Dreadpiratewestleys thread about his 1st beer got me thinking about my 1st. How many of you/us can remember your 1st?
I’ll start:
Christmas gift 2011 of a basic kit and a ‘Truebrew’ extract Oktoberfest kit (should be mocktoberfest because it came with Munton’s ale yeast). Brewed it on 12/26, based solely on the directions that came with the kit. Had no idea how long it would take and told my wife probably 45-60 minutes. She was waiting on me to go to the kid’s house. 3 hours later… The 1st, and not the last time she has regretted getting me that kit! 
Fermented it for 4 days then bottled (yes that was the directions). Turned out surprisingly good, despite all my mistakes, including using bleach as a sanitizer.
AND, started me on this obsession…
True story:
1 year, 1 month, and 4 days ago I got a pale ale recipe kit from my sister and soon to be brother N law. I think the motivating part for me was the moment I spit out my first batch. I KNEW that if I could drink Coors Light… I was smart enough to make beer that I could drink as well! Not to get into the “Obsession” mushy stuff, but it’s been a blast making beer since then. I’ve had a few of my batches go right down the sink, but it’s the ones that taste killer that motivate me to make another.
Somewhere between 1987 and 1990 I stopped in the only homebrew shop in Northwest Florida and bought an Irish red ale “kit” (a can of malt extract with a pack of dry yeast taped to the top under a thick film of dust.
I took it home and followed the directions. after two or three weeks - much longer than the prescribed fermentation period - I transferred (poured) the beer into a secondary. Since I had not seen the foam I’d been told would appear on top of the beer, I went back to the shop.
the proprietor assured me all was working perfectly, but that because I had not transferred the beer on time I would need to add yeast so the beer would carbonate. Re-yeasted the beer and bottled. A couple of weeks later I heard a dull, distant explosion; no problem, we live hear a large Air Force munitions testing base. We hear such things all the time. A week or so after that, I noticed beer running out under the pantry door. Yep, the original pack of yeast was dead; probably had been dead for five years, but the second pack worked like a charm!
Obviously I needed to get the pressure down. I moved all the bottles to the kitchen sink and poured ice on top. No doubt the ice was cooling the bottles and therefore lowering the pressure. Unfortunately, the ice was not cooling the bottles evenly; the uneven cooling stressed one bottle enough that it exploded, sending a shard of glass into the back of my arm.
A quick trip to the ER and two sutures later, I opened the surviving bottles and poured the beer back into the fermenter. When I bottled the batch a second time everything worked beautifully and the beer was … not as bad as you might expect.
About four years ago brewed a caribu Slobber 5gallon extract. Not sure the problem but it came out ok. I ended up with to much volume so i added DME to the fermenter . I bottled it but I think I used to much priming sugar and they were to carbonated. Drank them pretty quickly so nothing blew up. A week later brewed my first all grain from a recipe I tweaked that I got on line. Used some store bought and some hops that were growing in my yard came out much better.
Our first may have been a red ale. Late 80s’ was a long time ago. I do remember fastening a wood dowel to the end of the siphon tube and a piece of copper wire to hold the tube out of the trub. My Dad filled bottles with the siphon and I capped. Our fermentation room was the root cellar part of the basement.
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.
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
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.
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…
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?
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.
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
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.
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).
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
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
September, 2008 - Brewed NB’s Super Alt kit.
1g plinian legacy…turned surprisingly good…just flat.
Dec 2013-5g NB Caribou Slobber, fermented WARM, eventually aged out pretty good… very forgiving kit!
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.
