My first was in March of 1998. 415 more since then.
sometime in September, 2004. 7-8 batches a year for most of that.
Then March 19th 2011 I got serious. Including batch 99 which is chilling right now, 49 batches in that year. I should stop typing and start drinking! 8)
cheers–
–Michael
November 2005; Midwest’s Big River Brown Ale kit. It wasn’t half bad, so I decided to brew 131 more batches over the next several years. 8)
It was in June of 1992. I brewed 5 gal using some of John Bull’s English Bitter Extract. I believe it was a Red Star dry yeast packet that I sprinked over the wort. Fermented in my basement at the time. The first batch wasn’t too bad but I remember having a few not so good batches back then. I use to pitch around 75F. :
I started brewing dec. of 2008 and it was the liberty cream ale kit from Midwest.
Jan. 1, 1990.
My girlfriend got me my first kit for my birthday (so I had to marry her!).
I found the old brewing log. An amber ale that we bottled on the 5th day :o . We had to check it for carbonation every day. We were very unimpressed.
Then we found the last 6-pack about a month later and it was goooooooood. Which started my brewing motto, “brew early and brew often!”
Cheers!
I thought it was “enter early and enter often.” 
How is the brewery / man-cave construction coming?
Back to topic. Mine was fall 1989. I brewed an extract ESB kit from Alternative Beverages in Charlotte, NC. It was good enough to get me hooked. I am on my 2nd wife (this one is a keeper), 3rd kid, and 3rd house since then.
Keep yourself safe over there ST87!
- 1st trip to England with my Brit hubby. Fell in love with all things Pub and beer. Took home 2 cans of “Boots
Chemists” malt extract…yes, the yeast was attached. Life ensued and after several moves, decided it was time to make that beer…circa 1977. Followed the directions to the “T”. Bottled in carefully collected swing top bottles. Voila!
Nothing, nada, no bubbles at all. Decided there just wasn’t any viable yeast there, so we dropped a couple of raisins into each bottle (grapes have naturally occurring yeast on the skins don’t you know…and raisins have sugar. Brilliant!!! A year later, went to the basement pantry where they had been forgotten about. Every bottle looked like someone had taken a glass cutter and neatly severed off the bottle bottom with the top completely in tact. Never did completely get all the solidified beer off that floor. (Boy, those Grolsch tops sure do seal though!)
Sometime in the 80’s, still missing real ale, got serious. Bought a fresh can of extract and yeast from a real home brew store. Once again followed the directions…but augmented with having read a couple of books…the original “Joy” and Dave Line’s “Big Book” I was now armed to make real beer. The secret was obviously more extract!
The beer was surprisingly drinkable (I was intrigued) but I needed a real mentor. I managed to find the Minnesota Home Brewers Assoc. and the rest as they say is history. Those wonderfully amusing and witty guys, with all their cobbled together kegs and dairy auction bits and bobs were the most genuine and fun
group of people I’ve ever been fortunate enough to spend time with. They embraced a noob (a girl even), without being intimidating. They made suggestions that made a huge difference in my next batch, and several of them even “adopted” me, helping me acquire a reasonable assemblage of usable brew gear on the cheap. Lot’s of fun years as a member there brewing some really great beers, winning a few ribbons and learning, learning, learning.
Around '94, all the gear got moth balled as we were operating our own businesses. Besides, you could now “buy” a lot of really great beer and my favorite Pale Ale was even made locally.
Moved to rural Oregon in '05, and by '07 was ready to have another go at it. One hippy co-op with some brew supplies and no local club. Thank gawd for internet shopping. Found a handful of people who were meeting basically to drink home made beer in the summer of '08 thru a small ad. Fast forward…2012. The Umpqua Valley Brewers Guild has hosted it’s 1st BJCP sanctioned competition, has 30+ members, some fun activities on the 2012 calendar, a lot of enthusiastic noobs, and a mission to teach and share the greatest hobby on the planet.
Currently, I have beers 3 on tap, one conditioning and two new sight glasses to install. Life is Good!
Thanks to all you guys who have and continue to share so much enthusiasm and knowledge about our beloved brews and brewing. Luv you all. 
To the best of my recollection, it was late 1981 with some of my college room mates. When we graduated and moved our separate ways, I kept the gear and carried on the tradition. Just brewed batch 297 yesterday.
You and Denny are making me wish I’d have kept track of the numbers. I have no idea how many I might have made. I AM busy trying to make up for all that lost time though!
Diane, has anyone ever told you that you bear a striking resemblance to Clayton Moore?
Late August or early September 2006. I got my friend a really basic kit for his birthday, and we brewed an extract plus steeping grains Nut Brown Ale from a kit we got at Oak Barrel in Berkeley. Upon the urging of the cashier, we added 1/2 cup of brown sugar during the boil. It was great. I couldn’t believe how well it turned out - in retrospect, the cool temperature of my friend’s closet is probably the cause. We brewed once a week for about a year, before I moved away. He doesn’t brew anymore, but I took it up again after I moved.
I’m not 100% sure - I believe it was September or October of 1990. A dark beer from the Charlie’s book, that I added some brown sugar to. And brown hops, because that’s what color hops were. It was very drinkable, I was hooked from the first batch.
for beer, I think it was winter of 2006/2007. It was the alton brown pale ale recipe. living in Dorchester, MA. got the goods at a LHBS in cambridge.
but I tried to make mead about 4 times in 2000ish.
July 5th, 2010.
I remember it because I had off from work. My wife (girlfriend at the time) took me on a brewery tour and I wanted to make beer myself, so I purchased a beer kit with an Amber Ale Extract recipe fro monsterbeer or monsterbrew.com (Can’t remember). It consisted of a can of hopped malt extract with a 1oz package of generic “bittering” hops.
I only probably boiled about a gallon (for a 5 gallon batch), don’t think I cooled it down enough, and pitched the dry yeast right on top of the wort. Somehow though, it made beer, and it may have not been the best, but in my eyes it was damn good.
My first batch was the spring of 2006. My wife knew that I loved beer and I wanted to start brewing so she bought me a Mr. beer kit and ingredients for an ESB for Christmas. I finally made the ESB in the spring and it came out surprisingly good. Unfortunately and fortunately I didnt read the directions to well and I put the “fermenter” in the dishwasher. It warped and was pretty much destroyed. I needed to get another, better setup, which came from Alternative Beverage. The first beer I brewed using my setup from there was a stout. I remember that I was surprised that it came with a licorice stick. I was torn whether to put it in the beer or eat it. Mmmm licorice. I put it in the beer and the stout was delicious.
In real life, she has no Native American sidekick, though.
Thank you for the compliment! Actually, that’s not me. That’s a reminder of how I should live…
Keep facial hair to a minimum, try to look good in tight pants and always do what’s right.
excellent philosphy!