Thirty seven years ago today, I opened a 3 pound can of Blue Ribbon (hopped) Malt Extract and poured it into a pot of boiling water. Added a couple pounds of sugar and enough cold water to fill a 5 gallon water container. A packet of yeast (taped to the top of the can) finished my first brew day in less than an hour.
It was the best beer I had ever made (up to that point). Maybe not as good as a Schlitz Tall Boy, but it was Mine. I named it The First Batch.
Time passes. Today, I get to transfer a two week old Dark Strong out of the conical so I can brew an Imperial Stout. True, it will take a lot longer than an hour, but that just means I get to have that much more fun. Cheers! 8)
Great job. 41 years here except my first batch was really bad but we still forced it down. We bottled in large glass 7 up bottles which eventually turned into bombs.
2 cans of Boots malt extract in my luggage so I could recapture that English Pub experience once I got home. Hah! What a disaster. Batch never carbonated, but fortunately, we had used swing top bottles so we had the bright idea of adding a few raisins to each bottle. Not a bright idea. I think they carbonated alright, but it looked like someone took a glass cutter to the bottom of each bottle and cleanly severed it.
The experience put me off trying again for 13 years until an English friend told me what great beer his father made in the UK. If he could do it, I could do it, so off to find a home brew club I went. That was the beginning of my very long love affair with home brewing. It’s as much about the friendships I’ve made as the beer.
Congrats to all of you who have enjoyed this hobby for so long. Who’d have thought it would just keep getting better and better.