The Tolerant Spouse (including mine)

[steveinUS]

My wife is away visiting her family, leaving the dog and me to fend for ourselves. Friends have been over to break the monotony, and to have some beers. As we were browsing through the beer fridges, I heard again from them about how lucky I am to have the spouse that I have. And it is true. She lets me do pretty much what I want, and she long ago gave up any resistance to my love of beer and brewing. We have a small townhouse, but in our cellar are three beer 'fridges, plus the kegerator in our kitchen.

So, a toast to the Tolerant Spouses in our lives. Cheers!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Great set up you have there.

Our lass gave up trying to change me years ago preferring to ignore me instead.

 

[Mungri]

My missus likes my beer. So I get away with murder.
Our dining room often looks more like a brewery or bottling plant.

 

[the_quick]

MY missed like m y beers as well, lately even more so, as wine does make her ill now. She even bough me a Robobrew for xmas :)
@steveinUS how many beers you have there lol

 

[An Ankoù]

An absolute paragon of virtue, your missus.

 

[steveinUS]

@steveinUS how many beers you have there lol

I wish I knew but I really have no idea . Our local beer stores send out emails every Friday with new things they have received, and of course, off I go like Pavlov's dog to get them. Like these from Traquair House, and the Guinness brewery that opened a couple of years ago here in Maryland. (I have a particular weakness for UK beer styles.)

 

[Cwrw666]

I'm always amazed when forumites post that they're not allowed to do this or that in the house. Also when others feel the need to spend thousands on some elaborate brew shed - that's what your house is for isn't it?
And yes, i do have tankards hanging from the beams in my living room.

 

[druid1966]

Mine is great.....I have a fair amount of brew stuff ( I just do kits of beer/wine/ and some of my own concoctions ) and as long as its not underfoot, shes pretty good with it. She understands that it keeps me out of the pub...and saves a wee bit of cash as well...

 

[Alex.mc]

My wife likes her wine and Gin, so she knows that appreciation is good and is pretty happy with my beer outlook, also.... she tastes a lot of what I drink, and interestingly her tastebuds are shifting to a better place with beer. She was a classic "oh thats too bitter for me" kind of woman, yet she has recently had a couple of West Coast IPAs that she pronounced were "pretty nice!"

We have also met up with a few notable women beer writers and experts in the past year, and she now appreciates that women also like beer. Unfortunately we both grew up in the pub going 70s-80s when women in pubs were either frowned upon, only offered soft drinks or a bacardi and coke, or were treated with hostility. That kind of crap has taken some time to dissemble.

 

[Linalmeemow]

My better half is great, she's happy that we've always got good beer in the house and lends a hand on bottling days (like today). She drinks here share of what I make, mind you!

 

[Druncan]

I get away with all my brewing shenanigans provided she can expand her stained glass art business. I'm always keen to buy more gear for her; compressor, glass etching kit, soldering irons, toolkits, drills. Guess why?

 

[Clint]

Yup,Mrs Clint don't bat an eyelid at my constant ramblings,mess making and dreaming...
The man's right...your house is for doing what you like in and if I had beams there'd be tankards hanging too ..
On another note I have a mate who's Mrs is straight off the Welsh flag...I told him to get rid but he's too scared to!!

 

[DavidDetroit]

My wife helped me assemble a giant steel shelf for gear and bottles and helped me choose beer glassware and flight glasses as a surprise. She does not drink beer really.
By my own design, I don't leave much of a "beer footprint" in any case. You can't tell I've been brewing in the kitchen once I'm done and I can store everything in a small area.
She also doesn't mind a FV that appears suddenly in a room because the temperature is correct for that FV.

 

[foxy]

Mines tolerant, when I used to have fermentors chugging away through the night in the bedroom she was tolerant. I only asked her once how come she can iron my shirt in the laundry room, carry it all the way down to the bedroom and hang it on my wardrobe door, when all she has to do is open the door and hang it inside the wardrobe. The shirt ended up in a fermentor and I built a fermenting room in the far corner of the garden.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Mine is pretty good though I think she secretly rues the day she ever listened to my off hand "I'd like to try home brewing" and surprised me with a starter kit...she can't say much as she has bought me the odd bits and pieces of brewing related stuff as birthday / xmas presents to help escalate it all. I probably won't go beyond stove top BIAB for a while and my stuff is in the garage other than when I am using it so it's a relatively low intrusion into the house, and I am the tidier of us so everything is neat as a pin when I am finished brewing. She has always helped me with syphoning on bottling day; mainly as she is more practical than me and thinks she can do it quicker and better.

I don't get to brew as much as I would like as BIAB takes a while (plus I am only just starting it, so it takes longer than it probably should) and we have a 2 yr old running round we need to entertain who takes priority, but that's fine. Whilst she isn't a beer drinker really, it was a bit of a tradition for her to have a sample first of whatever new commercial beer I have bought to try until recently, as she has some gall blladder problems so tries to avoid alcohol. I remember her not wanting to give back a bottle of Odyssey's Fiendish Breakfast imperial stout; whilst usually I got the combined head shake and face like she'd been chewing a lemon and "it's vile" at hoppy IPA's (which are now my drink of choice). I am getting a brew fridge shortly to live in our porch during use, and my only concession for this was to allow her to put the xmas tree up this weekend (too bloody early but needs must!). So; I don't give her much to complain about; brewing wise, and she doesn't therefore ever say no to anything, which works for me!

 

[An Ankoù]

I'm always amazed when forumites post that they're not allowed to do this or that in the house. Also when others feel the need to spend thousands on some elaborate brew shed - that's what your house is for isn't it?
And yes, i do have tankards hanging from the beams in my living room.

You miss the point, Cwrw, the shed is for living in when you've turned the house into a brewery!

 

[Horners]

Mine is pretty good though I think she secretly rues the day she ever listened to my off hand "I'd like to try home brewing" and surprised me with a starter kit...she can't say much as she has bought me the odd bits and pieces of brewing related stuff as birthday / xmas presents to help escalate it all. !

This.

Got a Youngs starter kit 2 Xmas ago with a wherry kit and have now taken over the summer house with a Klarstein, a GF,a Sygnet urn, 7 cornies, 3 taps and a stout tap, a chest freezer, ,a fridge an SS Brewbucket and numerous other things I probably didn't really need....

 

[An Ankoù]

This.

Got a Youngs starter kit 2 Xmas ago with a wherry kit and have now taken over the summer house with a Klarstein, a GF,a Sygnet urn, 7 cornies, 3 taps and a stout tap, a chest freezer, ,a fridge an SS Brewbucket and numerous other things I probably didn't really need....

I know what you mean. I could probably equip 4 full mash kits with a mash tun a liquor heater and a kettle together with FVs tubes, trial jars, hydrometers, tubing etc, etc, but only three with gas rings. I really must learn to get rid of things when I renew stuff, or find someone to pass them on to.

 

[itry]

Mine is totally awesome with it. She loves the fact im geeky over it and always trying new things.And its a hobby that supports my other hobby. Beer making vs beer drinking. She enjoys it when i have our family's and friends over for a "here try this" especially her mum. she loves a drop of the white i make. I make a lot of wine also which she enjoys drinking very very much. so i turn a blind eye to that."im sure we had some white " then she says no we only had a little bit. i know full well that she has gone through all 5 demijohns. So much so infact we now have a bonded store under the stairs. She (and me not so much) are not allowed to drink from under their. Shes always ready to help me do some thing , bottling , cleaning , moving , drinking all the ******* wine.....ect ect. She wont let me do distilling as shes a science teacher and believes the old hype about going blind. Occasionally i make a beer she likes and she will have a few. Our house is tidy but to the trained eye you will see it is littered with brewing stuff. She has also said we may need to think about a new brew shed with a bar type area for us to enjoy, really i am not lieing. We are getting close to a personal goal i have also , fill every demijohn with booze. off the top of my head i think i have around 20 of them and 16 are full. i have a 5 gallon of red to bottle this weekend so it may be it done!!! She is also very good with the beer festival , her idea infact, she encourages me to brew( got 7 done 3 for the cornys this weekend) for the festival. We are going to charge my mates to all come over for a night and drink my beer. All proceeds are going into new/ upgrading equipment. shes not to bad in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Lawrence22]

It was my wife who started it all for me. She bought me a one day brewery course at a brewery in Derry. I've never looked back. She even allowed me to rinse my SS steel fermentor out in the shower today. so much easier than bringing buckets of hot water out to the garage.