My wife made me do it

[Medarius]

A half a lifetime back, as a young army private I had my first enjoyable beer in a Fest tent in Nuernberg germany. I had drank beer at school parties , ( back when it was easy to get beer as a teen, especially when my family ran a bar ) but only to be socialable and I never actually enjoyed the taste of typical american beers. Anyways, to make a short story long, I spent the next 7 years living in germany, 6 of them as a civilian, drinking dozens of beers every town over there has its own brauhaus and therefore original beer. Finally discovered my favorite go to beer , Erdinger hefeweis mit hefe , and stuck with that for most of my time.

Point being, I came back to states, couldn't find a beer I liked and just gave up drinking beer until a couple years ago during hockey playoffs(GO PENS) and after listening to me bitch and moan about not finding a beer i enjoyed, my much better half bought me a homebrew kit. Then told me "Make it yourself if you can't find what you want" Now I am addicted to the attempt to make a great weissbier. No, not a hefeweizen, yes there is a difference.

I haven't made a great one yet, but I am making good beer that I can enjoy. Even made a Honey Weiss that my wife was all over, and she has never liked beer. Must be doing something right.

And after all, isn't that the point of Home brewing, everyone can make a beer that fits their own personal taste buds.
So as with all good things, I blame my wife, she made me do it )

Happy brewing to all,

Click all that apply in poll.

P.S. My wife read this and as always remembered better than I do … What started all this make my own beer thing was finding a 30yr old bottle of Erdinger in a storage trunk that I had brought back.

 

[thunderwagn]

I first dabbled in homebrew back in the early 90's. I can't say that it was because I was looking for a new hobby or on a quest to make better beer. There weren't many 'craft' brews around at the time, but they were quickly emerging and we enjoyed all we could get our hands on. I think I got into homebrewing at the time more for the 'Holy crap, I can make my own beer!' factor, than anything else.
There wasn't much in the way of www and the wealth of information available now, and Charlie P was king and The Joy of Homebrewing was the bible. For me, making good beer was very hit or miss. I finally gave it up as it was much easier (and usually better) to just buy some quality beverage.
Times have changed!

 

[Johnwk]

Actually, in my case, I could click on more than one reason in your poll. I was tired of the same old popular commercial beers advertised on all major sports events, with so little variety, but a friend gave me some of his homebrew that was SO much better than what you could buy. Thus this constituted TWO reasons for me getting into brewing in 1990. But there was also a third reason, which is not in the poll. Perhaps the most important reason for me. And that was the absolute joy of having complete control over your own beer and the great enjoyment of making it yourself.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I started originally trying to brew old fashioned home made ginger beer which isn't available on the comercial scean. After two small batches and a few visits to the hombrew store I saw these beer kits and so found brewing beer much easier than the ginger beer. And to this day I'm still yet to nail down a great ginger beer! Cheers to the persuit of the perfect brew.

 

[thunderwagn]

I started originally trying to brew old fashioned home made ginger beer which isn't available on the comercial scean. After two small batches and a few visits to the hombrew store I saw these beer kits and so found brewing beer much easier than the ginger beer. And to this day I'm still yet to nail down a great ginger beer! Cheers to the persuit of the perfect brew.

Hahaa! Totally sidetracked!

 

[jeffpn]

About 23 years ago, a friend of mine told me how he was making his own beer. I thought that was cool, and that was that. A week later, another friend (who didn’t know the first friend) told me that he was making beer. I thought that was weird. Two friends in one week told me the same thing. So I got curious. I bought a basic hardware kit, 24 bottles, and an ingredients kit. I liked my new hobby! That first friend quit after just a few batches. My other friend quit when he launched bottle caps on his first batch.

Fast forward a couple months, and I was at my LHBS, scratching my head at the brewing hardware and other goodies on the shelf. Another customer came in, and excused himself as he got in front of me to get what he needed. I told him no biggie, because I had no idea what I was looking at anyway. He asked me if I was a member of the local homebrewing club. I was surprised there was a club. He told me he’d have the club secretary mail me a newsletter (no email back then!) he asked me where I lived. I told him Huber Heights. He said Huber Heights? What street? I told him Mandrake. He said Mandrake? Our secretary lives on Mandrake! Turns out he lived 6 doors down from me. His house was my turn around point when I’d go outside to smoke a cigarette. He lived half a cigarette away from my house, and I didn’t know him. Saw him and his young daughters outside plenty of times, but I didn’t know him. I asked him to come down and see what I was doing and try what I have. Eventually, we (wives included) would become godparents to each others’ yet-to-be-born children. Here’s to beer!


Cool thread idea!

 

[Medarius]

I bought a basic hardware kit, 24 bottles, and an ingredients kit. I liked my new hobby! That first friend quit after just a few batches. My other friend quit when he launched bottle caps on his first batch.

It is so easy to quit this hobby in the beginning. It's like that show Moonshiners, they never show you how much patience you need to have. You can't rush beer, which is easy to remember when you have an icebox full of your latest. But waiting 2-3 weeks for that first brew to be done and ready to go to bottle and WHAT i have to wait more, to drink it. Can be frustrating to many especially when that first brew turns out not so good.

I remember putting my first couple brews after bottling in plastic totes with the lids strapped down for fear of beer bombs. Luckily I never had to find out if that would have contained the mess. )

 

[Mase]

...And to this day I'm still yet to nail down a great ginger beer! Cheers to the persuit of the perfect brew.

Here’s to that persuit Trialben, the journey is far more enjoyable than the destination. Especially with a hobby that requires a designated driver to get you anywhere.

 

[Group W]

I remember buying champagne bottles for my first batches. Drove about 80 miles for artesian spring water. Probably cause of all the beer commercials “it’s the water.” I wasn’t happy with the outcome or the cost of it all and threw in the towel for many years before trying again. We are very blessed these days with the availability of quality raw materials, equipment and the internet.

The hobby factor was a strong influence. It’s a “yes, I made that” response that keeps a smile on my face these days.

Welcome to the forum Medarius.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

Growing up in town famous only for cane sugar , pirates and dark rum my first attempts at brewing were shocking .
No temp control
Mostly simple sugars
tropical temps
i had though my dirt cheap and nasty beer was just to get drunk on then after growing up a bit and tasting a myriad of beers on different continents i came back to brewing but now i do it properly .
i love this hobby !

 

[Hawkbox]

I was drinking $15/bottle craft beers and my wife suggested I try doing it myself since she felt I needed a hobby and it was cheaper.

I started with extract kits last November and got into all grain around May. I've brewed around 150 gallons since but I have a bit of a tendency to go all in on my hobbies.

 

[sbaclimber]

Having picked up on my enjoyment of baking, cooking and good beer, a friend of mine back in New Zealand (2005ish) suggested I tried brewing. Turns out, he had only done about two extract brews himself, so he wasn't much help other than pointing me toward some kit, but that was all it took.
10+ years later, I am still brewing and thankful every time I do, that he planted the seed.

 

[Mase]

Back before I had kids, I was an avid Bass fisherman and would fish 5-6 days a week from late February though November. Went through a couple bass boats over the years and was on a week long fly-in fishing trip in Canada the week before my son was born. Once my son was born, bass fishing just wasn’t the same as I wanted to spend time with him and he never shared the interest that I did in fishing. I kept the last bass boat in the garage for over 20 years as I knew once he went off to college, I could resume where I left off. Somehow I had lost the drive for bass fishing and subsequently sold the boat. Missing a hobby, I recalled making wine a few times from our home grown grapes. The wines were awful as I used bread yeast and a balloon over a glass carboy. Had the wine turned out, I might have stayed with Home brewing, but all I ever made was gallons and gallons of grape vinegar. So a couple years back, I recalled those days and wanted to give it a go, especially with so much information on line as opposed to there was no “on line” when I tried making wine the first time. When researching wine making I realized I could make beer.... the rest is history. I found a new hobby/passion that satisfies me like the good old days when I bass fished.

 

[Keeton]

I got my start in brewing when I was working in restaurants and was always hosting and cooking at our house. Brewing became the next logical step.

Since my start in home brewing, I started working at a local brewery, working my way up through the ranks and when the company expanded, I became a lead and eventually, head brewer. During that time, I was able to complete the Master Brewers Program at UCDavis. That program really gave me an understanding of brewing and I have enjoyed continuing my brewing experience as a professional brewer in a very fast moving industry.

I have enjoyed Brewers Friend for years now as a perfect way to keep my recipes with me in the mobile app and the calculators come in handy to ‘ball park’ calculations for recipe development. I am excited for the potential of the forum and discussions to follow. Cheers