some beer. The selection and price at the government store got my Dad talking about his younger days at the Medford Brewery. The next Christmas my present to him was a begining brewers starter kit. That is how I got into brewing beer. Within a couple of months the beginners kit quickly expanded.

 

[SagamoreAle]

An mail order ad on the back page of the Boston Phoenix got me going ii the early 90's. I brewed extract beers with that equipment until I bought a house in 2000 and built an AG brewery in the garage.

 

[Aboo]

Couple of guys at work were constantly talking about it. So I started reading and decided "What the hell, I could do that." So I found a guy on CL that was moving from a big house into a little bitty apartment and bought everything he had for 150 bucks. Gave away half of it to a buddy so he could come along for the ride. We've been alternating brew weekends ever since

 

[lowark]

A couple of guys in another forum were talking about brewing. Went to the google and found this forum. Wife bought a starter kit from NB as a Christmas gift a few years ago. Been great.

 

[unionrdr]

When I was about 15,my dad got a 1 gallon wine making kit as a gift. He never made it,& gave it to me to try. Everyone loved it & dad loved bragging about how good it was. I made wine till about age 30,then got tired of waiting at least a year for it to be ready to drink.
Flash forward to Christmas 2010,& we were watching videos on youtube. My middle son comes in & asks me why don't I start making wine again? Well,the wife & I decided we like beer mo betta nowadays. So I punched up beer brewing in the youtube search box. Craigtube popped up,then pho,steejan,revolutionary brewer,& some others videos that are members here. I was impressed by how easy it was now,& started searching for sites that sold this home brewing stuff. I decided to get the Cooper's microbrew kit,since it came with everything,including bottles. And craigtube used it to show how easy it was to make some good looking beer (from my viewpoint).
I came up with many different ways to brew beer with other extracts,hops,etc added to those Cooper's cans. Now I'm on my 5th partial mash beer,& wish pop was here to taste them. My wife loved all my beers,& brewed a couple times hereself,even helping me. Then she turned into a type 1 diabetic,& that killed it for her. She hates it too. Gotta figure something out for her. But this partial mash stuff has sparked my love for brewing again. Especially since I solved my mash temp problem. Typical American solution that took me a couple times before it came to me.

 

[QueenOfBattle]

A buddy and I planned a trip to Oktoberfest during our deployment. When we made it back stateside we booked the airfare and were on our way. We back packed through Europe ending up in Germany and along the way tasted local beers and thinking about how cool it would be to start our own brewery. Obviously, the lack of knowledge and funds grounded us right away so I thought just because we can’t afford to own a huge brewery doesn’t mean we can’t make beer. So bought a kit, and looking to make my first batch next week.

 

[Echoloc8]

Like another person or two on here, I visited Germany (Laeutershausen/Bad Neustadt) in 1987 with a host family and acquired my beer palate at 17 years old. Then came back to the states, went off to college a few years later and was appalled at Milwaukee's Best and its ilk. This was my Dark Period.

But it was short lived, as I joined the SCA and sampled a few meads and fruit wines at events. The candle was lit...

...And had to burn low for a decade as I married right out of college, whereupon it took most of the '90s for the marriage to crash and burn. Wifey turned up her nose at the idea of home brewing and refused to have things fermenting in her house (oy!).

Got divorced in 2000, and eventually decided I (really) needed a hobby, especially one Ex-wifey would have disapproved of. Read online for a bit, and eventually ran into the Good Eats Amber Waves episode, which spurred me to hit my LHBS for the class they were running on National Learn to Homebrew Day in 2002.

...And the rest is Zymurgy! Got a new and improved Wifey who loves both the smells of Brew Day and the product, too.

-Rich

 

[ThaBrewFather06]

I love beer of mostly all sorts I drink the crappy miller light and rolling rock if I'm playing beers pong or flip cup, but when I go out to eat I love to order "good" beer which is expensive. I love dogfish head midus touch but its 15$ per 4 pack. So I tried to replicate it and its close enough to me to justify not buying that expensive a beer at the store.

 

[catdaddy66]

I can't remember exactly how I started to brew but it began in the early to mid 1990's. My family (mostly the men!) love drinking beer and I think I read a book about it so I found a brewstore in the town next to me. First batch was from a kit and was not anything special. I think it was a brown or red ale, but it turned out surprisingly well. I kept getting different kits like pilsners, steam beers and stouts. I knew I was getting better at it when I brought some Irish stout to a friend's bachelor party and got a ton of compliments from the guys!

After I split from my wife I didn't brew for about 5-6 years, but then decided to get back into it and have been at it ever since. I do want to try different recipes but will probably not make it to the partial or AG stage, but you never know!

 

[Avocet]

Tried to make beer with my brother at UF in like the mid-80's and it was truly awful. Weasel piss. No--it was worse than that. I guess the fermentation temps in the high 80's to mid 90's outside in Florida in late summer had something to do with it. Oh yeah the fact we bottled right from primary as soon as yeast slowed up (which is maybe 3 days tops in those temps) I had pretty much given up on the idea of "decent" homebrew. I had certainly never had any.

Then a buddy of mine comes back after bouncing around from AZ to East Coast and all points in between---with a kegerator of some damn fine IPA's and Cal Common, some wonderful bottled stouts and porters--I mean as good as any you'd purchase--so I gave it a whirl. Oh yeah--taught me PATIENCE too! Now I'm into kegs-all grain-washing yeasts--enjoy it all especially the finished product.

 

[Dmlsys23]

My wife bought me a full beer equipment kit for Christmas after seeing how much I liked using the Mr. Beer kit I'd gotten for my birthday. Just bottled my Blue Moon clone 2 days ago- it's my 2nd batch ever so I hope it turns out ok!

 

[Idrum6969]

When I was about 15,my dad got a 1 gallon wine making kit as a gift. He never made it,& gave it to me to try. Everyone loved it & dad loved bragging about how good it was. I made wine till about age 30,then got tired of waiting at least a year for it to be ready to drink.
Flash forward to Christmas 2010,& we were watching videos on youtube. My middle son comes in & asks me why don't I start making wine again? Well,the wife & I decided we like beer mo betta nowadays. So I punched up beer brewing in the youtube search box. Craigtube popped up,then pho,steejan,revolutionary brewer,& some others videos that are members here. I was impressed by how easy it was now,& started searching for sites that sold this home brewing stuff. I decided to get the Cooper's microbrew kit,since it came with everything,including bottles. And craigtube used it to show how easy it was to make some good looking beer (from my viewpoint).
I came up with many different ways to brew beer with other extracts,hops,etc added to those Cooper's cans. Now I'm on my 5th partial mash beer,& wish pop was here to taste them. My wife loved all my beers,& brewed a couple times hereself,even helping me. Then she turned into a type 1 diabetic,& that killed it for her. She hates it too. Gotta figure something out for her. But this partial mash stuff has sparked my love for brewing again. Especially since I solved my mash temp problem. Typical American solution that took me a couple times before it came to me.

Have you looked into gluten free beer? I am unsure if it is any better for diabetics...... but may be a possibility.