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NuggetSA

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I've been brewing kit n' kilos for a few years and have always been a bit "yeah its alright, can't wait till the missus gives budget permission to grab a carton of something good..." I have been roving through this forum for a week or so and put down a toucan (coopers real ale/coopers canadian/150 g malt) about six days ago. The stuff coming out even before its finished absolutely s***s on anything I've made before. So bloody simple!

So thank you oh brewmaesters! You have saved me from a life of crappy brews!

Now to figure out this no kit brewing business, brew fridges, kegs... Bugger, going to need budget approval.
 
NuggetSA said:
,,,,Now to figure out this no kit brewing business, brew fridges, kegs... Bugger, going to need budget approval.
No you don't - you just need to get "creative" with your storage of your "purchases"...

Mrs BigNath: "hmmmm, that looks new. Did you buy that recently?"
BigNath: "oh no darling, i've had this for years, and say, that's a nice looking top love.....is that new?"

Glad to hear your toucan is showing great results, and welcome to the forum!
 
I remember starting brewing and offering to buy the wife a new fridge for the kitchen. She loved the idea and the new fridge.

10 years on i still have the old one in my garage, cut and chopped, drilled, modified and rusted into a full time brewing fridge.

And as said by Big Nath.....

Gee those new shoes look good dear........ Oh......... come look at this 3 tap font on ebay........

easy!
 
As has been repeated many times by many brewers on this forum.
TIS EASIER TO ASK FOR FORGIVENESS THAN PERMISSION
Remember this and you will be brewing all grain in no time.
 
i can relate mate, to the permission side of things.

my missus and i have pretty good communication with it though. this might be of interest to you; or not but i felt like writing it anyway. It's not meant to be mind shattering-ly inspirational, but it might help get a perspective on it that you might not have otherwise had.

my wife loves baking, and buying clothes and making outfits she can wear out and to work. the 'labour', or her efforts (in cooking and in searching for the right clothes for the right event or whatever) are rewarded by the approval of people when they tell her how amazing her raspberry, blueberry and banana cake is and how nice she looks and consequently how confident she feels when wearing those clothes.

They might not necessarily be hobbies like brewing is, but they require effort and the process involved cost money, the same as brewing does. To make sure she's always able to make nice food and keep up to date with her clothes and shit, she needs to spend money every now and then. This then, keeps her happy; doing what she loves doing.

Brewing is like that for me. Pure and simple. Everyone has something they like to do that costs money - unless you're completely out of luck and she likes walking in the park and nothing more, then i don't know what to tell you haha.

I talked to my wife upfront about it and said, look i want to do this because i have FUN brewing and making the beer. It's something that makes me happy. My reward is that i get to drink the fruits of my labour (even though that part is just as fun as drinking it). Yes i spend a lot more initially to get my pot, my grains, my brewing bags, my storage boxes, my fermenting vessel/s, my bottles etc. Once they're bought, it is very little in return for the amount of beer i make and drink - throwing in the 'after the up front purchases, i can make a case of beer for $x rather than $45-$60 - can come in useful here. After that it's just the different ingredients i buy and the occasional added extra/upgrade i get to my set up.

Having said that, the hardest part was the second fridge but you really have to find one that is cheap - most are though - and for us, the added electricity because i'm a student at the moment so not working full time. You can of course do with less, but it's been a godsend having one.

I'm rambling now and said way more than i probably meant but it's a balance thing i think. If she can understand that you both have interests that cost money, and this one is just one of those things - provided you don't go mental and buy thousands of dollars worth of shit, you should be good. I'd never tell my wife she can't buy that new dress - she's smart enough to know that such a high price tag means we're both eating rice for three weeks straight so yeah, same with you and brewing. you spend some, she spends some, you're good.

space it out too if you can. for me, immediate things i needed for BIAB were my pot, the bags, the thermometer, and the fridge and STC. i didn't go out and buy them all in the one day though.
 
Thanks guys, good to be here :)

All good points Fletcher - I'm lucky though, my missus is a good sort who usually supports my stupid ideas so long as I'm not likely to injure myself. Fyi, DIY wind turbine for camping, not such a flash idea.
 
I went from one forty litre stainless steel urn to two. SWMBO didn't ever notice. Also the "new fridge in the kitchen" trick is brilliant, I've done it twice so far and I can assure you it never fails.
 
Another option is to only tell her part of the story. Say something like, "Darling I need to buy a new pot to mash some grains in and boil the wort."

Then when the new 50 litre $3,500 Braumeister lobs on your doorstep, she can't say you didn't tell her. B)
 
I think if I just open my girlfriend's shoe cabinet (a CABINET of shoes) if she is annoyed at me for buying something, I will win the argument! :)

I'm really new at this and have had pretty big outlay on brewing equipment recently, but now I'm set up with equipment I'm hoping I can reduce my costs to just ingedients for a while.

The main thing is to not spend so much that you can't do things with your SO because of the amount you spent on brewing, that's when my girlfriend would get annoyed anyway!
 

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