What Was Your Very First Brew?

[Mitchell]

I had actually forgotten my first brew... or repressed it. Around 1990 I chucked together a kit that I'd given to the old man a few years earlier. He'd never bothered to use it.

As I recall I paid little attention to sanitising, figured more white sugar would only lead to better beer, and that the hot water cupboard was surely the best spot for the brew (probably at least 25 + degrees in there). I left it for 3 or so weeks before some of my less than picky mates found out I had homebrew on the go. They tapped a glass and decided it was drinkable straight out of the fermenter. I remember it as possibly the worst thing that has ever passed my lips. Couldn't slow them up though; they finished off most of the fermenter that night. They did mention they didn't feel so good the next day though.

Never touched a fermenter again until around 2005 when a mate in Sydney mentioned he used to brew all grain years ago and that we should give it a nudge. He guaranteed a quality product so I helped set up an AG rig in my garage and have been hooked on homebrew ever since.

 

[Gulpa]

Grumpys Boston Cream. I will never forget the smell of cooking that up. Turned out well but something not quite right. I suspect is was slightly infected.

Didnt stop me. Did a few more Grumpys brews before doing my own kits and bits things. Moved to AG this year.

Cheers
Andrew.

 

[Bribie G]

Re: SUGAZ . As posted in another thread I recently did a brew of Brigalow Bitter plus a kilo of sugar just to see how it would turn out. It turned out perfect according to the instructions - cold, fizzy, crystal clear, nicely alcoholic, and doesn't taste anything like beer :lol:

However with a slug of Bickfords Lime Juice Cordial it makes a perfect lager n' lime Sheila's drink from the 1970s and gets em pizzed! I don't mind it at all as a lawnmowing drink. Lets face it, that's the only way I am going to get through the batch. Sugaz has their place, if you are just after cheap alcohol

 

[Goofinder]

First one was a Tooheys Dark Ale + BE2 about 18 months ago. I had bought the Coopers kit but already heard enough to avoid the brewing sugar in there! As it turned out it wasn't too bad, though it was a bit undercarbed.

I think the lager can from the kit later got turned into some sort of an APA with some extra hops and LDME.

 

[AlwayzLoozeCount]

very first beer I brewed was the coopers lager tin you get with the coopers homebrew kit. I thought it was ok at the time. I still have the very first beer that I ever bottled. One of the coopers pet bottles I got with my kit sits on my shelf in the garage with some masking tape stuck on it as a label that says winter 2005. The bottle has gone all soft now, I guess the carbonation is gone and also it gets frequent sunlight so I guess it can live in the bottle forever.

 

[drtomc]

Was well in to my 20s before I even liked beer - I acquired the taste after a cousin randomly gave me a six-pack of Grolsch for Christmas. I still haven't learned to drink VB. ;-)

My wife and I went to a bread making workshop, and I spent the next 10 years making most of the bread we ate. I decided I knew how to deal with yeast, and a friend at work was into K&K cheap alcohol, so I bought myself a kit. My first brew was the Cascade Porter kit, and I'm pretty sure I bottled it just a bit too soon - none of the bottles exploded, but is was, er, rather over-carbonated. I've brewed about a couple of dozen brews over the couple of years since, introducing grains and hops, though still kit based. I'm itching to switch to grain (I plan to start out BIAB + No Chill), but life with small children gets very busy....

It will no doubt amuse all you who do AG, that several of my friends like my goo based beer so much they reckon I should give up my day job. Actually, I love the idea of opening a micro. I have the curse of a scientist, so I get really into the biochemistry, &c, &c of it all.

cheers,
dT.

 

[Brewtus]

My wife and I went to a bread making workshop, and I spent the next 10 years making most of the bread we ate. I decided I knew how to deal with yeast, and a friend at work was into K&K cheap alcohol, so I bought myself a kit.

cheers,
dT.

Congrats on your fist post. Have you used your fresh beer yeast to make bread? It is really good. I have used it a few times, better than packet stuff, especially Tandaco.

 

[RobB]

I started as a 'beer-nerd', thanks to some travel around Europe and a mate in CAMRA.

As I searched for reviews and recommendations on google, I kept seeing references to homebrewing in general, and 'How to Brew' in particular. I bought the book and had read it cover to cover before I attempted my first brew. Yes, I'm an engineer..............

I dutifully made Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale which is the recipe he refers to throughout his explanations. It was good without being great, but I was hooked. For better or worse I went AG on my fourth brew and as I fill the house with books, ingredients and gear, SWMBO must be ruing the day she told me I needed a hobby.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

Well my first brew is still in the fermenter as I type, a Brewcraft munich lager. When that is done I'll be doing a recipe I got from a old guy I did a job for. Which when I tried it made me want to start home brewing myself (oh, and the cost of buying a case now days).

 

[buttersd70]

Wow, a few new brewers/posters in the last few days.....welcome guys, you'll find out soon enough that brewing isn't a hobby, it's an obsession :lol:

 

[floydmeddler]

My first homebrew was a 'brew in a bag' kit. I was 19 and made it so that I could drink it at Christmas. I stored it in empty Coke bottles and it turned out to be absolutely disgusting. My friend came round on Christmas night with no beer so his only option was to drink my homebrew while I drank my dad's cans. We all got pretty drunk and I can still remember clearly, my friend stumbling around outside my house throwing up everywhere! My dad had to hose the driveway down the next day and wasn't happy. Great memory.

 

[drtomc]

Congrats on your fist post. Have you used your fresh beer yeast to make bread? It is really good. I have used it a few times, better than packet stuff, especially Tandaco.

I have once or twice, but I have not been that grabbed by the results. I use the Lowan yeast for bread, and my understanding is that it is a strain optimized for CO2 production, where as beer yeasts are selected for alcohol (and sometimes esters, etc) production, not CO2. That said, I have about a dozen kit yeasts sitting in the fridge doing nothing..... Perhaps I should have another try. However, I'm not going to use my S04 or T58 for bread, much less my liquid yeasts. ;-)\

dT.