I first brewed on beer in the early 1980's. It wasn't intended to be that way; my mother bought my father a homebrew starter kit from Boots and then the Royal Navy decided to send him to the Falklands so I decided I'd brew it for him in his absence. Quite how much was left when he came back from deployment I can't say for sure but I did a few brews without much success and forgot about it until last year when financial hardship caused me to look at the amount I was spending on beer.
Now before the temperance society starts to look down its nose at me, I should point out that we're not talking about three cases of beer for £20 from a supermarket here. We talking about £20 worth beer bottled in 500ml bottles, sometimes bottle conditioned, sometimes not. However the thought of eschewing a pint after work in the comfort of my own home in favour of fruit tea (not that there's anything at all wrong with fruit tea - it's just not a pint isn't it) was just too much to bear.
So I looked at t'internet and I saw wonderful things. I saw that beer kits had come on a long way in 25 years; part of my reticence to return to kit brewing was the fact that my brews of the early 80's just weren't that good. Then I read some forums and realised that, a bit like a curry sauce from the early 90's wasn't all that compared to what can be bought today, so kits appeared to have improved also.
After about eight weeks mandatory procrastination (I'm quite good at this) I bit the bullet and broke out the credit card and bought a starter kit. The rest, as they say, is history. That was in March, 35 brews ago.
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