How do you guys keep people from taking your good beer at parties?

So I'm having some people over on Friday and I'm offering up a bunch of home brew and misc commercial beers I've accumulated - mostly to make space for some newer beer I've brewed and to get rid of some of my less favorite home brews. The problem is I have a bunch of harder to get beer - beer from traveling to the west coast that we can't get here, Dark Lord, stuff I traded for DL, Heady, black note, KBS, etc. And not that I don't like to share, but most of the people wouldn't appreciate these beers and wouldn't understand the effort and expense it took to get some.

I will have a cooler out in my backyard with all the beer that is free for the taking, but I'm worried about people going into the beer fridge thinking anything is fair game. I'm almost thinking I want to take the rare beers out of the fridge and hide them in the back corner of the basement to avoid any issues.

So have you guys had this issue and how did you deal with it?

If you are worried then I would start to look at who you are inviting. I know that if I said here is the beer and had a cooler or keg set up with my friends they would drink what I offered and not even look in the fridge.

Heck it never works for me anyway to try and give away beer to clear up room. I will find more beer after the party than I started with it seems

It wouldn't hurt the beers to put them in a cool part of the basement. but folks should've been taught not to go in other folks fridges without permission.

Could you take the beer to someone else's house while you have the party?

I'm sure I will be giving tours of the brewing area and equipment and that will involve the beer shelf and beer fridge. I'm not really worried about people deliberately stealing beer. But since I'm offering up beer, they may assume it's all fair game and not really realizing what they are taking.

It's happened before where we go to a party and bring a 6 pack of something good where most others are drinking BMC and you have people think everything in the fridge is fair game since it's a party and they take your good beer and you are left with crappy beer.

glugglug said:

Could you take the beer to someone else's house while you have the party?

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That's a lot of work. I do have a back room of my basement where I can put them in boxes and no one would know. They might even be safe just sitting on the beer shelf because no one is going to want to take warm beer.

Put it in a big paper grocery bag, roll up the top, and write RUTABAGAS on the bag in magic marker. No one will touch it.

I'd mention it during the tour or put a little sign on the beer fridge.

If you're not worried about intentional stealing of your good beer and trust people to respect your house then I think just a note on the beer fridge stating the free beers are outside would be sufficient. And if you don't think that will be enough maybe a bike lock on the fridge.

fizgig said:

Put it in a big paper grocery bag, roll up the top, and write RUTABAGAS on the bag in magic marker. No one will touch it.

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Good idea!

Enoch52 said:

I'd mention it during the tour or put a little sign on the beer fridge.

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Yeah, I thought about that.

Hey bud,

I have the same problem. I have 33% of my friends who love good beer and then another 33% who just love beer and then another 33% who only drink BMC. Its the middle 33% you gotta worry about. They will drink anything no matter what, and not care that you had to journey to Middle Earth to get it. The top 33% generally recognize a "rare" beer and would never drink it with out asking.

What I typically do is put the good stuff in a box/cooler and put in a closet or basement for the night. If you feel like busting something out, grab some tasters and share, if not leave it alone until the party is over.

fizgig said:

Put it in a big paper grocery bag, roll up the top, and write RUTABAGAS on the bag in magic marker. No one will touch it.

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This is the most brilliant thing I've ever read on the internet.

Enoch52 said:

I'd mention it during the tour or put a little sign on the beer fridge.

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Any of these would work:

Ha! I like the biohazard one. That oughta do it.

RmikeVT said:

Hey bud,

I have the same problem. I have 33% of my friends who love good beer and then another 33% who just love beer and then another 33% who only drink BMC. Its the middle 33% you gotta worry about. They will drink anything no matter what, and not care that you had to journey to Middle Earth to get it. The top 33% generally recognize a "rare" beer and would never drink it with out asking.

What I typically do is put the good stuff in a box/cooler and put in a closet or basement for the night. If you feel like busting something out, grab some tasters and share, if not leave it alone until the party is over.

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Yeah, that sounds about right for my friends. I think I will move some of the stuff that's really rare and/or expensive.

I was thinking about sharing a heady and DL, but I think it will depend on if enough of our good beer drinking friends can make it.

Those signs are awesome. Even better because 90% of the people there will be chemists/engineers/scientists

I guess I'm fairly lucky then.. I never worry about people taking my "really good/rare" beers.. then again, most of my friends are BMC'ers who will "venture" into the world of Smithwick's at best...

But... with the exception of my keezer (which is in the entryway to my pub), the fridges are behind the bar, and we don't allow people behind the bar... my SWMBO hangs out back there and bartends...

As for the keezer... I hide the "good stuff" under the bottles of water and gatorade and Coors Light. ;-)

Out of sight, out of mind. If they don't know it's there, it won't disappear. Put the good stuff in a corner and cover it with a towel.

Hide your good beer, or put a lock on the fridge, I don't have any friends so it really wouldn't be an issue for me......lol

Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, but I have a couple boxes of my "stash" at the bottom of the stacks of empty cases of homebrew bottles. They're in the basement, where it dips to about 50 in the winter and never gets above about 63-64 in the summer. I always do the "cooler on the deck" for beer when we have people over and I've never had any issues.

I do like the rudabegas in the bag idea though.

My beer fridge is a side by side in the garage, when I have party's there is plenty of beer in the cooler outside but people will wander in the garage to check out the brewing equipment but I use 2 antique long shackled locks closed on each other thru both handles of the fridge, problem solved.

perhaps you need to clean out your kitchen fridge? It should be possible to fit at least 12 bottles of "good beer" in your kitchen fridge if it weren't a mess!

I brew for others to enjoy it. So if they drink it I just brew more.

Oh wait, high quality craft brews? Hide them under your bed.

I only had this problem once and my wife caused it by telling a few people where there was more beer. Luckily no one dug to the back where I keep the better beer and no one touched the unlabeled bottles.

Hide it in the crisper.

See if the local morgue will let you borrow a cadaver for the day. Put a note on the body that "this is what happened to the last person who touched {whatever} beer."

There's not a single flaw in that plan.

Jayhem said:

perhaps you need to clean out your kitchen fridge? It should be possible to fit at least 12 bottles of "good beer" in your kitchen fridge if it weren't a mess!

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It will be loaded with food for the party - burgers, potatoes, dips, veggies, etc.

McBrewskie said:

I brew for others to enjoy it. So if they drink it I just brew more.

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McBrewskie said:

Oh wait, high quality craft brews? Hide them under your bed.

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Yes, I'm talking rare and hard to get commercial beer. I want them to drink my home brew. They can almost all of it, but since the FBS clone I just made is very fresh, I'd hope that most of that would remain so I can age it a bit. I'll probably only put a 6'er of that in the fridge to share and keep the rest to age.

Hire an armed guard with an AK 47. Shoot anyone who looks in the fridge! You can always get new friends but the West Coast beers?

Not a problem.... I brew all the time, recently a brew Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for 33 gallons of beer...

Even my brewclub would have a hard time keeping up with me...

Booby Traps.

Just hang up a picture with some nice boobies nearby, and everyone will become distracted and forget what they came there for. Beer saved.

Like the booby trap idea but my buddies would just drink more beer until they think their significant others look like the pictures. I would box up and stash the rare stuff in a dark corner until the party is over.

I was at a friends for a party for his son and he just very politely said "there is beer in the fridge downstairs just don't drink the beer in the six packs". It was a clear boundary and I respected that. It should be ok to do that in your own house.

yep

On the rare occasion I invite those filthy meat bags into my home, they know damn well already to keep their mitts off of anything in the fridge unless specifically offered, or is something they brought.

oakbarn said:

Hire an armed guard with an AK 47. Shoot anyone who looks in the fridge! You can always get new friends but the West Coast beers?

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Ha! I was picturing the scene from Tombstone where Wyatt puts his .44 Peacemaker up to a Clanton's forehead and says something about turning his head into a canoe. Just make sure a few others are there as witnesses.

I don't I make sure there is enough if you want something else you byo

If I'm having a party, it's because I've invited other people over to drink my good beer, not because I wanted to hide some.

spin the fridge around so the door is against a wall

My problem is not my friends.... but me. I may go thru the gyrations of hiding the rare beer, but as soon as I get a little typsy, I will start breaking out the "special stash" and doling it out. Usually very chagrined come morning....

peachcarmelsoda said:

spin the fridge around so the door is against a wall

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I just recently did this with a mini bar in a hotel room we got for my friends bacholer party to keep people from getting into it running up the bill