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jojabri

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Hi,
I'm Gina, and I've been lurking in the shadows reading posts and gathering information for a while now. Back in October, I stopped working my one day a week job (hosting karaoke at a bar) so my "fun money" and "fun time" was discontinued. Two things quickly occurred to me 1- I NEEDED a hobby and 2- buying booze is expensive when you have to ask your husband to pick it up or ask him for money to buy it. Might I add we're AVID wine drinkers, so when I say expensive, yeh, I mean it.
Between those two conclusions I started searching the internet for ways to make my own. Upon finding out that it isn't terribly difficult or expensive, I decided to give it a go. Following some directions I found on Youtube using plain 'ol grape or apple juice I started a few small batches. Needless to say they turned out pretty bad. They'd give you a buzz, but also put you into a mild sugar coma. From then on, even though the initial run was pretty much a bust, I was hooked. I've found a liquor store (which luckily is next door to a GFS Marketplace for cheap sugar) not too far away with a decent amount of home brewing supplies and bought all the basics.
Currently, I haven't quite yet busted into the world of using REAL fruits. because they'll be much more affordable in the summer time, in many cases for me FREE fruits. For the mean time I'm playing with the frozen grape juice concentrate recipes and other things like skeeter pee, dragon blood, jam/jelly wines, and coffee wine.
I have found it to be, thus far, a very rewarding hobby. My friends and family members are wowed that I actually make my own wine (except for the ones who have been in prison and know how it really works.) They were so amazed that I entered a bottle into our family's DIY White elephant, and it was the most "stolen" item out of 23 entries.
My husband hates that I talk constantly about my new hobby, but he hasn't had any issues with getting his drank on.
I decided to call my "brand" X-Pass. X in Greek is "Chi"... get it Chi Pass, Cheap ***. It totally speaks volumes for me as I DIY a lot of things, detergent, body wash, deodorant, fabric softener, tomato juice/salsa, and now WINE!
Hoping to make a few new friends and learn a lot about this new hobby.
Sorry (not really) about the length of this post. But I'm SOOOO EXCITED!

Cheers!
 
Welcome to WMT

Sounds like you 'set the hook' yourself - dont worry, we'll 'reel ya in'

:)
 
Welcome Gina. I'm kind of like you. I don't work anymore and my mad money disappeared with deciding to stay home. Wine making has fast become my favorite hobby. My hubs is more of a whisky drinker but doesn't mind (too much) shelling out a few bucks to keep me in wine kits and fruit ingredients.
This is a great forum with lots of nice people with good advice. It doesn't seem to matter what time of day it is if you have a question, someone is usually there to give an answer within minutes.
 
Hi Gina welcome to the forum. I'm also a stay at home and my money is always mad because I won't let it hang around.
 
welcome: what it this, family's DIY White elephant, and it was the most "stolen" item out of 23 entries.

what is a diy white elephant.
 
what is a diy white elephant.

Like a holiday grab-bag gift-exchange.. Everyone puts in a present, gets a number, numbers pick presents in order, and you can steal each others gifts, until everyone has a present or whatever kind of crazy rules your family comes up with at the time..
 
My family does it too; we call it 'Secret Santa' though :)
It gets intense and who-stole-who's gift can be remembered for years
 
... This is a great forum with lots of nice people with good advice. It doesn't seem to matter what time of day it is if you have a question, someone is usually there to give an answer within minutes.

Welcome Gina, I couldn't agree more with Lori. Lots of great people on this site and as a newbie myself, and stay at home dad, I've learned a ton from these fine folks. I am also beginning to think some of them don't sleep at all!
 
Welcome Gina! Great story! You'll be whipping out classy wines in no time and you won't look back on buying "expensive" wines anymore!
 
Thanks for all the greetings guys!

Also thanks for the White Elephant explanation Deezil, I was happily snoring when it was asked to be explained.

It's nice to see that there are a lot of stay at home moms/dads/wives/husbands here.

I'm so looking forward to growing my knowledge of wine making and hopefully making a few new similar-minded friends.
 

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