Home Distiller

I've got it pretty good. I guess Mrs Reef figures if I'm home playing with my hobbies I'm not out getting in trouble. When I decided a while back I wanted to make beer she went out and got me a deluxe equipment set for Christmas. I had been getting apple pie and other stuff from folks who knew someone who made it. So This past year I told I thought I wanted to build a still and make my product. I told her I could do everything except the stainless welding on the keg, I'd have to get someone else to do that. Two weeks later there was keg with 2 heating elements in it and a sanitary fitting on top for my birthday. She had gotten on line looked around and called a few places and ordered it for me.

My wife enjoy's the end product but is wondering when I will finish building new stills.

mine looked at me kinda funny at first till I pointed out that she could do her own vanilla extracts and other flavorings that she uses for her baking buisness.
now she is watching the ferments and washing jars asking what the proofs are running out at.
now she has vanilla ,butterscotch,chocolate,ginger,and anything else citrus that she can macerate all over the kitchen and I get to keep a small bottle of my own every now and then .

When I told Mama Coyote that I was thinking about building a still, she did in fact give me that " Oh Crap here he goes again " look. Being as the farm shop is full of various materials, left over from this or that project, I did not have to spend anything on my first 2 builds. When I started on the stove top and fermenting in the house, happy was not how I would have described her. She in her own special way suggested that I needed more room and perhaps I should build a room in the shop. I told her that would be just too much work and I didn't have the space to give up. Years ago I had been given a walk in cooler that we never got around to setting up. It was stored in one of the sheds.
At her delicate suggestion it became the "Man Cave". Left over stainless counter tops, overhead wire racking, Used double sink, used sprayer faucet, New 6 gallon water heater. Total cost about $300 bucks and I have an 8 x 20' cave. Built roller around racks for the still and the fermenter's.

She kept her distance for a couple of years. Until my product started getting much better. Then one day she came down to the MC and hung out for a 1/2 hour or so, couple of weeks later it turned into a hour or so. Now she is concerned if I have enough oak ready or does she need to char some, how is your sugar supply?, Have you got enough yeast?. When is your next delivery of sweet feed?

Only time I have seen her even a bit upset over my hobby was when I tiled the floor of the Man Cave, when the bathroom of the house needed done. I solved that problem and bought her the " Dream House" So I guess you could say that this hobby has only cost me about $ 325,000.00

But she did tell me to be sure and pour a new concrete pad for the man cave to set on and to make it big enough to expand - she thinks the cave is only half the size it needs to be.
Yep I am a very blessed man and she is for sure and for certain a keeper! But then I haven't brought up the flute build. . ..

Coyote

My wife is a nagger (God I'm so honest to say that ), she went hysterical when my purchased still arrived at our front door hahaha but then I'm still the boss so she loosened up after a few weeks

Married into a Ukrainian/ Croat family.
Stilling is a family affair, outside together, make a fire (winter here) and swop for traditional foods.
Scored some home made sausage and biscuits this week.
She's arranging to extend the cellar to make more space for fermentation equipment.
Cheerin

Wife bought the first 5 liter still. Still Spirits Euro5. It worked out pretty good but man was it small.

Went down the electric keg route with a pot still head and a Boka head. Only used the boka twice and moved over to a VM head instead. Most of the carboys that I have were received as different gifts.

She got cross when I filled the laundry sink for 2 months with different buckets of grain attempting to malt. Its actually really simple when you get the hang of it and best done in your shed rather than inside. She still gets cross when one of her jugs disappears for a few weeks - or she just can't find that stainless steel slotted spoon. For some reason or other I still don't seem to get automatically blamed for all missing kitchen equipment - though 9 times out of 10 I have to plead guilty.

My wife has been pretty cool with the whole thing as long as I don't spend money we don't have on the hobby. I'm in the learning phase so she is waiting for something she is willing to drink.

I'm in the learning phase so she is waiting for something she is willing to drink.

You want a boka. The ladies here are constantly hassling for vodka,they have dispensed with the mixers and just drink it with ice.

my wife likes a few things i make but still feels like i am making crystal meth or something. i keep telling her it is just untaxed booze.

i think any min she feels the doors will bust open and the FBI will be raiding the house



Big Cheese

620rossco wrote:

I'm in the learning phase so she is waiting for something she is willing to drink.

You want a boka. The ladies here are constantly hassling for vodka,they have dispensed with the mixers and just drink it with ice.

Great idea.. but I'm still learning to drive the toy I have.

The pot still, she gave me the typical "ok but don't blow yourself up and it's fine", once she saw the flute she was raving that I bought a "Steampunk" still, I think it was love at first sight!

Mad isn't the word that I would apply to the eye roll I got when I came home with the parts for my little pot still. Are you insane is how I would describe the look I got when I made my first batch of industrial waste I called "spirits". Annoyed would be the way I would describe when I started gathering parts on this never ending column still I will finish some day.

But when I pulled my first tried and true recipe off the oak (after failing a few more times), poured a shot into a cherry coke I got a look of "Wow, you made that?"

Now she is my biggest pusher do get the column done. I think she is still annoyed when I spend a half a day reading on here when I'm sure I could be getting something else done...

Over time my wife has gotten more pissed about the time that this hobby has consumed.

Mine now only gets pissed when I get behind on my stillin' and she has to actually BUY vodka.

I had one before she moved in so she knew what she was getting into.

I used to dip before she moved in, and I started up again. She complained and said it was nasty. Now that's one of those things that I can see from her point of view. I didn't dip when she met, she didn't know about it, she didn't like it... that's not something she signed up for. I threw my dip can in the garbage and barring a couple of backslides here and there my tobacco habit is over.

She was skinny when we met, and that's what I signed up for. She's still skinny.

I'm calling it good.

My wife is great.... She had no problem with it. She knows that stilling in my family goes way back. I still have some of my grandfathers shine that was made in the 70's... She also knows that what happens in the garage..... Stays in the garage.

When I told my girlfriend that I wanted to build a still and she thought I was trying to be funny.

Then, after a while, she elected to buy all the parts for it. But, due to the difficulty of locating parts, she just went and bought me a reflux still (looks like a Bok, but with no slanted plates on the inside) at the nearest homebrew shop.

She a sweetheart. Her sister, who also lives with us (I guess I actually live with them), thinks that I'm gonna blow up the apartment.

I was watching "still making moonshine" with Jim Tom and told the wife I'm gonna build a new cap for my still So I went down bought a sheet of copper came home drank a beer or two and went to work. Now the bad part was when she came home a cought me cutting copper with her siccors and yes I broke the first pair and was working on the second Boy did she come unglued !!! Next she walked over to the table and stepped on a sharp piece of copper in the floor !! Shortly after that I was in the basement freezing my ass off

I have a sweet wife; 23 year together and no complaints. What a journey!

Mss Odin is okay. I guess my wife was a bit sceptical. Not angry, not against it, just ... sceptical. When she saw how much I liked my new hobby, she started to like it better. What really changed everything is that her family, back in Eastern Europe, acknowledged my vodka to be the best they ever drank. Right now she is sipping on some apple pie and telling me if it's a bit sour still, or maybe it just needs a few days of extra rest?

Maried for 17, 18 years now. Shit, it is almost the 28th of August. I will try not to forget. That would piss her off. I guess out of 17 or 18 times I forgot only like 15 times, so that ain't too bad now is it?

Odin.

=Oldy but goody thread=

My wife damn near surprised me with a still Christmas 2016 and had to be talked out of it by Rick at Brewhaus.
"It takes some research. One is not like the other!" he told her. (That sold me on Brewhaus.)

I mentioned yesterday I was gonna hit the co-op for corn, so might be a half hour late. She insisted on picking it up. All 112 pounds of it!
Then this morning at 4am she heard me up and said I could grind the corn (in the noisy blender) since I was up already. She wouldn't mind.

Brother, I think I'll keep her.

fizzix wrote:=Oldy but goody thread=

My wife damn near surprised me with a still Christmas 2016 and had to be talked out of it by Rick at Brewhaus.
"It takes some research. One is not like the other!" he told her. (That sold me on Brewhaus.)

I mentioned yesterday I was gonna hit the co-op for corn, so might be a half hour late. She insisted on picking it up. All 112 pounds of it!
Then this morning at 4am she heard me up and said I could grind the corn (in the noisy blender) since I was up already. She wouldn't mind.

Brother, I think I'll keep her.

damn straight man
you better keep her
mine don`t mind me stilling
but she hates over indulgeance

My wife was annoyed at yet another insane project that I would forget about in 2 weeks. Which, to be fair, I was expecting in some ways too.

But then she tried the product, and loved it. I was “spending way too much money” as I scaled up to the keg and the flute, but then we went 3 straight months without buying a drop of booze, and she realized it was worth it.

At a little after a year I filled the keg with feints and did my first neutral run with a full keg at 40%, and that sucker just wouldn’t quit spitting out gallon after gallon of the first vodka she’s ever liked.

Now we just tried the first AG, and she’s sold all over again.

The way to a woman’s heart is persistence and booze. Sometimes other parts too.

Brewhaus seems to have dropped beer and gone fully into distilling?

Mrs. Bvritr was alittle annoyed when she picked up on the hints when i kept bringing up "the family traditions". I waited till she took a trip home for a month to start my keg build knowing ahe woukd flip at the cost.
since then she starts getting grumpy when were down to a few bottles of white.

This thread is ripe with victims of the “happy wife happy life” mentality..

She DGAF what I do for hobbies so long as they don’t include her and they keep me outa the house.

I got "the look" like some of you guys. I think she'd have tried to talk me out of it but I'd recently sold off all my all grain beer equipment to fund a new wood stove and chimney for the house. That and I wasn't spending a bunch of money on it, took me over a year collecting pieces to build a simple pot still, just spending $20-30 here and there.

Funny story, first time I was running on electric in the laundry room my mother in law showed up and walked in on me catching ujsm in jars. Got "the look" again. She says did you make this thing? Yep built it myself. She says "you got alot of brains, too bad you dont use them for something sensible.

Pesty wrote:This thread is ripe with victims of the “happy wife happy life” mentality..

She DGAF what I do for hobbies so long as they don’t include her and they keep me outa the house.

I feel sorry for you with that kind of relationship . I married my best friend and she was happy when I embarked on a hobby that kept me from hitting the local pubs at 'happy hour' every day .
Many $ that would have gone through their cash registers have been redirected to our enjoyment and a couple of pretty damned nice parties for some special friends here .
Guess that marrying your best friend is the critical ingredient .

This is some kind of funny!


Also appropriate because after 7 months of trying to get out the gates and STILL something, I have been dreading it but decided I had to clue her in.
Besides not wanting to worry about it any longer, I wanted her help in mixing botanicals for Odin's Gin.

Told her her nephew and i started watching (yes, that show!) and I was curious about it, yada yada yada, and bought the still.
She really didn't SAY anything and only gave me half of a "what a dumbass you are" look.
Reminded her she had told me she wanted me to develop a hobby ( used to play tennis, had to "retire") .

She said that wasn't really what she was talking about. Wants me to do projects around the house and landscape.
I told her that seemed like more like work than a hobby.

So I did agree with her to do the work and that was really about it.
I do plan on drawing her in on the Gin project.


BTW For you youngsters, "back in the day" I would tell her my friend John wanted to go play golf Saturday at 7:30.
I would always add I would usually wake up that early Saturdays I would always be horny and want to fool around.
So it really was a choice for her if she wanted to sleep in.
Response was ALWAYS, "You have fun honey and tell John I said Hi. Bring me home some lunch."
It beat mowing the grass.

TDick wrote:
BTW For you youngsters, "back in the day" I would tell her my friend John wanted to go play golf Saturday at 7:30.
I would always add I would usually wake up that early Saturdays I would always be horny and want to fool around.
So it really was a choice for her if she wanted to sleep.
Response was ALWAYS, "You have fun honey and tell John I said Hi. Bring me home some lunch."
It beat mowing the grass.

That is an awesome idea, im in shock i havnt thought of that in the past 20yrs ive been with my wife