So I just admitted to my wife...

[Inverted_Giraffe]

So I just admitted to my wife that she'd probably be a better brewer than me (and she agreed).

I'm very good at cooking, baking, DIY, etc. but I've never been the greatest at having a green thumb, and I see brewing similar to having a green thumb.

She did agree to brew the next batch... lol.

In all honesty I think I'm just working through all my mistakes batch to batch and will come away in the end brewing great beer, but today's experience made me weep a bit :cross:

 

[Dogphish]

i salute you sir!

sounds like you just Tom Sawyer'd your wife into:

1. supporting your brewing hobby
2. doing all the work herself

your primary duty now is to drink the finished product

 

[Doomsday]

well put Dogphish lol

 

[kosmokramer]

outstanding, made me and my girl laugh dogphish

 

[ABrewingApe]

Don't downplay the importance of cooking in brewing! It's rad you've got your wife brewing, but I think you're still selling your skills short. Seasoning is an art form! That means spices and adjuncts and definitely the macro-ingredients like wheat and barley and so on.

If it turns out that you've got a touch for spicing and she's got an eye for composition, you guys are ideally matched and I want some of what you're making.

 

[Cimerian]

I only wish my old lady would agree to brew a beer. All mine does is roll her eyes if I mention it.

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

Wow, all great replies; LMAO dogphish... priceless and a definite sig in the making.

I owned an IT consultant business for the past 8 years, in the final stages of a sale of intangible assets, and the company I became the CIO for bought the tangible assets. I'm very good at a lot of things... but I dunno... the green thumb thing somewhere gets me. I learned years ago that sometimes I pay too much attention to the details (over watering plants, not letting them just be, so I cut back on that with my plants and then they still died... whereas my wife grows the tobacco in the garden with complete success). So I took the RDWHAHB to heart and therefore sometimes wonder if I'm being to Laissez-faire.

I know I'll get it in the end. My last brew went, in my opinion, very well (except for the immersion chiller leak), so I'm excited about that. With the first brew being an oatmeal stout and now in bottles for the first week, and the last being an Irish Red, I was hoping to brew this Hefeweizen as a quick drink, so to say.

Stupid floating thermometer... made me lazy and gave me incorrect readings. Also, last time I try to get work done while brewing, and giving the brewing process the second thought treatment.

 

[Quietandsimple]

Well played, sir. That was slick.

 

[Seven]

Just out of curiosity, why do you equate brewing with having a green thumb? I don't have a green thumb at all but I'm a damned good brewer! I also cook and bake very well and I always figured knowing how to cook helped make me a good brewer.

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

Just out of curiosity, why do you equate brewing with having a green thumb? I don't have a green thumb at all but I'm a damned good brewer! I also cook and bake very well and I always figured knowing how to cook helped make me a good brewer.

I think I equate it because of the balance of caring/worrying too much versus RDWHAHB. I think I'll be good in the end... it's just that something has always gone wrong for these first 3 batches, and I think I have not struck the balance between what I wrote in the first sentence.

In the end... I'm probably just pissing and moaning

 

[JonM]

That means that you have an awesome, awesome SWMBO who loves this hobby. Cheers to you both!!

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

That means that you have an awesome, awesome SWMBO who loves this hobby. Cheers to you both!!

I do and I know it... but she also knows I'm The Dude

I take the responsibility of my wife and children very seriously; there's been ups and downs for our 8 years of marriage... but it's mellowed out over time to be a great brew (pun intended). I couldn't imagine a better gal in my life, and every day is a party and half full of love, patience and joy.

Thanks for the compliments!

 

[seabass07]

You're very lucky! I cant really complain about my wife since she likes my beer and encourages me to make more beer. But she just rolls her eyes every time i start talking about beer. Same reaction i get if i start talking about car stuff.

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

You're very lucky! I cant really complain about my wife since she likes my beer and encourages me to make more beer. But she just rolls her eyes every time i start talking about beer. Same reaction i get if i start talking about car stuff.

So there is a HBT get-together every year right???

 

[gr8shandini]

Just out of curiosity, why do you equate brewing with having a green thumb? I don't have a green thumb at all but I'm a damned good brewer! I also cook and bake very well and I always figured knowing how to cook helped make me a good brewer.

I'm with Seven. I'm a terrible gardener, but I like to think I'm a pretty good brewer. To me, having a green thumb means that you can evaluate and react to a bunch of variables that are beyond your control. That doesn't happen in brewing. All you need to do is get the wort in the proper initial condition to make the yeast happy, keep it cool for a couple of weeks, and then enjoy.

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

I'm with Seven. I'm a terrible gardener, but I like to think I'm a pretty good brewer. To me, having a green thumb means that you can evaluate and react to a bunch of variables that are beyond your control. That doesn't happen in brewing. All you need to do is get the wort in the proper initial condition to make the yeast happy, keep it cool for a couple of weeks, and then enjoy.

Really, tis is true.

In that sense it is a lot like cooking from scratch any given night. You hold the variables, for a relatively short period of time, in your hands... after that it's just "simmering and melding the flavors" so to speak.

I think I just either need to eliminate my mistakes (which I am getting to quickly, after hitting the ones I needed the last three batches and learning A LOT), or developing an understanding of what's really happening during each process.

A problem I run into, is that my son likes to be a part of everything, and I give my children the priority in being involved, enjoying work and experiencing joy, even at the sacrifice of other things... therefore I sometimes (and sometimes a lot of times) don't pay enough attention to certain processes that really just need that tidbit of extra-care to ensure a smooth product.

Yea... I'll get it in the end as I slowly dial in my process.

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

The other thing I do, and let me know if it's stupid, is the extra "intuition" things that deviate from instructions and may make the end product worse.

An example: as my wort is nearing the final minutes of boiling I stir it heavily to "aerate it" so that there is that extra smidgen of oxygen in it, before I shake the wort in the fermenter.

 

[gr8shandini]

I wouldn't call it stupid, but if you're going to deviate from "best shop practices" you should probably try to figure out the pros and cons first.

In this particular situation, you may be putting yourself at a small risk for some off flavors from hot-side (i.e. >100F) aeration. You're better off waiting until the wort is cool before you try to get any O2 into it. However, it's pretty rare to get a problem from hot-side aeration, so you're probably fine.

My best advice is just to read up as much as you can (HBT, How to Brew, etc.) and ask as many questions in advance that you can think of. After that, it's just practice, practice, practice. Just like the first time you cook a steak, you might have to cut it open to check for doneness or use a meat thermometer. But after 50 steaks, you can just tell when it's medium-rare.

 

[Inverted_Giraffe]

I wouldn't call it stupid, but if you're going to deviate from "best shop practices" you should probably try to figure out the pros and cons first.

In this particular situation, you may be putting yourself at a small risk for some off flavors from hot-side (i.e. >100F) aeration. You're better off waiting until the wort is cool before you try to get any O2 into it. However, it's pretty rare to get a problem from hot-side aeration, so you're probably fine.

My best advice is just to read up as much as you can (HBT, How to Brew, etc.) and ask as many questions in advance that you can think of. After that, it's just practice, practice, practice. Just like the first time you cook a steak, you might have to cut it open to check for doneness or use a meat thermometer. But after 50 steaks, you can just tell when it's medium-rare.

Yes, that is very true and good advice.

Being a good cook and baker, which I am praise for constantly, leads me to modifying recipes in any matter before trying the actual recipe as stated... that may be a bad thing when it comes to beer since I am a noob.

Good idea to stick to recipe and learn the ins and outs first, and then modify instead of taking for granted my "intuition."

 

[KingHippo]

You'll do fine.. I have made lots of mistakes and continue to do so

 

[hadabar]

I only wish my old lady would agree to brew a beer. All mine does is roll her eyes if I mention it.

...I'm with yah