Other hobbies besides brewing?

I was reading the guys thread about building his new brew shed in the DIY section. It got me to thinking about all of the different hobbies I have had and how my wife has put up with all of it without a word.........I learned to walk dragging a guitar around, so that hobby has been with me forever. Since we have been married I have went through stages where I would have 6-7 guitars at once. Including some expensive ones. Then I would have none, then go buy more........
Then I got really involved in hunting with terriers. I got so involved I became a judge with the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America, and built 8 very expensive kennels,I was so into it I was hunting 6-7 days a week for a long while, even missing work to go hunting. still have the dogs but hunt them very little anymore.......
Then I got into American bulldogs and doing hog catching and bite work. Payed a grand for a puppy( still have him years later ) and bought a few others that were no good. lost interest in all of that............
Then I got into weight lifting and nutrition filled my shed with equipment. Dropped 96 pounds and was in very good shape. Hurt my back and have a shed full of dust covered weights and power rack etc....oh yeah I am fat again too.............
At the same time I got into the wights I discovered judo and ju jitsu. Earned my brown belt in judo, fought a tourney and won it...Got really good and was really enjoying it until the back injury...Now I have gis that don't fit and haven't been on a mat in a year or more.........
Got really into handguns ( concealed carry license) and collecting them. Had 32 handguns at one time along with rifles and shotguns. was shooting all the time and suddenly now I have my carry gun and a 22 rifle.....everything else has been sold or given away..............
Then I got really into bow shooting a couple of years ago. Discovered I have a natural knack for it. bought 3 expensive bows joined a target league and went for the new guy to a #1 team shooter.....average 300 with 48 X's . Did that for one season ( this was a relapse from years back when I got into bow hunting and killed a pope and young buck my third day ever hunting) went bow hunting last year and killed a nice doe. After spending all of that money I haven't picked up my target or hunting bow in months.......
Now I am into the brewing. Carboys and fermenting buckets setting everywhere....bottles and equipment...through all of this stuff my wife has jumped right in to help with whjatever I am doing. I think she must be mother teresa reincarnated sometimes...others though not so much lol.....
What hobbies are you guys into other than brewing? And are your wives supportive of it or just tolerant?

BTW I put paragraphs in my posts but a computer glitch removes them

Photography and home cinema.

archaeology (career and hobby), backpacking and outdoors stuff, and golf

Guitar, Aquariums, Poker(play as much as we can in our neighborhood), Photography, Notre Dame Football since birth, Video Gaming..

LOL, you sound like me. My wife says I collect hobbies as a hobby. I have most of a Harley in the garage that I have been collecting parts for over the past 10 years. I have a ham license, lots of fishing gear, too many computers, plenty of guns. I bake bread from scratch and sometimes run my smoker all day. Beer is one that has been around a while but I go through phases of heavy brewing and then none for a bit.

Photography, drawing, MMA, hockey, playing bass guitar, traveling, making snotty youtube movies, shootin' things...

Fiction and screenplay writing, my Miata, Carolina Panthers football.

My wife is great, but she's not that supportive of the brewing (which might explain why I've finally gathered all of the equipment but have yet to brew). She thinks I talk about beer too much, and she's probably right.

Notre Dame football was a good one....ME TOO!!!!

Yankees, Giants...etc.. Playing any sport I can (basketball, soccer, softball, ultimate, ping pong, hockey, you name it, I play it)

Memorabilia...lots and lots....mostly Yankee, but some giants in there as well.

Paintball for 3 years or so...spent a lot on that one, before the ****ty electronic stuff, had an autococker, correction, still have. That gun was easily $1,000.

Cycling, just got into that 3 years ago, nothing wuite like going 40 MPH on your own strength.

Homebrewing....absolutely love it.

I light farts

You can see me lighting farts at www.surrealized.com

Aside from brewing I'm very much an electronics whore haha. Any thing to do with Tv's, receivers, speakers, computers...I enjoy fiddling with computers every chance I get and build them for myself or others.

Homebrewing has topped off my electronics experience...nothing better than grabbing a homebrew and sitting down in the middle of my custom built home theater system, all centered around my homebuilt blu-ray HTPC :rockin:

The ex thought my home theater was stupid...but the new gf thinks it's awesome, plus she enjoys the IPA I brew! My type of girl!

I also like messing with cars. I fix it when it's broke, modify when I feel like it. And just bought myself an 03 Mustang GT. I'll be fiddling with it come spring...

Needless to say, brewing is not my most expensive hobby...the electronics or car probably take the cake.

I notice that a lot of people on the HBT forum are similar to me and my friends, do-it-yourself types. I like that. It seems not enough people do that these days. I know it's done right if I do it, and it's rewarding...not to mention cheaper!

wrenching on and restoring my cars, which goes well with beer.

a little guitar, although that one has been dormant for a while, also goes well with beer

running, which actually seems like a good idea after a few beers too, but i usally ait till after the run.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

I light farts

You can see me lighting farts at www.surrealized.com

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Lighting farts, eh. I didn't realize that was an actual hobby. I applaud you sir.

Photography, hockey, paintball, jiu jitsu, and most recently brewing. I'm not married to my SO yet, but she puts up with all of my hobbies very well. She watches my hockey games, sometimes comes to paintball tournaments, and this summer was active in our university jiu jitsu club. She's a killer lady.

for me i started my obsessive phase with becoming a locksmith. I had quite literally an entire locksmith van and store inside my small 2 bedroom apartment and it was an obsession. My girlfriend didn't mind, she supported me, she got her hands dirty and learned how to pick a lock.

After that, my girlfriend and I both got into rock climbing, which is by far the most expensive thing that i have ever gotten into. We spent 3 times a week driving 30 minutes each way just to climb for a few hours before heading back. All the gear, the books, just sitting in a closet collecting dust. Speaking of that, i need to get back and do some climbing after my knee heals back up.

#/edit#
next came photography and the rediculous money spent on a camera. yes just the body not talking about lenses yet. bodies ranging from 200 dollars to 1500 dollars and lenses from 200 per lens to 1200 per lens. although they have made some awesome brew pics! luckily i still make it a habit of taking my cameras everywhere i go and trying to get alteast a few shots in every day.
#edit/#

Then came brewing. Another obsession. And still the girlfriend supports me. In fact she is the one who urges me to brew this style or make that variation. All the while she is getting herself into winemaking. I can't say that i have ever had someone so supportive or understanding in my life before and probably take it for granted.

The way i look at my past hobbies is life experience. Sure, they cost money, sure they entertain you, and sure they keep you happy. You will never lose that experience. The abilities i have because of every hobby i have ever undertaken have paid of tenfold. Locking myself out, needing to rig roping, camping, surfing, brewing, electronics, Home A/V, my cars. All things that through the course of my enjoyment of learning i have either saved myself tons of money or saved myself tons of effort.

just my 2 cents... lets keep this going, curious how many other people have set down other hobbies for brewing

Raced motorcycles since I was a kid mx,tt,drag. Then weight lifting owned a couple of gyms won a few state powerlifting championships top ten in world ranking. Started mountian biking won a couple state champinonship in the time trial, singlespeed,crosscountry. During this time I was building custom cars six magazine covers acouple articles two goodguys winners and a best of show at the L.A. roadster show.

Now I brew and made my own system.

Wow thats enough tootin my own horn.

Pat

Fishing, Ice Fishing, camping, computer crap, shooting sports, golf, sailing

I like building stuff too. My last major, non-beer related build was a sailing dingy with a stitch-n-glue process.

Keeping and breeding snakes has a hobby/passion for a long time and was my first addiction before i added brewing to it. I also snowboard all winter and fish as much as i can, and even though they have been bad to me as of late North Carolina State University sports (mostly football).

I have played soccer my entire life. Two days ago I actually played in my last competitive game. I am a senior, and the season is over. It feels really weird to spend so much time and energy into something and just have it end. I can certainly play some adult leagues but its clearly not the same. Unfortunately I am not good enough to go pro either.

My other main hobby has been car building. I am currently build a Factory Five Racing GTM and having a lot of fun doing so. There are actually a lot of similarities to brewing. It is sort of a balance of a science and an art, and for both I do a lot of reading/research.

I have no wife, but a girlfriend of close to 4 years. She impressively puts up with all of my **** (hobbies and otherwise). I have no idea how...

Guitar, wood working/wood turning, bike riding (road bike) and pretty much anything outdoors.

cford1 said:

I have played soccer my entire life. Two days ago I actually played in my last competitive game. I am a senior, and the season is over. It feels really weird to spend so much time and energy into something and just have it end.

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S#ccer is gay and you should never play it if you are a real man.

oops! let's just be realistic here! It's not S#ccer, it's football! You, sir are a hero! It's all too easy for Americans to play baseball etc. But for an American to play S#ccer? Well that takes a REAL man sir!

cford1 said:

I have no wife, but a girlfriend of close to 4 years. She impressively puts up with all of my **** (hobbies and otherwise). I have no idea how...

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isn't that the truth!

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

S#ccer is gay and you should never play it if you are a real man.

oops! let's just be realistic here! It's not S#ccer, it's football! You, sir are a hero! It's all too easy for Americans to play baseball etc. But for an American to play S#ccer? Well that takes a REAL man sir!

Click to expand...

Not sure if this is a crack at us soccer players or not.

I was the same way, played my freshman year, then started our club team which was very competitivve (I know its not the same commitment, but similar). I lost the sport for a year, but found a league where I live that is filled with ex college players and is very competitive with money placings for the year-end tourney.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

S#ccer is gay and you should never play it if you are a real man.

oops! let's just be realistic here! It's not S#ccer, it's football! You, sir are a hero! It's all too easy for Americans to play baseball etc. But for an American to play S#ccer? Well that takes a REAL man sir!

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I played soccer from age 7 until 14. I can never get that time back.

smmcdermott said:

Not sure if this is a crack at us soccer players or not.

.

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Here is a clue for you. It is football!! I cannot call it s#ccer. That is the reason I cannot spell the s*ccer word in it's entirety. Anytime I say S#ccer, a small part of my Englishness dies. It's FOOTBALL dammit!

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Here is a clue for you. It is football!! I cannot call it s#ccer. That is the reason I cannot spell the s*ccer word in it's entirety. Anytime I say S#ccer, a small part of my Englishness dies. It's FOOTBALL dammit!

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Which English soccer team do you prefer? Do you like other European soccer teams?

Who here is a fan of Handegg?

MeatyPortion said:

Which English soccer team do you prefer? Do you like other European soccer teams?

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Southampton FC. We are currently languishing in a very low league in the English system, but we have recently acquired a billionare owner...onwards and upwards!

Cool. Now you can sign Zidane and bring Vinnie Jones out of retirement. You'll slaughter everyone.

MeatyPortion said:

Cool. Now you can sign Zidane and bring Vinnie Jones out of retirement. You'll slaughter everyone.

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You mean THIS Vinnie Jones?

MY hobbies besides making and drinking beer are Guns I like to target shoot a lot. I reload 15 different calibers on 3 reloading presses. I am into Pontiac's just did a 500hp 428 motor for my goat. Fishing and anything really that has to do with the outdoors.

Cigars, Electronics, Scotch, and eventually back into restoring an old hotrod...when space is available.

Cigars, firearms, poker, growing gourmet mushrooms (i.e. ****ake, lions mane, oysters, etc.)

Cooking, Skiing, and music. I used to golf but it has gotten way too expensive.

There are other hobbies?? Really?..

Ok, so mine are Computers and electronics, I am a Scotch Snob, working out,
Future hobbies: Cheese making, Wine making, and Guns. Just need to save up $$$ for a HK

Drinking, Girls, Sports, Money

LOL!! You guys have reminded me of a couple of other ventures I got into. I was VERY into cigars for a while..two nice sized humidors kept well stocked. THAT is expensive although my fun was discovering 4-5 dollar ones that I like as well as the cohibas that I still crave on occasion....I still have a few cigars in a humidor that hasn't even been looked at in a few years...probably dry as a bone............I also was an aquarium fanatic for a while. I had a 125 gallon tank with a varied group of inhabitants...oscars for a while along with an alligator gar......then went to pirrannhas( sp) had red bellys but they were so shy it wasn't fun...had a few other cichlids...Along with the 125 we had ( all at once) two 55 gallons...two 20 gallons and a 35 hex ( feeder fish tank) .........................Then there was the golf tangent........God my wife must love me.

Aside from home brewing my only other hobby is wakeboarding/boating. I've been heavily involved in the sport for almost 9 years. My wife didn't seem to mind my wakeboarding hobby until after we were married. Then all of a sudden the $300 a month boat payment that I had been making long before we met suddenly became an issue.

We had a few heated arguments about it over the first few years of marriage, but then something happened that caused my wife to give up complaining about my hobby..... She found a hobby of her own! Her hobby is actually more work related, but it still occupies a great deal of her time which frees me up to go to the lake

She coaches stage performers on how to control their nerves. Her dad won the gold medal in the 1976 Olympics in riffle shooting. To win the gold he had to control his nerves while shooting perfect 10's. Afterwords he developed a business around his "mental management system" where she now works as an instructor.

She has been pretty open about my brew hobby, but when I mentioned that I was going to build a kegerator she rolled her eyes and said that I better spend my own money! This past weekend I showed her a picture of what it would look like. Apparently she thought I was going to build some ugly thing because after seeing the picture I showed her she said "oh, that will look awesome. Why don't you go ahead and pay for it out of our joint account".

I wasted zero time in heading to Lowe's to pick up a mini fridge as well as ordering everything else I needed online

Philosophy (major), Psychology (minor), Sociology (semi-minor). Baking, Guitar, Bass, Singing, etc.

It may seem a little dorky(well it is) but my second favorite thing to do after brewing is birdwatching. It gets you out of the house and in some pretty amazing places. Just like beer, birding tends to influence where I go and how I get there when I have some time off.