The "official" what/how YOU started thread

[BillTheSlink]

I should add I originally got the idea by seeing an add in some sportsman's magazine at perhaps the age of ten, some twenty plus years ago. I always had it in the back of my mind. If I am not mistaken it was Fur Fish and Game. I can still remember the picture of the guy selling his "kit" and instructions. It was black and white, he was in a plaid flannel shirt, and sported dark curly hair and a thick dark mustache. When you can remember all that your either in love with the dude or the concept, and I am brewing so I am OK.

 

[rico567]

Back in the Middle Ages, in the last century during the pre-modern homebrew era (1970, for those of you who are old enough), I had just been married a year and we were moving out of state. My uncle suggested I try brewing my own beer, and gave me some old items of equipment that had belonged to my maternal grandfather. I got a hydrometer, plus a similar item that just measured proof directly, a few old clamps and a bench capper. I got a vague idea of what I'd need from somewhere, but real homebrewing supplies, let alone books or anyone who did it & could show you the ropes were nonexistent. Still, I was determined to try.
I gathered a big bilious green plastic wastebasket to ferment in, a large enameled steel canner, and a couple of cases of PBR returnable bottles for the beer. For supplies, it was a scavenger hunt! I could find nothing but a product called "Blue Ribbon Malt Syrup" in the grocery store, plus sugar of course, a box with a brick of compressed leaf hops in it at the drugstore, and that left yeast. Well, I was reasonably sure that I shouldn't just use baking yeast, so I asked at a bakery. He brought out a big brick of what they used, and it was labeled "Anheuser-Busch." Well, they made beer, so this must be the right stuff. He actually gave me half of that brick, I think it must have been over a pound. Bottle caps were finally run to ground at a local hardware store- with cork liners, no less.
So I went home and mixed that can of malt syrup with a few pounds of sugar, brought it to a boil in a big enamel canner, threw in hops (don't have any clue how long I boiled). Well.....I not only don't remember how long I boiled, I don't remember how I cooled it, or how much yeast I put in, I had no thermometer, and of notions like specific gravity I had only the vaguest glimmer from science classes. I brought the "wort" up to some volume with cold water (maybe that's how I cooled it....), then poured it into the wastebasket. All the stuff I used was clean, but I had no inkling of the importance of sanitiation. I dissolved a chunk of that yeast in water, and in it went. I floated the hydrometer in the wort, covered the wastebasket with a wet cloth (I'd re-moisten the cloth every day, to what end I have no idea). In a day or two, it would be bubbling like mad, and eventually it would stop and the hydrometer would be a lot closer to 1.000. At some arbitrary point, I bottled it using surgical tubing and a completely non-sanitary mouth siphon. I primed the bottles using a teeny plastic spoon I got somewhere, using a fairly constant amount of table sugar. I then bottled.
In a few weeks, there would be a "malt-like beverage." It had a strong taste, and plenty of "kick." Unfortunately, if unsurprisingly, I was the only person who would (or perhaps could) drink it, and I gave it up within the year.

Then everything sat around, and I gave away the capper and lost the hydrometer and proof tester, as 36 years elapsed.

Then, in 2007, my eldest son announced he had watched some friends homebrew, and was getting into the pastime, and did I think I'd be interested? I started looking around at what was available, and it was a whole new world. I read Palmer's How to Brew online, and ordered an equipment kit and some extract kits from Midwest. The rest, as they say, is brewing history. Last Monday I did my first all-grain batch, so the disease is spreading.....but the best news is, everyone now enjoys my beer.

 

[lostspring]

We were at my grandmothers house, a first generation american of german parents, for a dinner. I remember my father and uncle bringing in a cardboard box full of homemade beer. They set the box on the table and opened one. The beer spewed out of the bottle, I remember foam dripping off the ceiling and the look on my grandmothers face. That was 55 years ago or so. Much later in life I remembered that and spent one whole summer drinking Blatz beer from returnable bottles. By the end of summer I had 12 empty cases. That was 18 years, two children, and the usual family responsibilities.
This winter I was working in the basement and had to move the cases of bottles and thought why not. I found this website and never turned back. 4 extract batches and two AG batches done and will do my 3rd AG batch tomorrow. Oh there was still a price sticker on the cases of Blatz, $4.59.LOL

 

[WilliamstonBrew]

My older brother and I shared a house while we attended Michigan State University. He was 23, I was 19 when he brewed his first batch in 1999. I was only vaguely interested in what he had going on and, while I definitely liked drinking beer, I was not particularly interested aside from the general aesthetic curiosity of his experiment.

His first batch turned out fine, nothing spectacular though, and the equipment itself rotted in my parents' basement for years following. Once, on a whim, I dug out that equipment to see if I could salvage it. The glass carboy was absolutely caked in a film of blackened caked on gunk. I couldn't muster the gusto to clean it.

Flash forward 9 years. A few months ago my brother-in-law received some brewing equipment from a friend who moved to Australia. It had three carboys, one of which is a Pyrex solution bottle... woot!... a capper, some airlocks, hoses, a funnel, etc. He has a second kid on the way and asked me if I'd like the equipment since he really didn't have the time. I threw it in the trunk, went home, browsed around, found Palmer's "How to Brew" and the rest is history.

All carboys are in use. I have two Apfelwein's and a Dunkelweizen brewing at the moment and have three other partial-mash / extract batches under my belt. They all turned out GREAT. I am getting propane burner and a 36 quart stainless steel pot for my birthday in a couple weeks. I plan on building a wort chiller and going all grain after that.

 

[HillbillyDeluxe]

Mr beer here, 1 month later, extract 5 gal, one month later kegging, one month later AG. On my 127th batch now. All in less than 4 yrs. I have no life outside family, work, beer, in that order.

 

[NJTomatoguy]

As a kid, I spent every summer at the Jersey shore. Parents always allowed me to drink beer around the house, and while fishing. Went fishing, and all of us would group up after,and dinner was at a friend of the family that night. Fished all day with him, and while cleaning his boat, he offered a brown ale. Kegged. On the deck, overlooking the boat dock. Beer was great.

Fast forward to last summer, started working from home, looking for a new hobby since I was essentially tied to the home office M-F 9am - 8 pm. On the heating forum I am active at, someone mentioned making beer. Googled it, found HBT, and the rest is history. I have slowed down due to renovations and being on a diet, but enjoy every beer I make twice as much as the beer I buy.

 

[Rick500]

A friend of mine expressed an interest in brewing, so I bought him an equipment kit for his birthday one year. 1996, I think.

We brewed the first batch together (it was really his batch but I was interested too so I helped...he threw in everything but the kitchen sink, including, if I remember, apple juice in place of half the water). It was different. But beer, sort of.

We were both intrigued and brewed a few more batches. Then kind of drifted out of it, with the rest of life happening. We both subsequently moved out of state, but as fortune would have it, both to the same state. We live about a half mile from each other now.

About three years ago I got the bug again and brewed up several batches over a period of a few months, then took another year and a half (or so) break. Have been brewing again over the past year or so, and now my friend down the street is interested again and bought some new equipment last weekend, and we took it back to his place and brewed his first batch in many years.

I think we're both permanently back in the fold (my having spent a considerable amount on new equipment and built almost all the 'necessary' all-grain DIY stuff).

 

[Styles]

Well I was sitting at home a few months ago, drinking an imported beer (not sure what it was) and I though, with all this recession talk and such, why am I drinking imported beer? I should be doing my bit and buying NZ beer.
So, next day at work I started telling one of my workmates about my idea, prettty much word for word the above. Just after I finished saying "Imported Beer" he piped up with "You're gonna do homebrew". To which I said, "Ummm, actually that wasn't what I was going to say, but it's an even better idea!" and that's how it started. Since discovered that another guy here brews as well. We're just doing extract kits at the moment, but I feel the gentle nudging of the idea of AG each time I brew....... I guess it's just a matter of time until my addiction develops further and deeper!

 

[3bals]

It all started back when I was about 14. We, as teenage boys wanted to get our hands on some booze. Living on the farm in a rural area, it was hard to find someone to buy for us. We found a recipe to make wine using frozen grape juice concentrate, sugar and dry baker’s yeast. There were 4 of us and we each started our batch a week apart. I made mine in my bedroom closet. Mom never went in there. So after 4 weeks the first batch was done and every week there after we had a gallon to share. (our first experience with keeping the pipeline full).

We quickly became bored with that so we built our own still at age 15 and made our own corn liquor. It didn’t taste very good but it got the job done. I even have some B&W photos of that still, but the still is long gone. On our graduation day the state changed the drinking age from 21 to 18, so the problem of getting our beverage of choice easily was now solved. During my post high school bachelor days we put together a kegorator, but that went away as marriage and family life came to be.

About 20 years ago, I saw an ad for a kit for making your own sausage and started making my own meat products like jerky, sausage, ham and bacon. I started with a couple kits to make stuff in the kitchen oven and now have an electric grinder, stuffer, mixer and built an electric smoker capable of smoking 50 lbs of meat at a time. I always was one to make my own way and even have been heating my house with wood for the last 33 years. People that knew I liked beer so well and knew I like to make my own stuff would always asked if I brewed my own. I would reply that I didn’t think I could keep up with the demand.

Around a year or so ago, I started thinking about making homebrew and last fall I saw a deluxe brewing kit at a store. A few days later I went back to that store, bought it and a couple extract kits and stated brewing beer last December. I acquired some cornys on evilbay and resurrected the Co2 regulator and gauges from the old kegorator. Since then I’ve brewed 60 gallons and have 25 gallons of that in the pipeline as we speak and I don’t see any reason to stop brewing. I like it and my friends and relatives like it.

So now when people come over they can sit down to an ice cold homebrew and some smoked meat or sausages.

 

[bob1852]

I always had an interest in it, but didn't bother pursuing it. A friend taught me a couple years ago how to do extract brews and next thing you know I'm building MLTs, HLTs, joing HBT and having a blast. Thanks Marty

 

[ben_j8mmin]

I took apart my older sisters Easy bake oven, for my boil kettle and made a mash tun outta my little brothers legos. It was a 3 teir made of my tinker toys…….

 

[3bals]

I took apart my older sisters Easy bake oven, for my boil kettle and made a mash tun outta my little brothers legos. It was a 3 teir made of my tinker toys…….

Nice! Sarcasm at it's best.

 

[BADS197]

Surfing my favorite Moutain Bike forum and saw a few threads on making beer or rather that someone made beer.

It got me curious and I started looking for forums on brewing and decided to give it a try and wham.. it's been downhill ever since.

 

[ConorE728]

My fiance got me a kit for Christmas this year after I had talked about wanting to get involved in brewing. Once we moved into our house and got settled I brewed my first batch and English Bitter. Just finished conditioning this week and I was really surprised how well it came out. I'm brewing a clone this week of Great Lakes Burning River APA.

People laughed at me when I told them that I wanted to brew, especially since I constantly talk about it. Now that the first is done and a couple people tried it, I think they're a little surprised, ha ha ha.

 

[MGAZ]

I got a Mr. Beer in mid December last year, made a couple batches with that. Got my tax return mid February and quickly spent $300 on equipment and some ingredients kits. I have done 7 to 10 extract batches. I have some apfelwein in its second month. And I'm getting ready to make the jump to partial mash and all grain very soon.

Just want to thank everyone. If it wasn't for this forum I would be lost.

 

[theguy]

After graduating college I moved to Cleveland for a job. Not knowing anyone in the area my fiance introduced me to one of her friends husband. We hung out quite frequently and got to be good friends. One day (in 2001) he mentioned that he had found this place called “The Brew Kettle” where you could brew your own beer in their store. Being a person that loved drinking beer, this seemed very appealing and I agreed to go. The store was like something out of Willy Wonkas Chocolate factory except they made beer instead of candy. There were huge brewing pots with pump driven pipes to move beer to and from place to place. Needless to say I was very impressed. In addition to all of the cool beer equipment they had a wide assortment of beers to sample. We probably tried 10 different varieties of their beer and agreed that we should make the Dopplebock. We made the beer that day and came back 2 weeks later to bottle. The beer turned out awesome. We even made custom labels and named the beer “Monkey Butt”. I mention the name of the beer because we shared it with our friends and our SWMBO’s. One evening while going out for dinner with our SWMBO’s we ordered some beer. The waitress handed one to my friends wife and she said “Mmmm…This tastes like Monkey Butt”. Not knowing that we had named our beer “Monkey Butt” the waitress asked if there was something wrong with the beer. Realizing that I could make good beer on my own and have a good time doing it is what got me started in this.

 

[bashe]

About 10 years ago I got a MR Beer kit for xmas. I can not remember if it was my parents or my best friend who bought it for me. I do remember my best friend bought me a few cans of extract a few months later. I brewed one batch and it turned out terrible. I went out to seek help on the internet and found a very active forum for homebrewing, don't remember the name, but everyone there acted like Mr Beer was the devil and put down anyone who had questions about their Mr Beer kits. So I did not brew with it again. I kept all the extract cans because I knew one day I wanted to try again. Fast forward two years ago I went to a beer festival here in Birmingham and the local homebrew shop had a booth. I talked with the owner and got interested again. A year later, last summer, I decided I wanted to brew again so I went to the local homebrew shop and purchased a started kit and a wheat beer kit.
Now its been just over a year and I am brewing all grain, have 12 kegs, a three tap keggerator, and I've brewed over 30 batches of beer. And I've done all this out of a two bed room apartment.

 

[BrokenBrew]

After last year's GABF, there was an article in the paper about Homebrewing. I thought it might be fun to try since I like good beer, but really hate paying $8 a six pack for it.

I asked for a beginner's kit for Christmas, SWMBO said okay, go pick it out. I actually made my first batch so it was ready for sampling for Christmas Eve. Everyone seemed to like it (at least no gagging that I could hear).

Next thing you know I've got 4 carboys in the basement, just did my first AG batch, and am so hooked it's silly. Love the beer I make, love the process of making it. Love all the science and geekiness of the hobby. Fits me perfect!

Can't wait to start kegging, doing 10 gallon batches.

 

[VApatriot]

Believe it or not, my entrance into the world of homebrewing was all SWMBO's idea. She is the one who suggested (almost to the point of mandating) that I buy all the necessary equipment and learn how to make beer. A friend of ours brews a lot and has a big x-mas party every year and I think that's where she got the idea from. She has let me spend what ever I felt necessary for my gear which is about $1200 so far. She even likes my very first batch, an Irish Red extract kit, and is claiming that my second batch of Irish Red is "her" beer and I'll need to make more for myself. Yesterday she was telling my she want's me to do my first AG batch next week when we're off for the July 4th shutdown.

 

[rcrabb22]

I Google'd beer brewing on a rainy Saturday in May, 2008, and most of the results were for homebrew shops. Found Palmer's "How to Brew" site and thought, "I can do this!".

Asked for a starter equipment kit for Father's Day and exactly 1 year ago today I brewed an Irish Red extract kit from Nothern Brewer.

I now keg, been doing all grain since October, and am building a HERM's system based on Pol's model.

 

[FatMonsters]

In college, I interned at a place where a lot of the people at work homebrewed. I always thought that sounded awesome and that I wanted to try, though I never pursued it. A couple of years ago I went to a party and was introduced to a guy who homebrewed. I mentioned to my wife, at the time just my girlfriend, that I thought it would be awesome to try. That Christmas she bought me a homebrew kit. I didn't use it, it sat in the basement for about 2 years until I got back from NH where I had gone on some brewery tours and was instantly inspired to give it a go. I've been doing it ever since...

 

[cprincipe]

My girlfriend got me a homebrew kit for Valentine's Day. Ten months and four batches later I proposed......

 

[Nugu]

I refused to drink any alcohol (bad family history) till I was 23 and started sampling the different craft brews on the shelf. Pretty much after trying the small selection and finding several I liked (Red Stripe, Fat Tire, Guinness Extra Stout, etc) I thought about homebrewing to lower costs (ya...) and increase variety.

Went to the LHBS store got a starter kit, came back next paycheck got 2 carboys, and 4-5 batches later I started kegging and shortly after stove-top AG (now if only I knew someone to do a bulk grain buy).


I've picked up a couple Sanke's and cut the tops off, but atm I have them in storage because I don't plan to go >5g batches any time soon. Got too good a deal to pass on.

 

[Marius]

Everything started seven years ago;

Me and a friend at Engineering University thougt about brewing our own beer.

We didn't have internet,
there are no LHBS in the Basque Country (I don't know any in Europe yet),
we didn't know anybody who had done it before...
We didn't know Palmer, Papazian...

WE THOUGHT WE WERE THE ONLY ONES AROUND THE WORLD WHO WERE GOING TO MAKE BEER AT HOME!!!! (quite naive isn't it?)

We started planning how we would grow the barley, the hops, were at university we could isolate a valid yeast strain (undergroud university utilization :cross. We built our own airlock (without haven't seen one before) and got fermenters from an old chemistry factory.

Our ridiculous plan started to seem too unattainable

But two years later (five years ago) I started a job where I had internet access and much time on my own. There I read about Palmer, Airlocks, DME, LME...
I meet my friend and... We just had to find where to buy all those things (this was the hardest part)

Today 14 gallons of Stout are fermenting at home.

Greetings from Basque Country.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Tried Mr. Beer about 6 years ago with poor results, then I saw commercials about the Sam Adams Longshot and dropped the $$ on a starter kit and started doing extract batches. After 3 extract batches it was on to steeping grains+extract, my 12th batch was AG and I haven't looked back since.

 

[SmOfathaigh]

As a sophomore in high school my father got me a starter kit with 3 extract kits for Christmas. I was pumped until he gave almost everything i brewed to his friends at work.

 

[Philsc]

Everything started seven years ago;

We didn't have internet,
there are no LHBS in the Basque Country (I don't know any in Europe yet),
we didn't know anybody who had done it before...
We didn't know Palmer, Papazian...

Superb story. Brewing in adversity.

I thought I had it hard being unable to get Challenger hops and UK malt.

Did you grow and malt your own barley or did you order some from the UK over the internet? All grain or extract?

I heard of a guy whose first batch was from barley that he had malted and kilned himself. That's hardcore.

 

[Edcculus]

We had the idea in college. I always liked craft beer and thought it would be a good way to get it cheaper. My friend ordered the True Brew kit and we started with extract. We moved to all grain using a drilled double bucket lauter tun after about 2 batches. My friends kept brewing, but I really took it to the next level. Last summer I had an extremely boring internship. I spent most of my time on HBT, reading the BYO archives and other brewing literature I could find. I also made it through every Jamil Show episode.

Now I'm graduated but brewing more than in college. I've really begun to dial in my process and am producing some great beer.

 

[pjj2ba]

1986. Loved beer, but was tired of the BMC stuff and drooled over the fancy imported beers, but alas, being a poor graduate student I couldn't afford them. I found a carboy in the attic of the apartment I was living in. Somehow I discovered there was a LHBS in Lansing (in the yellow pages maybe?) and checked it out. Came home with the ingredients was hooked. I brewed a couple batches a year until 4 years ago when I started kegging and then almost immediately afterwards switched to all-grain. Now it is at least 20 batches a year. My friends love it.

 

[BrewBrain]

I have absolutely no idea.

I remember being in a homebrew supply shop about 15 years ago. Why? I have absolutely no idea.