A touch ironically, my first dabbling in the world of home brew comes at the same time as my alcohol consumption hit probably its lowest point in my adult life (at least outside of marathon training, anyhow), meaning I brewed 30 litres when we first moved into our new place back in June, and still have the best part of half of it left. I cheated a little bit, to get a sense of how to brew properly, and used a kit for the first one. It was supposed to be an Australian lager, but actually tastes more like an ale or a very light bitter. You use density (which has a relationship to alcohol content) to check when fermentation’s finished, and my kit also came with carbon dioxide drops which give it a nice fizzy effect when you open the bottle.
Oddly, it’s actually matured quite significantly with time, too. Helena hated the beer to start with but came around to it after a couple of months, and I’m pretty sure there is a major taste difference. I might have to start brewing a couple of batches ahead to get the best out of it. It’s something I should have done years ago, and I’ll definitely keep on with it.