Your 1st Homebrew

uberculture 2017-01-29 06:05:18 UTC #6

August, 5 years ago now. I bought the Northern Brewer starter kit, but instead of Caribou Slobber, swapped in the St. Paul Porter kit. They sent me to the yeast fridge, and I to this day have no idea what yeast I used. Had no clue there were so many, so just grabbed a Wyeast out of one of the boxes. It turned out fine, in spite of myself.

sneezles61 2017-01-29 13:01:42 UTC #7

Winter 2001, I sat in with a friend, to observe the brewing process. Just before Christmas,I got a 2-1/2 gallon pot, and a fermenter. Went to the local brew shop purchased 2 cans of brown extract, Mutons I think, yeast under the cap. I recall buying only 1 oz. hops and home I went to brew. I made a mess of the stove, but I did end up with my first batch of home-brew. I repeated that a few more times before getting into all grain. Sneezles61

hd4mark 2017-01-29 13:43:28 UTC #8

20.5 years ago at the mall, armed with a gift card we got as a wedding gift I spotted a Mr. Beer kit. A die hard PBR drinker but that sounded cool. My wife said sure get it. A decision she may now regret. Followed directions and waited until the PET bottles got hard. It was surprisingly good. After tasting some of my now homebrew, many micros and imports I might not think so.

Talking to one of the guys at work he told me he homebrews and there is a homebrew shop in town. I soon became one of their beast customers. Back then all of their recipes were measured in cups of DME. When I decided to go all grain they had so few AG brewers you had to order a sack of Breiss.

BTW I knew it was 20.5 years because we had our 20th anniversary last summer.

jmck 2017-01-29 13:58:15 UTC #9

November 4, 2012. Lefse Blond extract kit. Turned out to be a great tasting beer, just not a blond. It was a deep rich copper color. We brewed the same kit one year and 19 batches later and it was again good, more true to style, lighter and cleaner. It really showcased how experience and technique improved. Just recently the wife asked that we brew that same extract kit again. 3-years and another 40+ brews later, many of which were all-grain batches too... I've got a lot of pride riding on that extract kit...

brew_cat 2017-01-29 14:04:19 UTC #10

Actually I had forgotten but my wife bought me a beer making kit a long time ago maybe 20 years. It was a bag lined with plastic. After boiling all the ingredients and cooling a bit you poured it in the bag and shook it up the cap had an air lock.It had a loop you could hang it with. It had a spigot on the bottom and after two weeks you drains some yeast off the bottom and put some more sugar in and removed the airlock. When it blew back up you served it from the spigot. Obviously wasn't a memorable beer but I drank it. Eventually it was flat so I didn't finish it. I guess I could have added additional sugar. Anyone remember something like that?

Braque 2017-01-29 14:06:36 UTC #11

On 02/09/16 I brewed my first beer with my wife so here we are a year later and coming up on brew #14. I just decided that I want to try it and did not know anything about it. I researched it and read up on it getting much on the info from this forum. Thanks guys! So I bought one of the starter kits from NB and it came with Caribou Slobber extract kit. Now if I don't have something in a fermenter or two I get anxious. Oh, and the first beer came out awesome. So far I think I've been pretty lucky as all my beers have been pretty good depending on what your taste preference is. I've done a different beer every time except for once when we brewed the Slobber again. Still doing extract but plan on moving to BIAB very soon. Started harvesting my yeast just recently.

frenchie 2017-01-29 20:16:47 UTC #12

Got the 5 gallon deluxe kit for Christmas about 5 years ago. Caribou Slobber. Fermented at room temp. Used the whole 5 oz. of priming sugar. Clueless. Beer turned out good. Friends liked it. Found the forum. Learned how much beer was actually possible. Hooked, then obsessed. I just love a good love story.

Cheers,

Ron

shortshot 2017-01-30 02:20:14 UTC #13

January 14, 2017. I got the small batch kit with caribou slobber. I received it from my wife for Christmas. I just bottled my first EVER brew. Took a taste and the flavor profile is what I was hoping for only flat. I'm already looking to go to 5 gallon batches cause I only got 8 full bottles out of the gallon batch. I've been bitten by the bug as well. I'm building a temperature controlled fermentation chamber from a small dorm style fridge I have. It should help me pass the time til my slobber is ready to enjoy.

gdtechvw 2017-01-30 03:23:42 UTC #14

About 5 years ago I brewed a blond ale, extract with steeping grains. My 3rd batch was fly sparged all grain, then I found out about batch sparging and haven't looked back since. (thanks Denny).

wilcolandzaat 2017-01-30 10:42:18 UTC #15

Me about 2 years. Now about 80 brew further. But the first one before. Adjusting and change of brew method and system. Started out with. A nb brewing kit delux. Everthing what could be wrong went wrong. First. The burner did not create not heat. So 70 min further. Water and lme on the right temp. But. Still not enough heat. Finally went out. Got the burner i use now. All done. Add wort to fermenting bucket. Abv way to high. Now wait time. Beer all fermented. Og. 1.009. Pfff it tasted. Ok. Now really did change my brew system. From extract. To partial mash and. All grain. Beers. Are coming awesome out. Thanks to this forum. And info from other brewers. Still in search of the holy grail brew wise. But must be doing something. Right. Work. Besides brewing at home. Part time at a micro brewery

radagast 2017-01-30 15:25:04 UTC #16

2010 I received an old Mr Beer kit from a buddy who said it was fun but he didn't have time anymore so I thought, that'd be fun so I brought it home. It sat in my basement until January of 2011 when I decided to actually give it a go. I had a basic kit that was at least 2 years old at that point and it turned out barely drinkable but it was my first go which I thought made it awesome so I drank it (looking back, it was utter crap that I should have dumped ). Wife got me a new kit to see if that would make a difference. Brewed it, better than the first kit but still rather blah. Then I went on MrBeer's website and found recipes so I tried a few of them, the first being a Midas Touch clone and the second being a wheat beer. I played around with Mr. Beer for all of 2011 before deciding I was ready to try the real thing and got a deluxe starter kit from our hosts for Extract in January of 2012. The first kit I brewed was Caribou Slobber and with one sip, I was hooked. Third kit was when I got kicked out of the kitchen after I had a massive boilover on the wife's stovetop. Brewed extract through 2014 before I swapped to AG batch sparge.

Mr Beer for me was a gateway drug to the pursuit of brewing good beer and one of the best gifts from a friend I've ever gotten.

Rad

voltron 2017-01-30 16:15:28 UTC #17

September, 2008 - Brewed NB's Super Alt kit.

uncdeo 2017-01-30 17:20:16 UTC #18

1g plinian legacy....turned surprisingly good.....just flat.

voodoo_donut 2017-01-30 17:41:26 UTC #19

Dec 2013-5g NB Caribou Slobber, fermented WARM, eventually aged out pretty good..... very forgiving kit!

brewdvm 2017-01-30 22:22:09 UTC #20

March, 2013. LHBS kit purchased by my wife for me for Christmas. Came with Charlie Papazian's book, so I spent some time reading it first before my first attempt. Still made all sorts of mistakes. Partial boil extract Cooper's IPA. Used too small of a pot and boiled over. What a mess! Scorched it because it came out as black as a stout. Fermented it for only one week before bottling in 22oz bottles. Huge amount of sediment in the bottles. Used bleach to sterilize bottles. Still, it was pretty darn good for a first attempt. Good enough to get hooked on the obsession. Switched to all grain in November, 2014. The science of brewing just got me more and more hooked on this obsession. The engineering is fascinating to me too. Switched to electric brewing summer of 2015. Just bottled my 27th batch and continuing to learn and tweak my equipment and recipes.

sneezles61 2017-01-31 01:10:35 UTC #21

This is a good topic! As best I can tell, the first any of us rode a bike, we fell down.... got back up and kept going! Fascinating Jim! Sneezles61

frenchie 2017-01-31 13:01:34 UTC #22

Actually, my first BIAB was more comical. Got so excited I forgot the bag!

Cheers,

Ron

uberculture 2017-01-31 13:16:48 UTC #23

You didn't practice safe mashing... living on the edge.

frenchie 2017-01-31 13:38:32 UTC #24

Haha You're right. I didn't get an infection, though. Probably should have thrown an antibiotic in the bottling bucket!

Cheers,

Ron

jimrmaine 2017-02-02 03:45:59 UTC #25

Oh God, I forgot about that. My wife got me one of those bag things, probably about 20 years ago. I do remember it was a 'Canadian Ale'. I probably did everything wrong, and do remember the instructions were crap. The results: Slug beer. Undrinkable, but it served a valuable function in the garden.