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Yeah, there are only 2 LHBS's in Tucson. One is a Mr. Brew store. 'Nuf said?
We've got both Brew your Own Brew on Campbell and Brewer's Connection on Broadway, and the Mr Beer. I used to work in the building with the Mr Beer folks. Occasionally on Friday afternoons, they'd brink drink, we'd bring food. Good times!
 
Never heard of Brewers connection. Will have to look that up if I ever get back to Tucson!
It used to be convenient for me to hit on my drive home, now it's a long trip all by itself. Brew Your Own is a bit of a pain being just north of Grant, but less than Brewers Connection. I haven't been over since they moved locations.
 
When you have all the (free) empty bottles you could ever need, and you stop at an antique store where you buy an old embossed beer bottle from a long-gone brewery. And ever since have been shelling out up to $10 apiece for such antique bottles. And realize after a few years that you not only NEVER run out of those cool bottles, but that you have to be very careful about you share your homebrew with, because you WILL get them back. Oh, and you aren't willing to pay "antique store" $20 and up prices because, as you explain to the guy when asking him to lower the price, you aren't COLLECTING bottles, you're just buying empties to use for your beer.
 
When you feel you've let down yourself and SWIMBO when you realize that you waited too long and the pipeline will dry up before the next homebrew is ready to drink. And you feel you HAVE to go out and actually purchase beer to maintain balance in the universe (and peace in the household).
I track my success in brewing each batch by how long it's been since I had to buy commercial beer, other than the occasional bomber for either comparison to one I've cloned, or trying something new that I might WANT to clone. And those rare instances when the pipeline completely runs out.
 
You know you're a really stupid homebrewer when...you're sick as a dog with a bad cold (or perhaps something worse, gonna go get tested tomorrow) and you decide that you have to brew a 10g batch just to make sure the pipeline is full. And then realize; if I do have the 'rona (oh please not) I will have 14 days to brew whatever the hell I want. Now I have a monstrous mash bag full of cold wet grain that I still have to dump, but two beautiful fermonsters in the ferment fridge.
 
When you feel you've let down yourself and SWIMBO when you realize that you waited too long and the pipeline will dry up before the next homebrew is ready to drink. And you feel you HAVE to go out and actually purchase beer to maintain balance in the universe (and peace in the household).
I also use it as an excuse to buy some bourbon 😆😂🤣
 
You know you're a really stupid homebrewer when...you're sick as a dog with a bad cold (or perhaps something worse, gonna go get tested tomorrow) and you decide that you have to brew a 10g batch just to make sure the pipeline is full. And then realize; if I do have the 'rona (oh please not) I will have 14 days to brew whatever the hell I want. Now I have a monstrous mash bag full of cold wet grain that I still have to dump, but two beautiful fermonsters in the ferment fridge.
Back in 1996 I was about to have double hernia surgery and I knew I'd be down for a while so I brewed 2 batches. The night before the surgery I was up until 3 am bottling so I'd have something to drink while I recovered. Wifey was not happy that I wasn't resting.
 
When you help your daughter "prepare" for college by letting her try the different styles of beer you make so that she is "educated" prior to getting to college. And she later confesses that her first two beers at college were a PBR and a Guiness. She had already developed a preference for dark beers.
 
When you really want to get into kegging, but can't justify the cost of an extra fridge, lack the space for an extra fridge, know from taking careful measurements that you can't fit a 5 pound CO2 tank in your current fridge, already tried the 5 liter mini kegs with the Party Tap and @#$ing hate them....so you spend hours online scouring forums for viable alternatives.

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When you go shopping and you start looking at snack food as possible additions to a brew day.
Canned pumpkin and graham crackers a few days before Thanksgiving. Not for a pie. It's for my latest ale.

Same goes for foods my wife doesn't like. I freeze it and throw it in a beer now.
Added Trader Joe's cold brew concentrate to half my pumpkin ale, added pumpkin spice and brown sugar.
I have a pumpkin spice latte ale.
Thanks, hon'.

And when you happily go to Bed Bath and Beyond with your wife because you can find stuff that might make brew day easier.
 
When you can count the number of batches you have made on your hands, but after 2 or 3 realised you need a reliable way of controlling ferm temps, so now you have a fridge in your garden shed that ABSOLUTELY NOT is for storing food.
Yet you are already trying to convince your significant better that you need another one, and it definitely won't take up THAT much space in the laundry room, because you have no cellar and want to age your beer in a cellar like enviroment.
When you own doubles of many kitchen items(strainers, wooden spoons etc), that you would never dream of using for cooking.
 
This sounds totally nuts, even to me. Been a cat daddy to some sweet feline friends for 20+ years. Started brewing maybe 3~ish years ago, and noticed at some point that certain hops had a "catty" aroma. Years go by, several dozen batches of IPA's, etc. Fast forward to now. Our recent rescue cat, Milo, a prodigious peepee factory, his litterbox disgustingly but not altogether unpleasantly reminds me of galaxy, mosaic, and el dorado hops, if you take my meaning. Am I weird, are those hops weird, or is my cat a beer God?

Guess you know you're a homebrewer when scooping the litterbox makes you think about brewing an IPA.
 
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This sounds totally nuts, even to me. Been a cat daddy to some sweet feline friends for 20+ years. Started brewing maybe 3~ish years ago, and noticed at some point that certain hops had a "catty" aroma. Years go by, several dozen batches of IPA's, etc. Fast forward to now. Our recent rescue cat, Milo, a prodigious peepee factory, his litterbox disgustingly but not altogether unpleasantly reminds me of galaxy, mosaic, and el dorado hops, if you take my meaning. Am I weird, are those hops weird, or is my cat a beer God?

Ever used Sorachi Ace?
 
This sounds totally nuts, even to me. Been a cat daddy to some sweet feline friends for 20+ years. Started brewing maybe 3~ish years ago, and noticed at some point that certain hops had a "catty" aroma. Years go by, several dozen batches of IPA's, etc. Fast forward to now. Our recent rescue cat, Milo, a prodigious peepee factory, his litterbox disgustingly but not altogether unpleasantly reminds me of galaxy, mosaic, and el dorado hops, if you take my meaning. Am I weird, are those hops weird, or is my cat a beer God?

Guess you know you're a homebrewer when scooping the litterbox makes you think about brewing an IPA.

Dude! Thanks for the compliment...
 
Going to be brewing the Japanese Rice Lager from the recipe forum soon. Sorachi is one of the hop additions. How catty do they smell?

Very. I brewed a pale ale with that hop several years ago because I won some bags of it at a local homebrewers meeting. It is definitely weird how something can remind you of cat pee but still be enjoyable.
 
That's way worse

damn, sorry bro
Worst part about it is that it fell on the ball valve and the weight of the water and grain cracked the mashtun and it wouldnt hold a seal any longer. Lol a headache and $80 loss in total. But On the bright side, my son was with me in the garage when it happened and didn’t get hurt or burnt so tht was a blessing
 
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When your entire garage smells like cereal and bread....and when things like this happen lol View attachment 719241
Dude...... glad no one was hurt..... but damn......my sypathies....

When your house fridge dies and you don't sweat it. You have 3 more and 2 freezer on temperature controllers. I'm not thrilled to have to buy a "new" fridge though istead of looking for something used on craigslist. LOL
Oh and when you refer to the refrigerator the family uses as the "house" fridge.
 
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