How long have you been brewing?

[WOP31]

I started brewing in 2002 out in Washington state. I was stationed out there in the Navy, and that is where I learned to love craft brew. A friend and I were walking through a little town north of where I was stationed (Anacortes) and we walked by a HBS, so i told her I wanted to go in there and she was like " what for you don't know how to make beer?" I said "I bet that guy in there does."

So we hopped on in and the nice guy introduced him self as Larry, I told him I love drinking beer, but knew absolutely nothing about how it was made. He looked at me and said, "we all had to start some where!"

I walked out the store with a complete set-up: 6&5 gallon carboy, bottling bucket.......and all the little things, for $100. All I needed to get was a boil kettle. Unfortunately his set-ups came with a prehopped extract kit. But i went forth and brewed anyway (not that i new any better). I brewed that one up and was back in the store as soon as i transfered to the secondary for another batch. I moved up pretty quickly through the ranks of extract but didn't graduate to AG until early 07. I started Kegging after about three batches of bottling though, couldn't stand it.

Stopped for a bit in 04 when i moved to Indiana, but got back in the grove pretty quick after I found a LHBS, it sucks but it works for now. I pretty much only get last minute things there anyway.

[ohiobrewtus]

I didn't start until March of '07.

I tried Mr. Beer about 8 years ago and it sucked. As far as I knew that was the only way to make your own beer.

Fast forward to the Sam Adams longshot commercials and I purchased an equipment kit from Beer & Wine hobby. It was all over from there.

[Ó Flannagáin]

My first exposure to homebrew put me off for a few years. I was at a party my freshmen year in college and these dudes had two kegs of homebrew and it was terrible. Just disgusting. I figured that's how all homebrew was until a friend let me taste his in 2006.

[DrunkenSatyr]

Luckily the only bad homebrews I had tasted before I started were while I was in high school. A buddies older brother tried brewing a few batches with little to no success.

[BrewMeister Jeff]

Got my first Brew Kit in 2001, read everything I could on brewing and in fall of 2002 made my first batch. Brewed until 2005 when the wife and I bought our house. Then went on a hiatus until the "BREWROOM" was finished. Since October of 2007 I have brewed every weekend and double batches. I am running out of bottles and 4 of the 6 kegs are full. I hope the Superbowl comes quick I need to get rid of some beer otherwise I have to stop brewing for a bit.

[trippivot]

in 1990 I started boiling up sweetness. import beer in UTAH was a joke!! Light spoiled non preserved beer sitting for months incredible high prices($20.00/6pak) etc... I began with a papazan book and a can of syrup extract. the rest is history!!

I have a thick brew log book-- clear back to my very first brewing recipe written in pencil on a old piece of cardboard.

[DrunkenSatyr]

Sounds great! Welcome to the board Trippivot.

[Ó Flannagáin]

I just started keeping a solid brewbook maybe 6 months ago. The first 6 months previous is pretty shaky, but I remember some of the details.

[trippivot]

I have found in the log book the facts don't change as they were written. My memory however uuuhhhh... MAN I write everything down these days . I have 3 recipes that I brew up most often-- just my favorites easy cookin' 1) jalapeno extra pale 2)British Ale red/bitter 3)Coffee Stout. and when I experiment I really get specific. My last experimental project has been perfecting my hard cider~ borderline wine. I have 6 variations that I tweaked little by little.. Now the recipe is a trippivot perfected original. took 2 years to get where I'
m at... we started with a ultra dry thin bodied splash that would put a sour pucker on a statue. But little by little I put more fruit flavor and a thicker body into it. Now the "pink haze" aka " apple jeff #6" is a huge summertime favorite with the gang. I have a few friends that are (see lee ak) ?? I can't spell selliac it is they can't have Gluten no beer no wheat no barley etc.... hence the hooch without grain..

[Jekster]

My girlfriend bought me a Mr. Beer kit three Christmas times ago that sat in the closet for a year. I finally broke it out because about two years ago and produce some beer that I really didn't like. Had little to no hops, was bland, thin, and just didn't taste right.

Over the summer I decided that I was determined to make a much better beer and started doing some research. I found a forum where I got a lot of information and shared my thoughts. I read http://www.howtobrew.com and placed an order through morebeer.com in mid July. I brewed up my first batches towards the end of July and early August and have been learning and brewing ever since.

I did one pure extract patch and two partial mashes before moving up to all grain. It was the best move I could have made in brewing and was real easy to make the step after watching some members of a local brew club do the process. I also got sick of bottling real quickly and moved up to kegging after bottling four batches (including a batch of apfelwein). Another upgrade that was well worth the money because of the huge amount of time saved!

Overall, I can easily say that the bug bit me hard and I'm extremely happy with the hobby and wonderful product of my labors.