It may have been covered in another thread so here it is again. How many Military Home Brewers are here? Me, Air Force stationed in England. It never hurts to ask so the local community over here can be built up.
Are you at Lakenheath in Suffolk? My BIL was stationed there a few years back and we had a nice visit. Green King and Adnams are not far away. I don’t mean to hijack, but it brought back some fond memories.
Did The Heath for the last five years and I am now at Mildenhall. Yes, those are tours I have done and many beers drank from them. My local is in Bury at The Cannon.
I’m no longer active duty, but I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall from 1986-1988 and lived in the dorms. That is when I started homebrewing. I was known as the “Brewmeister”…I made quite a few batches of “illegal” brew as we weren’t really allowed to cook in the dorms. I had a single burner hotplate I picked up at the BX at Lakenheath. I suppose my next duty station could have been Leavenworth, but the urge to brew was too strong to deter me
Just got out after 6 years in the Army. Homebrewing, or beer touring either, really weren’t a part of my military experience but having traveled to a lot of different places it may have opened me up to new experiences, food, and tastes.
Former military… didn’t brew when I was in. I am living in Seoul, South Korea and had to start brewing when I came back in 2006. My wife just retired after 21 1/2 years in the Navy. We are both civilians now working at the Yongsan Army Garrison. I hate the local beer, but I know a guy who is importing Anderson Valley, Lost Coast, and Rogue beers into South Korea now. And we do have a brewpub (Craftworks Taphouse) that makes an IPA that’s not bad. But the beer situation requires homebrewing to make up for the lack of good beer. We have an organization - Homebrewkorea.com - and there’s where our homebrewing community thrives.
Currently serving my 6th year on AD with the Navy, but I only came into the homebrewing obsession fairly recently.
My deployments usually take me to places like Bosnia, Turkey or the Indian Ocean with great local wines or national liquors (Ouzo… Mmm!) but typically only the big beer brands like Stella and Bud, and maybe even Guiness if I get lucky. Since I hit shore duty last year, the attraction of trying to make my own better beer has been too much to resist!
Since I’ll probably be heading back to sea in a year or so, I plan on being able to schedule a few brews around the underway time, so that I’ll have something good to come back home to after the weeks or months away from the pier. Besides the wife, of course…!
I am in Afghanistan right now so I can’t brew but I have a few things waiting on me back home that I brewed before I left and I plan to brew a Wheat Wine / Impy Weizenbock on R&R over Christmas for my return next spring/summer.
As my screen name kind of alludes to, I’m active duty Navy. Stuck in the Gulf right now, but I’ll be going to shore duty soon, so I’ll be able to kick my brewing into overdrive. I was able to spend my last six months between deployments brewing up a storm. I got nearly ten batches brewed in that short time. In fact, there are still a few brews waiting for me when I get home from this one.
sars, the shorter underways are great for waiting for batches to ferment. A few times I brewed the weekend before an underway and bottled the weekend after we got back. But the long ones just make you miss the brewing…
former submarine officer
had my first homebrew while at nptu idaho falls in 1985. found the box of bottles under the stairs in the house we were renting. took me nearly 20 years to brew my own. interesting when i was in the navy the pop machines all had cans of beer in them at the boq.
I am currently stationed in Sigonella Sicily in the Navy for 28 more days at least. Got in to home brewing the first part of the year and love it. I have a friend that does wine to thank for getting me started.
Army Reservist here, Started learning about homebrewing right before hopping on a plane to Iraq (No Beer there…) I basically did all my research while I was in country, and started brewing the day after I got home. 1 month home, 4 beers somewhere between the Kettle and Bottles.
USAF 1983-1991 (engine mechanic, then maintenance officer)… didn’t brew until 2009, but did plenty of “research,” especially in England (Lakenheath) and Germany (Hahn).