How long have you been brewing for?

[colm89]

Some serious brewing veterans in this thread!

I started in October 2020 after a mate put me on to the idea, coming up on4 months, and just brewed my 8th batch yesterday.

I went straight into all grain and admittedly didn’t know extract was a thing til I read more on this forum!

 

[obscure]

I don’t think you’d try the recipe for making beer that my Dad was given, and which I copied. As far as I can recall the ingredients to make 5 gallons were:- 3 jars of Boots Malt Extract (without cod liver oil), 1 tin of Tate & Lyles Golden Syrup, 1 tin of Black Treacle (optional), 4 bags of Granulated Sugar, 4 oz Hops (unspecified) and 2oz Baker’s Yeast! The hops were sold by Boots for making Hop Tea, an aid for insomnia.

Reading about some of your (and others on here’s) experience with brewing in past decades makes me realise how glad I am to have started brewing in the internet era where access to good quality ingredients, advice and recipes are just a click away.

 

[matt76]

Reading about some of your (and others on here’s) experience with brewing in past decades makes me realise how glad I am to have startsd brewing in the internet era where access to good quality ingredients, advice and recipes are just a click away.

Damn straight

I had a go at a few Boots wine kits as a teenager in the early 1990's - I recall looking at the dusty plastic buckets of beer kits also on the shelf and wondering how on earth that could be clean! (Guess what I ferment in now BTW ). And since it was pre-internet I also remember borrowing a few how-to books from the local library.

I started making beer in about Oct 2018 so a bit more than 2 years - Mrs76 bought me a kit for Xmas in 2017 which then sat around for 10 months or so before I finally brewed it. It was a Northern Brewer "Block Party" Amber Ale and it was not good From there I went straight to all grain and haven't looked back since - currently got AG#65 in the FV

Without question the internet is a real boon - not just to get help and share experiences on forums like this, but also because you can get bang up to date with the latest trends. It's a great time to be brewing as we start to challenge the accepted dogma, and yet there's still plenty of time and love out there for traditional styles.

Skol!

 

[Rogerh]

I started with wine kits in the 70's, beer kits in the mid 80;s and then got a 'Bruheat' boiler and did BIAB. Took a break when we lived on a Narrowboat for a good few years (no room to brew). Really got back into it about 5 years ago and now do AG. Back in the 70/80's there were Homebrew shops everywhere and it was nice to go in and buy your supplies, now, thank God for online.

 

[That_biker_guy]

I’m on day 6 of my first brew, so that’ll be 6 days for me. Ok reading through all the threads just trying to learn terminology more than anything just now.

 

[GeorgieV]

I started just over an year ago with a couple of kits. Moved to AG during the first lockdown.

 

[CD]

I reckon the main problem people who are taking up brewing today have, is not so much a lack of information but a surfeit of it!

 

[Gerryjo]

I reckon the main problem people who are taking up brewing today have, is not so much a lack of information but a surfeit of it!

You'll find that like everything else there is a lot of disinformation about brewing and in this new fangled world of brewing some go OTT and when others try to get information regarding they get bamboozled with this is right no this is right and that is wrong and so on.
There is a wealth of information and let's face it people have been brewing alcohol for millennia without the aid of modern technology, equipment,chemicals and everything else that comes with it.
Man as a brewer of alcohol is late to the game as mother nature was the creator and the animals have been partying long before we even knew so we're playing catch-up.
My point is it's all down to basics and you don't need fancy shiny state of the art stuff to brew but when we see what attachments there are and made to believe we need it then look at recipes and see words we've never heard off it becomes too much of an overload for some and panic sets in.
We just need to have trust in ourselves and belief and realise if it goes wrong try it again but learn from our previous efforts...I'm rambling....

 

[trueblue]

Coffin dodger is right about those early years of brewing. I was lucky because I did have shop close by but the choice was limited. The first book I bought was Brewing better beers by Ken Shales with mainly extract beers and I believe he stated extracts were no different to all grain. After the 1st two extract brews I disagreed so tried one of the few AGs he published. One of the few things he did get right was advising harvesting yeast from bottles. Once I started AG and harvesting yeast my beers greatly improved as did my circle of friends.

 

[Druss]

I started in my early teens, helping out when my dad made various wines and beers (as he did with my grandad when he was a lad, it's kind of a family tradition), started brewing my own in earnest when I was about 16, over a quarter of a century as a home brewer and I'm still learning as I go.

 

[Pantat]

I started brewing in the days before it was legal to brew at home. My first beer was a recipe from a homemade wine book. The ingredients bought from Boots were sold as health products. I still have a pile of books from the early days of legal brewing. Anyone remember, Ken Shales?

 

[Pantat]

Coffin dodger is right about those early years of brewing. I was lucky because I did have shop close by but the choice was limited. The first book I bought was Brewing better beers by Ken Shales with mainly extract beers and I believe he stated extracts were no different to all grain. After the 1st two extract brews I disagreed so tried one of the few AGs he published. One of the few things he did get right was advising harvesting yeast from bottles. Once I started AG and harvesting yeast my beers greatly improved as did my circle of friends.

I still have the Ken Shales book plus a number of other recipe books from around this time.

 

[Pantat]

I still have the Ken Shales book plus a number of other recipe books from around this time.

I may give his ‘Yuletide Ale’ another go next Christmas and see if it’s as good as my memory tells me it was.

 

[fury_tea]

I still have the Ken Shales book plus a number of other recipe books from around this time.

I'd be interested to see the recipes in there

 

[Sandimas]

10 years for me, although like others I dabbled with some Boots kits in my youth in the early 80s. Now it's all about quality rather than a cheap pint.

 

[Covrich]

2014 I started as I got a kit , I made the kit and it wasn;t very good but decided to try another (St Peters Ruby Red) and I was really pleased with it , did another kit or so and then went straight to AG and never looked back.

Last few years have been a bit of a turmoil in my life. Dad passing away, marriage breaking down ect then moving into well I bought her out and refitted the house its been difficult to maintain the same amount and with covid interferring it can make brewing all a bit of a background task but I have been able to kick it back up to normal a bit more recently and am really enjoying it again and teh quality has as a result improved too.

 

[peebee]

I still have the Ken Shales book plus a number of other recipe books from around this time.

Them were the days? When books had to cut printing costs by having covers printed in the minimum of colours (Ken's book was printed in black and trendy, at that time, brown). And the naff brown ink scratches off!

 

[Pantat]

I'd be interested to see the recipes in there

 

[Pantat]

I have quite a number of these books. Let me know what type of beer you are interested in and I’ll sort out a recipe from one of them.

 

[Pantat]

Them were the days? When books had to cut printing costs by having covers printed in the minimum of colours (Ken's book was printed in black and trendy, at that time, brown). And the naff brown ink scratches off!

Ken Shales wrote two books on beer brewing. I have both in paperback editions.