First beer you brewed?
We spend a lot of time talking about what everyone is brewing now, and what they're planning to brew next, and about all of the awesome beers they've made along the way, but what about your very first brew?
So I have a few questions:
What was your first favorite beer (commercial or homebrew)?
What was the first beer you brewed, and how did it turn out?
Thanks
Joshua
My first favourite commercial beer was Foster's lager (I was 15.. can't stand the stuff now!). Used to love going to pubs and drinking as much of it as I could!
My first homebrew was a Boots (UK pharmacy chain.. used to sell homebrew equipment) Lager kit when I was 15. Can of extract and pound of sugar in a bucket in a cupboard in my bedroom. Did everything you weren't supposed to do (How could I know?) like starting siphon by sucking on it. Managed to spill loads of lager all over my bedroom floor. Bottled in 2 litre plastic bottles with half a ton of yeast sediment. First bottle got shaken up and was horrible.
When I opened another bottle a few months later it was really good! My parents liked it too!
Cade
My first commercial beer was one of the various BMCs that really turned me away from beer for a long time. They were all tasteless and vile. Then I learned that pretty much anything with some color to it (amber or dark) actually had FLAVOR and character!!! (Of course I've learned since homebrewing that pale colored beers CAN be brewed with both, and that the word "lager" is not a swear word.)
My first attempt at homebrewing was an Irish Red extract kit, since that is what I'd choose if I was forced to only be able to have one kind of beer for the rest of my life. (Scary thought!) It turned out much better than I thought possible, even though I made several rookie mistakes like most of us do early on. Now I can't imagine how anyone in the public at large can be satisfied with the BMCs of the world when homebrewing is so easy and fun.
Bryce
It was called "Sarah's Bitter", bought in the UK in the eighties, and based on an old recipe. The pack contained the actual hops and barley, and you boiled it up.
I made it with some friends, and it turned out very well. Happy times!
My first favourite commercial beer was Molson Canadian. (as a teenager) These days I lean towards low-carb varieties, but still enjoy lagers and pilseners. As the weather gets colder in the fall, I may switch to Guiness.
I forget the name of my first home brew kit, but it would probably have been lager from an extract. It turned out pretty well as I recall. Of course there was sediment, but after some practice I was able to pour avoiding sediment in the glass.
Yes, it was the same for us - we had to get used to the fact that there was sediment in the bottom of the bottles! I had forgotten that little detail until you mentioned it.
The first beer I liked was my Dads home brew. Open cask partial mash pale ale. I can still recall the wonderful smells in the basement! Mmmmmmm! As a teen, I tried the stuff my buddies were drinking like Olympia and Lucky Lager. Couldn't get them to go down. Dad quit brewing about that time too. For all these years, I thought I didn't like beer! Well, I've been wrong befor. I just dont like most comertial beer. No flavor and over carbonated!
My first beer was a Mr. Beer kit and for some reason, it turned out great! I had one of my Sons who has been home brewing for sevral years help me with it. Nice lawnmower beer. I used fresh raw hops in it too!. Now I'm on my forth 5 gallon batch of extract brews. So far, so good! Thanks to John Palmer and my Kids!
The first beer I liked was also one of my dad's homebrews, which was some kind of porter. It was great, and that is what turned me on to beer. My first favorite was either Pete's Wicked or Red Hook ESB, both of which I still enjoy, but it has probably been two years since I bought a six pack of beer, as I always drink homebrew now.
My first homebrew was an ingredient kit put together by the LHBS which he referred to as an English Dark Beer. It was very good, but the beers have gotten only better since.
My first favorite commercial brew was Guinness. It was such a magical brew back then. So full of new and wonderful flavors (as opposed to the other stuff I had been drinking). My first homebrew was a brown ale kit. It turned out all right, definitly drinkable! 
I haven't done a first batch yet, tring to learn what I can first. I'll be using father inllaw, or a buddies equipment.
With the tips and advice I've seen on the net I will be brewing an American pale ale, or a brown ale I saw called "queens ale"
Marv.
My first favorite beer was kokanee. I drank cases of that stuff back in the day.
My first homebrew was a six malt amber ale from AHS.
First beer I ever brewed was an English Bitter. I had always wanted to try brewing, as far back as college. However, when I mentioned this to a friend of mine (who happened to be a chemistry major), his response was, "you'll have to learn a lot of organic chemistry." Well, organic had been the biggest bane of engineering majors in the school, and I knew I'd never make it through that class, so I abandoned my brewing hopes.
But, I had lived in Germany for a couple years and knew what good beer tasted like. About a decade or more later, I was in Georgia with a friend of mine who happened to be a lawyer and a homebrewer. We're sitting in his living room drinking a fine homebrewed honey brown when he says, "Chris, as much as you enjoy good beer, you should learn to brew your own.". Well, I told him I would love to, but that I didn't understand organic chemistry that well. He got a really funny look on his face and responded, "Hell, I don't know nuthin' 'bout no organic chemistry, but you come over t'the house Sunday and I'll teach you to brew beer."
Well, I did, and he did, and I've been brewing ever since.
My first ever Homebrew was a Colonial Honey Porter, made from a recipe in Stephen Snyder's "Brewmaster's Bible". It turned out really good, considering I had only a vague idea of what I was doing (Cooling the wort was a long experience, no secondary fermentation, etc) The only problem was that the last few pints got a bit "chewy" as there was no secondary fermentation.
My favorite commercial brew is, hands down, Guinness. There are other beers that I enjoy more at certain times, but Guinness is one that I can keep coming back to & drinking. I just need to get off my ass & buy a Nitro kit so I can approximate the recipe at home
Joshua wrote:
What was your first favorite beer (commercial or homebrew)?
What was the first beer you brewed, and how did it turn out?
First FAVORITE beer? Toss up between McMenamins Ruby (raspberry) and Widmer Hefeweizen.
First beer I brewed? Coopers Wheat Beer kit. Turned out alright but I didn't like the flavor.
I did 2 kits, was unhappy with both, switched to extract and did roughly a dozen batches before going to all grain.
Hello All....
Well the first beer I ever brewed was... you guessed it.... "Hempen Ale" from the famous recipe now posted on BYO! My friends think its great, and a judge I know even liked it....
I told him it had cannabis seeds in it and he replied..."What! Only seeds?" and I told him yes and It's legal so don't worry mon! ... ;-)
Go check it out on BYO....
You know what they say....
"Your first is always the best!"
Happy brewin to all and to all a good light!
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