Wife's reaction to new brewing hobby?

I have been happily married for 3 (going on 4) years now. I am 25 years old and I like to "make" things. I think part of this comes from me having an IT job and all of my work isn't on a tangible object, rather it's something virtual.

I'm a Ham Operator and I love working with electronics to "make" things. I also like to garden and grow things. Now I am wanting to start the brewing hobby to see if I'm successful at it and if I like it or not. The wife has heckled me about each and every hobby I take up.

Do any of you guys experience this or am I alone here?

welcome to the club. i think most guys get heckled by their wives about brewing... hopefully it'll be in a fun way like my wife does, it's all in good fun with us. and i also think you'll find a lot of guys on here are similar to you in that we all like making stuff and geeking out on hobbies.

Oh hell, you still get sex after 3 years. You wait till she heckles you when you take your pants off. You wait and see how good of a brewer you become because you know your success as a brewer depends on your, well your pants taking off technique.
WELCOME TO THE CLUB

I have only been brewing for alittle over two months, my wife doesn't heckle me, but she does remind me of how she is trying to put up with it.
She is not a beer drinker so she can not appreciate
the "fruits" of my labor.
I try do do everything after her and the kids are sleeping,
but when she is around when I am brewing, she complains about the smell.
I am having way too much fun with this to stop!
Have fun!
Dave

My wife is always supportive. She has been helpful with all of my hobbies. I think brewing is her favorite so far. She really enjoys great beer. 13 years now and I could not grow any older with anyone else.

rrittenhouse said:

I have been happily married for 3 (going on 4) years now. I am 25 years old and I like to "make" things. I think part of this comes from me having an IT job and all of my work isn't on a tangible object, rather it's something virtual.

I'm a Ham Operator and I love working with electronics to "make" things. I also like to garden and grow things. Now I am wanting to start the brewing hobby to see if I'm successful at it and if I like it or not. The wife has heckled me about each and every hobby I take up. ]

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You sound like me. Except for the HAM thing. IT, like to work with my hands, etc.


IIRC, like half this forum are engineers, and of the other half, a good percentage is IT people.

Dave258 said:

I have only been brewing for alittle over two months, my wife doesn't heckle me, but she does remind me of how she is trying to put up with it.
She is not a beer drinker so she can not appreciate
the "fruits" of my labor.
I try do do everything after her and the kids are sleeping,
but when she is around when I am brewing, she complains about the smell.
I am having way too much fun with this to stop!
Have fun!
Dave

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+1 to that. I am in the same boat as you. I did, however, just start a Sangria kit for her. We'll see what she has to say when it's ready to drink (she doesn't know I made the kit).

I'm not married, but my girlfriend loooves me brewing, and the end result of it.

My wife heckled me once. Once...

Rrittenhouse
After 11 years (15 if you count dating) its when they don’t heckle you that you should worry. Heckling is just good natured ribbing it keeps us humble, to this day still catch “grief” for little mistakes I made when we first met. If she drinks, you’re luckier than I am because there is probably zero chance of me producing a beer that my wife will drink. She doesn’t drink (much) Appletini’s and Smirnoff malt liquor is about it. I do IT work as well, so much of what we do is cognitive and conceptual that we like to have a hard copy output.
Ray

Bobby_M said:

My wife heckled me once. Once...

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What do you say to a woman with two black eyes?

Nothing, already told her twice!





horrible joke, i know.

My wife has always been very supportive of my hobbies in our 6 years (2 married). I have been very lucky in that she loves it when I am happy and doing things I like.

My wife heckles me about my wine making as I have 2 rooms for that hobby. 1 for fermenting and the other for my bottle cellar. so when I started this she said you know we dont have any more rooms for you and I said not yet!!!! But seriously, the only time shes bothered by it is the day Im doing the boil cause she cant stand the smell and even though Ive told her it was going to happen this day she always says lets go for a ride or something and I say cant, sorry see ya out back!

The wife hates the smell of brewing, and just goes out and spends money when I brew. Then, to make things fair, I go and spend money on brew equipment.

It's a vicious circle, really.

After 22 years of marrage I DON"T CARE.........................................

You find a happy balance, and if that doesn't work you find a girlfriend who can deal with it...

Cheers,
Frank

My girlfriend loves the fact that I brew and loves my beer... but then again we don't live together. I often wonder how this will change when we get our own place.

Mine got me into this!


KE4JTW/73

My wife loves the fact that I brew. She'll also help when she is around. I think the best part is she loves to caps bottles.

Homebrewcrazy said:

After 22 years of marrage I DON"T CARE.........................................

You find a happy balance, and if that doesn't work you find a girlfriend who can deal with it...

Cheers,
Frank

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I LOVE THIS!!!!!


as far as the smell goes boys, just let her know you feel the same way when she turns the stove on to cook.

thats so funny because i love the smell of making beer!

when I made sure there was always a cornie of Apfelwein available.

I also moved my operation out of the kitchen... no mess or smell complaints.

BTW, I've been married for 36 years.

33 years of marriage, 38 with dating. She doesn't heckle me much except when other things get put to the side because of priority brewing. And, I always have to be sure to take beers with in the care packages when we visit our children. She also helped me get cleaned up and to the ER after my brewing accident in July. Right now there are 4 in primaries, 2 in kegs conditioning and 3 kegs drinking. I'm not an IT person or anything like that, I'm just a firefighter that needs to unwind a little after some long shifts.

When I get heckled, I just reply "Yes Dear"
Unless we have been watching Fawlty Towers, in which case it's Yes Sybil
Unless she has been watching Keeping Up Appearances, in which case it's Yes Hyacinth.


-a.

It's a vicious cycle.....brew beer....wife gets mad....more time to brew....wife stops having sex....more time for brewing.....etc etc.

Sithdad said:

just start a Sangria kit for her. We'll see what she has to say when it's ready to drink (she doesn't know I made the kit).

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Cool, my wife loves sangria. What kit is it? I made some of EdWort's Apfelwein hoping she will like that, only it won't be ready to drink for like another month.

Dave

3bals said:

33 years of marriage, 38 with dating. She doesn't heckle me much except when other things get put to the side because of priority brewing. And, I always have to be sure to take beers with in the care packages when we visit our children. She also helped me get cleaned up and to the ER after my brewing accident in July. Right now there are 4 in primaries, 2 in kegs conditioning and 3 kegs drinking. I'm not an IT person or anything like that, I'm just a firefighter that needs to unwind a little after some long shifts.

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dude what was the accident.

Homebrewcrazy said:

After 22 years of marrage I DON"T CARE.........................................

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AMEN!

Dave

Another IT guy here (programmer). My girlfriend gives me a hard time about it too, but I think that's just because she doesn't like beer. I don't think she would care as much if I was making wine.

I am an IT person, and I also am big into tinkering especially with wordworking and electronics, also big into gardening and cooking is lots of fun too. I am big into science too, and pretty handy with math and I don't get to do anywhere near enough of that at work... I hear ya OP.

My wife is a huge science geek, I met her playing doubles pool at a bar back in my home town in WI. She got me a home brewing starter kit for a wedding anniversary present. She can pretty much keep up with me drinking-wise and she's got a good appreciation for good beer. She's also pretty good about getting new equipment, as long as I don't look like I'm doing stuff on a whim without doing research on what is best etc. I usually just have to babble about it for a few weeks or a month or so and then it's all good. There's heckling, but it's usually mutual. All in good fun anyways.

Oh yeah she doesn't really like sticky floors, especially after having mopped the kitchen or something. One time the cat kinda got stuck on a wort spill. I think it helped with the funny factor and all.

Berserker_Brew said:

What do you say to a woman with two black eyes?

Nothing, already told her twice!





horrible joke, i know.

My wife has always been very supportive of my hobbies in our 6 years (2 married). I have been very lucky in that she loves it when I am happy and doing things I like.

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Bad joke. but I did laugh!

I haven't been married (this time) all that long, but we both have hobbies and we're both very much our own people. We've been together about 10 years. We do many things together- fishing, hunting, traveling- but we do some things apart. I've travelled on my own when I wanted to go somewhere that wasn't a "couple" interest. I drove to the National Homebrew Conference last year alone- about 1900 miles round trip. I went to Oaxaca, Mexico on my own, too, about 5 years ago. Most places we go together, but not always.

Maybe it's because we're older, but there is alot of freedom in our relationship. We both are old enough to know what we want to do, and we're both old enough to accept each other. We never disagree over hobbies or other activities.

Thankfully, I was able to turn my wife into a beer snob just like me before I decided to take up the home brewing hobby. She's been really supportive (as we both are of each of our millions of hobbies), and it's great because she can get excited about each batch along with me.

roofpig said:

Thankfully, I was able to turn my wife into a beer snob just like me before I decided to take up the home brewing hobby. She's been really supportive (as we both are of each of our millions of hobbies), and it's great because she can get excited about each batch along with me.

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Same here, except its my soon to be fiancee. She loves beer, and brewing. She loves baking, so I bake with her too.

Bobby_M said:

My wife heckled me once. Once...

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LOL and then what bobby she was so afraid of the last beating that she just stayed in the kitchen???? Of all your posts that was my fav.

Bobby_M said:

My wife heckled me once. Once...

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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdf9-hRt410]YouTube - Rodney Carrington - The Man Song[/ame]

My wife is actually the one who suggested we get a kegerator. I try to always have a beer that she likes on tap. You have to keep momma happy... and I don't minde keeping her happy with homebrew.

tdavisii said:

LOL and then what bobby she was so afraid of the last beating that she just stayed in the kitchen???? Of all your posts that was my fav.

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Damn did she end up in the next batch? LOL

shimbii said:

My wife is actually the one who suggested we get a kegerator. I try to always have a beer that she likes on tap. You have to keep momma happy... and I don't minde keeping her happy with homebrew.

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When I told my wife I couldn't find a beer fridge that would fit down my cellar staircase she said "you could just put it in the kitchen." :rockin:

I still tear up when I think of that moment.

When I told her I was building another really really big fridge down in the basement to keep all 14 of my kegs cold she just smiled that way she does and shook her head like I was crazy. I can't disagree.

Basically she just takes my hobbiies in stride and fully expects me to go crazy with them for a while although she does introduce herself as my 'long-suffering' wife when I introduce her to friends.

BELIEVE ME THIS IS CHEAPER THAN MY LAST HOBBY....Romote controlled planes.

The last one I lost was $1300, and never found it.

Saw it go in and that was it.

This, a piece of cake.

I did already have a kegerator (BMC beers) so beer isn't foreign around here.

My wife loves the smell of the hopps and such.

The only thing that no one has brought up is the inevitable "So you are brewing, and now you don't have to buy any beer at the store?"

WRONG!!!!!

I was already brewing and working at a HBS when we met, so she knew what she was getting herself into. She can't complain now!

DizzyPants said:

BELIEVE ME THIS IS CHEAPER THAN MY LAST HOBBY....Romote controlled planes.

The last one I lost was $1300, and never found it.

Saw it go in and that was it.

This, a piece of cake.

I did already have a kegerator (BMC beers) so beer isn't foreign around here.

My wife loves the smell of the hopps and such.

The only thing that no one has brought up is the inevitable "So you are brewing, and now you don't have to buy any beer at the store?"

WRONG!!!!!

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I was once into the R/C cars. That progressed into the bigger faster (read much more expensive) world of R/C airplanes. It was fun...'till i decided that my nice airplane that I built would look much better as a large box of tooth picks. It was great!!! Now I have about $2K of stuff collecting dust in storage... Eh, it was fun while it lasted.

Now I spend the majority of my time obsessing about beer. My girlfriend is very supportive. She does her best to not be a facilitator though (which is good). Sometimes I need that voice of reason telling me me "no, you don't need that shiny new beer thing."

I can honestly say tough that I have never heard the "now you don't have to buy any beer at the store." She knows that's research...

My wife likes me to have hobbies -some more than others. Brewing beer is an at home hobby - riding my motorcycle is an away hobby. Guess which one she likes best?

JKoravos said:

I was already brewing and working at a HBS when we met, so she knew what she was getting herself into. She can't complain now!

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Oh but she can... It's what they do....