Do your wives get mad?

[Diver165]

I'm lucky I guess. SWMBO really supports my hobby. She plans parties and cookouts around my beer making. She helps on brew days even though she's not a huge beer fan. But we have lots of fun with it. I do talk to her if I buy anything pricey. I always talk those type of purchases over with her. And I would expect the same with her. Marriage, after all, is a partnership. But she has spent far more than I on MY homebrew hobby (Santa already delivered Christmas ).

I've been ordering lots of very small stuff for my brew panel (small stuff, switches, relays etc). The other day she handed me another Ebay package and said, "Am I going to see you on the terrorist watch list?" heh I love her...smartass and all.

 

[bighorn_brew]

My wife doesn't outright complain, but makes comments such as "I wish you were saving for retirement like you spend for brewing"....I end up saying something to the effect...brewing beer is what keeps me going to work....

 

[snooky]

My wife loves that I brew. When we got married, I brewed up 20 gallons for our rehearsal dinner and she couldn't have been more excited. Although I will say she was quite excited when we bought our new house with a large garage since there wouldn't be any more wort burned into her stove.

The only complaint she has now is that she can't drink any of my beers because she's pregnant.

 

[dfess1]

I'm lucky. My SWMBO allowed me to leave for 3 weeks (and I took the dog), while I made my single tier and smoker at my parents house. As someone else pointed out, if she isn't as good of a brewer as you, you're missing out!

However, reading some of these reminded me of my father's plight. About 15 years ago, he tore down and rebuilt his "dream" garage. For about 4 days, the UPS driver kept dropping off big stationary power tools. My mother told him on day 4 "if anything else gets dropped off, I'm going out and buying another sewing machine!"

My father replied "well go pick it out, the table saw is getting dropped off tomorrow!"

 

[Yooper]

So, do you two have any other sisters?

No, really, let me tell you how it goes around here.... huh... OK honey, I'll be right there.... sorry guys, gotta go.

Hahaha. At first, Bob was less than thrilled. But he became a HUGE beer snob and really prefers my beer over any other beer in the world so he's always playing nice with me. You know, "Don't piss off the one who makes your beer" is a good piece of marital advice.

The great part is that he has a better palate than anybody I know. He can take a beer apart and critique it, even without knowing the right "words". He can also help tweak recipes because he'll say something like, "I like the mouthfeel of this one, but I wish it had a breadier aroma behind the hops." So the next beer, I'll had some aromatic or toasted malt to the batch, and it turns out he was correct!

He really likes that he can "order" a beer for some of my brewdays. He'll say something like, "I really would love a hoppy beer, with that grapefuity flavor, but something copper colored with a medium mouthfeel". Ok, he wants an American amber with some Munich malt in it, amarillo or cascade hops, and some dark crystal, mashed at 154- great idea! Even without knowing a thing about brewing, he's helped me create some of my best recipes.

The problem now is he's become a hophead and so he won't drink much besides IPAs/APAs/hoppy ambers. So almost every beer I make is one of those styles.

 

[Cromacster]

She mostly gets mad about the time I spend doing it. And I'll usually get the "Why dont you clean the rest of the house as good as your beer equipment?"

But I don't think the 1 day a week that I devote to brewing in some form is to much to ask.

Although she doesnt know about the steel and new welder I just purchased

 

[cedar_lake]

Time and money are both tight for my wife and I. We went from "first married, no jobs, lots of debt" five years ago to "no bad debt, good jobs, and a house and a kid" last year. Money still has to be carefully budgeted, which is why I'm still only brewing extract and doing partial boils, and why I only have picnic taps on the kegs in the keezer.

My only money gripe is that she's the gardener in the family and we budget a huge chunk of garden money out of the tax return every year (but no brewing money, I have to do that out of my meager spending money budget). She justifies this with "we are doing the gardening for the house and for food."

At this point, though, time is the biggest constraint. She's home with the kid Mondays and Fridays, works Tuesdays-Thursdays. I work Monday-Friday and by the weekend she's looking for a break from kid-time right about the same time I'm looking for a break from work (and a brew-day!). We both have been working on exercising more and eating better, too, so lately exercise time has taken precedent over brewing time.

Anyway, yeah, she complains when brewing stuff shows up. "Where is the money for that coming from?" is a common one, another is "why did you hassle me about going over the grocery budget and then go buy a beer kit?" Well, the answer to that one is that going 50 bucks over the weekly grocery budget every week adds up to more than 2500 bucks, and the beer kit I just bought (with my budgeted spending money) was 35 bucks. So there.

We have a combined checking/savings account. All of the income goes in there and all of the bills are paid out of there. I'd love to have set up a "yours, mine, and ours" systems when we first got married, but at the time we had no money at all, and it offends her sense of what marriage is anyway.

 

[Lemon]

After 25 years of marriage I've discovered that wives (at least mine) always need to be mad about something. The art is to "aim" the anger - if the dog chews the couch right before the UPS man brings my delivery - I'm home free. Put FOX news on, she'll be mad at the Democrats, etc... (4 teenagers also play the steer moms anger, it gets to be a fun game)

*cough* bacon grease on the old couch works wonders.

 

[TLS]

Mine gets pissed if I don't brew enough to keep us in beer,she also opens the door to the garage when I brew so she can smell the wort boiling.I guess I'm lucky...

 

[Darkness]

Next time you are at the store get 48 bottles of the beer u want and put it I the cart when she ask what that is tell her to add up what then say I brew cause I know we can't afford to be the beer I want to drink.

And my wife likes me brewing so much she let me build a room into the basement of our house check out my gallery

 

[onthekeg]

My ex had issues with everything I did so I got rid of her. I am currently interviewing others for the position.

 

[Homercidal]

My ex had issues with everything I did so I got rid of her. I am currently interviewing others for the position.

Which position are they applying for?? <rimshot> he he <rimshot for the rimshot>

 

[Sparqui]

My ex had issues with everything I did so I got rid of her. I am currently interviewing others for the position.

I went through that too. Marrying SWMBO 2.0 was the best choice I ever made. She doesn't like beer but is interested in the process and sees brew day as a family activity.

 

[truckndad]

Mine hates beer, hates brewing. She says the hops smell like weeds to her. So I tell her, I've got a batch I'd like to brew in the next couple of days. Probably take me about four hours or so. She gets on the phone with a sister or girlfriend, sets up a shopping date, and I brew while she's gone. And she's a pretty frugal shopper, so the money she spends while she's out isn't much more than what I spend on ingredients. Keeps us both happy.

 

[onthekeg]

Which position are they applying for?? <rimshot> he he <rimshot for the rimshot>

I have been working my way thorugh the book.

 

[bottlebomber]

My wife never ******* (except that time I brewed every weekend for 2 months). Besides, her hobbies are WAY more expensive. She oil paints, restores antique furniture, and sews. She just made a baby blanket for her friend that had $120 in materials. So I'm not about to hear anything over a little brewing.

 

[bottlebomber]

Mine hates beer, hates brewing. She says the hops smell like weeds to her.

If what she means is the hops smell like "weed" I'm going to have to agree with her.

 

[weirdboy]

My wife never ******* (except that time I brewed every weekend for 2 months). Besides, her hobbies are WAY more expensive. She oil paints, restores antique furniture, and sews. She just made a baby blanket for her friend that had $120 in materials. So I'm not about to hear anything over a little brewing.

WTF, really? I had no idea sewing materials were that expensive.

 

[sKafifer]

My wife told me there was no way I was ever going to start brewing beer...after several months she now has no problem with the backyard brewery my buddy and I are embarking on. I have way too many hobbies (rc cars, tattoos, rock crawlers, now brewing)...she just reminds me to not get too carried away...

 

[bucfanmike]

my wife only gets mad at the amount of equipment i have acquired in the last 2 years. Its just that we dont have alot of room so i can understand. She wasnt even too upset when my 2 liter yeast starter decided it needed 3 liters of room. Yeast fountain all over the kitchen counter. She also doesnt like that it looks like im cooking meth in the yard when neighbors go by. Oh well I put up with a lot of **** too so i guess it evens out.

 

[pelipen]

funny thread. My wife is a half beer drinker, meaning she'll drink half and give it to me to finish. She doesn't understand this hobby. She also hates the smell of hops. On top of it, she's a stay at home mom, with no income. So, I have to balance the hobby budget. I wanted a new three faucet Perlick tower... she's getting something in exchange to take the sting out of it.

We balance, and for her part, she keeps my 4 year old out of the way on brew days. I keep her for mom's night out, which is like four days a week, so somehow I think she's getting the better deal. In exchange I've trained my daughter to say "would you like another beer daddy", and then go get one. It went over as well as you might imagine.

 

[Denny]

I ordered an extract kit and bottling bucket today. I then thought about how hard my wife is going to bitch when she gets home. I called and tried to cancel the order until I soften her up a little but the order was already being processed. Does anyone else have this problem?

No.

 

[mateomtb]

I made sure to marry a woman who's hobby is always more expensive than any of mine are. She feeds $10 bills to her horses everyday. I help her move hay, shovel poo and I pretty much get to do anything I like... Once she says it's ok. LOL

Seriously though, I'm a little shocked at how little communication goes down between married folks. Believe me, my wife can bitch with the best of them, but I also understand I can be a pain in the a$$. I always let her know what I'm up to and she respects my interests and I respect hers. It's not a question of "who's in charge", we both are.

 

[nukinfuts29]

I can't wait until Keira is grown enough to brew with daddy

 

[onthekeg]

I can't wait until Keira is grown enough to brew with daddy

It will come and go in a hurry! My oldest is 21, (Im 42) and now I have to brew extra for him and his friends! He hates the smell of boiling hops, but apparently they will kill a keg in a weekend of the Swiller Lite I make for them.

 

[BierMuncher]

My wife got a little tense when I tried to sneak this downstairs.



But then I poured her one of her SWMBO Slayer Blondes and she was all good.

 

[nukinfuts29]

It will come and go in a hurry! My oldest is 21, (Im 42) and now I have to brew extra for him and his friends! He hates the smell of boiling hops, but apparently they will kill a keg in a weekend of the Swiller Lite I make for them.

She can't always be daddys little girl I guess

9 months feels like years, then overnight to be gone

 

[sean6247]

I have two hobbies, brewing and music. Both require a pretty hefty budget.

We pay for the ingredients out of the 'family budget'. I compare this against buying beer from the store. The money is going to get spent on beer one way or the other.

For my music and the hardware aspect of brewing, I referee soccer games. I will make between 125 - 200 dollars a weekend refereering games. I can referee games from June through November. The opportunity cost of refereeing vs. brewing is a balancing act that can get difficult, especially when I spend all weekend refereeing and brewing.

I think the main thing that upsets my wife more than anything is when I run out of beer and I need money to buy commercials. That and when I need $200 bucks for the bulk grain purchases (usually only once or twice a year).

 

[nobody]

i'm not married but i have lived with the same------------- BITCH(that is all she has been doing the past 2 years) for going on 6 years now. i have learned not to tell her what something cost me. i have learned to just shut up. i have learned even when i'm right i am wrong. i have learned while i earn the money,pay 100% of all bills, cook breakfast,lunch and dinner she is the boss(until she leaves the house then the female dog is boss). i'm a engineer for the railroad. even at work the youngest man on the crew is boss. i'm never the boss. i have learned to live with it.

as a side note i do gunsmith work as a side business. even then the boss is the person who's gun i work on. i may very well know how to make the rifle shoot it's very best, but often the owner tells me to do something i know will be counter productive. i try to talk them out of it, but in the end i do what they want!!!!

 

[onthekeg]

i'm not married but i have lived with the same------------- BITCH(that is all she has been doing the past 2 years) for going on 6 years now. i have learned not to tell her what something cost me. i have learned to just shut up. i have learned even when i'm right i am wrong. i have learned while i earn the money,pay 100% of all bills, cook breakfast,lunch and dinner she is the boss(until she leaves the house then the female dog is boss). i'm a engineer for the railroad. even at work the youngest man on the crew is boss. i'm never the boss. i have learned to live with it.

as a side note i do gunsmith work as a side business. even then the boss is the person who's gun i work on. i may very well know how to make the rifle shoot it's very best, but often the owner tells me to do something i know will be counter productive. i try to talk them out of it, but in the end i do what they want!!!!

Sounds like my past life. Move on dude, its good for your blood pressure!