The "official" what/how YOU started thread

[cd2448]

I don't remember the thought process but suddenly I had a kit and made my first batch of extract beer. Luckily, I started the second batch before the first was ready...

I messed up the transfer to secondary and the first batch tasted awful, but my second was already on the go so I stuck with it. Also I met some people at Bobby_M's brew day and Ollllo clued me in on what I did wrong. So I stuck with - no disasters since, except wasting money on equipment, when I should have gone AG and kegging from the very start!

 

[spartanchip]

had recently moved home from college to work and was living with my parents, i don't remember why but i was looking up things about beer. I believe i was looking up different styles of beer and getting exact answers about the differences between them. Then i stumbled upon an article from homebrewtalk.com. I started reading the beginning brewers section. I was amazed at the number of people that also loved beer and were making it in their homes. I stayed up most of the night researching brewing and looking at peoples brew setups and fermentors full of beautiful beer.

Later that week i went and picked up How to Brew by John Palmer.

read a lot of that. Started discussing my new found obsession with my girlfriend who promply bought me my first brew kit for a light german ale for valentines day (definitely the best vday present i have ever had) i finished gathering up all the equipment i needed to do my first batch and then finally brewed for the first time on March 1st. Since then i have brewed 5 more batches of various beers and also started a bach of Apfelwein!

god i love this hobby

will be moving to AG very soon, just gathering up the materials to get it going

BREW ON!

 

[jcobbs]

Decided a while back to try home winemaking just on a lark. I make a batch of red with Welch's concentrate and yeast in a gallon of bottled water and liked it. Never drank beer till I tried a microbrew in Colorado and decided it was pretty good. I don't have the setup to go all out with beer, but I was interested in trying something. So while at the LHBS getting wine yeast I picked up a pound of Munton's Extra Dark DME and a packet of yeast. I put the DME, yeast, and a half-cup of sugar in a gallon of bottled water, shook some oxygen into it, and stuck on an airlock. A week later I put a half-teaspoon of sugar in some 12 oz PET bottles (recycled Dr. Pepper bottles) and filled them with the brew. When they got rock hard I put them in the fridge, waited a few days, and tried one. Wow...that's all I can say! It wasn't boiled; it doesn't have hops, so I don't know if any of you would call it beer, but it sure tastes good! Very smooth, nicely carbonated, and a pretty head. Think I'll call it "Ignorance In A Bottle," since I pretty much broke every "rule" of brewing in making it. One of these days I'll get around to doing it the right way, but till then I'm having fun and I think I'll make another batch just like it.

 

[michael.berta]

I started out on Mr Beer and now I do 10 gallon all grain batches with a 4 tap kegerator in the living room.

 

[shipfaced]

Won a single stage fermentation vessel and a canned kit at a home show 25-30 years back. First batch was excellent but second not so much. Needed to learn about sanitizing.
Went to grain kits with all the boiling time and what-not .... decided I'm not really into the mad scientist side of this, back to canned kits.

 

[Philsc]

decided I'm not really into the mad scientist side of this, back to canned kits.

Wow! never heard of anyone going from all grain back to kits. That's really an endorsement of the quality of kits. I read on here about a guy who won a best in show with his all extract beer.

I've only ever done all grain because I didn't really know what kits were until I was well underway with preparations with batch #1, but I am intrigued by the ease and simplicity of kits and extract. However, the mad scientist aspect of brewing really appeals, too. i suppose you don't need to do all grain to get a stirplate, erlenmeyer flasks and petri dishes for yeast cultures.

 

[SchizoFilly]

Sometime late 2004 early 2005, a buddy got a Mr Beer kit. We drank it and thought it wasn't bad, but knew there had to be something better. There was and still is.....I just haven't tried them all yet

 

[stoneman]

About 15 years back, my brother and I went to a U-Brew and made a batch of a BMC clone, it tasted horrible but was fine for the time.
My taste buds have developed furthur over the years and I started to enjoy the microbrew far more, but I never had the time, or thought I would have the abilty to brew at home.
Last year, I was flipping through a magazine order form (kids' school fundraiser) and saw a listing for BYO (Brew your Own). I mentioned to my wife I thought that might be interesting to learn how to make my own beer. I ordered the mag, and started looking on-line. I mentioned it to my brother, and he was thinking the same as me but said the magic word keg.

Next thing I knew I was finding kegerator parts, brewing kits, corneys, freezer to convert, and hops to grow.

Now I have 4 five gallon extract with grain batches under my belt, a 5 gallon hard lemonade made, a functioning keezer, a 15 gallon pot and a 48 quart cooler mlt conversion underway (to upgrade to 10 gallon all grain batches), and 7 hop bines planted in the back yard.

Thanks for everything guys!

 

[MeatyPortion]

My company commander is a big homebrewer and encouraged me to pursue it. Plus I drink a lot and six pack prices are rising.

 

[Marius]

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.

Actually we heard about a place where they grow hops for Pharmaceutical industry 400 km for the Basque Country, we drove there and just "borrowed" some kilos (we didn't even know how they looked like, so we didn't know exactly what to "borrow"). The Malt Extract came from Germany (via ex-girlfriend) and the Yeast finally was "donated" by university:cross:

One year ago we found a couple of on-line stores in Spain, so those adversity days are over, but anyway, they are nothing compared to the ones in US.

Today we still brew Extract batches due to the lack of space at home, but someday I would like to try All-Grain but those thoughts of growing malt have definitely faded.

The guy you talk about who malted and kilned his first batch... Here we call him God.

 

[MisterGreen]

I have several friends who brew. I resisted the urge for years because I knew I would get addicted; as if I need another hobby. So, I started reading How To Brew and slowly picked up equipment here and there. My first beer was a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale clone. Turned out pretty good; slightly overprimed, but tastes great.

 

[MIbrew]

In the late 90's I was still in high school and I would help my dad brew his own beer. It was a way to drink with my folks, so I was all about it. The problem was that it seemed I was never around for the drinking. The first batch exploded the bottles, the second was ready as I was moving to college, the third was when I visited my swmbo's family for the first time. I always thought to myself, I could do this and my beers could even better than his.

Everything went to the back burner for awhile as I pursued college, more college, auto industry work (they'll eat your soul!), and then marriage. At the behest of the same swmbo, I started brewing about a year ago and refuse to look back. She's my biggest enabler but doesn't like hoppy beers. Permission to buy stuff AND all the beer I want? Yes please.

 

[pava]

Like most my love of beer started with a Coor's Light, progressed (barely) to Red Dog, and then one day went out for brews to an english pub and knew right away that they weren't serving anything yellow and fizzy. Being from PA, the guy next to me suggested a Lager (not the style. . .a Yuengling. . .it's a PA thing). Anyway, I was in love and spent the next few years drinking only Lager. I finally graduated onto some darker beers (ie. Guiness, Murphy's, etc) and some imports like Heineken and Corona. I mention this history because almost from day one I had this desire to brew my own beer, however, I kept coming back to the same feeling that I just didn't think I could create a Yuengling Lager any better than they could for any less $$$.

Fast forward about 12 years, a couple of jobs, a couple of states, a couple of houses later and I find myself back in the same town I grew up in and about a mile from a small local brewery called Stoudt's. One night my father in law shows up with a sixer of theirs and a 750ml corked Scotch Ale. We proceeded to split the Scotch Ale and it was outstanding. We worked our way through the 6 pack and were both buzzing by the end (keep in mind that all of them were in the 8, 9, 10 % range). By the end I was in Malt and Hops heaven, I was buzzing on fantastic beer, and I was bound and determined that I was going to make my own beer.

I spent the next 6-8 months reading everything I could get my hands on including reading through each section on HBT everyday. I started gathering my supplies last spring and decided to launch full steam ahead into AG. I have been brewing for just over a year and have made 100gallons of beer ranging from a Wit to an IPA to a BarleyWine to a Belgian Strong Ale. I am loving the entire process from beginning to end and of course love the fruits of my labor.

Oh and as a continuing thank you gift to my father in law for bringing over that fateful 6-pak. . .he gets at least a sixer of everything I brew to enjoy on his own and of course there is always cold beer in the fridge whenever he (or anyone else for that matter) stops by.

 

[fishnfever]

For me it all started as a joke with Mr.Beer. My wife and her grandparents got me a Mr.Beer kit two years ago for x-mas. We had seen Mr.Beer on T.V. and I looked and said "no frigging way am I going to make beer". She still went a head and bought it and thought it would be used once or twice if it was lucky. Well after the first batch I quickly seen my self fallen for this hobby,madness. I quickly started my second batch and half way three threw that I found HBT and and the next week found a local hbs and the madness hasn't stopped since lol.

 

[amercuric]

The Man, otherwise known as Mr. Alton Brown. I knew a good thing when I saw it, so I've been AG since after my first batch. I even roasted my own grains since that's how the Irish do it. I figured I'd pay homage to my ancestery. .

 

[Mutilated1]

When I was a kid my uncle brewed his own beer for a while, and I always thought that was pretty neat. And so I wanted to brew my own beer when I got old enough to start sneaking beers out the fridge from time to time. But I never brewed anything till I got in my late 30s, and then one night I was chatting with some metalheads in Cannibal Corpse chat and someone said their Dad was making beer, and we started talking about beer and beer making. I ended up googling about how to make beer, and found the site makebeer.net - it looked pretty cool, so I ordered the Cooper's Microbrewery kit. But then I couldn't wait for it to arive, so I went to the LHBS the next day and came home with brew buckets, and ingredients, and bottles, the whole 9 yards. So I made a couple extract kits, the first couple was great - the next couple were not so great and so I got to wondering why and what went wrong, and that sort of started me on a quest to learn as much as possible about brewing, and that eventually led to All Grain and Kegging.

 

[mstev50]

My son came up to me and said, "we should try making beer". I'd thought about years ago but heard stories of bottle bombs, bad batches and their ilk, (that's for you LGI!). Thought it was too much of a hassle.
But then I found this site and decided I'd give it a shot. Very glad I did!

 

[hopsoda]

At a very young age A friend and I decided to make wine. There was a grape vine in his driveway, there were OK ,full of seeds. So we picked a bunch smashed them and put the juice and some sugar into a 40 bottle put the lid on it and put it in the garage, a few weeks later , we remembered to check it but all we found was shattered glass and a lid?

Later in life tried experimenting with sugar and bakers yeast with different yeast nutrients you could find in the kitchen that I had read about online ... tasted like crap but lots of alc... bleh

Later again, I found a Mr Beer kit at the store on sale for 15 bucks. made it, it turned out ok , so i got a refill kit ... made them they were better.

Started drinking every kind of new or imported beer i could find but the cost was killing me.

Wanted a cheaper way to make good beer so started reading and gearing up to make beer from scratch , going all grain is the best decision if your thinking about doing it ... do it.

 

[sunblock]

started for me back in the late 90's. I have been brewing on/off again ever since then and have recently had a friend help me to get back into it. Now that I am addicted to IPA again I can never drink that watery domestic crap anymore. My 1st batch was an imperial stout that came out great as it is pretty hard to screw up. Now I am up to all grain and have 5 kegs in my fridge. going to be trying a newcastle clone next. Life is good when you have good, inexpensive beer

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Back in the early 90's I would read the alt brewing newsgroup and wonder if I could do that. Then I was in Augusta GA and I saw "U-brew-it" homebrew store across the street. After one illegal u-turn I was hooked. Turns out the owner of the store lived in the same complex as I did so I had no excuses not to brew.

 

[greencoat]

I started because I love beer, and have a pipe dream to open a brewpub here in Dayton. Another driving factor is the band I've been in for 6 years is on the cusp of breaking up and I need something else to waste my time and money on.

 

[jrfuda]

1st post!

I Just started with Mr. Beer 8 days ago. My first batch is still fermenting and I already got upgradeitus and am seeking appropriate treatment, which involves the outflow of cash.

First thing I did was get a Ranco ETC. My South Texas house is very warm (76F-80+) when nobody's home, so I was keeping the fermenter in a Coleman thermoelectric cooler that had a thermocouple rigged to it so I could monitor temperature. This required me to manually plug/unplug the cooler to keep the temp in range. I got tired of this quickly and now have the ETC in place to do it for me.

Then I found a 6 gallon ported better bottle on Amazon for $17 with free shipping (We have Amazon Prime). Now, a ported better bottle is useless unless you have a spigot and such, and if you're going to shell out the money for that, you might as well get everything else too, so I've got the O-ring enclosure and dry tap ordered as well, as well as a hydrometer, thermometer, some 1/2" ID line and everything else that I would have gotten in a "kit," though, I got to pick and choose items and omitted items I already had in the house.

After I ordered that I realized I'd need a wort chiller (though I was intrigued by the "no-chill" method), but at first decided to postpone that, that is until I found the 50' chiller at BrewsterBrown for $29.

So, now I've gotten pretty much everything I need on the way, and I have plans to build a simple cardboard/foam fermentation chamber, using my Ranco ETC and scavenging the guts from one of the thermoelectric coolers I've seen locally on Craigslist (going for about $20 compared to $70-$120 new), or taking the removable lid off of my existing cooler, standing it vertically and propping it up to the cardboard/foam chamber.

I'm one of those folks that often enjoys the process as much or more than the product, I'm a BIG DIY'er, and beer brewing seemed to be just another thing I can enjoy! I read a good bit (online and then purchased the printed 3rd edition) of “How to Brew” before I started all this. I really like the science side of the process, and I think it is one of the big attracters.

I'll probably go ahead and use the second kit that came with my Mr. Beer in the 2 gallon fermenter while I tweak/build my setup, so I'll have a total of 2-2 gallon batches done when I go for my first 5 gallon (all extract - already have my eyes on some kits - since I probably won’t have the time to commit to an all grain setup (I have 2 & 4 year old boys who keep me busy).

 

[Hamaki]

Hope resurrecting an old thread is not a foul, but...

I'd thought half heartedly from time to time about brewing since college, a few decades back. A year or so ago my youngest son & I got serious and looked up info on the net. We decided it was doable. First few batches we malted our own livestock feed barley, using a food dehydrator after sprouting. Guy at LHBS gave us kind of a funny look when we went in to pick up hops & yeast and mentioned doing this but gave good advice anyway. We later built a drying cabinet out of a huge plywood crate, a small electric heater and window screen stretched on removable frames.

Our first, an APA, was...okay. Second batch, a pale lager, was not good but was drinkable. Now, 15 or so batches later, we seem to improve a little every time. I'm no connoisseur but we're now to the point that I like our brew as much or more than anything I can buy.

We've done one extract batch, an Irish Red Ale, probably around the fifth batch we made, and were not really impressed with the results. Everything else has been AG. We've gone from 65 - 75% efficiency in the days of making our own malt and grinding in a blender (with no clue what it would be till the end of the brew) to a consistent 80 - 82% with a better understanding of the process. We use LHBS malt now, since the three straight episodes with mold during sprouting our own.

We still have a DIY slant (have a couple dozen hop vines growing and hoping for a better harvest next year) and will probably try other ideas that may or may not pan out. It's kind of an adventure, though, isn't it?

 

[Hackwood]

I had been thinking about HBing for the past 12+ years and just never did it. Went to service a customer's RO and he went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on..... with information etc etc. A couple of months later I actually take the first step and buy a basic 5 gallon setup and a Brewer's Best kit and give it a go. 10-12 batches in I jump into AG and haven't looked back since.

I had been wanting to run into my customer ever since I finally got into HB and recently I got the service ticket that his equipment needed to be serviced. I FINALLY show up at his door eagerly awaiting his happy smile and great conversation. only to be greeted by his wife.?!.?! Ends up, he past away 6 months ago due to liver failure. I was broken. I chatted with his widow and we talked about the good of and from him and she was excited that HE finally pushed me into HB. She even, pretty much, made me take ALL of his HB equipment as she didn't know what she would ever do with it.

Yeah, I know. Not the happiest thing ever, but it's how and why I got into HB and many beers will be made in his honor by me. His recipes.

 

[jnr1005]

Got big into craft brews a year ago...and recently my buddy and I were dropping over $100 on beer every other weekend (damn bombers and those little 4 packs are expensive!) So when I found out the neighbor brewed I started talking to him a bit. He invited me over to watch the process and sample some beers. They were amazing and equally as good as many beers we paid $10 + for in the stores. Next weekend buddy and I decided to start brewing. We are 4 batches in AG and no looking back!

 

[PistolaPete]

Sometime in the mid 90's I had tasted my brother in law's homebrew and instantly knew it was better than the bud or whatever crappy beer I could get someone to buy me (I was only about 15-16 at the time). Around 2003 I brewed my first 5 gal extract batch with his help and the Joy Of Homebrewing book he bought me.

 

[finsfan]

I was looking for beer things (signs, posters etc) to put in my basement last April and came across a mr beer fermenter on CL. I ended up buying it, not knowing anything about it, and started doing research. I knew I didnt wanna do any more Mr beer batches even before the first one was done, and found a friend who was getting rid of 5 gallon equipment. I ordered some extract batches and loved it. Just moved to AG last month and am about to do my first 5 gal AG hopefully this weekend. Ive done three 2 gal AG IPA's but finally got my keggle and mash tun ready. Cant wait to further my brewing knowledge. Let the thread live!

 

[GrogNerd]

US Navy, mid '93, I read this article in Details magazine while on Med deployment

brewed for 2 years before moving to a smaller place and never had room for my equipment until the BigHair and I bought our present house.

updated my equipment and my knowledge, found a LHBS, bought ingredients and 1 year ago this coming Sunday, brewed my first batch in 17 years.

boy, did it suck.

I've gotten better over the past year, batch #11, most recent one that is ready to drink, is not exactly what I was trying to brew, but it's a very good beer and much better than batch #1.

still waiting on #12. first co-brew, first lager (this time around), first pilsner. it's finishing up a diacetyl rest and hopefully my co-brewer is turning down the temp for lagering.

 

[PDX_T]

Ha! Good thread. I think this is one of a few.

It was June of 2008, according to my brew log, and my neighbor and good friend invited me over for a brewing session, said he and his buddy used to do it all the time when they lived in Australia.

"You can do that at home?" I said. "Oh, yeah," I remembered, "I had a professor in college who used to make beer and wine, never really thought much about it though. I figured it was kind of expensive."

He looked me dead in the eye and said, "Wait, you have a biochemistry degree and you mean to tell me you've never brewed beer? Dude, you do it in a 5 gallon bucket."

So of course I had to try it. And immediately change all of our sanitation practices. And apologize to his wife for boiling malt extract all over the stove.

5 years later, I work in a brewery, drink awesome beer every day, and complain to my wife that I can only brew once a month. What a great "hobby", eh?

 

[Loftearmen]

My grandfather was from Denmark. After he passed, I found a recipe for a danish style mead folded up in one of his journals. All of the measurements were in fist fulls so I figured it was pretty old. I made a few batches of it although I knew nothing about homebrewing. The recipe relied on natural yeasts so it wasn't very tasty and it tasted different every time I brewed it. i didn't brew again for 10 years. Then my wife asked me to brew some cider after I told her about the mead. I've been putting a batch in primary every 2-3 weeks since then.