My wife saw my wort!

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Willy_Liverdye

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I'm an old hand at the drinking but still on the teet with the brewing.

So far 2 brews of Brown Ale with one throw away. A butchered Blonde Ale that I'm about to dump for the bottles. A Stout that I just bottled (plez be drinkable). A Pale Ale wrapping up primary. And just started. some of that caramel apple cider.

My lovely wife of many decades took a peek at my Stout in full-blown fermentation and refused to kiss me that evening.

How do I convince her that I'm not trying to get her to drink dirty toilet water and it's perfectly safe?

The "I'm still alive" didn't seem to impress her.

My throw away's make this an uphill battle.
 
I feel for you. I think my wife is regretting she got me that Christmas gift starter kit now almost 3 years ago. Not because she doesn't appreciate the finished product, but because this hobby has become such an obsession.
So, I think the answer to your situation is to only let her see the finished product. I ferment in buckets down in the basement so there is nothing visible(she doesn't visit the basement often). She sees the beautifully clear, tasty finished product only when I bring her a bottle up from the basement fridge and pour it for her. :mug:
Now- 2 dumpers in your 1st 4 batches makes me ask- what's going on?
 
I can think of two strategies...show her some pics or youtube videos of professional breweries and how the beer is made, let her see that what you're doing is completely normal.

OR

Show her some pictures of a slaughterhouse and say hey, you still eat hamburgers right...whats the problem.
 
Hey - the process of turning a steer into a Chateaubriand For Two ain't pretty either, but the final product is pretty tasty.
 
Technically speaking she saw your beer - as soon as it's got yeast in it, it's beer. As far as the appearance during fermentation, you might want to show her some pictures of professional breweries' fermentations - something like this: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xClXKMhcFr0[/ame]

What is going on with your beer, though? What kinds of off-flavors are you getting? Are you pitching your yeast at or below 70 degrees F, and controlling your fermentation temperatures?
 
Auger said:
OR

Show her some pictures of a slaughterhouse and say hey, you still eat hamburgers right...whats the problem.
Click to expand...

Only go this route if your either:

A) Prepared to become a vegan or,
B) Willing to cook your own meals

if showing her those pictures backfires.
 
There should be no throwaways........... What's going on? Of the 38 brews I did this year, I had one......... a sour mash, that I tossed out. If you are using good recipes or good software, it's hard to make a bad beer.


H.W.
 
Want to see nasty looking, try doing kombucha and see the Scoby form. My wife does that it looks like a big old snot ball growing on the tea. Does come out yummy!
 
Owly055 said:
There should be no throwaways........... What's going on? Of the 38 brews I did this year, I had one......... a sour mash, that I tossed out. If you are using good recipes or good software, it's hard to make a bad beer. H.W.
Click to expand...
I agree. I'd be more concerned about why there's alcohol abuse going on (Throwing out beer?). When you get a better batch of beer (preferably one she likes) done, she'll forget all about that bad looking wort. Don't mention anything about women and makeup, btw...
 
I greatly appreciate all the feedback. The video really helped she won't be drinking ANY beer for awhile but now she knows I'm not trying to recreate The Blob in the corner of her craft room.

Why two throwaway's? Well...

My first Brown Ale brew I'm thinking ok the grain provides flavor so I sqeezed and dunked and squeezed and dunked and... the grain bag to get all those wonderful flavors out.

Then it took me over an hour to get the temp down. It was 72 deg when I pitched and reached 76 during fermentation which appeared to only last three days. Oh crap! I under-pitched Quick! More yeast...

Two days later Nope that wasn't it The high temp must of expedited the fermentation. Two days later I'm bottling baby

I know, I know...Now I know.

...And now I also know you don't put fresh fruit in the primary.

I realize that by telling you all this I have lost all respect and will be the subject of relentless ridicule with a downpour of disdain. I probably won't be included in any rain deer games but I promise to regain the title of
Home Brewer and make beer that even my wife will drink.
 
It took me a number of batches to get things right. You'd be surprised at how many little questions aren't answered in either the instructions or both Palmers and Paparazi's books.

That said, I'm now very confident that my average batch is much better than most commercial beer.

However! Stouts are my bane. I've not been able to brew a good one yet (I've only tried twice). So I have my fingers crossed for the OP.
 
Buy her a carton of wine, and drink the beer without her. She'll come around in time. Reindeer. :)
 
I have been brewing for going on 4 years on year of all grain 3 extract. This morning I just figured out that I was batch sparging way too long. Just cause you have been doing something for a while doesn't mean you are doing it right. If someone gives you actual crap over this obsession.... I mean hobby then they don't deserve the title of "Home Brewer" as you put it.
Cheers
 
Willy_Liverdye said:
I'm an old hand at the drinking but still on the teet with the brewing.

So far 2 brews of Brown Ale with one throw away. A butchered Blonde Ale that I'm about to dump for the bottles. A Stout that I just bottled (plez be drinkable). A Pale Ale wrapping up primary. And just started. some of that caramel apple cider.

My lovely wife of many decades took a peek at my Stout in full-blown fermentation and refused to kiss me that evening.

How do I convince her that I'm not trying to get her to drink dirty toilet water and it's perfectly safe?

The "I'm still alive" didn't seem to impress her.

My throw away's make this an uphill battle.
Click to expand...



Tell her that at least you aren't going out for a beer and coming home with a much worse wort. Bonus if you show her some google images. :mug
 
What exactly is the wife's issue here - is she suspicious that the beer's gone bad because it looks ugly? Or is she merely grossed out by the process?
 
i don't know about you guys but that video made my mouth water.
 
My wife used to give me **** aboout it! that was in 2012.. I brewed about 300 gallons and got the evil eye a time or two. As soon as she started being okay with it I slowed down.. about 2 months ago she went back to college and she needed to write a paper on something. what did she choose.. HOME BREWED BEER!!! She did the research and came up with her own opinion on home brewed beer vs. commercial beer and probably knows more about it than me.

She doesn't drink that much maybe a 6 pack every 3 months. but shes way more into it now that she knows the health benefits, I'm speaking of bottle conditioned beer not kegged beer. I never thought I would hear her speak these words, but she tells me to get busy brewing now!

Give it time and let her know its all about your growth as a human.
 
You showed her yours, did she show you hers? :D The process is pretty gross. But after teaching my wife to brew a beer she picked out herself, she understands now & is comfortable with the knowledge of the final product. Clean all your equipment well & sanitize it after that. Most of all, watch those initial ferment temps! They now are starting to think that off flavors start with the lag phase, how long it is, temp & yeast health combined.
 
Wives just don't appreciate things that are homemade. I'll have 2 cases of home brew in the house and she'll buy a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada. Hell I bought an espresso maker and she still spends $20 a week on coffee.
 
I'm sure there must be some type of fermented food that she likes - cheese, sour dough, wine, ...? Get her into making into her own, then she'll understand that things sometimes look and smell awful in order to become delicious.
 
Willy_Liverdye said:
I greatly appreciate all the feedback. The video really helped she won't be drinking ANY beer for awhile but now she knows I'm not trying to recreate The Blob in the corner of her craft room.

Why two throwaway's? Well...

My first Brown Ale brew I'm thinking ok the grain provides flavor so I sqeezed and dunked and squeezed and dunked and... the grain bag to get all those wonderful flavors out.

Then it took me over an hour to get the temp down. It was 72 deg when I pitched and reached 76 during fermentation which appeared to only last three days. Oh crap! I under-pitched Quick! More yeast...

Two days later Nope that wasn't it The high temp must of expedited the fermentation. Two days later I'm bottling baby

I know, I know...Now I know.

...And now I also know you don't put fresh fruit in the primary.

I realize that by telling you all this I have lost all respect and will be the subject of relentless ridicule with a downpour of disdain. I probably won't be included in any rain deer games but I promise to regain the title of
Home Brewer and make beer that even my wife will drink.
Click to expand...

Thank you Willy- you make me laugh!
I've made pretty much every mistake possible, and somehow still manage to produce a beer-like substance that at least I like. And sometimes friends, family, and even complete strangers tell me they like it. This endeavor is the perfect combination of biology, chemistry and the art of cooking. And we get beer out of it! Keep on brewing man- the fraternity needs you. :mug:
 
Get fermenter buckets instead of transparent carboys. Fermentation is not a pretty sight. That's why there are no award winning feature length movies of fermentation. I have never seen the fermentation process directly. I just know i toss wort and yeast into a bucket together and they give me beer.
 

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