I carb corny kegs of water to approximately 40psi.
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I went to a small local brewfest this summer and found 8 beers I never need to have again and two pretty good ciders. Several of the beers were fruit flavored. Not my thing. I told that to one of the vendors. He took one look at me and said, “You’re not the target market”.
Two of my favorite local-ish brews are Trapp Lager (as in Von Trapp/Sound of Music) in Vermont and Lake Placid UBU Ale in the Adirondack Mountains.
I have thought many times about brewing my own but have never gotten around to it.
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I brewed for about 15 years when I lived in Hannibal. Had a buddy that got into it and we both bought stuff. I had a giant stainless 7 gallon stock pot and bought a few carboys. We used Austin Homebrew and their kits were flawless and tasty. Generally every other month we’d get together and do two batches in an evening. Most of it was with malt extract and some grains. I did some batches of full grain that were good, but just too time consuming. We used to do labels for the beers, but then we started making too many so we just put circle stickers on the top and put initials of the contents.
I had been in Europe for five years and came back to a pretty dismal scene of light beer in cans where ever I went.
This started about 20 years ago before one could find many micro-brews or kraft brews in the store (at least where I lived). There was only one brew pub in central Missouri (Flat Branch). In the meanwhile, my brother Michael started brewing, mostly all grain, and makes some amazing beers. He generally kegs it in soda cannisters.
In Hannibal one of our greatest finds were a bunch of Grolsch bottles. We had been invited to a liquor wholesalers’ beer tasting and dragged back about ten cases of them. Our buddy, the salesman, would bring us some more from time to time. Sure makes bottling easier.
After I left Hannibal, I brewed a few times on my own, but it’s just not the same without buddies to share the whole experience. Also, by that time, the market had opened up to lots more kraft beers. Boulevard in KC had come on strong (although I’m generally not a fan of their beer), and then a few in St. Louis. My favorite is Shafly, They are in the grocery stores in the bigger towns. Of their beer, my favorite is the kölsch, which is my favorite all-round beer style. Köln is also from where my great grandfather came.
One place to stop at in St. Louis is the Urban Chestnut Bier Hall. It’s got the old world gemütlichkeit.
I don’t brew any more, but my brother, brother-in-law, nephew and niece’s husband all brew, so the family get togethers are pretty amazing.
Favorite beer experience (after the pilgrimage to the Hofbräu in Munich): a beer tour of Northern California. This was probably around 1998. I went to where it all began. Ukiah, Eureka, Petaluma, Sebastopol. That was where I made the resolution, life’s too short to drink bad beer.
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I live in Chico, birthplace and home of Sierra Nevada. I love the brewery, and the Tap Room there is one of our favorite places to dine, but I typically drink cider. It borders on sacrilege here.
I like Angry Orchard, though my favorite is Crispin, made in not-too-far-away Colfax, CA.
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That’s the Where the name of one of my favorite local breweries comes from
LTS The owner and head brewer is a member of our Local Homebrew club
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Crispin is good stuff. 
Some of the varieties are a bit sweet, but none go too overboard.
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This thread reminds me of my maternal grandfather who made his own beer long before it was fashionable. Man, that stuff was stout! Sure do miss Grandpa – and his beer.
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I’m not saying this is your attitude, but I get so tired of hearing comments like this. The Belgians have been making fruity beers for centuries; their target market is people who drink beer, full stop.
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My biggest thing with cider is that it has to taste like… well apples (or whatever fruit they are using - I really like a good cherry cider as well!). Most of the times the ones that taste like apple are on the sweet side, and that’s fine, I don’t mind that at all. I like a good dry from time to time, but I don’t understand why some ciders are bitter. Seattle Cider’s base cider is just bitter and doesn’t taste like apples.
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I love a good lambic!
His point was that fruit flavored beers (like blueberry) are the trendy thing around here right now mostly with the younger crowd. He said they account for the majority of his sales. And maybe the Belgians do it better. I just didn’the like the flavor of any of them.