On This Day in 1989...

[corkybstewart]

December 1992.  My wife bought me a kit and supplies from a guy trying to start a homebrew store.  His methods were as good as his ingredients.  Take one can of Coopers malt(prehopped),pour into 2 gallons of water, heat on stove but do not let it boil.  Add 2 pounds of corn sugar, dissolve and let this cool on the stove for 2 hours.  Then add 3 gallons of cold water to the plastic bucket(which I still use today). Stir this well and add the little package of yeast from the malt can.  Ferment a week at room temp, then rack to secondary-he preferred the collapsible water bags for camping.  That was some yummy stuff I'm sure but we drank it and loved it.  2 more batches like this and I moved on to steeped grains, all malt extract, and adding hops.  Believe it or not this made better beer and I was hooked.

[punatic]

1986 IIRC. A generic PA liquid malt recipe that can with "the kit".

..... that I had bought from Alternative Beverages.

  In Charlotte? I have bought a ton of stuff from them over the years. Online and road trip.

Yep, that's the place.  There were no HBSSes in Orlando back then.  I bought a lot of equipment and supplies from them the first few years I brewed.  The UPS driver and I became good friends.  I taught him how to brew.

[brewmonk]

June 2010.  Coopers Stout Kit.  Making it I was the antithesis of RDWHAHB.  But the relief of trying it and being pretty happy that I had brewed my first beer and it I liked it was a great feeling! \o/

And I did it in Italy of all places.  Not bad for a Texas boy!

Now if I can just get into all grain. 

[punatic]

And I did it in Italy of all places.  Not bad for a Texas boy!

Now if I can just get into all grain. 

Andiamo yall!   

[tonyp]

Hi, My name is Tony and I'm a brewing addict...

I started making beer with some friends that had all of the brewing equipment around 1999/2000. I didn't do much, washed bottles, measured ingredients, etc but i was still part of the process and I knew i enjoyed doing it.

We then moved and about 10 yrs later my wife bought me a Mr. Beer as a joke. We followed the kit instructions, it came out pretty terrible but I was hooked again and ordered a full brewing kit from williams...

[denny]

My first was in March of 1998.  415 more since then.

[udubdawg]

sometime in September, 2004.  7-8 batches a year for most of that. 
Then March 19th 2011 I got serious.  Including batch 99 which is chilling right now, 49 batches in that year.  I should stop typing and start drinking!   

cheers--
--Michael

[Pawtucket Patriot]

November 2005; Midwest's Big River Brown Ale kit.  It wasn't half bad, so I decided to brew 131 more batches over the next several years.

[bluesman]

It was in June of 1992. I brewed 5 gal using some of John Bull's English Bitter Extract. I believe it was a Red Star dry yeast packet that I sprinked over the wort. Fermented in my basement at the time. The first batch wasn't too bad but I remember having a few not so good batches back then. I use to pitch around 75F. 

[ckpash88]

I started brewing dec. of 2008 and it was the liberty cream ale kit from Midwest.


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[tom]

Jan. 1, 1990.

My girlfriend got me my first kit for my birthday (so I had to marry her!).

I found the old brewing log.  An amber ale that we bottled on the 5th day  .  We had to check it for carbonation every day.  We were very unimpressed.

Then we found the last 6-pack about a month later and it was goooooooood.  Which started my brewing motto, "brew early and brew often!"

Cheers!

[snowtiger87]

I thought it was "enter early and enter often." 

How is the brewery / man-cave construction coming?

Back to topic. Mine was fall 1989. I brewed an extract ESB kit from Alternative Beverages in Charlotte, NC. It was good enough to get me hooked. I am on my 2nd wife (this one is a keeper), 3rd kid, and 3rd house since then.

[punatic]

Keep yourself safe over there ST87!

[Alewyfe]

1973. 1st trip to England with my Brit hubby. Fell in love with all things Pub and beer. Took home 2 cans of "Boots
Chemists" malt extract...yes, the yeast was attached. Life ensued and after several moves, decided it was time to make that beer..circa 1977. Followed the directions to the "T". Bottled in carefully collected swing top bottles. Voila!
Nothing, nada, no bubbles at all. Decided there just wasn't any viable yeast there, so we dropped a couple of raisins into each bottle (grapes have naturally occurring yeast on the skins don't you know....and raisins have sugar. Brilliant!!! A year later, went to the basement pantry where they had been forgotten about. Every bottle looked like someone had taken a glass cutter and neatly severed off the bottle bottom with the top completely in tact. Never did completely get all the solidified beer off that floor. (Boy, those Grolsch tops sure do seal though!)

Sometime in the 80's, still missing real ale, got serious. Bought a fresh can of extract and yeast from a real home brew store. Once again followed the directions...but augmented with having read a couple of books...the original "Joy" and Dave Line's "Big Book" I was now armed to make real beer. The secret was obviously more extract!

The beer was surprisingly drinkable (I was intrigued) but I needed a real mentor. I managed to find the Minnesota Home Brewers Assoc. and the rest as they say is history. Those wonderfully amusing and witty guys, with all their cobbled together kegs and dairy auction bits and bobs were the most genuine and fun
group of people I've ever been fortunate enough to spend time with. They embraced a noob (a girl even), without being intimidating. They made suggestions that made a huge difference in my next batch, and several of them even "adopted" me, helping me acquire a reasonable assemblage of usable brew gear on the cheap. Lot's of fun years as a member there brewing some really great beers, winning a few ribbons and learning, learning, learning.

Around '94, all the gear got moth balled as we were operating our own businesses. Besides, you could now "buy" a lot of really great beer and my favorite Pale Ale was even made locally.

Moved to rural Oregon in '05, and by '07 was ready to have another go at it. One hippy co-op with some brew supplies and no local club. Thank gawd for internet shopping. Found a handful of people who were meeting basically to drink home made beer in the summer of '08 thru a small ad.  Fast forward...2012. The Umpqua Valley Brewers Guild has hosted it's 1st BJCP sanctioned competition, has 30+ members, some fun activities on the 2012 calendar, a lot of enthusiastic noobs, and a mission to teach and share the greatest hobby on the planet.

Currently, I have beers 3 on tap, one conditioning and two new sight glasses to install. Life is Good!
Thanks to all you guys who have and continue to share so much enthusiasm and knowledge about our beloved brews and brewing. Luv you all.

[tfries]

To the best of my recollection, it was late 1981 with some of my college room mates.  When we graduated and moved our separate ways, I kept the gear and carried on the tradition. Just brewed batch 297 yesterday.