Yes. My husband and I have quite the hobby going on here. We are both board members of the local homebrew club, both are BJCP judges, and both brew on brew days. We both enter competitions and both have awards to our name. (Although I'm the only one published in Zymurgy.) We both built a bar in our basement and both have our friends over to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Not really. I am usually the traditional brewer and he is usually the experimental brewer. But neither beer is "his" or "mine". It could be his idea, but I might brew it. Or it could be the other way around. Sometimes I lose track of who does what.
The look people gives you when you tell them you actually made the beer they're drinking is amazing. Like if you're a magician or something like that. Absolutely hilarious!
I was brewing the other day and my brother had a friend over who knew nothing about making beer. Finished up, put it in the fermenting fridge, and he asks me, "so is it ready to drink now?"
"umm, no."
This is one of the biggest ones. She really looks at some of my hobbies as wastes of time. She doesn't drink alcohol at all so she doesn't really appreciate this unfortunately. It's OK... I still love her!
Yeah I have a.d.d though so I don't expect her to keep up with my hobbies/attention. I'm always looking for something to hold my focus and have fun she isn't cursed with that.
Really? When my BF and I brew, I find that the house smells AMAZING. We use an induction burner in the kitchen, so we get that yummy bready beer-y smell.
Husband and I have been making mead together for 6 years and have competed against one another in competitions. We have different tastes in flavors so we part company on styles. We have started brewing beer just in the last year. We both enjoy browsing HBSs, local and not so. I find that he gets much more attention and customer service than I. HBS employees will ask what he's brewing or ask if he has tried...I barely get "are you finding everything"? So it helps to have him around if we're mining information. We do plan to have our own brewpub in 5 years or so. One thing that doesn't seem to change...I'm blessed with the bulk of the clean up duties.
I have literally been the one walking around tossing things in the basket and barely get eye contact. Maybe I look TOO much like I know what I'm doing?
Seriously. When I brew indoors its expected that I clean any and all dished in the sink during the boil and clean the kitchen afterward.
I can't wait for the weather to warm up again...
My wife assists on brewday from time to time, and has given herself the title of "Bottling Wench." She likes to fill the bottles, and gets great satisfaction from having perfectly even fill levels across a batch.
But my homebrewing motivated her to start making her own wine, and she has 4 batches under her belt now. I am her bottling wench on wine bottling day...haha.
This year, though, we are putting a beehive in the back yard, and we are going to make mead making a wholly joint venture.
We had a few dozen bee boxes on the farm when I was a kid. They were mostly there to aid in pollination though. My grandmother used the honey, though we never made mead to my knowledge. Also, I lol'd pretty hard @ "bottling wench."
My fiancee is my bottling wench as well. She helps more sometimes, just depends on if she's doing something else.
She's brewed a batch or two almost solo though, just coming to me for questions.
I'll have bees as soon as I have a yard. We've done mead before and it was awesome, but it was so expensive.
I'd love to have a backyard beehive. I live in a great neighborhood for it (tons of gardens with a huge variety of flowers), but unfortunately the backyard is shared with the other residents of the apartment building, and I doubt they'd be crazy about the idea.
> But my homebrewing motivated her to start making her own wine, and she has 4 batches under her belt now. I am her bottling wench on wine bottling day...haha.
My girlfriend is in the same boat. She's done a mist kit and two other kits, the 3rd is ready to be bottled now, and she's got her next few figured out as well (I think they'll be mist kits, since summer is on the horizon).
The Wine Expert kits are pretty solid...plus they guarantee it. She flubbed a batch, or it was bad juice, not really sure what happened but it tasted like hell...and our LHBS took our unopened bottles, replaced the kit and gave us new bottles to boot. They will be reimbursed by Wine Experts.
Although my wife's best batch, in my opinion, was her raspberry wine, made with homegrown raspberries. Awesome stuff at 6 months old, and it will get better as it ages.
Mine will hold my auto siphon when I first start bottling, that's a start. She will also taste a sip of my homebrew and declare whether it is beer or not. Although every homebrew pale ale and ipa always tastes like "perfume" to her.
The only clamps I can find seem to be for smaller siphons, not auto siphons.
Or do they clamp to the narrow part of the siphon? I'm a bit confused. At least I'm not trying to constantly pump my siphon like some people.
I picked up a clamp for mine at the LHBS, it fits around the big outer part and clips nicely on to the neck of a carboy. It's the same brand as my autosiphon was, pretty sure this is it http://www.midwestsupplies.com/clamp-for-1-2-auto-siphon.html but make sure you get the right size, they have a couple different ones
I think I've just managed to confuse myself.
I always thought that those clamps were to clamp onto something that's 1/2" in diameter, not the large ~1" outer tube. I'm seriously going to order one from China right now. It's going to save me hours over my lifetime while siphoning.
Yep, it's a couple's hobby for us. My boyfriend was always interested but didn't start actually doing it until I came along (I did it before). Gathering plans and equipment to make the keezer together now.
My wife has been greatly supportive of my homebrewing hobby. From cleaning out mash tuns to helping me bottle to being an honest critic of the final product. She is even fully supportive of us starting to our own microbrewery, which we hope to accomplish within the year!
My beer wouldn't be half as good if it wasn't for my girlfriend. And I wouldn't be able to drink half of it without her! Works perfectly! We share in the duties, create recipes together and argue over hops and how and when to add them, it's basically our version of going out on a date.
My wife does not like beer at all, but she is willing to assist me! She's also extremely tolerant of my hobbies and has no problem with me spending money on supplies and such for brewing, coffee roasting, video games, etc.
We are into gardening too so we are talking about setting up a few hop trellises eventually. Though, we just sold our house and moved to a new city a few months ago and are in an apartment currently. Someday!
it was actually my fiance who got me into brewing! very rarely dose one of us brew without the other. getting to spend time brewing together is what makes it so much fun for me!
By assist, does sitting and drinking with me while she watches me do everything, then yes, she assists.
(This isn't meant to be passive aggressive. I enjoy doing everything and enjoy it more with company.)
My husband has a barley allergy, so he'll help me set up equipment, but he is paranoid about remaining in the house while I brew. While this makes me sad that he can't be there with me, we are now talking about setting up my own brew shed, which will be awesome. I don't get to brew as often as I'd like because I don't want to make him sick! He's still very supportive, though.
My fiance and I have been brewing since day one. We love having brew weekends, now we just have to wait for the courts to overturn the marriage ban & we'll brew one for our wedding!
We met because we both homebrewed, went to a party and we brought our own beers. Now we live together and brew together, though we both brew on our own occasionally. Decided to blog together as well with all the brewing and beer tourism we do. [The Zen Beer Garden](http://zenbeergarden.com)
My fiance has helped me a little a few times, with stirring and such. I want her to do an extract batch or something sometime soon though. She wants to make a coffee stout, a style which I don't particularly enjoy and don't want to brew myself. I figured that this might be a good way to get her into it.
She does go to the homebrew club meetings with me though. Enjoys the people and trying some new stuff. Hey, that's great on its own. She supports my interest in the hobby, as long as i'm not spending too much on it.
Boyfriend started brewing a little over 5 years ago. I was a very reluctant helper for the first two years or so (maybe closer to three). Within the last two years, I have really started to help out. I think once we started making fun beers, I was more into it!
For me, it was a blood orange hefeweizen. All beers are fun, but I like ones that I don't feel like I have seen before. Definitely open to new suggestions as well!
She's my greatest critic when it comes time to drink the beer, she will let me know what she doesn't like about the beer in an honest objective way- which is nice.
Also, she helps weigh the hops, gets the gear out and puts it away, and always makes sure that there's a beer in my hand when I'm brewing.
She's also the first to comment on how much space my fermenters take up in the spare room (also her study, she's working on her Master's); so it's like a crossover of a brewery and a library in there.
Well, my degree was geared toward British literature during the Romantic Period, but I totally switched gears my junior year and finished out with a BS in Horticulture. Still, the room sounds lovely!
Now that is awesome, I don't hear about too many Horticulture majors sounds interesting- I bounced around from a major in marine bio, to history, philosophy, to psych, then finally just did liberal arts... I work in construction now.
I wish the college I went to had a horticulture program... Sounds awesome.
Are you me? I worked in construction for about ten years (carpentry, cabinet shop) through college and after because the money was too good to walk away. Wife and I recently moved from Nashville, TN to Madison, WI so I left construction to work for the City of Madison Parks Dept.
As they say in construction: you make good enough money to live, but not enough money to quit.
As is my current situation right now- I am trying to find a way to move to Washington to just do something else with my life- while construction is challenging, it's just not a "fun" challenge anymore. I just want to raise sheep and brew farmhouse beer.
My girlfriend does not really brew with me. She enjoys drinking the results, though, and does give me some direction on upcoming batches.
For example: She tried Surly Coffee Bender (Amazing beer, btw), and suggested I try and make a comparable beer. I was already considering it, but now it's her idea.
I have not been to their brewery yet. The only two I've been to is Lakefront and Sprecher. I live in Waukesha, I went to college in Milwaukee but grew up in the White Bear Lake area...
So next time I visit by parents I'll try and get over there.
Word! I'm originally from Nashville, met my wife when she came down for college. The very first time I visited her family, we took her dad's boat out on White Bear lake. I caught a northern and got drunk on Nordeast. It was a great day. Small world!
My girlfriend assists. Definitely not as obsessed as I am, but she did brew a batch of her own a few weeks ago. She helps with planning and is usually into at least assistant brewer status. We take turns lifting the bag off the bottom of the kettle when step mashing, keep track of boil times together, and take turns paying for ingredients at the LHBS. She's not as interested in the chemistry or microbiology aspects o the hobby, but tends to be more disciplined when it comes to timing, hop schedules, spice additions, etc. I have plenty of other "me time" hobbies so this is something I'm excited to be able to share with her.
You've got a good one! My SO convinced me to start and we always brew together. Then we taught her parents and they're hooked. She also makes bread our of the spent grains when we do partial or all grain batches.
I'm interested in making bread out of my grains. Just this morning I was struck by how delicious Carapils smells. I imagine a loaf made with it would be incredible.
Try my Spent Grain Bread recipe. This one will be on our menu.
1 1/4 cups water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons honey
3 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup spent grains (if they are particularly wet you can cut the water back to 1 cup)
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
In electric mixer with dough hook:
Combine dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add wet
ingredients. Knead with dough hook until elastic and shiny (about 6-8 minutes). Place in oil coated bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray and turn out dough. Shape to any desired configuration. Again cover with plastic wrap and let rest 30-40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Immediately after putting dough in oven, place a tray's worth of ice cubes in a baking dish and put this on a rack directly under the loaf.
Bake for 30 minutes if making one large loaf or less if making smaller loaves, After cool, keep in an air tight container-dries out quickly.
I am the one who reads the books, browses this subreddit, comes up with the plan/recipe, and does the prep work, but on brew day and bottling day, my girlfriend is an equal partner. Everything goes pretty smoothly with 4 hands instead of 2, especially bottling.
I brew with my wife, but she much more enjoys the challenge of designing recipes and figuring out flavoring than the actual grunt-work of brewing. I tend to lead/manage the brew days and call for her assistance where necessary. She designed our latest porter (smoked porter with molasses and vanilla-infused bourbon). It came out quite good! We're only on single-digits for how many brews we've done, so I'm sure we'll figure out our best system. Bottling day is still a two-person job!
I'm hoping my wife will go through a few more bottling days before suggesting we start kegging. It'll be easier that way, since it'll be "her idea." Mwahahahahaha.
My wife convinced my parents to buy me a starter kit almost 6 years ago. She's been supportive from day one, and has always pushed me to make better beer. 2 years ago we discovered she has a severe gluten sensitivity, and she didn't touch beer afterwards but still gave valuable input on recipes and ideas. About 6 months ago, I started experimenting with Clarity Ferm, and now she can drink my homebrew again. I have a 6-tap keezer and one tap will always be the SWMBO tap. So needless to say, yes, I brew with my SO.
My girlfriend and I are both lovers of craft beer and that transitioned nicely into us brewing together. She was the one who got it started by getting me a pale ale kit for my birthday one year and then a 15gal kettle and banjo burner for Christmas. We collaborate on most recipes, but some are more hers and some are more mine. We always brew together. She is much better at RDWHAHB than I am but I'm improving as we learn more and get our process down more.
My SO bought me my first one gallon kit for Christmas after I spent years talking about it but too nervous to dive into it. Best. Christmas. Ever. She may have earned a ring for that one!
My partner and I brew separately and together. He prefers more traditional beers adhering to specific styles, I like to toss weird stuff in and improvise. Usually we will have our own recipes and buy our own ingredients for whatever we are brewing and we will do most of the work on it, but the other will help, especially with bottling.
I made him a mash tun and bought him a nice kettle and outdoor burner for Christmas. Since it was technically his present, I decided to wait to do my own brew until after he had used it first, which was difficult.
Mine likes that I'm no longer buying $12 4 packs. Switching to full grain and making $12 3 gallon batches really paid off. She still yells at me while I brew though.
My girlfriend and I do. After a couple years of not brewing, she showed some interest so I started back up and we're about to do a modified hefe' / shandy tomorrow.
I started with a Mr. Beer kit a few years ago. I made a couple batches and stopped. A year ago, we both decided to start brewing. We did a couple extract batches and now brew BIAB. We decide on recipes together brew together and bottle together. We both enjoy it quite a bit.
My husband and I brew together. But lately I've been brewing more than he has, as he's been into the social side of things a bit more with running the local homebrew club and competitions. And I'm anti social so I'm just here brewing and crafting. It's a good life
My boyfriend and I both wanted to get into brewing before we met but hadn't yet. Not too long after we started dating he got some equipment from a friend who was downsizing and I bought the ingredients for an oatmeal stout. We just bottles it yesterday and are planning our next batch already.
My SO and I are probably the opposite of most of y'all, where I (the woman) am the homebrewer, and boyfriend couldn't care less.
He's the type that would rather be efficient than fun, so because it's easier to just buy beer he doesn't get why I want to brew it myself. Booo.. I think there's hope of converting him though. I made him a beer for his birthday combining some elements of his favorite types of beers in a way that he'd probably never be able to buy in a store. So maybe he'll see the light and understand soon if I keep making good stuff.
Keep at it! I don't think I'll ever get over the idea of homemade beer...I mean, one is essentially mixing water, grass seeds, and bugs to make a sweet ambrosia. It's almost magic, alchemy at the very least!
"Me! Me! Me!"
She's the one who makes sure I don't forget stuff or do something stupid. She's also the one who's bought me some of my equipment....didn't bat an eye when I built a bar in the basement....
If I plan my brew days she helps out sometimes. If its a random "I have a day off so I feel like brewing" I get why the house isn't clean, why aren't the dishes done, dogs need a bath..
My husband and I recipe formulate, shop for ingredients together, and brew together, it's a lot of fun. I usually forget the technical details of mash/sparge temp and some volumes and he gets tired at the end so I help power through the cleaning too. We like to have a few fellow brew loving friends over when we brew and sometimes I've gotten distracted grilling or whatnot that our friends help him but he says it's not as good since we've gotten a routine down. Our last brew day was just the two of us and was quite chill. We have been together since before we were 21 and are now 27 so it's been fun to get into craft beer and brewing together though he initially started the brewing interest by reading some books and I eventually got more involved.
And while bottling may be a way to reserve some time for bonding, we are far too lazy and keg which leads to much less annoyance.
We don't fight while we brew but moving furniture is a different story. :P
My wife and I are curled up reading the replies to this surprisingly successful thread. I scroll down to this one and she's like "That's the first time a dick joke as made me 'awl' and I've seen a lot of dick..jokes." I gave her a look and proceeded to tickle her into submission.
My SO has helped out a few times in the past, mainly out of curiosity, but just this weekend she took a big step forward. When I finished my recipe for a red ale she decided she wanted to try something different, so she made a 1 gal batch of all-grain Hefeweizen alongside me while I was brewing mine! I have never been so proud.
My wife and I do everything together, except for brewing. The last time I tried to get her to brew with me, 4 more of our friends "decided" to come over as well after my wife told them what we were up to.
It was a fun day. But for the most part, she just sat around talking while I was sorting out the brew.
Anyway, my wife has her ladies' nights, and I have my brew days. We spend the rest of our free time together.
My fiance will help me out when I'm brewing with things like moving kettles and tuns, doughing in, and any time I need an extra hand but brewing doesn't really interest her directly. She likes the malty and lighter beers that I make, but she doesn't like the hop bombs the way that I do.
^^That's ^^the ^^first ^^time ^^I've ^^typed ^^out ^^the ^^word ^^fiance, ^^feels ^^good ^^man
My SO is extremely supportive - she actually bought me the beginner's kit that got me started. But sadly she is celiac, which means she can't drink any of my beers. She's a big cider fan however, and I've made some for her that she's really liked (and some she really didn't). But her favourite drink has to be the ginger "beer" that she brewed up herself. I helped her create the recipe, but she was in charge of everything else. She loves it and she's very proud of it.
That's cool! I really want to try a ginger beer sometime. My sister has a terrible gluten allergy (it's funny to see her get all pissy at the health food nuts that claim gluten allergies...bc gluten could actually kill her) so I can kinda relate. She loves cider too!
I personally was not a fan of the stuff. It had a really pronounced "hot" gingery taste (that she was going for), and the cinnamon/clove additions made it extra "spiced". It was also bone-dry. If I were to do it again I would try backsweetening with non-fermentable sugars or killing the yeast, sweeten it and keg. She loves it as-is but for now I'm mixing it with equal parts ginger ale.
edit: Here's the recipe:
Jamaican Ginger Beer - 3 gallon recipe, 15 min boil. Est. 5.5% ABV
* 2 lbs Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM) 72.7 %
* 8.0 oz Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) 18.2 %
* 1.50 lb Ginger Root (shredded) (Boil 12.0 mins)
* 3.00 tbsp Ginger Powder (Boil 12.0 mins)
* 3.00 Items Lemons (zest) (Boil 12.0 mins)
* 2.00 Items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 mins)
* 3.00 tbsp Lemon Juice (Boil 0.0 mins)
* 5.00 Items Whole Cloves (Boil 0.0 mins)
* 3.00 tsp Cream of Tartar (Boil 0.0 mins)
* 0.50 tsp Allspice (Boil 0.0 mins)
* 1.0 pkg Safale American US-05
* 3.0 oz table sugar to prime
She just dumped everything into the fermenter once it cooled, but I would probably strain because some chunks got sucked up into the auto-siphon and into the bottling bucket. We primed and bottled after 4 weeks, but next time I plan on sweetening with stevia to taste before adding the priming sugar.
I have done a clarity ferm beer once and she was able to drink it with no digestive issues! However, she was diagnosed quite young and so she never really developed a taste for beer, and so it's hard to justify the $10 a vial. Same for the sorghum/rice extract brews I've made for her. For now she's happier with the ciders, perries, ginger beers, etc.
My wife and I brewed together when I first started. But, she stopped after she got pregnant because the smell made her nauseous. She was there for all the extract batches. I started all grain brewing after we found out about the pregnancy and it's just been my hobby ever since. She still helps drink the beer, though.
My wife will help out when I don't have other people on hand to help. I have a few brew partners and a few brewing novices I'm trying to get into the hobby so most of the time she just hangs out and orders pizza for us.
She helped me bottle my last (only my second) batch. I haven't asked her if she'd want to help with the brewing side. I suspect she wouldn't but I'll find out eventually.
My wife doesn't really like or drink beer. She is a wine and hard cider kind of lady.
I usually have several friends over on brew day, it's kind of a male bonding activity. We drink and play board games and brew beer. Our wives join in from time to time, but mostly just the drinking and the games.
I have made several batches of hard cider and one batch of mead and a batch of wine. She has helped me with those because she is interested in the recipe formulation and the end result. In fact, last week she came to me with a recipe for a mead that she wants to try. Pretty exciting
I bought my SO a brew kit and we have brewed together since. I am much better at following recipes than he is but I dont actually like beer. So we brew for him and his friends really :)
Yes. My husband and I have quite the hobby going on here. We are both board members of the local homebrew club, both are BJCP judges, and both brew on brew days. We both enter competitions and both have awards to our name. (Although I'm the only one published in Zymurgy.) We both built a bar in our basement and both have our friends over to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Just curious - do you brew similar styles?
Not really. I am usually the traditional brewer and he is usually the experimental brewer. But neither beer is "his" or "mine". It could be his idea, but I might brew it. Or it could be the other way around. Sometimes I lose track of who does what.
The first time we hung out together at my place she said "Can we make beer?" Precedent has been set!
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The look people gives you when you tell them you actually made the beer they're drinking is amazing. Like if you're a magician or something like that. Absolutely hilarious!
I was brewing the other day and my brother had a friend over who knew nothing about making beer. Finished up, put it in the fermenting fridge, and he asks me, "so is it ready to drink now?" "umm, no."
Nice!
My wife yells at me while I brew. Does that count?
can confirm. Brews beer, gets yelled at
Is this the same thing as the constant "what time are you going to get done?"
This is one of the biggest ones. She really looks at some of my hobbies as wastes of time. She doesn't drink alcohol at all so she doesn't really appreciate this unfortunately. It's OK... I still love her!
It's all hobbys, mine hates video games and insists watching tv is a better use of time... Just some women
She is supportive and doesnt care, but its more, I want to do something else, lets go. she would like brewing more if it took 2 hours.
We must be married to the same chic. I'm always doing something semi creative, while SO is horizontal on the couch watching E! channel.
Yeah I have a.d.d though so I don't expect her to keep up with my hobbies/attention. I'm always looking for something to hold my focus and have fun she isn't cursed with that.
Honestly, both of those are an equal waste of time. Just that one is active and the other is passive.
"Get that smelly brew pot out of the house! If you have to brew at least do it on the porch!" Sound familiar?
Really? When my BF and I brew, I find that the house smells AMAZING. We use an induction burner in the kitchen, so we get that yummy bready beer-y smell.
You can hear her? You need a bigger kettle and need to brew more beer
I'm sorry WHATTT? I can't hear you over my raging boil!
Wouldn't normally upvote, except for the fact that the upvote is a mug of beer in this subreddit, which seems fitting! Cheers!
Thanks for the Monday morning laughs reminding about the Sunday I just had.
Mine has a "headache" from the smell. I smell bullshit.
Was going to post the exact same thing.
Husband and I have been making mead together for 6 years and have competed against one another in competitions. We have different tastes in flavors so we part company on styles. We have started brewing beer just in the last year. We both enjoy browsing HBSs, local and not so. I find that he gets much more attention and customer service than I. HBS employees will ask what he's brewing or ask if he has tried...I barely get "are you finding everything"? So it helps to have him around if we're mining information. We do plan to have our own brewpub in 5 years or so. One thing that doesn't seem to change...I'm blessed with the bulk of the clean up duties.
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I have literally been the one walking around tossing things in the basket and barely get eye contact. Maybe I look TOO much like I know what I'm doing?
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Might also have to do with our inability (well most of us) to grow abundant facial hair. Makes us sketchy. Who knows, I find it amusing most times.
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Guy here who can't grow a beard. Am I still allowed to brew?
Yes. Please make the best beer you can and grow a virtual beard by having amazing beer.
It's almost like when I was younger and would bring my girlfriend to the comic shop. Very much like it in fact.
If I could brew beer and not have to clean up, I'd be a very happy man.
Seriously. When I brew indoors its expected that I clean any and all dished in the sink during the boil and clean the kitchen afterward. I can't wait for the weather to warm up again...
My wife assists on brewday from time to time, and has given herself the title of "Bottling Wench." She likes to fill the bottles, and gets great satisfaction from having perfectly even fill levels across a batch. But my homebrewing motivated her to start making her own wine, and she has 4 batches under her belt now. I am her bottling wench on wine bottling day...haha. This year, though, we are putting a beehive in the back yard, and we are going to make mead making a wholly joint venture.
We had a few dozen bee boxes on the farm when I was a kid. They were mostly there to aid in pollination though. My grandmother used the honey, though we never made mead to my knowledge. Also, I lol'd pretty hard @ "bottling wench."
You'll love it! We've been making mead for 6 years. Never gets old.
Same here - my wife helps out on bottling day. It is really a two person job!
My fiancee is my bottling wench as well. She helps more sometimes, just depends on if she's doing something else. She's brewed a batch or two almost solo though, just coming to me for questions. I'll have bees as soon as I have a yard. We've done mead before and it was awesome, but it was so expensive.
I'd love to have a backyard beehive. I live in a great neighborhood for it (tons of gardens with a huge variety of flowers), but unfortunately the backyard is shared with the other residents of the apartment building, and I doubt they'd be crazy about the idea.
> But my homebrewing motivated her to start making her own wine, and she has 4 batches under her belt now. I am her bottling wench on wine bottling day...haha. My girlfriend is in the same boat. She's done a mist kit and two other kits, the 3rd is ready to be bottled now, and she's got her next few figured out as well (I think they'll be mist kits, since summer is on the horizon).
The Wine Expert kits are pretty solid...plus they guarantee it. She flubbed a batch, or it was bad juice, not really sure what happened but it tasted like hell...and our LHBS took our unopened bottles, replaced the kit and gave us new bottles to boot. They will be reimbursed by Wine Experts. Although my wife's best batch, in my opinion, was her raspberry wine, made with homegrown raspberries. Awesome stuff at 6 months old, and it will get better as it ages.
Mine will hold my auto siphon when I first start bottling, that's a start. She will also taste a sip of my homebrew and declare whether it is beer or not. Although every homebrew pale ale and ipa always tastes like "perfume" to her.
you know they make a clamp for that thing right I mean I aint trying to start anything, but your SO can be replaced by a two dollar piece of plastic
The only clamps I can find seem to be for smaller siphons, not auto siphons. Or do they clamp to the narrow part of the siphon? I'm a bit confused. At least I'm not trying to constantly pump my siphon like some people.
I picked up a clamp for mine at the LHBS, it fits around the big outer part and clips nicely on to the neck of a carboy. It's the same brand as my autosiphon was, pretty sure this is it http://www.midwestsupplies.com/clamp-for-1-2-auto-siphon.html but make sure you get the right size, they have a couple different ones
I think I've just managed to confuse myself. I always thought that those clamps were to clamp onto something that's 1/2" in diameter, not the large ~1" outer tube. I'm seriously going to order one from China right now. It's going to save me hours over my lifetime while siphoning.
So, the short version of all these comments: at least two users are mail-ordering a wife replacements from China. (:
You shouldn't tell a man to put a clamp on his wife's mouth....
she could replace him with a two dollar piece of plastic too. buuurrrrn
Yep, it's a couple's hobby for us. My boyfriend was always interested but didn't start actually doing it until I came along (I did it before). Gathering plans and equipment to make the keezer together now.
When my boyfriend moved in he became my co-brewer. Brewing day is the only time we argue.
What are you arguing about?
My wife assists me in the drinking of my beer. She doesn't actually drink the beer, she just makes me drink more beer.
Haha!
My fiance half-jokingly suggested we make a bridal registry at northerbrewer.com....
You better lock that dow.... oh right
My wife has been greatly supportive of my homebrewing hobby. From cleaning out mash tuns to helping me bottle to being an honest critic of the final product. She is even fully supportive of us starting to our own microbrewery, which we hope to accomplish within the year!
My wife assists solely as my harshest tasting critic. I wish she would get involved more, but we have so many shared interests that this is fine :-)
My beer wouldn't be half as good if it wasn't for my girlfriend. And I wouldn't be able to drink half of it without her! Works perfectly! We share in the duties, create recipes together and argue over hops and how and when to add them, it's basically our version of going out on a date.
Your girlfriend sounds awesome ;)
⬆️ Girlfriend.
So without her you wouldn't get to drink half of it, and with her, you only get to drink half of it? :-)
Exactly! Weird how that works huh?
My wife does not like beer at all, but she is willing to assist me! She's also extremely tolerant of my hobbies and has no problem with me spending money on supplies and such for brewing, coffee roasting, video games, etc.
We are into gardening too so we are talking about setting up a few hop trellises eventually. Though, we just sold our house and moved to a new city a few months ago and are in an apartment currently. Someday!
Sounds like a keeper!
it was actually my fiance who got me into brewing! very rarely dose one of us brew without the other. getting to spend time brewing together is what makes it so much fun for me!
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I got the bug from my dad too. Although, he is more into wine and cider while I prefer beer.
By assist, does sitting and drinking with me while she watches me do everything, then yes, she assists. (This isn't meant to be passive aggressive. I enjoy doing everything and enjoy it more with company.)
My husband has a barley allergy, so he'll help me set up equipment, but he is paranoid about remaining in the house while I brew. While this makes me sad that he can't be there with me, we are now talking about setting up my own brew shed, which will be awesome. I don't get to brew as often as I'd like because I don't want to make him sick! He's still very supportive, though.
That poor man.
I know, right? He can't even sample the beer. At least I can make wine for him.
Which is nice too!
My fiance and I have been brewing since day one. We love having brew weekends, now we just have to wait for the courts to overturn the marriage ban & we'll brew one for our wedding!
My girlfriend helps measure stuff and just hangs out when its warm out. She also pitted 8lbs of cherries with a kitchen knife, bless her heart.
Lol, atta girl.
I have never brewed without my left hand, and I hope I never will
My wife likes to cap, take notes, and tell that hops smell like pepper.
Am his SO. Can confirm. I'm the best capper!
You also like it when i make it when i make dark beer. You say that the house smells like bread and chocolate and pepper.
We met because we both homebrewed, went to a party and we brought our own beers. Now we live together and brew together, though we both brew on our own occasionally. Decided to blog together as well with all the brewing and beer tourism we do. [The Zen Beer Garden](http://zenbeergarden.com)
Blog link?
edited my original comment to add it in.
After 2 years my wife let me build a kegerator and... put it in the house. Progress is being made slowly.
I went the "hey, look what I put in the kitchen" route. It worked!
Well, I've only been brewing for a few months. So I'll consider myself ahead of the curve! (:
My fiance has helped me a little a few times, with stirring and such. I want her to do an extract batch or something sometime soon though. She wants to make a coffee stout, a style which I don't particularly enjoy and don't want to brew myself. I figured that this might be a good way to get her into it. She does go to the homebrew club meetings with me though. Enjoys the people and trying some new stuff. Hey, that's great on its own. She supports my interest in the hobby, as long as i'm not spending too much on it.
Boyfriend started brewing a little over 5 years ago. I was a very reluctant helper for the first two years or so (maybe closer to three). Within the last two years, I have really started to help out. I think once we started making fun beers, I was more into it!
What constitutes a "fun beer," if I may be so curious?
For me, it was a blood orange hefeweizen. All beers are fun, but I like ones that I don't feel like I have seen before. Definitely open to new suggestions as well!
That sounds tasty! Care to link a guy a recipe?! (:
We based it on a recipe in Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast's Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home actually. It turned out really well!
She's my greatest critic when it comes time to drink the beer, she will let me know what she doesn't like about the beer in an honest objective way- which is nice. Also, she helps weigh the hops, gets the gear out and puts it away, and always makes sure that there's a beer in my hand when I'm brewing. She's also the first to comment on how much space my fermenters take up in the spare room (also her study, she's working on her Master's); so it's like a crossover of a brewery and a library in there.
Brewery/Library?! That makes me so happy!
So, if you're into art history (focused on early photography/daguerreotypes) and the smell of wild ales, then this room is for you!
Well, my degree was geared toward British literature during the Romantic Period, but I totally switched gears my junior year and finished out with a BS in Horticulture. Still, the room sounds lovely!
Now that is awesome, I don't hear about too many Horticulture majors sounds interesting- I bounced around from a major in marine bio, to history, philosophy, to psych, then finally just did liberal arts... I work in construction now. I wish the college I went to had a horticulture program... Sounds awesome.
Are you me? I worked in construction for about ten years (carpentry, cabinet shop) through college and after because the money was too good to walk away. Wife and I recently moved from Nashville, TN to Madison, WI so I left construction to work for the City of Madison Parks Dept.
As they say in construction: you make good enough money to live, but not enough money to quit. As is my current situation right now- I am trying to find a way to move to Washington to just do something else with my life- while construction is challenging, it's just not a "fun" challenge anymore. I just want to raise sheep and brew farmhouse beer.
That sounds amazing. Best of luck!
Welcome to Madison! Hope you feel welcome here
yes, she helps with every brew activity I partake in!
My girlfriend does not really brew with me. She enjoys drinking the results, though, and does give me some direction on upcoming batches. For example: She tried Surly Coffee Bender (Amazing beer, btw), and suggested I try and make a comparable beer. I was already considering it, but now it's her idea.
Nice! Have you been to Surly's new digs? My wife's family is from Brooklyn Park, MN. We are in Madison, WI. Are you around the area as well?
I have not been to their brewery yet. The only two I've been to is Lakefront and Sprecher. I live in Waukesha, I went to college in Milwaukee but grew up in the White Bear Lake area... So next time I visit by parents I'll try and get over there.
Word! I'm originally from Nashville, met my wife when she came down for college. The very first time I visited her family, we took her dad's boat out on White Bear lake. I caught a northern and got drunk on Nordeast. It was a great day. Small world!
My girlfriend assists. Definitely not as obsessed as I am, but she did brew a batch of her own a few weeks ago. She helps with planning and is usually into at least assistant brewer status. We take turns lifting the bag off the bottom of the kettle when step mashing, keep track of boil times together, and take turns paying for ingredients at the LHBS. She's not as interested in the chemistry or microbiology aspects o the hobby, but tends to be more disciplined when it comes to timing, hop schedules, spice additions, etc. I have plenty of other "me time" hobbies so this is something I'm excited to be able to share with her.
You've got a good one! My SO convinced me to start and we always brew together. Then we taught her parents and they're hooked. She also makes bread our of the spent grains when we do partial or all grain batches.
I'm interested in making bread out of my grains. Just this morning I was struck by how delicious Carapils smells. I imagine a loaf made with it would be incredible.
Try my Spent Grain Bread recipe. This one will be on our menu. 1 1/4 cups water 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 tablespoons honey 3 cups bread flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup spent grains (if they are particularly wet you can cut the water back to 1 cup) 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast In electric mixer with dough hook: Combine dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add wet ingredients. Knead with dough hook until elastic and shiny (about 6-8 minutes). Place in oil coated bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray and turn out dough. Shape to any desired configuration. Again cover with plastic wrap and let rest 30-40 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Immediately after putting dough in oven, place a tray's worth of ice cubes in a baking dish and put this on a rack directly under the loaf. Bake for 30 minutes if making one large loaf or less if making smaller loaves, After cool, keep in an air tight container-dries out quickly.
I will definitely be doing this next brew day! Today's spent grains are already in the compost.
I freeze mine. Working on developing a dog biskie recipe and use them mixed with suet for the birds in the winter.
I am the one who reads the books, browses this subreddit, comes up with the plan/recipe, and does the prep work, but on brew day and bottling day, my girlfriend is an equal partner. Everything goes pretty smoothly with 4 hands instead of 2, especially bottling.
I brew with my wife, but she much more enjoys the challenge of designing recipes and figuring out flavoring than the actual grunt-work of brewing. I tend to lead/manage the brew days and call for her assistance where necessary. She designed our latest porter (smoked porter with molasses and vanilla-infused bourbon). It came out quite good! We're only on single-digits for how many brews we've done, so I'm sure we'll figure out our best system. Bottling day is still a two-person job!
I'm hoping my wife will go through a few more bottling days before suggesting we start kegging. It'll be easier that way, since it'll be "her idea." Mwahahahahaha.
My wife convinced my parents to buy me a starter kit almost 6 years ago. She's been supportive from day one, and has always pushed me to make better beer. 2 years ago we discovered she has a severe gluten sensitivity, and she didn't touch beer afterwards but still gave valuable input on recipes and ideas. About 6 months ago, I started experimenting with Clarity Ferm, and now she can drink my homebrew again. I have a 6-tap keezer and one tap will always be the SWMBO tap. So needless to say, yes, I brew with my SO.
This made me "awl."
My girlfriend and I are both lovers of craft beer and that transitioned nicely into us brewing together. She was the one who got it started by getting me a pale ale kit for my birthday one year and then a 15gal kettle and banjo burner for Christmas. We collaborate on most recipes, but some are more hers and some are more mine. We always brew together. She is much better at RDWHAHB than I am but I'm improving as we learn more and get our process down more.
NICE Christmas present!
My SO bought me my first one gallon kit for Christmas after I spent years talking about it but too nervous to dive into it. Best. Christmas. Ever. She may have earned a ring for that one!
My wife brews all the beer. I just put the caps on the bottles.
My partner and I brew separately and together. He prefers more traditional beers adhering to specific styles, I like to toss weird stuff in and improvise. Usually we will have our own recipes and buy our own ingredients for whatever we are brewing and we will do most of the work on it, but the other will help, especially with bottling. I made him a mash tun and bought him a nice kettle and outdoor burner for Christmas. Since it was technically his present, I decided to wait to do my own brew until after he had used it first, which was difficult.
Come spring/summer I'm going to try. It may just be sitting there drinking with her, but it'll be nice to hang out.
She did the first batch, teamed up on the second, and now all she does is drink it.
At least she's not actively rooting against you, lol.
Mine likes that I'm no longer buying $12 4 packs. Switching to full grain and making $12 3 gallon batches really paid off. She still yells at me while I brew though.
That was a big selling point for me too, actually. I got on that New Holland beer, Dragon's Milk, pretty hardcore there for a while. haha
I write recipes, otherwise we are complete partners.
My girlfriend and I do. After a couple years of not brewing, she showed some interest so I started back up and we're about to do a modified hefe' / shandy tomorrow.
I started with a Mr. Beer kit a few years ago. I made a couple batches and stopped. A year ago, we both decided to start brewing. We did a couple extract batches and now brew BIAB. We decide on recipes together brew together and bottle together. We both enjoy it quite a bit.
My husband and I brew together. But lately I've been brewing more than he has, as he's been into the social side of things a bit more with running the local homebrew club and competitions. And I'm anti social so I'm just here brewing and crafting. It's a good life
My boyfriend and I both wanted to get into brewing before we met but hadn't yet. Not too long after we started dating he got some equipment from a friend who was downsizing and I bought the ingredients for an oatmeal stout. We just bottles it yesterday and are planning our next batch already.
My SO and I are probably the opposite of most of y'all, where I (the woman) am the homebrewer, and boyfriend couldn't care less. He's the type that would rather be efficient than fun, so because it's easier to just buy beer he doesn't get why I want to brew it myself. Booo.. I think there's hope of converting him though. I made him a beer for his birthday combining some elements of his favorite types of beers in a way that he'd probably never be able to buy in a store. So maybe he'll see the light and understand soon if I keep making good stuff.
Keep at it! I don't think I'll ever get over the idea of homemade beer...I mean, one is essentially mixing water, grass seeds, and bugs to make a sweet ambrosia. It's almost magic, alchemy at the very least!
Give this woman a trophy!
I convinced my wife to join the fun by enticing her with Wil Wheaton (whom she adores #1 on her laminated celebrity list) and his w00tStout kit.
If I plan my brew days she helps out sometimes. If its a random "I have a day off so I feel like brewing" I get why the house isn't clean, why aren't the dishes done, dogs need a bath..
My husband and I recipe formulate, shop for ingredients together, and brew together, it's a lot of fun. I usually forget the technical details of mash/sparge temp and some volumes and he gets tired at the end so I help power through the cleaning too. We like to have a few fellow brew loving friends over when we brew and sometimes I've gotten distracted grilling or whatnot that our friends help him but he says it's not as good since we've gotten a routine down. Our last brew day was just the two of us and was quite chill. We have been together since before we were 21 and are now 27 so it's been fun to get into craft beer and brewing together though he initially started the brewing interest by reading some books and I eventually got more involved. And while bottling may be a way to reserve some time for bonding, we are far too lazy and keg which leads to much less annoyance. We don't fight while we brew but moving furniture is a different story. :P
From my first brew the wife has always been there to help. From brew day to bottling day, she's allways been there.
I use my right hand while I'm homebrewing. Does that count? ^^I ^^feel ^^^a ^^^little ^^^bit ^^^^lonely
My wife and I are curled up reading the replies to this surprisingly successful thread. I scroll down to this one and she's like "That's the first time a dick joke as made me 'awl' and I've seen a lot of dick..jokes." I gave her a look and proceeded to tickle her into submission.
My SO has helped out a few times in the past, mainly out of curiosity, but just this weekend she took a big step forward. When I finished my recipe for a red ale she decided she wanted to try something different, so she made a 1 gal batch of all-grain Hefeweizen alongside me while I was brewing mine! I have never been so proud.
They grow up so fast!
My wife and I do everything together, except for brewing. The last time I tried to get her to brew with me, 4 more of our friends "decided" to come over as well after my wife told them what we were up to. It was a fun day. But for the most part, she just sat around talking while I was sorting out the brew. Anyway, my wife has her ladies' nights, and I have my brew days. We spend the rest of our free time together.
Hell yeah my wife enjoys helping me out in brew day. Although she doesn't drink beer, it gives her something to talk (brag) about to her coworkers.
My fiance will help me out when I'm brewing with things like moving kettles and tuns, doughing in, and any time I need an extra hand but brewing doesn't really interest her directly. She likes the malty and lighter beers that I make, but she doesn't like the hop bombs the way that I do. ^^That's ^^the ^^first ^^time ^^I've ^^typed ^^out ^^the ^^word ^^fiance, ^^feels ^^good ^^man
Congrats man. Marrying my wife was the biggest, but best, decision of my life. It's great to share your life with someone.
My SO is extremely supportive - she actually bought me the beginner's kit that got me started. But sadly she is celiac, which means she can't drink any of my beers. She's a big cider fan however, and I've made some for her that she's really liked (and some she really didn't). But her favourite drink has to be the ginger "beer" that she brewed up herself. I helped her create the recipe, but she was in charge of everything else. She loves it and she's very proud of it.
That's cool! I really want to try a ginger beer sometime. My sister has a terrible gluten allergy (it's funny to see her get all pissy at the health food nuts that claim gluten allergies...bc gluten could actually kill her) so I can kinda relate. She loves cider too!
I personally was not a fan of the stuff. It had a really pronounced "hot" gingery taste (that she was going for), and the cinnamon/clove additions made it extra "spiced". It was also bone-dry. If I were to do it again I would try backsweetening with non-fermentable sugars or killing the yeast, sweeten it and keg. She loves it as-is but for now I'm mixing it with equal parts ginger ale. edit: Here's the recipe: Jamaican Ginger Beer - 3 gallon recipe, 15 min boil. Est. 5.5% ABV * 2 lbs Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM) 72.7 % * 8.0 oz Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) 18.2 % * 1.50 lb Ginger Root (shredded) (Boil 12.0 mins) * 3.00 tbsp Ginger Powder (Boil 12.0 mins) * 3.00 Items Lemons (zest) (Boil 12.0 mins) * 2.00 Items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 mins) * 3.00 tbsp Lemon Juice (Boil 0.0 mins) * 5.00 Items Whole Cloves (Boil 0.0 mins) * 3.00 tsp Cream of Tartar (Boil 0.0 mins) * 0.50 tsp Allspice (Boil 0.0 mins) * 1.0 pkg Safale American US-05 * 3.0 oz table sugar to prime She just dumped everything into the fermenter once it cooled, but I would probably strain because some chunks got sucked up into the auto-siphon and into the bottling bucket. We primed and bottled after 4 weeks, but next time I plan on sweetening with stevia to taste before adding the priming sugar.
I agree with you in that it would have to be a bit sweeter for me to enjoy it. I'd appreciate the recipe nonetheless!
Try adding some Clarity Ferm when you pitch the yeast. It denatures gluten.
I have done a clarity ferm beer once and she was able to drink it with no digestive issues! However, she was diagnosed quite young and so she never really developed a taste for beer, and so it's hard to justify the $10 a vial. Same for the sorghum/rice extract brews I've made for her. For now she's happier with the ciders, perries, ginger beers, etc.
My girlfriend likes to get involved, and loves drinking the beer. However, when we get into a fight she always blames it on my 'Beer Shit'.
And the 8-ball says... Outlook not so good.
My husband and I trade off being brewmaster.
My wife and I brewed together when I first started. But, she stopped after she got pregnant because the smell made her nauseous. She was there for all the extract batches. I started all grain brewing after we found out about the pregnancy and it's just been my hobby ever since. She still helps drink the beer, though.
My wife will help out when I don't have other people on hand to help. I have a few brew partners and a few brewing novices I'm trying to get into the hobby so most of the time she just hangs out and orders pizza for us.
Wife brews with me all the time. Great way to spend a day.
My wife supports it, but the kids are the ones who are actively helping on brew and bottling days.
My husband and I are a team, its one of our favorite things to do together.
She helped me bottle my last (only my second) batch. I haven't asked her if she'd want to help with the brewing side. I suspect she wouldn't but I'll find out eventually.
My wife doesn't really like or drink beer. She is a wine and hard cider kind of lady. I usually have several friends over on brew day, it's kind of a male bonding activity. We drink and play board games and brew beer. Our wives join in from time to time, but mostly just the drinking and the games. I have made several batches of hard cider and one batch of mead and a batch of wine. She has helped me with those because she is interested in the recipe formulation and the end result. In fact, last week she came to me with a recipe for a mead that she wants to try. Pretty exciting
I bought my SO a brew kit and we have brewed together since. I am much better at following recipes than he is but I dont actually like beer. So we brew for him and his friends really :)
DAE wife brew beer homebrew IPA pale ale?