You know you're a home brewer when?

When you refer to the grounds left in the bottom of your coffee cup as "dregs".

hodge said:

When you refer to the grounds left in the bottom of your coffee cup as "dregs".

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I've always done that.

Yeah, used that term before I ever brewed.

BTW, I know it's been a while, but I would like to thank the moderator that changed the Your to You're in the thread title.

It bothered me every time I saw it (it is a petty, I know)

When you go to your family or friends house and check there fridge. You shortly realize they only have Miller Light. You tell them you'll be right back. After 30 mins you return with 4 cases of your favorite mirco. You stuff the fridge beyond full and say "That's better"

That has to be the cheapest way to get a fridge full of good beer. Fill it with miller lite and invite you over

Schmutzli said:

when you have a permanent saltwater cooling bath in your freezer

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Heh, I did this about a month ago, for both beer and soda. Don't use it for homebrew though as it needs sufficient time for proper carbonation.

Special Hops said:

That could be it. But I just didn't think of it. In the south it's hard to have a reason to warm the fermentation chamber.

I thought all light skunks beer. Maybe fluorescent more then others?

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UV light skunks beer. Fluorescent puts out FAR more UV than incandescent bulbs, but many LEDs put out none.

... you realize that you can clean everything in the house, and make it look like new, with the same chemical agents used for your brewing grear.

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I mixed some BEST brand iodine with some Meyers cleaner and am loving the results.

you visit friends up north (pittsburgh in this case) and upon drinking the very cold tap water you think "man, i could cool my wort really quickly if our tap water was this cold."

When you have over ten pounds of hops in your freezer (which is the freezer in the brew fridge, not the one for food) and you're thinking about buying even more.

When you have over 200# of base malt and you're worried about running out before the next club buy (3x a year).

When you are out to eat with swmbo and all you can think about is how well your whiskey stout would pair with this coffee rubbed steak.

you know you are a homebrewer when your hot water heater has two settings: mash and sparge

When you work at a soda bottling plant and write up a proposal to your boss for a Star-San misting system to clean bottle caps going to the capper.

hodge said:

When you refer to the grounds left in the bottom of your coffee cup as "dregs".

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Sometimes I steal a cup of coffee from my wife's coffee-maker before its done percolating through the filter - the extra strong stuff. I refer to it as the "first-runnings".

when you talk to your swmbo about what you should brew next and your 4 year old asks what hops you are going to use.

I must talk about brewing way to much.

When your friend is going to a LHBS and asks if you need anything

When you find carboys at a yard sale for $10 and you buy all of them not because you need them, but because they are cheep, and you can always use more!!

Your kitchen is always spotless and the rest of the house is filthy.

When you no longer see empty bottles as trash.

When you can scrape together a recipe from all the left over hops, grains, and rack a brew to secondary just to reuse the yeast for your newly finished brew.

...when the only thing that makes that strange anxious feeling go away is when all your fermenters are full.

When you brew 15gal of beer, are not satisfied with the efficiencies, and immediately plan on brewing again the next week to create your desired batches.

When you have 30 gallons in primary and 15 in secondary and 7 on tap. Then you wonder what your brewing the next weekend, and have to buy more buckets to ferment in just so you can brew.

That is my problem currently. It sucks, I know

When you pour a commercial beer and leave the last 1/4" in the bottle.

When your husband brings home an armload of empties from the neighbors house and says (with a crazed look) 'Can you believe they were going to THROW THESE OUT???'

Apparently I've been training him well...

you snicker every time you meet someone named "Brett", and then ask him if he considers himself a sour person...

When you have a nightmare about a stuck sparge and you haven't even made the jump to all grain yet.

You find yourself responding with "relax - have a homebrew" every time someone mentions any sort of issue or problem.

When you go around to bev stores and buy up there old bottles

When you apply brewing practices to making better breakfast, such as adding mashing in your instant oatmeal by slowly adding the oats to the water or not steeping your coffee in near boiling water.

When you pass a 5 gallon plastic bucket, you go back to see if it might really be a 6 gallon fermenter.
This brings up another question.....how many buckets is too many?

when you start asking yourself "how many buckets is too many?"

You don't hesitate to mash in at 9pm when SWMBO hints that she's ok with you staying up til 3am brewing in the dark

"Red Skies at Night" Red ale...big Columbus hopping on my patio Friday night

When your with a buddy and meet one their friends for the first time and they go " oohh, your the guy that brews his own beer?!?!"

When your 5 year old daughter takes your zip lock baggie full of whole leaf hops into school for show and tell and tells her class "these are my daddys favorite" and upon arrival to pick her up from school are promptly pulled into the principals office for questioning.

amrmedic said:

When your 5 year old daughter takes your zip lock baggie full of whole leaf hops into school for show and tell and tells her class "these are my daddys favorite" and upon arrival to pick her up from school are promptly pulled into the principals office for questioning.

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Uh oh! That's pretty funny though. Was pulled over once with hops in the car. 3 more cops show up and ask to search the car.

Yeah, I graduated high school 20 years ago, but man, being called into the principals office, even today, still puts dread in my heart.

After I hastily explained that this was not what they thought and they are hops which I use for brewing beer, the principals' eyes lit up with excitement and asked me what beers I brew and he went onto to ask me many more questions about brewing. He is a beer lover.

When you fall asleep thinking about your next batch or how to improve your technique's..

Also wishing the damn porter would age faster.......!!!

When you come in from a weekend out of town and the first thing you notice is the overwhelming smell of stale beer......................coming from the kitchen pantry where you put the clear, flip top 750ml bottles on the top shelf to carbonate in the dark, not realizing they were for still wine, vinegar, etc., and not pressure proof. BTW, beer and shards of glass make a fine home defense system once the beer dries...... sigh.