What/who got you into brewing?

[Old Fart At Play]

I've just looked up geordie kits. A bit different now. As I recall mine came in a cardboard box, and there was a small nylon bag with some hops in it as part of the kit. Something like this

 

[foxy]

My first trip back to 'The Old Dart' had a flat warm beer from a beer engine and realised there was more to beer than ice cold, over carbonated, lager type beers.

 

[Clint]

Captions for the Geordie ale box...
Get it doon ya neck lass then yan can knock me up me tea.

 

[Scrattajack]

Biology teacher at school, paired us off and got us to make a beer kit to teach aerobic and anaerobic respiration.

 

[CD]

My dad as well.

 

[An Ankoù]

Thirst.

 

[wildbrew]

I have not used a Geordie kit in over 30 years.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve thought about brewing at several points in my life, then someone gave me a home brewed beer and it was good enough for me to look for a simple and cheap starter kit.

Then we decided to redesign the garden and of course a bar was included in the design.

…then a brew-shed
…then more pressure barrels
…then extract brews
…then more pressure barrels
…then all-grain
…then more pressure barrels
…then temperature controlled brew-shed
…then kegs, taps, regulators, plumbing
…more kegs
…more taps
…more kegs
…mixed gas as well as CO2

Throughout, more refining of process and equipment, more research and experiments…

I think I may still be “starting”

 

[trueblue]

Before we got married in 1978 we would spend at least 4 evenings a week in the pub so knowing I would not be able to afford a house and the pub I started thinking about beer kits. Talking to the dad of a friend he told me of a now dead friend of his Ken Shalles and the many hours he had spent in his shed sampling his brews he also mentioned he had published a couple of books. After finding the first book in Smiths I decided to cut out the kit stage and started with malt extract brews. After about 6 or 7 brews I found David Lines clone book did my first AG brew and that was it. Forty odd years later still learning.

 

[MickDundee]

Wow, this has to be one of the oldest resurrected threads I’ve seen!

I did a couple of brewery tours and was interested by the process. There was a homebrew thread in the “general chat” area of a football forum I post on and having read that I decided to give it a go. I didn’t expect to get as sucked into it as I have!

 

[Braufather]

Discovering American hopped beers about 6 years ago and then hearing about the craft scene. Up until I tried American ales Id been actively avoiding them for years thinking them of gimmicky copies of enlglish ales. How wrong I was and now I’m a full convert! Jumped in at all grain 5 years ago.

 

[colliefish]

My mate bought me a coopers cerveza for my birthday and had great delight telling everyone he bought me 40 pints. I then had to spend £60 to make it!

 

[sifty]

Always enjoyed brewery tours, then at a beer festival last yr they had Brewzillas on special ($100 off). Wife bought me one for my birthday, so I jumped into all grain with no previous experience.
18 brews later I'm getting better at it...

It's not cost (although you'll pay $12 a pint at the pub here, and brews come in around $2). It's more the fascination with the process and the ability to make whatever you want using local/seasonal ingredients...

 

[Knuckles]

My dad as well, he used to brew back in the 70's and 80's when I was a kid. The kits back then were really crap compared to today's options. Bitter, stout, lager....... think that was about it. He used to ferment it in a plastic fermenter and then keg within a rotakeg barrel. Being a kid I cant remember if it was any good or not, but people did drink it at family parties.....including me when the adults weren't looking

 

[DavidDetroit]

A neighbor since childhood was giving away his beer making equipment and asked if I wanted it.

 

[Dutto]

Hiya,

I don’t know how I missed this before!

I tried a “kit” back in 1967 (’ish). The kit was “cheap and nasty” and tasted vaguely like beer, so I persisted.

In 1969 Mike Toop, Shift Superintendent at Conoco’s Humber Oil Refinery, gave me a recipe that changed my life and my attitude to HomeBrewing.

The recipe used real hops and liquid malt extract (bought from Boots the Chemist) with an Ale Yeast donated by Mike.

It meant boiling the hops and the malt extract for up to an hour before dissolving a load of sugar and waiting for it to cool before adding the yeast; but oh the difference.

Thank-you Mike Toop! (A man who used to turn up to parties with a small barrel of beer under his arm!)

 

[An Ankoù]

Hiya,

I don’t know how I missed this before!

I tried a “kit” back in 1967 (’ish). The kit was “cheap and nasty” and tasted vaguely like beer, so I persisted.

In 1969 Mike Toop, Shift Superintendent at Conoco’s Humber Oil Refinery, gave me a recipe that changed my life and my attitude to HomeBrewing.

The recipe used real hops and liquid malt extract (bought from Boots the Chemist) with an Ale Yeast donated by Mike.

It meant boiling the hops and the malt extract for up to an hour before dissolving a load of sugar and waiting for it to cool before adding the yeast; but oh the difference.

Thank-you Mike Toop! (A man who used to turn up to parties with a small barrel of beer under his arm!)

Welcome back, Ian. Good to see you again.

 

[Graz]

Following on the common theme it was also my Dad who got me into brewing. He made his own beer and sometimes wine since from when I can remember so at least early 70s onwards, he was predominantly a kit brewer though I think he did dabble with grain on occasion and had a Burco boiler for doing so.

Once I started drinking it he thought it was about time I started to help produce it.

When I was at Uni (early 90s) I bought a starter kit from Boots and brewed my own beer in an effort to save some money, been doing so ever since.

 

[Eskdale]

Working at a brewery pub while at uni, not a big beer drinker but walking into the brew house for the first time I was hooked. The smell of the mash the smell of the hop charges going in. They say the olfactory receptor is a powerful sense, it was in my case, plus the science and history of brewing.

Emma.
My father and brother now enjoy the fruits of my labour.

 

[Leon103]

Watching Hugh Furry Whatshisname on river cottage