Your first time

[Smabb]

How about a topic about your first brew - why, how, when etc.

My first brew was in mid-99 (yes, last century!). I'd just been retrenched and therefore was looking to save some dosh. I borrowed the gear from my mate and brewed a Cooper Dark Ale kit. Followed the instructions in the tin to the letter and happily threw a kilo of CSR into the fermentor.

Let it sit in the bottle for a while and actually it was pretty good (compared to the megaswill I was previously drinking ).

On reflection I was blessed with an excellent brewing location(s) in that house (in Brisbane's western suburbs). Had a spot under the house which was cool in hot weather and had a spot in a small storage room where the hot water system was that was warm in winter. By shear arse I had the perfect climate for brewing beer and this covered up the various sins I was committing.

With no home brew shop within cooee that was pretty much it for the first 10 or so brews. Quickly found out that the lager kits wouldn't give the same quality so gave them a miss (i.e. couldn't cover the sin of using sugar). The big revelation came when one day in the car I heard a home brewer being interviewed on the radio - started to realise the possibilities.

After a brewing hiatus when I lived in NW Qld I returned south and started the brewing journey.

[pixelboy]

My folks wanted to know what to get me for xmas 2005.. I spotted the coopers kit in kmart a few days before and suggested that.

The first batch was the included can + sugar brewed in the high twenties.. I thought it was awesome, I was hooked.. I did loads of k&k with mixed success, In hindsight they were pretty ordinary.

Then I discovered this site in March of 06 and I started brewing much better extract beers! Now the thought of not being able to brew and having to buy beer again fills me with fear!!

[warra48]

A gentleman never kisses and tells, so my first time will remain a secret by me and the significant other.

As for my first homebrew, that was in 1973, just after the Whitlam government relaxed the excise provisions on homebrewed beer.

[gregb]

See also here.

Cheers,
Greg

[Smabb]

See also here.

Cheers,
Greg

Thats a bit sad - thought I was being "original"- when I actually posted on that thread first time around! Better have another coldy.

[gregb]

Don't worry, the other one has been dormant for three and a half years.

Cheers,
Greg

[Smabb]

As for my first homebrew, that was in 1973, just after the Whitlam government relaxed the excise provisions on homebrewed beer.

Very impressive Warra! That might explain why you seem to be all over this brewing caper!

[drsmurto]

Started brewing in 1997 with the housemates. We had noticed the kits in the supermarket and wondered if they would make a decent beer. With 3 of us keen the price wasnt bad at all.

We had a rating system - 3 uni students with too much time of their hands (1 was an arts student.... enough said).

First beer was a Wanders Draught with the kg of sugar.

It scored a 5/10 with the comment ' i cant beleive this isnt urine'......

Got better after discovering a HBS and at least buying enhancer packs. We were lucky as Bill at Brewmakers was our HBS and he was very good at not trying to over do the info but help us in our endeavour.

After housemates moved out i was left with the kit so kept on making it and started experimenting. Came 2nd in the 1999 Coopers Homebrew Comp with my golden pale ale (A coopers ale kit with BE2 + golden syrup + POR/cluster hops).

Stopped brewing in 2000, finished uni, travelled and finally made it back to Adelaide in 2006. Found all my gear in a mates shed so dusted it all off and started again. Found this site soon after and its gone from there.

AG since Sept 07.

[Slash]

The wife (then girlfriend) bought me a Tooheys home brew kit for Xmas 2004. It stayed in the box for almost 3 years and then I decided to break it out and give it a go in August 2007. The funny thing to remember here is that she used to nag me about not putting it to use, she now nags me about moving my brewing equipment out of the kitchen. Anyway I threw out the Tooheys can as it was over a year out of date, grabbed a can of Coopers Pale Ale and threw it together with the kilo of white sugar that came with the kit. Fast forward three weeks and there I was, sitting on my front patio, desperately trying to convince myself that what I'd brewed was good. In actual fact it was infected, over-carbonated and generally undrinkable. The entire brew ended up in the drain. I'd like to think my technique has improved slightly since then

[Clean Brewer]

My first time was about the start of march this year(08), I was at my local dump recycling center when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a big stack of tallie bottles, I checked to see if they were crown seals and alot of them were.

I went home and told my GF about what I had found, the next day i went and got 120 bottles and then went and got a Coopers Microbrew kit from Big W, watched the dismal video and put down the brew, I think I checked the Hydrometer every day nearly, once I thought it was right to go, I bottled into the P.E.T bottles that came with it, I think I opened the first bottle after about 10 days to try and thought it was amazing(hey, I made this myself)...

After that, i obsessed with it, putting brews down faster than they were fermenting, building my stockpile to age for 3 months(thats how long I was told to leave them for) until I received some words of wisdom from various sources..

Did a couple Kit and bits brews and a couple Full Boil All Extract Brews and very proud to say now that within 9 months of brewing I have done my 1st AG(just bought 75kg of Base Grain) and am also Kegging, I have a nice little simple set-up with a fridge that holds 4 kegs and a Cube and a Fermenting Fridge that holds 2 fermenters(or my 1 S.S Conical) all Temp Controlled.. So yeh, thats my little story and I love AG and my Kegs the most(nothing better than drinking beer from your own kegs)...

Cheers

[Bizier]

(or my 1 S.S Conical)

You should add that you won that sexy stainless conical fermenter based on the flavour of one of your beers in a competition. Give the new guys an idea of what they could achieve if they put their mind to it.

[squirt in the turns]

My home brew adventures began 3 weeks ago on Sat 15/11. I'd been toying with the idea for a while after a colleague raved about his brewing, and just decided to go for it. I went to Nerang Brewing with the other half and my Colombian and French housemates in tow, and got a Brew Cellar kit including fermenter, PET bottles, etc, and a can of Morgan’s “Australian Lager”. While the purchase was being rung up I tried to explain to my non-native English speaking friends that while my intention was to “brew beer”, the final product would be “beer” or “brew”, not “brew-beer”, much to the bemusement of the owner

I cracked the first bottle of the Aussie Lager yesterday, not expecting great things as it obviously was brewed with ale yeast from the kit, average temp in the high 20s (I’ve since learned, mostly from this forum, the importance of temperature control) with 1kg dextrose, and the dextrose carbonation drops that also came with the kit for secondary. It was in the bottle for 12 days and had been “lagered” in the salad drawer of the fridge for all of 9 hours. However, I was not as disappointed as I expected to be – certainly it was drinkable, fairly bitter, seeming to improve after a few sips and quite well carbonated.