I always wondered why home brewers went to all that trouble when anyone can pull in to the liquor store and come out with ‘beer’ in a matter of minutes.
Then I bought a kit and tried to brew my own.
I probably made every mistake a rookie can make and I still came up with a pretty good Dark Winter ale. All these years I was drinking that canned swill.
Suddenly, two seven gallon stainless conical fermenters, a stainless brew pot and a jet boiler have magically appeared in the man cave (no, I don’t use one room for a man cave. My HOUSE is my man cave).
Now I have a red ale in fermenter #1. I made more rookie mistakes and still get a nice hoppy scent from the airlock, had good fermenting action for the first five days and it has five more days on its two weeks in the primary. Having read some of the posts here, I found I can save a few bucks skipping the secondary fermenter. Thanks for that!
I’ve been baking my own bread for years, just started making my own cheese last fall and make my own sausage when I can. Zymurgy is a worthwhile skill to add to the skill set. There may be an all-grain brew in my future but I’ll work with extracts for now.
Congratulations and welcome to the obsession.
Thanks, Frankenbrew!
Welcome aboard the train, enjoy the ride. When I look back now at my purchase of a starter kit that “Contains everything you need to brew your own beer,” I wonder where all the other wonderful toys came from that I have since acquired that I would not want to brew without. No stainless conicals in my brewhouse yet, and no conicals at all for that matter, but a shiny SS brewing designed kettle is one of my favorite purchases in the last 2.5 years.
Welcome.
Like the others, those 2 boxes that contained my Advanced Homing Kit in 1997 have somehow turned into 2 shelving units and a built in set of cabinets (not counting the extra fridge and the keezer). 
Paul
Thanks, Frank. Yeah, I’m the guy who gets glassy-eyed at the sight of polished stainless.
“Ooh. A shiny thing! Can I put it in my nest?”
Hello, Slowbrew. Yes, I think there’s a beer-dedicated fridge in my future. Maybe with a temp controller.
Isn’t it strange how these things just sort of show up out of nowhere?
Keep in mind that the brewer makes the beer…the equipment doesn’t. Personally, I’m just not into the gear. I want only what matters to making great beer. I’ve used the same very basic setup since I started 18 years and 493 batches ago and I have no inclination to change. You can see my setup at www.dennybrew.com
Denny, just as a quick aside, anything really special or significant scheduled for batch #500? I’m sure several on here would be interested in also possibly making it as a sort of tribute
Kind of like a Big Brew Day. That’s a good idea, Frank.
Big Brew Day, exactly
You’re absolutely right, Denny. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Not yet, but I’m thinking about it. I did a quad for batch #400. I don’t think I want to do a quintuple!
the mistakes are welcome, a critical part of learning. my first batch of beer i did by the book as close as i could, came out ok, but not my style. my second batch i made the rookie mistake of never removing the hops, so they stayed in for the full boil and through fermentation we dubbed the supposed to be APA “ABA” for american bitter ale because it tasted very light and had little to no hop profile just the bitterness. still enjoyable somehow though.
Thanks Jon
I just bottled a kit from Jasper’s. Its STFU ale (yeah, I know :o). That’s the batch that I where I made so many mistakes. It bottled at 1.014 if I read that correctly. Looked pretty good and had a nice aroma. The trub however had just a whif of skunky odor. It didn’t show up in the beer itself. Anybody got a suggestion?
After I finished that I boiled another kit: Zombie Apocalypse Double Red Bloodbath Ale (yeah, yeah ::)). Fewer mistakes and the timing was pretty close. Pitched at the high end of the yeast profile. I just took delivery of three pounds of hops with a fourth in the fridge. I think I’ll use a vacuum style food sealer and break up those packages. Should I freeze it or just refrigerate?
Freeze it, but I usually don’t break up manufacturer packs until I need some. The less exposure to air the better. Then I usually break into 4oz wt in quart bags and vac seal
Thanks Frank. Have you got a recommendation for a vac-sealer?
This is the one I have. It’s fairly entry level and works wonderfully. Highly recommend it :
http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-FM2100-000-Vacuum-Sealing-System/dp/B00LUGK5QW
Looks good, Jon. I can use it for packaging sausage too. Maybe some venison if I get lucky next fall.
Yep. I’ve used the hell out of mine and it’s still going strong.