This blog is about 3 years too late. If I was truly going to document my journey into brewing, I would of started this a lot earlier, however, my first post should outline the beginning...
Like any homebrewer, my journey begins with an innocuous start. A good friend of mine (later to become brewing partner) had dabbled in homebrewing. It was kit and kilo stuff and I would often sit and watch him wash his bottles while I drank his mass-produced commercial swill from a can. Good times!
However, for me the real beginning was a family trip to another good mate’s family property outside of Bathurst. His dad was a part-time homebrewer (I have met some full-time homebrewers) and I was inspired liked some geek-pimply faced teenager watching soft porn. It was not about the beer, it was about his set-up. An old fridge resting against against a slate wall with two beer taps protruding out from the doors. Inside were two 19L kegs with his wares.
I sampled his beer (could have been piss) but I did not care, this was cool. For clarification on this point, the beer was very good. I was so inspired, that I sheepishly tried to convince everyone to have a beer at 8am, just so I could pull a beer. This time, I drank alone!
This trip was conveniently close to my birthday, so I convinced my lovely wife that a homebrew kit with keg system was what I wanted. I am very fortunate that I live near a homebrew shop. Like any cashed up beginner, I bought stuff that I had no idea how to use but that did not matter. I was going to make beer and more importantly at this point in time, I was going to serve it from a tap.
