Who got you brewing?

My girlfriend told me I had to find a hobby since college football was about to be over and I was annoying her. We got the northern brewer starter kit in January of this year. Six batches in, I decided I wanted to go all grain. This weekend will be my 21st batch, and will be hitting my year anniversary in mid January. Within my first year, I went from extract to all grain and mill my own grains, two carboys to six, no temperature control to a chest freezer with a johnson controller, and only bottling to a three tap kegerator. And I get more and more pumped every time I start up a brew day. I love this hobby. And don’t plan to slow down any time soon.

Hope the next 20 are as much fun as first 20 were. Honey brown, rye pale ale, blood orange hef, belgium tripple, summer hop ipa, apricot wheat, two hearted clone, coconut brown, irish red, american pale ale, pumpkin ale,oktoberfest, cream ale, amber ale, chinook ipa, pale wheat ale, 11.11.11 ipa, razorback red, american brown, carolina chinook common.

oh, and now I am annoying my girlfriend even more with my brewing hobby. It’s really all her fault.

I have to thank all of you for my brewing interests. I found NB’s site and forum and began reading. The same week I bought a starter kit and recipe and the rest of that is history. The learning and enjoyment of the process is something I see me doing for a very long time. :cheers:

It was back in '99 or so. My girlfriend and I went out one night to a place in Ft Worth called The Flying Saucer. I had been to the Saucer a few times before but I was a Bud Light guy and never really knew what other beers were out there. I had never really tried anything other than the mass produced light beers. That night the waitress talked me into joining the “UFO Club” which allows you to get a plate on the wall once you try all of the beers in their menu. So I started off with a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout because it sounded interesting…and never looked back. I had no idea that beer could be so tasty. It opened my eyes to lots of options and new things to try. Not sure how it came up that night but somehow I ended up on NB’s website looking at homebrew supplies and kits. Shortly after that I ordered the NB deluxe starter kit and made my first batch. I found the local homebrew club (North Texas Homebrewers) a few months later.

I took a few years off in between my move from the Dallas area to Houston but have immersed myself in the hobby again in the last year or so. I currently have 2 batches ready for secondary and another 2 on deck waiting to brew once I clear those yeast cakes. :slight_smile:

Sorry to tell you man but this is not a good sign…

Sorry to tell you man but this is not a good sign…[/quote]

haha. I annoy her daily. She is totally used to it.

Until about 3 years ago, I drank Coors Light. Only drank on weekends when hanging with buddies. Somehow I managed to try a Dog Fish Head 60 minute and loved it. From there I tried a lot of their beers out of curiosity but primarily drank 60 minute. About 18 months ago I had a friend come to town and he brought along a 6 pack of “Blue Moon” clone that he and his son had brewed. I don’t even remember if I tried it but somehow we talked a lot about home brewing. There there was the 5 or 6 part series about the Dog Fish Head brewing process and various beer. I found that fascinating. I somehow got the bug and ordered a starter kit and two recipe kits from Midwest because I did not know this place existed. I brewed my first batch last Superbowl Sunday.

In mid March, with a few batches under my belt, I got together again with my buddy along with 2 or 3 other guys who brewed, a couple had been doing it for years. Being new and excited about it, I had a million questions and they had a million answers. One of the guys was scaling way back and was looking to unload all of his kegging gear. He gave me a fantastic price for tons of stuff, including about 15 kegs, 3 co2 tanks, regulators, temp controllers and and and. It has been totally down hill from there.

My fool wife got me a Mr.Beer kit on 05. she regrets that decision for sure. Found this place along with reading pages by Denny, Muller, Sean, and BrainOil…I now brew on a 25 gallon set-up with HERMS, but I never use the HERMS. Going to start using it now, not sure how it will improve my beers. Just bought all the components for a 5 tap keezer.

2010 was very eye opening year for my friend and I. Every other weekend we were grabbing a different craft beer to try. Always sharing and sampling what the other had gotten. Then one night we just decided to try making our own. So beginning of January this year we went in on a starter kit and have been doing extract batches for the last year. Upgrading one piece of hardware or procedure every batch. We haven’t had a failure yet. Getting ready to try partial mashing now and continue this journey!

A buddy of mine who had brewed a few extract batches years ago agreed to show me the ropes. Now, two and a half years, a jump to all-grain, and about $1000 in equipment later, I’m addicted.

He later told me that he knew I would get into it and that he’d reap the benefits of all of the surplus homebrew. Smart man.

A guy at work who once lived in Wisconsin turned me on to NB’s website and told me I could order a free mag. I did and when it arrived in the mail, the lady and I perused it with delight. Within a week we were ordering a starter kit. After Batch #1 and #2, we were ordering additional carboys. Then we wanted to lager so we got a controller for a not-in-use freezer. We started in March of this year and plan to start AG at the beginning of 2012. Until my work friend told me about NB, I hadn’t a clue about homebrewing and in fact, thought it was illegal. Now we’re over twenty-five batches and there is no sign of slowing. Kegging will be the next step and ultimately…brewpub??? I know, it’s too early to be thinking about that…

Cheers to all my homebrewing friends!
:cheers:

[quote=“mvsawyer”]A guy at work who once lived in Wisconsin turned me on to NB’s website and told me I could order a free mag. I did and when it arrived in the mail, the lady and I perused it with delight. Within a week we were ordering a starter kit. After Batch #1 and #2, we were ordering additional carboys. Then we wanted to lager so we got a controller for a not-in-use freezer. We started in March of this year and plan to start AG at the beginning of 2012. Until my work friend told me about NB, I hadn’t a clue about homebrewing and in fact, thought it was illegal. Now we’re over twenty-five batches and there is no sign of slowing. Kegging will be the next step and ultimately…brewpub??? I know, it’s too early to be thinking about that…

Cheers to all my homebrewing friends!
:cheers: [/quote]

Come on man, catch up! We started at about the same time and I have been kegging for months and just did my first all grain batch.

You are behind! :cheers:

Point me in a direction where I can keg for less than $100 and I’m all over that! I can buy/make a MLT for about $30 and I have slowly (over 6 months) acquired the rest of the equipment for AG. Kegging will probably come at tax time like the starter kit did. :smiley:

OK,

Assuming you can find a used corney keg for about $40

$21.99 http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/soda … arger.html

$11.99 http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fauc … rsion.html

$10.50 http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/16-g … -of-6.html

You would have to naturally carbonate your kegs like you currently do with bottles, but this gets you in the game for under $100.

It is not at all practical to use the small Co2 cartridges long term, but once you had this going, you would quickly find a way to get a c02 tank and regulator,…and another tank…and a kegerator…and… oops sorry

I guess I never really thought about it much but then had a friend who got into it because his dad had done it a bit. We first started out about four or five years ago with the cheapest starter kit money could buy and mostly just brewed really cheap kits so we could get the most bang for our buck. This of course while non of us had real jobs or much money. Now we are kegging all grain bathes, growing our own hops and making some of our own recipes. How things have changed…

A former co-worker encouraged me to take a class at the local BOP in 2005 over the summer. I enrolled my Dad as a Father’s Day present and we took it together. The BOP is expensive, so I started the never-ending process of accruing my own gear.

Which ended up being even more expensive, right? :mrgreen:

Last Christmas my daughter and son in law gave me a Mr. Beer kit…because I’m truly and have always been a beer lover…that kept me entertained for about 2 months before I switched to 5 gallon extract…and man, I’ve made a lot of batches in one year…my poor liver!!!

My first year teaching (2003), I decided to brew root beer with my 7th grade science class for a fun side note on fermentation (the main focus is on cellular respiration and photosynthesis). I ordered a kit from Williams, which came with a catalog. Suddenly I realized that it was possible to make real beer too, and I remembered that my buddy’s dad Curt brewed beer.

So I got a hold of him and he agreed to brew an extract batch with me. It was an Irish Red ale from CJOHB, to which we added some honey just for kicks. He sent me on my way with his copy of CJOHB, which I devoured. We got together to bottle a couple weeks later, and he gave me a few bottles along with basically an entire starter kit of gear! I brewed my first solo batch the next weekend and have never looked back. These days, Curt owns a restaurant supply store, where I occasionally teach brewing classes.

I switched to AG after the first couple years, which was a huge improvement. Another NB board member, twoodward, stepped up as my kegging fairy (that’s supposed to be a compliment!) and sent me a free 2-keg setup with a regulator and everything. That guy is my hero!

This summer I finally built a 4-tap kegerator and just yesterday filled 2 kegs to get it fully operational. It’s been a long rewarding journey and I’m really looking forward to brewing with my 2 sons in the future. For now, I enjoy growing my own hops, sharing beer with friends and coworkers, and teaching others to brew.

Great thread idea - I am so thankful to everyone who has helped me along the way! I am happy to be part of the homebrewing community.

:cheers:

My dad had brewed quite a few batches when I was growing up but I was never really interested in it. In college I started drinking primarily craft beers and imports as I really didn’t care for the light American lagers that everyone else was drinking. By then (2005) my dad had stopped brewing, but had recently taught a friend to brew. It wasn’t long before he was bringing by stouts and pale ales and it really sparked my interest. My dad still had all of his all-grain and kegging equipment so it was pretty easy for me to just jump into it. I purchased a copy of the joy of home brewing and soon bought an extract kit from the local liquor store. I brewed up the kit and bottled it, all my friends loved it and I was hooked. I did maybe one more extract batch and then moved right into all-grain. I’m still using my dad’s equipment although I’ve made quite a few modifications and upgrades to them.

Which ended up being even more expensive, right? :mrgreen: [/quote]

Well, the NB basic starter kit and one ingredient kit is the same cost as a 5 gallon extract session at the BOP, so that’s a wash. As for all the other gear, technically, I just have to brew more to cover the cost, right? :smiley:

Besides, I’m married and the first rule of married homebrewing is we don’t talk about how much equipment costs. We just spread very small amounts out over many, many years.