BeerBorg

After reading Kealia's reply on Hayzer's post got me thinking. We all started about the same way but progressed at different rates. I will start. I got my first MB kit in 2009 and made 2 batches, 2010 found and joined the MB forum, had 4 LBK's and made every basic recipe they had. Around 2011-12 wife got me a 5 gal setup and was doing extract and steep. Found this forum after when most left MB. started doing more Partial grain batches and went with that awhile, Was trying to figure my best options for going AG and then got a M&B sometime in early 2017 and all AG, just a little while ago kegged some beer first time and 3 down, and many more to go..............Next.

Let's see...pulling up my notes:

12/31/09: Brewed my first Mr Beer batch
7/10/10: Brewed my first BIAB batch
12/18/11: Kegged for the 1st time
Sometime in 2015: Moved to a traditional mash tun (cooler)
1/12/19: 1st batch on my Mash & Boil

To-date I've brewed a total of 149 batches.

Wow, I'm not sure I know all those dates like you two do. I do remember that my third batch was a MB batch with steeping grains during one of the collaboration exhanges that used to go on. I don't remember the guys name, but he was from Wisconsin, we did a Maibock. All grain followed pretty quickly after that.

You young ones! I first started in college. Brewed from 78-86 with the crappiest of ingredients and most of what I made was consumed but only slightly enjoyed. More bad than good. I stopped to have a life and started up again in 2008 or 2009 after a friend got a Mr. Beer kit and, not knowing what he was doing, souped up their Junk Yard Dog kit and made really good beer. I got on the Mr. Beer kick but gave it up pretty quickly and moved to BIAB.
I've got no idea how many gallons I've brewed but still have recipes and info from my first batch and my first stint at brewing. Those were fun times with very little info and places to buy supplies.

I started off all grain like... 25 years ago or something.

Then I had a 10+ year hiatus due to a combination of exploding glass carboy, divorce, downscaled (apartment) living, and other stuff.

Then I found Mr. Beer and got back into brewing the "easy way" like a bunch of folks here, around the same time, some of us go way back to a really old forum.

Then I started steeping grains again... and then doing PMs... and now for the last year have been AG 100% again with the Mash & Boil. Which I actually really like. I've never made bad beer with the Mash & Boil. Getting close to 50 batches now I think.

Brewed first batch of Mr Beer Dec 27 2013 joined the MB forum, found this one not long after reading people posting about the "other" forum. March of 2014 I did my first recipe an extract batch of Stout, in April went All Grain and bought first kegerator and never looked back. I am around 80 batches, can only guesstimate that since my laptop crapped out on me wiping out recipes that I hadn't transferred to the PC. I am numbered into upper 60's on PC though.

Similar story. I received MrBeer for Christmas 2012, and brewed the first HME in January 2013. I made my first BIAB, a SMaSH, for my sixth batch in June 2013. Batch 11 was another BIAB, Centennial Blonde. I never was really successful with the HMEs, and made mistakes on the grain batches too. There was a lot of mediocre beer that first year. In October I brewed a partial mash Rare Vos clone. That took months to condition, but ended up really good. Before it was ready an Irish Red was also a success. Those were five gallon batches, and by December of the first year I was brewing mostly stove top BIAB. I tried HME once or twice more in 2014, and wasn't happy. That year I got an SP10 burner and a bigger kettle. Each year since, Christmas has brought new gear: A keg fridge, a fine kettle, a nice mill. I still do partial mash or extract when I'm in a hurry, and I still generally ruin a batch every year. But I brew almost everything I drink at home, and I'm happy with the result. I've also brewed about 80 batches.

My notebooks are packed away right now but besides the first couple bactches I did without taking notes I have just about every batch noted. I started with a MB kit in 2009. Joined the MB Fans forum and bread with MB for a while. Started adding steeping grains and made some good beers. Started using malt extract and grains maybe within the first year and brewed that way for a couple years and made even better beer. My first all grain was an Oatmeal Stout and then did some partial mashes and BIAB style batches before really getting into regular All Grain brewing. Got about 10 yrs with this hobby and still learning, which is what I really love. I like the science and process to it. I like that it's me time, gives me something to be proud of at the end of it all and has also been a creative outlet. I also enjoy going against the grain, breaking the "rules" and finding out how to come up with my own practices and ways to do things. There is so much brewing practice and knowledge that is wrong, outdated and misleading, I have enjoyed carving my own path.

Great thread berryman! I like learning about other's timelines. It seems that they're all about the same process, but at different rates.

I'll add that I still do the occasional extract batch. The Berliner Weiss recipe I've been using is so quick and easy that I an knock it out quickly when I need to.
I also keep a 15-minute boil DME/Pale Ale recipe in my back pocket for the occasional quick brew day.

Notes say I started in 2012, so that’s must be right. I know my first couple batches were steeping with Mr. Beer kits, taken from notes from Jon on the old MBF forum. Wonder where he is now?

Moved quickly to dry extract, then Biab on batch 17. I won a contest with an extract APA on batch 11, so I figured I must do something right. Never mind it was fermented in a closet.

Anyway, kegging batch 79 tonight, and still enjoy my basic APA.


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MrBandGuy wrote:Notes say I started in 2012, so that’s must be right. I know my first couple batches were steeping with Mr. Beer kits, taken from notes from Jon on the old MBF forum. Wonder where he is now?

IIRC, Jon is in Houston. I exchanged emails with him and Thorn a couple of years ago. I don't think he' s brewing these days, but I think he has an account here (I think Thorn does, as well).

I started brewing in May 2009. There was an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that Utah legalized homebrewing and a couple of days later, Woot had a Mr Beer kit for $19.99.

For the first year, all of my beers were based on HMEs (after the first couple of baches, I added DME, LME, hops to all batches). After that, I started making my own recipes with LME (my lhbs sold it for as little as $1.80/lb at the time; now $2/lb). I started partial mashes without ever doing just steeping grains because I didn't see that much difference between the two.

Sometime in mid to late 2011, I started brewing 5 gallon batches. When I started brewing larger batches, I realized how much bottling sucks, so I got a kegerator. That's also about when I started doing partial mashes.

I brewed my first M&B batch in March of last year and have been mostly all grain since then.

I started growing hops in 2011, I think.

MrBandGuy wrote:Notes say I started in 2012, so that’s must be right. I know my first couple batches were steeping with Mr. Beer kits, taken from notes from Jon on the old MBF forum. Wonder where he is now?

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Jon moved to Texas for work and got married. I do not think he's brewing much these days but I touch base with him on occasion on Facebook. He just had surgery on his knee a few weeks ago and is recovering. I sent them beer package a couple years ago as a wedding gift. Jon was the first person I did a beer swap with many many years ago and have bounced around a lot of recipe ideas. Hes a good guy.

Kealia wrote:I'll add that I still do the occasional extract batch. The Berliner Weiss recipe I've been using is so quick and easy that I an knock it out quickly when I need to.
I also keep a 15-minute boil DME/Pale Ale recipe in my back pocket for the occasional quick brew day.

I'll just pipe in again and say that I'd do this too. I have only done it 1 time I think since I got the Mash & Boil, but I've still got no problems using extract in a pinch or for a quick Berliner or such.

12/27/09: First Mr Beer batch
1/1/10: First grain steep batch
1/22/10: First lemonade
1/31/10: First non-Mr Beer DME/steep/hop batch
2/2/10: First wine
4/17/10: First mead
11/11/10: First stovetop BIAB all-grain batch
4/29/12: First electric turkey fryer BIAB all-grain batch
12/28/12: First cider
2/3/18: First kegged beer

2009/10: 77.5 gallons on 33 brews
2011: 54.0 gallons on 21 brews
2012: 38.5 gallons on 15 brews
2013: 22.5 gallons on 9 brews
2014: 24.5 gallons on 9 brews
2015: 18.5 gallons on 8 brews
2016: 9.5 gallons on 4 brews
2017: 12.0 gallons on 5 brews
2018: 9.0 gallons on 3 brews
Total: 266 gallons on 111 brews