That’s a sig line right there!
A roommate of mine bought a kit from Midwest back in 2005. I helped him brew the extract amber ale. We did everything the instructions said, fermented, bottled, and let it sit for 2 weeks. We opened a the first bottles and it was cloudy and yeasty and not good. We were discouraged and decided to let it sit for a month. Came back to it and it was clear and good!
That planted the seed for me, but I didn’t start brewing myself until October of 2008. I brewed Midwest’s Irish Red. It didn’t turn out very good and my next 1 or 2 batches turned out kind of bad also, but I eventually got it. I went all grain after about 5 batches.
Well, you and I have a lot in common, except for the 407 batches in between me using a Mr. Beer kit around the same time you started, then doing nothing until last month. 8)
My first batch was in the spring of 1998 and was a honey porter recipe from the local homebrew store in Tampa, FL. I don’t know how many batches I’ve brewed since I didn’t keep good records until I went all-grain 6 years ago, 137 batches since then.
I think I started in '94 or '95.
I’ll ponder that Denny, but I wouldn’t want to draw attention to my shortcomings. So far I figure both you and I are “barely” hitting 1 out of 3, and you’re probably running slightly ahead regarding minimal facial hair. 
October 7, 1989 1:43 pm - Lindsay, ON
Tried a “Canadian Lager” kit from the hardware store. Practically no sanitation, stirred it with an arrow that we ran back and forth over the kitchen stove. Fermented in a water jug with a cork that didn’t fit but we tried to seal it with tape and hot glue. Let it go a few days, tried it, dragged it outside and dumped it all.
Not hard for me to remember, December 26th, 2011. Brewers Best Oatmeal Stout. Read about 12 pages of Charlie P’s book and went for it. No chilling, temp control, or much of an idea what I was doing. Needless to say it wasn’t great. I drank it though. And I read books. Lots of 'em. Listened to about 12,000,000 hrs of Jamil and Palmer on my mp3 player (I can do that at work. So I got that goin for me, which is nice). And brewed. And bought things. And brewed. And read. And obsessed. Starters. Stir-plates. Temp controllers. Cheap fridge. Fermwraps.Wort chillers. Blichmann burners (shiny!). Big pots. Ball valves. Mash Tun.
My last batch (#8) was my first AG beer.
I have no idea how all that happened in 3 months.
First batch was January 2010. Got a basic kit for Christmas 2009. I brewed the Belgian Dubbel from Jamil’s Brewing Classic Styles and it didnt turn out bad since Belgian yeast doesn’t mind higher ferm temps. Never did all extract batches and was only on the extract/steeping grain thing for 5 batches until moving to all grain.
October 22, 2011. For Christmas 2010, my aunt got me a copy of “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.” Unfortunately I started preparing for deployment in January 2011, and wasn’t able to actually brew until I returned home. I read all the books I could get my hands on, and listened to countless hours of Basic Brewing Radio. As soon as I got home, I bought a starter set and came up with a recipe for an American ESB. Was a little heavy on the hops and extract, so it ended up being a really tasty APA. 5 extract + grain brews to make sure I had a handle on the cold side, and then I went all-grain in 2012. 5 AG Batches down so far, and not a dumper in the bunch!
On the other hand, my wife thinks I brew too much.
Did anybody in here learn brewing from Greg Noonan? (Brewing Lager Beer)
I started with The Complete Joy… but, quickly moved on to Greg’s book. John Stuart, the brewer at the Winter Park Mill turned me on to it. He said, “You want to learn how to brew beer? Read this.”
Mostly The Complete Joy then later on John Palmer. In the very beginning I learned from fellow homebrewers then started reading books. The internet was too young in '92.
Would you think less of me if I told you I’ve never even seen John Palmer’s book? :-[
When you come to Seattle you can get one signed by John himself…how about that.
That was the path I took as well. I also had the pleasure of interviewing Greg via telephone for an article I wrote for BYO in the early 90’s.
He is (or was) one of my brewing heroes. Central Florida used to have him come down to Orlando as a speaker each year in the late 90’s and early 00’s. I have his autograph in my copy of “Brewing Lager Beer” three times.
I believe I started around 2003. My wife had actually started brewing a few years before I did. She joined the SCA, at the suggestion of a friend, to learn how to brew. As I look back our beers back then were drinkable but not great. Mostly we fermented too warm which resulted in that lovely estery flavor. Now we know better. Man, do I love brewing. What would I be doing if it wasn’t for homebrewing?
I was at that Sunshine Challenge too. I got to spend a good bit of time with Greg and judge a couple of flights with him. We became friends.
No less of you than you’d think of me for never having seen Charlie’s book
I started with Papazian’s back in 93 but JP’s HTB has been invaluable. I found the online edition in 07 and was off to the races…