Morning brew session dilemma: to partake or not to partake?

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cweston

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The boil is going nicely, I hit my gravity and volume dead on, and I'd really like to open the first bottle of my tripel while I brew.

But it's 10:30 am. My wife is coming home for lunch, and she'll definitely think I have issues if she smells beer on my breath (and she *always* smells beer on my breath when I've had a beer within the last 8 hours.)

Thoughts?
 
Um, wait until after she leaves for work again? I don't know. who am i to say??? Have a beer now and then crack another open and be drinking it when she gets home??? 'Nooooooooo honey, I didn't start drinking until 5 minutes ago!'
(That might be what i do if caught in same situation...)
 
Too late!

The tripel is going to be great in about a month. It's a little more subdued in flavor that I'd hoped and a little on the dry side (started in the high 70s, finished at 1.009), but very nice.

I'll just brush my teeth about 12 times and hope for the best.
 
Reminds me of the scene from Spanglish where the grandma is getting ready to drink some wine and the chick is like "mom it's not even 12:00 yet" and the clock strikes 12:00.

All kidding aside, I'd just wait. It just isn't worth it because if it puts a negative air about your hobby of homebrewing that could have far greater consequences than the enjoyment of your brew immediately. :fro:
 
cweston said:
The boil is going nicely, I hit mny gravity and volume dead on, and I'd really like to open the first bottel of my tripel while I brew.

But it's 10:30 am. My wife is coming home for lunch, and she'll definitely think I have issues if she smells beer on my breath (and she *always* smells beer on my breath when I've had a beer within the last 8 hours.)

Thoughts?

I don't know your wife. My wife wouldn't really give shyt. Hell, she's had beer before noon with me before (it's so cool that my wifey loves my brew!), but you said your wife would "have issues", so...it's really your call.

Do you have anything to do this afternoon? Like I said, I don't know your wife, but, can she really "have issues" if you're drinking but have nowhere to go and nothing important to do for the rest of the day? Personally, I don't think, in the 33 batches I've brewed, I've ever done it without drinking some beer (it's a ritual experience) and some great music. So I'd say throw caution to the wind if I were you.

But if you have things to do later, she might be justified in "having issues". So do what you feel is appropriate. But if I were you, it wouldn't be a question.
 
I don't see the big deal with have a beer or two while you are brewing. Being piss drunk by noon could be bad..

Heck some mornings I get up and I would really love to have a porter. I normally don't but would it be so bad?
 
Well he did already say "too late" I see no response....perhaps the beer polic...I mean SWMBO got him! :drunk:
 
Without wanting to try and analyze your life and relationships...

If she doesn't trust you to have a beer in the morning when you brew, seems that there's something else going on, some missing communication or a lack of trust or something. I'm assuming that you aren't one to partake at 10:30 AM on a non-brewing day. I'm not going to try and guess about what issues might be at work, but it seems to me that there's more to this than simply her not wanting you to have a drink......
 
You're brewing beer at 10:30 on a Thursday. You obviously know where your priorities lie, and having a beer while making beer is essential. I think it should be step 1, 15, and 24 of every good beer recipe.

Besides, you're already married. She got what she wanted, so go for it!
 
I would say "F" her, who cares what she thinks. Then i would say "F" her, just for good lunch time measure.

Of course, this is do as i say and not as i do. I would cower and not drink until after she left.
 
if i don't feel like drinking while brewing, or don't think it would be a good idea (I wouldn't want to screw up the batch), I always wait until i FINISH brewing, then have like 5 or 6 victory brews...or at least one. Gotta reward yourself.

But usually I have two or three while i'm brewing anyway :)
 
Followup...

I had a tripel while brewing (see report above in this thread).

I brushed my teeth after I finished brewing.

She came and went at lunch without incident, apparently not noticing the beer on my breath. (Maybe her beer sniffing skills are going downhill?)
Carry on.
 
the wife knows that if Im brewing Ill have a beer. I woke up at 630 one morning and when she finally got out of bed at around 8 I had a nice pint of stout poured already.

I got the eye roll as she went back inside
 
cweston said:
Followup...

I had a tripel while brewing (see report above in this thread).

I brushed my teeth after I finished brewing.

She came and went at lunch without incident, apparently not noticing the beer on my breath. (Maybe her beer sniffing skills are going downhill?)
Carry on.

A prisoner in your own home. *shakes head* Why's it such a big deal to the wifey, man? I'm sick and tired of this unwritten rule about not drinking before the clock strikes noon. It makes no sense.
 
Evan! said:
A prisoner in your own home. *shakes head* Why's it such a big deal to the wifey, man? I'm sick and tired of this unwritten rule about not drinking before the clock strikes noon. It makes no sense.


seriously....put that foot down and tell her you will drink whenever you damn well feel like it!





.....then run and hide somewhere
 
Yeup 5pm on weekdays and 12 noon at the weekend. Unless fishing, or doing DIY, or staying somewhere, or have the day off, or at an event of some sort, blah blah blah.
 
Just say it was written in the recipe instructions and you don't know why, but you want to make a good brew so you have to follow every instrucion.
 
dibby33 said:
Yeup 5pm on weekdays and 12 noon at the weekend. Unless fishing, or doing DIY, or staying somewhere, or have the day off, or at an event of some sort, blah blah blah.

...or I fuc*ing feel like it. Look, I understand where the stigma comes from. If you drink in the morning, you're oftentimes going to jeopardize whatever you have going on for the rest of the day. But if you're not doing anything important, then "they" can shove that unwritten rule straight up their asses.

Oftentimes, I'll brew early in the morning (read: get up at 5am, mash in my 5:30). When that happens, I'll usually be drinking coffee for the better part of it---plus, I didn't start brewing outdoors until it got cold last year, so the vast majority of my morning brews were spent in the icey cold, and so warm coffee was all I could deal with---a cold beer wouldn't really do. Now that it's warmed up...I think I'd probably do the morning brew thing with a nice cold glass of pilsner or wit.
 
I usually don't have a beer until I'm done brewing, as a reward for all that hard work cleaning up. But yesterday, it was a beautiful 80 degrees and I NEEDED to have a beer while brewing. Only 16 ounces, though, if that matters!

I get an eye roll occasionally when I crack open a beer "too early" but when I'm done with my coffee, what else is there? :rockin:
 
The only time I have a beer early in the morning is after I'm done hunting out in Arizona. Our family goes dove hunting and you start at sunrise. After I've limited out, I go back to the truck, unload everything and have a beer. On a good day it's 7 am. :D
 
I'm not that old but my Dad is. He used to work in a brewery and one of the perks was that you could drink as much as you wanted during breaks and lunch. These were the people working around the machinery and equipment. Rules have since changed because of lawsuits and lawyers. Having a few beers does not incapacitate you. Our culture has changed to where you should be so self conscience about drinking a beer b4 noon or even after. Drinking a beer or two (no matter what time it is) does not mean you are a drunk. People should not be so suspicious.
 
My best memories of my post-21 years has been family gatherings where you mix uppers and downers. You drink great booze almost nonstop. ALMOST nonstop. Between the drinks, you have a cup of great coffee. Not some folgers crap, but some really great coffee. It doesn't "sober you up" as they say, but it does slow down your drinking and keep you more alert...

It's a great way to enjoy a day off....
 
I look at it this way: there are generally 8 beverages* available in my house at any given time: water, milk, coffee and 5 kinds of beer. So at any given moment of thirst, there's at least a 62.5% chance of me having a beer.

What's the time of day got to do with anything? ;)

Seriously, though...if you're drinking to get hammered at 9 am, that could be a sign that something's wrong. If you're having a beer that you made, because you enjoy it, and you don't have to drive the kids to school or operate heavy equipment or something, who gives a f***?

* would be more, but the wine stash is totally depleted since
(a) we moved to PA (the land that wine forgot)
(b) my homebrew ouput has skyrocketed
(c) my wife is pregnant
 
I don't see the big deal with it. I've had beer as early as 9:30 in a morning, and I don't think that having a beer in the morning makes the rest of your day screwed up, it is possible to drink without getting hammered.

I haven't done an early morning brew session yet, but I'd definately be having beer with it...

I guess on one hand though, my tolerance is pretty high, with any amount of food in my stomach it takes 2-3 IPAs for me to start to feel anything.
 
One "night" I was having troubles resting and after a few hours of fitful sleep, I found myself wide awake at 4am so I went down to the cellar and saw my beer had stopped fermenting. So I decided to take a hydrometer sample and after that, I drank it, plus a little extra.

So was I drinking early in the morning? Or late at night?

As it turned out, I didn't go back to bed. I made some coffee and did some work on the computer. Was I drinking in the morning? It sure felt like it.


And I liked it!!! :mug:
 
Once you start all grain brewing, you really do need to get a nice early start. Of course it's OK to have a few brews in the process. If you have to start questioning your consumption, it will have a lot more to do with how much you drink daily, not what time of day you do it. If you're asking, I think anymore than 36oz per day is borderline dependent.
 
cweston said:
The boil is going nicely, I hit my gravity and volume dead on, and I'd really like to open the first bottle of my tripel while I brew.

But it's 10:30 am. My wife is coming home for lunch, and she'll definitely think I have issues if she smells beer on my breath (and she *always* smells beer on my breath when I've had a beer within the last 8 hours.)

Thoughts?

Drink away and eat a bag of Doritos before she gets home. Just don't act stupid and you will be alright.

TD
 
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