Raise Your Hand If Your Wife Or Husband Is Responsible For Getting You Into Brewing

I'll start. +1

 

Hand raised.

I didn't even like beer before SWMBO gave me a book and gift certificate to the LHBS.

I had been making root beer and soft drinks at home since high school, but she told me that since I was in my forties, I should 'grow up and make something real'.

Haven't looked back, since.

 

I was told it was Santa, but I have my suspicions.

 

Wife bought me the first brew equipment kit, so guilty.

 

Does wife & son count? If any of you remember my Brew & A interview, you know my middle son started it & my wife was about as curious as myself. Especially with making it cheaper & getting whatever beers we both like besides. She took to brewing like a duck to water. QUAAACK Mutha*****! You forgot the hops again Bia***!

 

Well, she does drive me to drink. Does that count?

 

If tolerating the time and money I spend makes her responsible for my brewing (and I think it does), then hand raised.

 

Her parents bought me my starter kit for Christmas this year, though I asked for it. Half a hand raise!

 

+1

My inlaws got me a Mr. Beer several years ago. Only took 1 batch before I ran to the LHBS and got a 5 gallon extract kit

 

Wife. It's all her fault.

 

Wife said I needed more hobbies, and bought me my first kit and equipment.

She must think I'm pretty boring...

 

Neighbor was always talking about it and wife got me the Mr. Beer kit for Christmas so it is definitely her fault! She's very good about it though. Fully supportive.

 

+1

She has no one to blame but herself.

 

This was me Christmas 2013 but I didn't ask for it. It was a Mr. Beer kit. Made one batch and immediately bought a 5 gallon extract kit.

I never even thought about making beer or even thought it'd be possible with such a small startup fee/equipment. Now I'm obsessed.

Oh and I'm also a Richmond,VA-er

 

Girlfriend got me a starter brewing kit for our first Valentines Day together.

Needless to say, she now has a shiny ring on her hand & all the beer she can drink.

 

My wife bought me the equipment to start.

Now almost 200 brews later I am still addicted. Good thing she likes beer.

 

+1

Have to blame the wife, I mentioned it once and the next Christmas I had a Mr Beer kit and all of the equipment to do 5 gallon extracts. She said that she wasn't sure which to get so she got both. I made my first beer with the Mr Beer kit and then went straight to extract. I still use the Mr Beer once in a while for smaller batches but I keep the 5 gallon carboy full at all times. Now when I bring more equipment home she just shakes her head and mumbles "what did I get into here". I tell her to just wait until I go all grain if she thinks I've spent money now...lol

 

Add my hand to the list... yes my wife is to blame for my obsession -er infatuation.. oh no sorry I mean hobby.

 

Mine was a 5gal extract Deluxe kit from NB. Still working on sorting out the bits before my first brew day (yet to be determined but hopefully before the end of the month).

What part of town are you in? Going to James River Homebrewer's next week?

 

Can't remember exactly what I said to my wife but it was something like -I wonder how hard it is to make your own beer-and she told me why don't you try- now I brew quite a bit and she is there most of the time with me.

Hand raised

 

Hand up.
The hubby started it, now I'm the main brewer in the house. He's still good for the heavy lifting, and also handles more of the consumption.

 

+1 Girlfriend now wife got me a Mr. Beer Kit for my 22nd birthday, now 3 years later I'm all grain BIAB with 8 fermenters. I'm sure not a day goes by she doesn't regret it.

 

I call BS

If any of you guys were really married, you'd know...EVERYTHING is your fault.

 

The wife bought me a Mr. Beer kit. Blame it on her. Within a few weeks I had ordered a "real" starter kit from Austin Home Brew.

 

I was brewing long before I met my fiancee...but she did push me real quick to build an all-grain tower and a keezer. She may not be responsible, but she is quite the enabler.

 

My wife saw one of the 1 gallon BIAB kits and thought it looked like something I would be into, so she casually mentioned it. I started reading, stumbled into HBT, and read obsessively. A couple months later she noticed I was still reading, so she asked if it was something she could buy me for Christmas. I told her no, and that she needed to buy me a 5 gallon kit from the LHBS. She gave me like $100 and told me to buy it myself. Havent looked back!

 

Yep. Me too.

We went to a local brewpub. On the way out, there was a display of print-editions of The Onion, some local papers, and Northern Brewer catalogs. (The guys from the Milwaukee retail store would hang out there). Anyway, she grabbed a catalog and, when we got home, she thumbed through it and said "I think you'd be good at this."

Other than the occasional "Again? Didn't you just brew last weekend?" she's been super supportive.

 

It is rather uncanny how EVERYTHING is ALWAYS our fault?! I don't even have to be there or have much to do with it...but it's MY fault somehow or other. Seriously though, she does like it when I get a pipeline built up. Less to no $$ spent on store beer.

 

Me too. I'd been beer connoisseuring for 11 years prior and 4 years ago on Christmas she bought me the Coopers homebrewing kit. Made the first beer from their hopped LME can and instantly started researching brewing. Bought Palmer's book and moved right into extract brewing. Only ever made that one Cooper's can before going extract. Did extract for a year and been all grain the past three years.

She likes to occasionally remind me or ask me if I've told anyone else on here that "Your wife made you into a brewer" lol. She's awesome


Rev.

 

She bought the kit for me. That is the extent of her approval.

 

I'm not certain my wife got me into homebrewing or not. The year was 1981, we had gone to Europe to bicycle and then attend the Octoberfest in Germany. Shortly after arriving first in England, we stopped to get supplies somewhere and found a brew book by "Boots the Chemist", a drug store that sold homebrewing supplies thoughout the U.K.

So we bought the book. (She did? I did?) It was many years before homebrew shops and Microbreweries took off in the United States, so for a while, homebrewing was the only way to have good ales and interesting beers.

Years later, there are many good Microbreweries. But even now, many years later and I get nagged a wee bit when I don't have one of my better IPAs up, so I gotta credit SWMBO for the habit.

 

You get a wife, she gets your beer! Now THAT'S a good deal for both of you!

 

oops?

 

I did a hard cider a couple of months ago,the wife stated that she would rather I made beer. Hence my first brewday this past Sunday.

 

Hand raised...wife and BIL got me into it with a book and gift certificate

 

The wife started it all and here is my story.

A while back the wife started telling me about craft beer. She had been to a few places like World of Beer with her friends. I was never much of a beer drinker, usually only a pint when we went out for wings.

One day she talked me into going to a local craft beer bar and had me try a wide range until I found something I liked. It was a stout.So time went by and checking out the local craft beer bars and breweries became our favorite thing to do together.

So one day sitting at a local brewery, looking at all the brewing equipment she pops out with "We should start brewing beer" and it all started.

The next day we went down to a LHBS and looked at one of the $100 starter kits. after that we went home and I started checking out youtube videos and reading all the info I could find on home brewing. Now that I had some more insight on how to brew, I went back to the wife and asked her. Do you want to make ok beer or great beer. she said she wanted to make great beer, so I told her it was going to cost alot more than a $100 starter kit. Well she said go for it get what we need.

This was september of last year. Now we have 10 gallon mash tun with a false bottom, a 10 gallon boil kettle, a blichman burner, 2 14 cu fermentation chambers with stc-1000 controllers, stirplate and flasks, 7 carboys, 50' 3/8 immersion chiller, refractometer, and a ton of other bits and pieces. The latest purchase was another chest freezer we are making a keezer out of.

So ya, the wife made me do it.

I want to add, she is my brew partner. We only brew together. she is hands on with all aspects of the brew day and preparation. Even when we get grains from the LHBS, I can leave her alone and she will weight out all the grains while I get other stuff.

 

Three plus years ago my wife bought me a starter kit, and it's all her fault now. I have two 50k btu burners, two 30qt pots, a 40 qt pot, a converted chest freezer five or six fermenting buckets, etc, etc. A few weeks ago, our pipeline went dry and we had to resort to store bought beer; my wife commented, "Your beer is so much better, I didn't know I was spoiled..."
I thought,"I wonder how long I should wait to talk about kegging?" A man can dream can't he?

 

We couldn't get Bells Oberon in San Diego and the wife really wanted it so I thought I'd look make my own...in a bit lol

 

Can I raise my hand if it wasn't my wife that got me started brewing but instead it was my son? He had been brewing extract kits for a few years before I got to see how easy it was to make my own beer. He still brews extract kits while I moved on to brewing all grain and make up my own recipes.