Story Time..How did you get started brewing?

[truckndad]

I remember my dad brewing wayyyy back in the day. Tubes, hoses, buckets everywhere. I thought there's no way in hell I have the patience for that, although the thought of brewing my own beer always intrigued me. Fast forward to 2009 when I suffered a pretty bad injury at work that would keep me from working for quite a while. So for Christmas in 2009, my wife got me a MB kit. I made the APA with booster that came with it and, like most guys, tried it too soon. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Found the Borg, got some help, made better beer, got more LBK's on E-Bay, started steeping grains, got into DME, different hop additions, learning more about hops and the effect they have on the finished product, moved on to five gallon batches, etc. Here I am today heating up my sparge water so I can rinse 5 lbs of grains and I have another PM to do this afternoon.

That poor woman had no idea the monster she was creating by getting that one little MB kit.

[Yankeedag]

Damn lap top... it likes to delet entire paragraphs with out notice...

anywhoway...

SWMBO and I were strolling through the Base Exchange (BX) at Corpus Christi Navel Air Station, TEXAS, and she was asking me what I wanted for Father's day.
We walked past a Mr. Beer display, and she asked if that would be ok. I like to cook, and I like beer. So I said "sure". There wasn't any great expectations about it. I was of the mind that you needed to know more magic than I could handle to make beer.
As far as home brewing went, the only time I had even heard of anyone doing it, the comment was, I know a guy that makes his own beer. But it's Green beer and tastes like shit.
At the time I thought, well, if it tastes like shit, why bother. Ergo, the Magic aspect crept in.
Fast forward to the present past..
Father's day 2007. I followed the instructions in the kit. The beer was "meh" at best, but I'd put it together. So, after I finished buying out all the refill kits they had, I started ordering online via MB.
In 2008, I found the community chat zone. That was an interesting time, I will tell you.
I popped in about the time Mr. Beer was doing the "brewer of the Month" thing. At the time, there were a gob of people there just for the "BOM" bit, and as soon as they got it, they vaporized. Others were saying the only TRUE way to make beer was All Grain. There was a lot of UGLY going on in that forum. I'm glad most all y'all missed it.
There were some there that was willing to pass on information before they went byby. I was there when we experimented and determined that that 2 week time line MB was saying wasn't giving us optimum beer with the product. It eventually went to the minimum 2 weeks in the LBK vice the 1 week that we were being told. As far as that bit went, once we started using hydrometers, we found that 99.9% of the products would ferment out at 3 weeks.
Then came the part about "bottling".
One week? a lot of flat beers...
two weeks? um, a few flat beers, but not so good tasting.
Three weeks? better.
Four weeks? ok, now we had something that was good enough to drink.
There was a lot of back and forth, information exchanged, and then house divisions.
The fun parts were about the Trolls... except one. He was a complete asshole. That's when I went all on his asteroids. Some of you remember that.
oh yeah, this is about brewing... dang
it took me a while to start with steeping grains, then adding Malt Extracts.
I started developing my own Likes, and as you may have read on a few occasions, I like my NONG Brews.
Hum... maybe this is why my laptop kept deleting stuff... I should really shaddap.

[berryman]

Good story and history lesson of the MB forum 'Dag

[philm00x]

November 14 is my wife and I's wedding anniversary, however we have a habit of exchanging gifts when we have them already. About the end of October, 2012, we had eachother's gifts, and mine turned out to be a Mr. Beer homebrew kit. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world! And then when I signed up on the old MB forums and learned that there was more than one way to brew, I dove right in and tried to learn it all as fast as I could! Over 20 batches in, and she's created a monster...

[FrozenInTime]

Well, I'm extremely hard to buy for. I'm the kinda guy, if I want, or need it, I get it. Doesn't leave much for the family to surprise me with. They have learned to ask me what do I want, then the say don't get it, wait til Christmas/birthday, etc. So one day, me thunks it was the week after Christmas, 2008, we were in my favorite sporting goods store. I was there to buy a new rifle (which I ended up getting that day), walking around and passed a stand holding Mr Beer kits. I noticed them and made a passing comment about it, said something along the line that that might be fun. Well, couple months later on my birthday I received a big box, wrapped up all purty. I was actually pretty darn surprised it was a Mr Beer kit, I had totally forgot about it. So I said what the heck, why not give it a shot. Well, what I brewed was pretty crappy, green, I think not totally fermented and for sure not conditioned out worth a poop. So much for the instructions that came with the kit. It tasted like poop btw. I figured the wife just inherited a new flower pot as I had no intentions of doing that again. I was a buttwiper and crown(still a crown fan) guy at the time and could buy plenty of ready made, drinkable booze. I was surfing one day and came upon the Mr Beer forum. I joined and started reading, asking the noob questions and thought, what the heck, I'll give it another shot. It came out like night and day, I was hooked. The help I received from those experience brewers was awesome, most of those guys now on this forum. I brewed straight batches for a little bit, then went mad scientist on a batch. It was a blonde ale I made with some strawberries. After running it's course, all the proper times (3-2-2) I tried one after a 3 day chill. First time I my life I instantly spit out a beer, I've had some bad beers before, but WOW!! I promptly named this one LHS, short for liquid horse shit!! Actually, the horse shit would have tasted better, it was that bad! Was not infected, just a horrendous beer by any means. That stopped the mad scientist for a while, I went back to basics and started taking baby steps, so much better. I slowly progressed to steeping, then BIAB and for the last year, strictly all grain. I don't regret any of the batches I've done, some have been so-so, others rocked. I learned slowly, still learning a step at a time. I will probably not do many more kit brews, I enjoy the control aspects of ag so much better, so much more rewarding. There will be malt brews in my future, but they will be PMs with DMEs more than likely. I worked up to 5 gallons for a while but found I was building up a pipeline that was close to 20 cases. I don't drink more than 3-4 bottles a week, so I have dropped back down to finished 2.5 gallon batches. Stopped doing bottles, started doing tailgate kegs but stuck with natural carbing for a while. This year I started keging, what a difference! I doubt, unless I make a batch to send/share, I doubt I will ever bottle again. Sure makes bottling day much smoother, easier, quicker, and me thunks the beer soooo much more tasty!

Press on with pride brew brothers/sisters!

[mtsoxfan]

I'd been interested in brewing since the 80's... never did anything about it until 2010 I believe. A friend got a Monster Brew kit, and I was .... If he can do it, I certainly can. He didn't start until I got the 5 gal pail and showed him.
I went the extract route, wasn't fun enough. Then onto steeping grains, better, but was missing something. The Borg got me confident enough to go AG, and never looked back. I think I'm on my first "mad scientist" batch, but it really is much of one. I prefer to stick to small changes so I can learn what that change really did.

[Brewing Brother]

While stationed in Germany (2002-2005), one of my German National employees would occasionally bring in his home brew results. He created some amazing lagers! That planted the idea, but moving around with the Air Force made home brewing difficult.

I retired from the USAF in 2009 and my wife bought me the Mr. Beer Deluxe Kit for my birthday in 2010. One year and ten batches later, I bought my second LBK. About six months later, I discovered the local brewing supply store and began adding additional ingredients. This last summer, I made the jump to five gallon batches and all-grain recipes.

This "hobby" has pretty much supplanted all other non-family and non-work interests and keeps me at home when I'm not at the brew shop. I think she had this planned the whole time.

[Brewbirds]

First I want to thank berryman for starting this thread. What a great idea and look at the responses, they are awesome.

Second I hope our host will see the value this thread has and find a way to make it not get buried deep over time (sticky/attachment? I don't know how that works).

For the newly arriving members and guests to see all of our mentors and teachers on the Borg telling their stories of the early days here should offer a huge amount of encouragement and induce many who may just be peeking in as guests to sign up and stay a while.

I say that because it was all these fantastic folks who I found on the old MB forum whose past experience, philosophical musings, patience and darn good advise prevented me from racing to the nearest store to return the Mr. Beer kit we got for a Christmas present a year ago. And even in those first few days just lurking as a skeptical guest I came to see the spirit of community cohesion and genuineness coming from the "founding fathers" of what became the Borg. That still exists today with the same high spirit and enthusiasm that makes the Borg so much more different than other brewing sites a newbie might otherwise turn to.

My kit sat in the unopened box for over a month while I read almost every post on almost every thread. Each conversation decreased my skepticism and increased my interest because I began to see how expansive the possibilities were with home brewing.

I think it was when someone linked to the Beer Style Guideline and opened my eyes to how many kinds of beer we could make that clinched our obsession being a forgone conclusion.

Thanks The Brewbirds appreciate you and thank you for your commitment and for your classiness. May this site thrive forever.

[Rayyankee]

I had a want to brew my own beer for quite a long time and never acted on it, I love to cook and thought it would be fun. I had a friend who talked about his brother in law brewing his own and it sounded like more work and time for not very good beer. This was in the early 80s. Then about 4 years ago i saw a MRB kit in the Bass Pro Shop in Vegas and it sparked the interest back up in me. I was looking at it and SWMBO asked what i was thinking that's not what we came here for.
So i didn't buy it then. The next time we were in the store there i had bought her something extra something for my son.daughter.and grandson. so when we walked by the MRB display i grabbed one and put it in the cart. She asked what was i doing with that? and i said i was buying a toy for me as i had got something for everyone else and i had won 900$ in poker the night before. She looked at me like i was crazy(probably right about that ). Any way i took it home brewed it up the next day and lucky for me i found the old forum that same afternoon and with the help of Dave and Swenocha and yankeedag and many others i made decent beer .I bought that kit 3/12 years ago and now SWMBO the one who thought i was crazy names my beers I don't do kits much anymore i am a BIAB brewer.

[rickbray66]

Christmas 2008, my step-son gave me the MrBeer kit. I made the first batch in January of 2009, following the directions for that West Coast Pale Ale to a tee. I thought the result was good, but not great. But I was still interested to trying more. I went to the MrB website to purchase some more recipes/refills. If I remember correctly, there was a hop shortage around that time and most of the recipes and refills were out of stock. I kept checking back for a while, but came away with nothing. Then, life got in the way and the kit went into storage. In January 2012, while putting Christmas decorations into storage, I saw the kit and decided it was time to do another batch. During the period of time the kit was in storage, I had discovered a Local Home Brew Store near me. I had peeked inside the window once and saw that they had MrB refills on the shelf. With that in mind, I took the kit out of storage and then SWMBO and I headed to the LHBS. I was like a child in a toy store. I walked out of the store with the Pilothouse Pilsner premium refill, a capper, bottles, caps and a few other supplies. Going into that store really stoked the fire inside. Once back home, I went back to the MrB website and started looking for information. That's when I discovered the borg and began reading and reading and learning. That turned the fire into a raging inferno. The journey into full assimilation had begun. The only regret is waiting so long between 2009 and 2012 to really get into this obsession.


Rick

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

In 2009 I received a MB kit for Christmas. After brewing every two weeks I did not like having to wait so I picked up another LBK so I could start brewing more & more. Grew tired of the sizes and "quality" of the beer. Not that it was bad, but some simple research and frequent, and I mean frequent trips to the LHBS I went ahead and stepped it up to a five gallon AG kit.

After two years or so of doing LBK sized batches and five gallon AG batches, I started to send brews off to competitions to see how my beer really was. Very humbling the first few score sheets I received back. Really great feedback, advice and encouragement the more competitions I began to enter beers in.

After trial & error, tinkering and tinkering I began to work my recipes to where they would ultimately become now these days.

The whole reason I really wanted to get into brewing my own beer was cost related to product produced to be honest. Why spend $4.00+ per beer when I could brew five gallons for $20 (give or take).

Finding online communities and local brewers really got me in to crafting recipes and taking more and more time to craft the recipe and beer itself. Now, attempting to start up a nano brewery here in Pensacola, I have found a new passion in my life that all spawned from a little brown piece of plastic.

Although I no longer do anything with MB recipes, etc. I owe a lot of my passion to that first kit and I actually still have the original LBK I received for Christmas to always look back at where it all began.

[Banjo-guy]

I am a diy junky. I build my own guitar effects and have put a few guitars together.
I was playing guitar for a show and the French horn player starting talking about how he was rinsing out beer bottles in his bath tub and how his batches were not going well. I always had been interested in brewing but I decided to jump in. I saw a cheap price for a Mr. beer kit on Woot and picked it up for my own Christmas 2012 gift.

My first batch was the West Coast Pale Ale and was it was a let down but I could see the possibility of making good beer. The Mr. Beer forum and the members who moved to this site are my teachers. I've made a few beers that I really but I'm still learning.