You know you're a home brewer when?

When you get flaked wheat stuck in your mac keyboard :/

When after the mash you make spent grain bread

SWMBO is leaving town for two weeks and all you can think is, "I'm gonna make sooooo much beer!"

When you haul all your spent bottles back from your road trip to San Diego, because you just can't bring yourself to toss them.

When you use free time to search through craigslist for objects and equipment to utillize somewhere in the brewing process.

When you go rent a storage unit just to store a pallet of bottles

When your girlfriend looks for a new apartment, and chooses one based on how large the basememt is, how much the temperature fluctuates, and if there is a utility sink. She then calls you and says you can store supplies and fermenting liquids there.

I found a keeper.

wSelwyn said:

When your girlfriend looks for a new apartment, and chooses one based on how large the basememt is, how much the temperature fluctuates, and if there is a utility sink. She then calls you and says you can store supplies and fermenting liquids there.

I found a keeper.

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She just doesn't want that shìt in your living space

When you wake up more tired from brewing beer than you do from drinking beer!

When you use your StarSan spray bottle like an every day kitchen cleaning product!

When you gotta quit for a while because you have to" thin the herd" of homebrews in your basement.

When you brew at home.

When coworkers regularly ask what you're drinking this weekend as opposed to why you're doing.

... when you walk through the supermarket and keep saying to yourself, "i could make a beer with that". the juice aisle, the baking aisle, the syrup aisle. So many things to ferment!!

When you go out to eat at a brewpub and while considering what your second beer will be, your nine year old son says, "Dad, you shouldn't have another - you have lots of beer at home."

AND

You seek out brewpubs with a kid's menu so you can spend some time together and take him "out to lunch."

brewnz said:

When you use your StarSan spray bottle like an every day kitchen cleaning product!

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Oh no! You mean it is not?

When you stop working out your biceps because you realize that if they get just slightly bigger you're not going to be able to fit your arm down into corney kegs anymore.

When you miss seeing full carboys taking up the kitchen table.

When you can find a recipe from 2-23-06, but you can't find a screwdriver.

When you give your wife the evil eye for asking if she can use your brew pot to make spaghetti sauce.

When you discover that human civilisation switched from nomadic existence to settlements in order to grow grains to brew beer and make bread, and you feel connected to 10,000 years of others who share the same passion.

When there's buckets and carboys under the kitchen table and a tub full of 2 row next to the tub full of dog food.

When SWMBO returns from a trip and brings you beer from a brewery she visited along with a pint glass and bottle opener, hop candy and (this one makes me proud) a pound of specialty grains they told her were hard to find on the east coast (midnight wheat)!

Yes, I will be putting together a recipe based around a specialty grain.

RedGuitar said:

When SWMBO returns from a trip and brings you beer from a brewery she visited along with a pint glass and bottle opener, hop candy and (this one makes me proud) a pound of specialty grains they told her were hard to find on the east coast (midnight wheat)!

Yes, I will be putting together a recipe based around a specialty grain.

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You should even use the hop candy in the brew

RandomBeerGuy said:

You should even use the hop candy in the brew

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I like this idea. Midnight wheat and hop candy sounds like it would go well in a belgian. Is there an ingredient list on the hop candy?

Bamsdealer said:

I like this idea. Midnight wheat and hop candy sounds like it would go well in a belgian. Is there an ingredient list on the hop candy?

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I've only seen two versions of hard hop candy (so far)... One has cascade in it, the other East Kent Golding... I'd rather save the candy to have outside of a brew. Use more of those hops in it, or maybe drop a candy into a brew one you pour it into glass.

The hop candy is pretty much just corn sugar and EK Goldings hop extract. It tastes like sugar with a hint of hops. I think cascade hops would be better, and definitely want more hop flavor.

Another thought, crush the candy to rim the glass like one of those fancy drinks.

When your more excited to brew rather than celebrate your own birthday

RandomBeerGuy said:

When your more excited to brew rather than celebrate your own birthday

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Though birthday brews are something to be excited about.

Before you even interview for a new job, where you really want to move to, you're researching homebrew clubs, supply stores, and the water in the area. You also start looking for places that will be better suited to brewing. Such as with a decent porch, or garage where you can setup to brew.

If said job doesn't come through, you're already prepared to move to a new place close to where you are now, that you'll be able to brew at without issue. Again, with an area that's easily adapted for brewing, and places to ferment year round without issue.

Channel66 said:

Though birthday brews are something to be excited about.

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I thought birthdays were a reason to brew.

......... your a towboater and you have 2 barges of wheat, 6 of corn and 2 of rice and you think "damn, I could make a crapload ofbeer with this stuff!". So 10 barges is roughly 25,000 tons of product. That's a lot of grain!

After date night you and your wife sit in the beer storage area and talk about how to organize the shelves better, so you have more room for beer. While you drink a Bourbon Barrel aged IIPA that you made.

When the open garage door becomes an invite to the neighbors. "Hey, Baggins is brewing, lets go hang out in his garage." Never mind that its 100˚ and humid. "hey, what do you have on tap right now?"

You have a hydrometer in the "special" drawer that also contains a length of rope, handcuffs, zip ties, a paddle (not for mashing) and other non brewing toys.

When you show up at the gas station to have 4 propane cylinders filled.

Does anybody else try to figure out what beer characters are drinking in TV shows and movies?

RedGuitar said:

Does anybody else try to figure out what beer characters are drinking in TV shows and movies?

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Definitely