How did you get into brewing?

[Glynn Foster]

Continuing in the pointless new forum posts....

How did you get into (home)brewing?

For me it was mostly my brother back home starting to home brew first (since then all 3 of us do). I've been meaning to try for a while until I finally bit the bullet and went up to Great Expectations in the Hutt (utterly disappointing experience). Got it into my head that I was going to use glass bottles, so went next door and bought 4 swap-a-crates of Speights. It was a tough 2 weeks drinking to get through them in time for my first bottling. Unfortunately my first brew was also fizzy and tasteless....

[Reviled]

How did they go so under the radar like that?? WTF?

[Matthew]

Mate, we must be outside the inner circle...

Might just have to start my own nano brewing company. Seems all the rage.

Hey, there we go! Nano Brewing Co. (TM)

[Stu McKinlay]

Golden Ticket: It's Crabbey and Ally McG.

[Reviled]

Congrats Ally and Crabby, but cheers for letting us know, dont talk to me for a week ;oP hahaha

Were you guys going for the stealth approach? Hoping one of us would see the bottle on the shelf and go WTF is that? I must buy it!! lol

[Stu McKinlay]

I'm still working on the recipe and could keep doing it for years (procastination is my middle name) but I'm tired of waiting so mashing in tomorrow.

Have fun Soren... thinking of you this morning. We'll all be buying and recommending to our friends so just enjoy yourself and do the business.

[Soren]

phew, busy days. Brewed a Stonecutter on Thursday and my brown ale yesterday. Lifting and mashing 1200 kgs of grain in 2 days is not as easy on the back as it used to be...:) It was a lot of fun though and all we can do now is sit back and watch those yeast do their thing. I hit my numbers perfectly, even got 100 liters more than expected in the kettle. Got a feeling it may have gotten too hoppy though (I did not just use those words!!?), didn't account for the better utilization in a commercial setting. but let's see, it will be very interesting to see how it compares to my test brews. my communication expert (the missus) have put a ton of photo's on facebook if anybody's interested:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112379&id=157213909512

So. I'm ready to take on Steve Nally's United Front of Yeastie Tickets! (that's trash...;-)

[MrC]

Good on ya Soren. Sounds like you're gaining some great experience down there. Looking forward to a taste one day.

[Pilgrim]

Living my dream and that of a lot of others on this forum. Well done Soren, hope it all works out for you, looks like you've put in the groundwork.

[Martin Bridges]

Congrats mate, very inspirational. I look forward to trying your beers.

[Soren]

thanks for the support guys, really appreciate it. hope I can deliver the goods:)

[Stu McKinlay]

Nice topic Glynn... I'm not sure I really remember how it all happenned but here goes.

I started brewing in Puriri, just south of Thames, about 8 years ago. I'd moved away from Wellington soon after the strong grip of craft beer had taken hold of me. There was little to choose in the local supermarket besides Founders and the three James Squires beers that used to be imported. I had good memories of "Munton's" beers that my dad had made when I was in my teens. I'd helped out on brewday a few times and had enjoyed the odd glass of the final product.

My first brews varied between drinkable and godamn awful. Adding a near full box of super alpha flowers (purchased at a chemist!) to a fermenter of dark beer was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. i started reading after that...

I'd still consider one of my latter extract beers, a strong pale ale hopped with Sauvin and NZ Fuggle, to be one of the best beers I've ever drunk - it is a beer that I've not yet really tried hard to recreate as an all-grain brewer but I will someday. Soon after that I began all-grain brewing... firstly with Brendon MacKenzie and latterly alone. this is about three years ago.

One of the first all-grain beers Brendon and I made together, a Baltic Porter, won the NZ section of the Tri-Nations comp that Tim Busby used to run. All english malt in a Baltic Porter - I suppose we should have entered it as a historical Baltic Porter! It's still a style that I think about a lot (recently had Redoak's great interpretation of it, which has rekindled that fire). It's still the only homebrew competition I've ever entered, though I did get halfway to entering the NHC this year (I just forgot to send the beers in!).

After a while I was inundated with requests to "test" my beer. It had me thinking of starting a brewpub - if people really wanted it, they could pay for it. I actually took time off work to ahng with my family and complete the business plan. Two kids later I thought contract brewing through my good friend Steve Nally was a safer option... for now.

And so this is where I am... a trial brew of Yeastie Boys summer release this year. Unlimited options for weird and wonderful recipes ahead. The only thing better than drinking my beer (or yours) is the thought of the beer still unbrewed.

[Glynn Foster]

You put poo in your beer!?!?!?