Goldfish #4 "Finally Legal"

My parents and I had some pretty good luck with our extract batches and I developed a taste for quality beer. But it was now back to college in Kirksville where my appreciation for crappy beer, pool, darts and the ladies moved into the front seat. By this time I had also celebrated my 21st birthday, and while I loved the home-brewed beer it was now awfully tempting to take the quick 8 pack of Rhinelander off the Hy-Vee shelf.
It is around this time in my life that I would have fallen hopelessly into the "Sex, Bad Beer & Rock and Roll" phase of my life if a band shake-up hadn't resulted in my friend Brad joining my college band as the drummer.
I first met Brad Freshman year of college. He happened to be in my English class. The only thing I remembered about the class was that it sucked and there was a guy in the class that claimed to play drums (probably in a mandatory essay on hobbies.)
Later that year we decided we needed a new drummer in the band and I said I knew a guy we should ask. I had never spoken a word to Brad during the class, but I was sure if I looked him up he would play with us. I couldn't have been more right. I walked over to his dorm room one Friday night and introduced myself. He remembered I was in his class and invited me in. We talked about music for about five minutes and he said he would be happy to bring his drums up from home and join the group. At least I think that's what he must have said before offering me half of a gallon jug of his finest wine.
Brad turned out to be a great addition to our band but even better for my future career. It turned out Brad's brother was a crazy homebrewer with automatic temperature gauges and everything. Within a year of first speaking with each other Brad and I had turned part of our rental house into a brewery. Our other roommate Ryan, who hadn't discovered beer yet, wasn't thrilled but didn't complain too much when the house smelled of boiling hops or shards of glass exploded everywhere in summer. We still stuck to extract malt brewing but we experimented like crazy.
By the end of my time at Northeast Missouri State University in May of 1996 I was sure my music career was about to take off, brewing was still a hobby and in the meantime I would make commercials at the local television station.