I saw this post on Homebrew http://beerbits2.blogspot.com/2008/04/homebrew-blogging-day.html and it reminded me of my first experiences making beer as an impecunious student in Dublin in the mid 1980's.

Massive unemployment and severe lack of anything approaching spending money that wasn't spent on college fees meant that if you wanted the taste of sweet sweet beer you had to make it yourself or be a pool hustler. I wasn't up to much at pool. (still no good at it nearly 25 years later)

So beer it was. Homebrewed beer. Me and my mate Steve were lucky in that his mother who was from Finland had left equipment and yeast in Steve's place.
We tried to make lager first. Moved it from the bucket after a week, put it into lots of beer bottles we had aquired, added more sugar (too much I reckon). We waited in anticipation of that sweet yellow nectar. Six weeks later we tried our first brew. We expected it to be a bit cloudy. We did not expect it Jet Black and utterly horrific! We were gutted. Phone calls to his mother ensued. She said she'd show us how to do it and true to her word she did. Over the next two years we made many batches, gaining confidence each time. We made lager, Stout and (bizarrely) 80 pints of non-alcoholic cider.............. not good.

Towards the end we got cocky. We started using wine yeast so the beer was ten or eleven percent by volume alcohol. It Rocked. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple full volume metal and over proof beer. Good good times. Cheap and cheerful. Our Parties wer pretty popular. Hell yeah...........

We moved to different countries, Got older, married and all that life stuff intruded on the party but I am introducing my younger brother to the joys of the homebrew in the next few weeks so the party will continue one way or another. Keep the faith.