What Was Your Very First Brew?

[crozdog]

Sometime back in the 80's i bought a cardboard box from the supermarket & took it home. inside was a plastic bag of Coopers wort. I recall having to add some hot water chuck in the yeast & pricking the corner of the bag to let the co2 out. As it was winter i wrapped the box in an electric blanket to keep it warm. Can't recall if i added extra sugar or how the hell I got it out & into a bottle. I do recall using a hand capper & bottles smashing when I whacked the capper with the hammer. mmmm the good old days.

moved onto k&K but used 2l coke bottles cause they were available, you didn't need to clean as many, you could chuck em out after you drank em & they were good to take to parties. Ended up doing a heap of toucans as well as using different sugars and fruits eg raisins & sultanas to get different flavours & the all important extra sugar!! :icon_drunk:

Moved house, no room, had kids sold fermenters, capper, bottles etc in a garage sale.

few years later, mate starts to brew, I get the bug again, buy another coopers kit, do k&K + bits, buy keg system to avoid bottles, then try fresh wort kits & couldn't believe the difference; discover AHB, build AG rig, ask Gerard lots of questions and do 1st AG brew. Hookup with the ISB. Buy 180l kettle & build monsta tun (200l) to host brew days for the ISB

All good

 

[glennheinzel]

My parents gave me a homebrew kit in 2000. They don't like to see me "wasting" money so presumably they thought that homebrew would be a cheap way for me to drink beer.

I don't remember much about my first K+K, however myself and my mates enjoyed the beers that I was churning out. At that stage I was getting my supplies from TCB Drummoyne and would usually add hop tea bags, brew enhancer etc. I started to lose interest once the bottles started exploding (whats a hydrometer?) and then I gave it away when I moved to a unit that lacked a garage.

In 2006 I moved to a house and decided that I would get back into brewing. I picked up a keg system and a Coopers Bavarian lager. Having read that beer ages faster in kegs, I was wondering why my 2 week old lager didn't taste right. I went through a few months of K+K before getting into the TCB Wetpaks, extract brewing, partials and then into AG this year.

Why move to AG?
a) I was frustrated because I kept reading that the only way to brew some beer styles was by going AG.
B) It sank in that all the best beers in the world are made from AG.
c) Get to buy more toys!

My first AG (at the end of Jan this year) was a Robust Porter which I was very happy with. Most of the beers that I've made since then have been good, but of course there has been the odd dog which I've had to chew through.

Along the way I've got a heap of mates/family into beer with flavour. Some friends have been brought into the HB fold whilst others prefer the social aspect are happy to help me brew.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Damned if this isn't a custom made invitation for me to run off at the mouth (well fingers) god knows I love an excuse for a PP like monster post. So....

I work for a brewery, so I get free beer. God knows why, but at some point i was curious about homebrew and bought a coopers starter kit. straight K&K for a few years, probably made 15 or 20 brews in three years before I got tired of it and the gear was relegated to the shelf. I was a VB man & the brews were OK, but why bother when VB was for free?

Enter the lovely lady my wife. A comely beer drinking wench, she had spent the last 5 years living in the old blighty and traveling around Europe and the world. There she had the pleasure of being best friends with a girl who's Dad was one of the earlier members of CAMRA. Ale focused trips around Britain ensued along with a few side jaunts to the Great British Beer Festival and Octoberfest. The story about staying in the castle of the guy who owned a brewery and drinking the bottle of 100 year old brandy he got out of the cellar makes me want to cry...... 'cause I wasn't there.

And so my much more sophisticated better half introduced me to good beer. Eased me in with better quality Euro lagers, then it was Newcastle Brown, Guinness, a Belgian or two...... and then we just started looking for any beer we hadn't tried yet. Quest still current.

I decided to resurrect the HB kit and try making a few myself. Staid mostly true to K&K, never ventured as far as steeping grains, but did try a fair bit of experimentation with BE bags, malt extract, and lots of different variations of brown sugar, molasses, treacle, golden syrup. Looking for what I now know is the caramel malt flavours I had found in the English bitters.

Then my mate at the brewery took the new "course" they were offering. It turns out that it was the Certificate in Brewing from the IBD - and he became relatively an expert. We talked about it and decided that with his knowhow, and the fact that we had a (very large) working example to use as a template, we could build ourselves a brewery and have a go at doing it from malt just like the big boys. Neither of us had any idea at that stage that there was anyone in the world homebrewing from grain - we just reckoned it would be an interesting technical exercise to see if we could do it.

So we got started and basically had the guts of a small AG system built before I bumped into the fact that there were people already doing Grain Brewing at home. A bit of internet research later and a combination of Graham Sander's site and the Brewing Network a bit later on... and we ironed out the few issues in what we had already built (we were surprisingly close) and we had a 12L batch size HERMS system ready to rock.

First AG was an American Pale and its been bigger, better and horribly more expensive ever since.

Now I've got that Certificate in Brewing from the IBD as well, this year I'll be starting study for the Diploma and one day when I am finished making enough money to retire on, it will be a small hobby/vanity project sized commercial brewery to while away the years till I am too old to brew anymore. Almost certainly cost more to run than it will ever make - but I wont care

So its all my wife's damn fault - which is what I tell her whenever she gets tired of tripping over brewing stuff all over the house

Thirsty

 

[brettprevans]

first brew was 10 years ago with the old coopers lager and sugar, no temp control. ahh those were the days.... ignorance is bliss (actually no its not, its bloody awful).

back into serious brewing last year and quickly moved from straight K&K to Kits & Bits to Extract and am now almost finished my own AG system. First brew since I got back into it was a liquorcraft recipe for Grolsh (btw - it was so far off the mark it wasnt funny).

Influences:
Cost (initially)
then taste and craft of HB done well.
AHB - best website ive found. if not for AHB I'd probably given up brewing.
AHB members who give up a lot of their time answering the same questions over and over to help people and pass on knowledge
+1 for anyone posting pics of their brewing bling. Jeleousy is a great motivator!
My wife for getting sick of me talk about HB and just lets me do what I want now in regarding to brewing (within reason).

 

[fraser_john]

1985 whilst studying at Deakin Uni in Geelong, Kmart had a sale on Coopers Stout cans, bought four of them and a bucket to ferment in. Followed the instructions on the can, fermented with a fish tank heater at 26c. Blech.

Surely the home brew companies should re-think their instructions, if people made better beer all the time then there would be a major improvement in the number of people brewing????

But, thats why I am a programmer, not a marketing person....

 

[Hefty]

My first foray into brewing was with the help of my mother ( :huh: ) when I was 15 (1997).
It was a ginger beer kit and I can't even remember what brand. When it was ready to bottle, we realised we didn't have anywhere near the right amount of bottles and so we ended up scraping together old soft drink bottles (not so bad) and dolimo spaghetti topping jars (really bad).
It tasted terrible. Looking back, I guess it was infected. Not only that but I overprimed just the right amount to avoid bottle bombs but still lose half of every one I opened to gushing head. It dislodged the yeast layer from the bottom and everything.

Didn't get back to it until about 2004 when my mate who doesn't drink beer was making ginger beer. I wasn't game to go near ginger beer again for a while so I got a brigalow fermenter kit and a can of coopers lager.
It wasn't great but still drinkable and cheap so it kept me trying. I did it once in a blue moon for a couple of years but have got back into it in a big way this year through a mate who was making awesome extract brews and partials. He's just done his first AG and I'm slowly working my way through extract brews to trying partials. I'm sure I'll get to AG one day.

And my second ever ginger beer is ready to bottle for the wife!

Cheers!
Jono.

 

[Occa]

11 years ago I was struggling to find xmas presents for the family, when I spied the Coopers Homebrew kit whilst doing the food shopping at Coles, Bingo! great present for the old man, he was a publican, knew a fair bit about beer and would appreciate crafting his own brew.
How wrong was I, after unwrapping the response was "why the F! would I want to bring work home with me?" so I scored the kit.

The first brew was a coopers stout and was a winner. It became the only brew I did for a few years as every other can at the supermarket just didn't cut the mustard.

I gave up brewing for several years when I lived above the said pub, no real need when your lounge room contains all the essentials on tap and you didn't have to clean bottles any more.

About 5 years ago after entering the mortgage market thought I would save some cash and dust off the fermentor. About the same time I stumbled across G&G and began to expand on the Coopers Stout Kit and got a view of the kegs. 5 kegs later and with an expanding palette, I moved onto extract brews then after viewing a brew day at G&G and finding this brilliant site had a crack at an AG.

Some 10 AG's later I've got more kegs, more fermentors, and spend lunchtimes reading about what all you guys are doing, wishing I had more space, more time (2 kids under 2), and planning what to brew either by getting inspiration here or trying a craft beer or two.

Every family function now seems to require one of my kegs and fortunately (touch wood) I haven't had an infection or a bottle bomb. I still do that stout, still got the mortgage and I still want to purchase more gear, so much for saving cash!

Cheers & Beers Occa.

 

[MVZOOM]

Some great stories - most of 'em have the same train of thought too.

Given that I'm from Dutch heritage - which is traditionally one step away from the Scottish in terms of living frugally, the background to my brewing came, not surprisingly from my parents. My Dad currently has three stills (parents live in NZ) and for the last 15 or so years, has distilled many, many litres of grog. He uses it to barter for stuff - they live in the country, so it works well for them - and he's pretty good at it. Mum tried to make wine a few times out of various fruits they grew, but the results to all but her, were, well, undesirable!

Shift +12 years. I'm in Sydney and a mad mate of mine (he's a smart bloke - Certified Engineer and a CPA Accountant) who likes to learn and loves a challenge, and I were having a beer one day. We both drank a bit and my interest in more premium beer was starting to pique. We decided that we could make something similar, given our combined knowledge of fermentation and alcohol production.

I always had the attitude that most things were possible - I fix my car, do my own house stuff and whatever, so we started down the path of brewing. Luckily, we hit on the ESB 3kg kits as a first attempt, and were absolutely rigorous with sanitation, bottling etc. The only real 'gotcha' was ferment temp - I rigged up a lamp on a timer to keep that first one at 23degC. I can't remember exactly which kit it was, probably the Bav lager. It tasted ok - but it did have the extract twang, which I absolutely hate.

Found this site - learned about yeast and temp. Brewed more, bought kegs. Did my first Fresh Wort kit (Amber Ale, with US05, from Gerard) - had a revelation - what a beer!

Found some clients who were brewing, they roped me into BIAB - bought bulk grain. Gained another couple of fridges - and a few more kilo's! Next up is bling and lots of it!

What a hobby.

Cheers - Mike

 

[Hefty]

Some 10 AG's later I've got more kegs, more fermentors, and spend lunchtimes reading about what all you guys are doing, wishing I had more space, more time (2 kids under 2), and planning what to brew either by getting inspiration here or trying a craft beer or two.

+1 for that even though I've only got one kid (18 months) and I'm not even up to AG yet!!

Cheers!
Jono.

 

[buttersd70]

first brew was a coopers draught with BE1. Got into brewing, cos I (thought) it would be cheap. At the time, I thought that it was the dogs bollocks, oh how times change......after about 10 k&K, did a few K&B, then straight into extract brewing. From there, progressed into AG brewing. I got into the extract because I love English ales, and kits just didn't do it for me by this point.
Noone showed me the way....most of the info I got was from this forum, and others like it. Now it's an obsession. I have advanced chemical equations floating around in my head....voices that won't go away.....I smell my beer before tasting, even at the pub.....other patrons look at me strangely when I hold the glass to the light to see what the colour and clarity is like......my local pharmacist thinks I'm mad when I go in and buy dosing syringes, and they ask how old the baby is, and I say its for my beer......I met a woman who's name is Marris, and she gave me a queer look when I asked her if her surname was Otter......

 

[Bribie G]

I've been a wine drinker for years, preferred cask wines because they are only around 9% alcohol and the 13% bottled variety were not my scene. Of course cost came into it as well and when the alcopop tax was increased there was also talk about taxing all alcohol equally, that could put wine casks up to $40 each and effectively put an end to them.

I had brewed up till 15 years ago (actually ran a home brew shop in Maryborough in the late 70s in the Brigalow and Wander Malt + Edme yeast days)

It struck me that I could probably brew a wholesome strong drink of my own sourced from the supermarket for a fraction of even cask wine prices and secure my alcohol supply forever despite the antics of Mr Rudd et al. So on an impulse bought a fermenter and bits.
First brew of my modern era was:

24l

3 kg raw sugar
100g supermarket powdered ginger
1 bottle Bundaberg Ginger Beer Cordial
yeast nutrient
sparkling wine yeast.

It went perfectly, bottled in 2L PET, carbed it with 4 carb drops per bottle and it turned out quite nice when served icy with a further dash of Ginger Beer Cordial. Might do one again coming up to Christmas.

Then I thought "hmm, wouldn't mind a stout" and did a K&K Coopers which turned out palatable. Joined this forum. Saw how far HB has come since the 70s. Discovered why I should not use sugar in a kits n bits ....

Now have four fermenters and I'm happy with extracts and mini mashes at the moment. Haven't had a wine since the end of June and have lost five kilos, who says beer is fattening :lol: :lol:
Wow look at the time, nearly beer o clock

 

[blackbock]

First brew was 9 yrs ago, an ESB 3kg paint tin, "Australian Draught" recommended to me by the LHBS (probably because sales were a bit slow on that particular kit). It turned out much better than you might think, considering that I knew next to nothing about fermentation temperatures and sanitation back then. My fermenter was also found in the garage of a rental house and the bottles were found in the paddock of a dairy farm!

Jonah's Home Brew Shop has long since moved on, replaced in part by a hardware store, and the guy there who thinks he know something about brewing. Why is it that wherever there is homebrewing in this country, there's a pom to be found
Geez those poms like their p*ss!

 

[Duff]

Coopers Lager in the garage in Cairns during summer 1993. Was amazed that 23 litres of beer could ferment in 2 days

 

[boingk]

The early months of 2007 saw me getting interested in homebrewing and something called 'Oztops' which cheaply made alcoholic fruit juice. After doing this for a while and thinking I'd rather be drinking beer, I saved up around $90 and legged it down to the local Big W and walked out with 2 boxes of Coopers PET bottles and a Tooheys brewing kit, both on sale. I hurried home and started into things, eagerly prying open my tin of Tooheys Dark Ale and kilo tin of corn syrup. I bottled it a week or so later and waited maybe 10 days before having a crack.

It sucked. Hardcore.

I realised that I'd been screwed over by ingredients designed to cop an almighty beating and not go off or break open, all at the discretion of a corporate pig who probably had never homebrewed in his life. So I trundled down to the convenient local brew shop and got talking. I found out the sky was the limit as far as making beer was concerned and heard 'What do you like?' in response to 'What can I make?'

I walked out with a Wal's Lager tin, a malt-heavy LDME/dex/maltodex mix, and some Tettnanger hops. Several weeks later I was amazed. I'd improved so much in one brew that I couldn't believe it. Mates were fairly neutral, but this changed as I stepped things up a bit. Soon I was cranking out the brews at an almighty rate and around this time last year it dawned on me that I had 400+ standard drinks in my room and I was still brewing. I was also 200km from home at uni, and had to take what I didn't drink with me. It was a wild end of semester.

I quit for a bit aside from a few brews at the end of the summer to get me ready for going back to uni. Back at uni, things turned full throttle as I again needed to brew in order to drink. I also converted my Dad and brother earlier this year, Dad having always wanted to get into the swing of it and my brother as eager as I was to make good beer and stifle the conglomerates. Now I'm still into kits, don't get me wrong, but I also like a good amount of specialty grains now to go with my goop; eg the Foreign Extra in my sig that started life as a Coopers Real Ale kit and got the sh!t adulterated out of it.

End of story is that I'm still going strong, about to bottle my 34th batch since around the time I joined the site [around the time I had the Tooheys revelation].

Cheers all, and thanks for everything along the way!

- boingk

 

[wabster]

I won't even discus the dreadful crap we brewed, me and a mate, at his father's farm at Bexhill in the early 1970s.

In 1985-86 I discovered in my suburb Peakhurst, a home brew shop, still there of course, that sold kits and dried malt as well as a liquid hop extract. I experimented and brewed some great beers, that were strong and tasty and quite cheap.

MsWab put an end to the shenanigans when she realised that a) we'd both socked on the weight B) all my workmates were coming around more often, for longer, to drink my brew, and this was disturbing homelife with 2 kids entering their teens. I gave my kit away to a friend.

The most recent return to brewing was early 2007, after joining this site in late 2006 and doing a bit of research. I was doing K&K plus malt/hops additions, with help from Bill at Peakhurst Home Brew with great results. Then this year I have done my first 3 all grain brews, encouraged by Barramundi whose demonstrations made me realise it wasn't as hard as it sounded.

The greatest frustration I have is that I love beer making and consumption, but my health doesn't permit me to indulge much, so I try to make a few good quality brews to savour over time. I have bought all the books and intend to go to the AHB Conference in October, but I wanted to do some practical stuff before I got too deep into the theory of it all.

It has been great fun, and the support and camaraderie found on this site is second to none, so to quote a quote, have another home brew one and all, Cheerz Wabster

 

[buttersd70]

24l

3 kg raw sugar
100g supermarket powdered ginger
1 bottle Bundaberg Ginger Beer Cordial
yeast nutrient
sparkling wine yeast.


Discovered why I should not use sugar in a kits n bits ....

Sugaz! you used da sugaz, bribie. And it was da raw sugaz, too, not da nancy boy whites sugaz!! :lol:

 

[Bribie G]

Sugaz! you used da sugaz, bribie. And it was da raw sugaz, too, not da nancy boy whites sugaz!!

At 3kg for $2.40 on special to yield 24 litres of 7.2 % p**s I wasn't complaining. Of course now I'm on the forum I'll have to use at least dextrose for my next ginger beer brew. Damn. :angry: Actually I might make one in secret with sugar h34r:

 

[stowaway]

At 3kg for $2.40 on special to yield 24 litres of 7.2 % p**s I wasn't complaining. Of course now I'm on the forum I'll have to use at least dextrose for my next ginger beer brew. Damn. :angry: Actually I might make one in secret with sugar h34r:

Ginger beers can be made with sugar in my opinion.....

 

[buttersd70]

suagaz! how many times does it have to be said! It's spelt sugaz!
On a serious note, though....as anti sugar as I am, my understanding of ginger beer (which is limited, I'm the first to admit.) is that normal sugar is acceptable, as the off flavours produced in beer by sugar is acceptable in ginger beer. At least thats my understanding of it.

 

[wakkatoo]

Ginger beers can be made with sugar in my opinion.....

I use raw and brown sugar in my ginger beers. Prefer the taste than when I've used dex.

Plenty of people out there brew beer with sugar and like the result. More power to them I say! That's what it is all about, making something you like.

Just for the record, I don't brew my beer with normal sugar