A Journey in Brewing Part 1

I had brewed my first beer 1 week ago today. It was a joyous event. As much as I drink beer I have never been able to witness it in the stages of its creation. I had brewed a pale ale from extract and this is my story.

With a lot of help from The Brewing Network, and various websites I had learned about from their shows, I have been learning about the brewing process for quite sometime. I had been shopping online, never being able to get myself to order the equipment I needed. Then I had learned of a homebrew shop about an hour from here, in Central Point, OR, Hermans Homebrew Shop. I had decided to pay them a visit. I was overwhelmed a little at first. Being able to see all this product first hand and not just pictures in catalogs and onilne. He had a bundle package available for about $119 and I was seriously considering it, finally. However I continued to be overwhelmed and we (my fantastic girlfriend Jessica and I) left. We headed over to Barnes n' Nobles. There I found a newly expanded section on homebrewing. I purchased Sam Caligione's book Extreme Brewing and informed Jessica that I had decided that I wanted to buy all the equipment, I wanted to do this, take the next step in to the wonderful world of Beer.