I remember when i first started brewing...

Home Brew Blogging Day

Here's my entry. I pulled this from the archives over at The Brew Lounge. Ok...I cheated a bit. As I read this I cringe a bit at my writing. I hope I've improved a bit. This particular post was one of the first ones from The Brew Lounge back in August '05.

I became involved in brewing when my Dad started making his own wine. He started back in the early 90's. (Wow 15+ years ago!) His inspiration has its roots in his childhood. As a kid growing up in rural Central/Western, PA he helped make beer and root beer for each Forth of July. As he tells it, the finished product was a lot different. Not exactly up to par with the microbrews on the market today. They used to do some strange stuff like putting a raisin in the bottle before capping it for carbonation, but, that's a post for another day. His father also made his own wine back then. These experiences inspired my dad to try his hand at making his own wine.

During weekend visits with him we would sample wine from the previous year while preparing a new batch. It was so cool to think he made the wine we were drinking and it was good. He eventually suggested that I try it out, but, I'm not much of a wine drinker. Then the conversation turned to making beer. His friend Frank had been making wine and brewing beer for a long time. Eventually he offered to show us how to make beer. I was so "into" microbrews back in 1996 that I jumped at the opportunity. I think my favorite beer back then was...um let's see...this is a hard one ;-)...anything from Sam Adams...heheh...oh except the cranberry lambic (shudder).

The first beer we made was an awesome Octoberfest that Frank just knew how to brew from memory. No instructions at all! I'm still amazed at that. I split the batch with my Dad and I think it was gone in a matter of weeks. I shared it with my friends saying, "Hey we made some beer. Wanna try it?". When they said it tasted really good I was hooked. So there you go...I decided to get my own equipment and read everything under the sun about it.

I look back on that time fondly. My Dad still drinks my homebrew. I even brewed for his wedding last October. Frank actually brought some of his Octoberfest homebrew to the wedding as a surprise. How cool is that? I think I just decided what my first homebrew T-Shirt will be. "My Dad helped me brew my first batch." The second will be "My son brews my beer!". The challenge, can I get them printed before Father's Day?

Prost!