Most annoying response when you tell someone you're a homebrewer?

[BinghamtonEd]

I was sitting on my deck bottling, and my neighbor (who I really don't care for, and is standing there with his shirt off drinking a can of miller lite) sees the buckets and the bottle tree full of empty beer bottles and here's the conversation

"Whatcha doin?"
"Making beer." (It took every ounce of control not to spew some smartass response)
"How's that workin out for ya?"
"Good."
"Hm." (Sips beer, walks away)

He had this smirk on his face like he thought he was being clever and was proud of himself.

 

[TangoHotel]

I'm always getting that too.
Everybody claims a cop is gonna bust me one day.

What ever!

pb

My neighbor is a county sheriff. He loves my brews.:-D

 

[KoskelaofFinland]

People always ask if it's like the Buffalo Wild Wings' commercial where the guy serves his "homebrew" that has like chunks of sausage floating in it.

 

[unionrdr]

That kinda thing just makes me wanna give them the super pimp slap. Theirs always one that may actually believe that commercial. Or at least use it to poke fun at what they know little or nothing about.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

More and more I am feeling lucky in this regard. Two of my legion of bosses got bottles of my smoked wheat, because I was kissing up shamelessly. I got questions on the size of my batches and how many bottles I can put out in a batch, how I got them carbed, and how I know for sure when I told them the ABV. Intelligent questions that showed true interest.

My one boss, who I like an aweful lot, I offered to point him towards some resources if he was interested in brewing himself. "No, you did it right, first you get the hobby and THEN you have the kids. Grandfather your hobby in." Sage advice, I thought.

 

[geoffm33]

This weekend I was brewing a second batch of Oktoberfest new neighbor walking by "Cooking a turkey?"
me: No, making beer.
neighbor: Why?
me: Because it's what I do.
neighbor: Oh ok, see ya.

I'll have to steal that one. Great answer for any question that starts with:

Why are you...
Why do you...

Because it's what I do.

 

[Bostonbrewin63]

"Dude when's ur pale ale gonna be rdy? Or ur blackout IPA or ur hefen? "

Every time I see family an friends.... Don't get me wrong i love the fact they like my beer and give me a lil cash for me to make more... But they ask me every other day! I simply say "brewing takes time" but I guess I need to think of something else to shut them up!

 

[Malty_Dog]

I was sitting on my deck bottling, and my neighbor (who I really don't care for, and is standing there with his shirt off drinking a can of miller lite) sees the buckets and the bottle tree full of empty beer bottles and here's the conversation

"Whatcha doin?"
"Making beer." (It took every ounce of control not to spew some smartass response)
"How's that workin out for ya?"
"Good."
"Hm." (Sips beer, walks away)

He had this smirk on his face like he thought he was being clever and was proud of himself.

Man, that annoyed me just reading it.

 

[Bookworm]

I have a friend who calls my homebrew (and all craft beer) "Yuppie Beer". I find that humorous because I picture most of you guys on this site as being Harley riding guys with beards, who make a living making stuff with your hands and enjoy fabricating brew stands in your garages, etc.

The irony is that I'm sure you Harley riding guys would consider me to be a "Yuppie".

Good points. But in reality a large percentage of your modern Harley riding crowd might not be particularly young anymore but come from a very yuppie background. That biker looking person you see on the weekend often goes to work at their law, medical practice or something equivalent during the week.

 

[unionrdr]

Like my yuppie neighbors. Weekend wannabe's.

 

[reinstone]

Does it have all that yeast crap at the bottom? It's like drinking dirt.

My sisters husband cannot stop bitching about this. He will not even try a sip of homebrew.

He's probably a wine fanatic. He explores all avenuesof wine and sips them like he's in a French movie, but there's only 1 way a beer should taste. Noticed you don't refer to him as brother in law, I love it. Cheers.

 

[reinstone]

A friend of my girlfriend's exclaimed to me a couple weeks ago "eww, beer is gross-- it has yeast in it."-- as she held a glass of vodka.

Ha, beer has yeast in it? That's the pot calling the kettle black! The friend has yeast in it!

 

[LovesIPA]

I got this one the other day - "Is it any good?"

 

[podz]

That stuff will give you one helluva hangover!

 

[Bookworm]

Originally Posted by McBrewskie View Post
What I wouldn't give for a bottle of some old Carolina hillbilly's moonshine.

Your eyesight?

Those kinds of responses are annoying when given to people that actually know how to do it right.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

asked my step sister if she wanted to try some homebrew....

So its beer then?....i hate beer...
Well try it and tell me if you like it, its a coffee IPA
*smells it* YUK!! Smells like a budweiser.

Took every ounce (get it!?!?) of me not to slap her right then and there!!

 

[MaxStout]

I'll have to steal that one. Great answer for any question that starts with:

Why are you...
Why do you...

Because it's what I do.

Skydivers have a term for people who are not into the sport: "Whuffos."
As in "you jump out of airplanes? Whuffo?"

If people are interested in my brewing, great. I'm happy to share with them.
If they aren't, that's fine, too. They're whuffos.

 

[mh-brews]

One of he annoying things i hear is "what are you gonna do with 5 gallons of beer?" I procede to tell them that it is about 50 beers and it will last me about a month or so.

Another funny thing to talk to people about is kegerators:

it seems that not many people know what it is.

All the BMC people think you are a god and then get pissed because you don't have any "normal" beer for them to drink when they come over to check it out.

everyone else (excluding homebrewers) thinks you are an Alcoholic untill you explain about the cost savings and the fact you do't have to deal with the bottles.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

A lady at work is always asking for my homebrew, so each batch, I'll give her one or two. I've been making cider and beer almost every weekend since February with all my brew crew, so I've given her lots to drink! Since February, she's only drank two!

She still wants them but "hasn't had time to drink them"!!!

If she wasn't smoking hot, I'd go take back all that delicious beer!!!!

You know, it's been so long, she might not remember what each batch is... I think you should "make time" to go over to her place and help her taste each batch so she knows what she likes and so you know what to brew next to send her way

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Assuming you are single... and that she is single... I cant think of a better ploy than "a bunch of us are brewing this weekend in fact... care to come over?"

 

[CreamyGoodness]

By the way, bwarb, is it just me or is that the smallest glass of beer in history your pic? I know my eyes are playing tricks on me, but it looks like the glass Id get at easter when I was a kid

 

[saltwaterwop]

Back when I first mentioned to SWMBO that I wanted to try home-brewing


"Yea, sure..
How much space are you going to want to add on to the house for THAT!" ?

 

[BinghamtonEd]

Assuming you are single... and that she is single... I cant think of a better ploy than "a bunch of us are brewing this weekend in fact... care to come over?"

Followed on brew day with "Everybody else cancelled" and "Good eye. You are correct, I do not have pants on. That's a common rookie brewer question, don't feel stupid."

 

[gometz]

My girlfriend actually gave me a "it tastes like... real beer!" when we tried out my Black IPA. I was a little upset but I know what she was really saying was "this is a lot better than the previous attempts of your I have tasted"

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

By the way, bwarb, is it just me or is that the smallest glass of beer in history your pic? I know my eyes are playing tricks on me, but it looks like the glass Id get at easter when I was a kid

No, it's not a small glass. I'm a giant.




(Actually, it's a Cuvee des Trolls glass, which appears to be quite small; 25 cL / 8.5 oz).

 

[BinghamtonEd]

My wife does not like beer at all. With enough badgering I can get her to taste a sample of mine. I made a Cascade/Willamette IPA that tasted like grapefruit, and her response was a shoulder shrug and "That's not that bad." She still won't drink beer, but if I get a shoulder shrug and a passive response, I know I brewed something really good.

 

[brewguyver]

Every time my father inlaw comes over he sees my keggles in the garage and says that just looks wrong. What? Your making moonshine. Dude wtf! He said that again on Saturday when he saw my IC sitting on e counter in my garage. Irritates the crap out of me.

Seems like something my father would do - but would say the wrong thing on purpose to drive me crazy. He may know what that is by now, but it's way more fun to piss you off.

Goes along with hey, how's wasting time on that x-crate going? Still playing rings and fighting the overflow?

"It's halo, and they're called the flood, and this is an x-box ..."

When do you have time to date Consuela while doing that?

"Sigh ... "

At least he doesn't bug me about the beer brewing. Apparently hobbies are ok now that I've had a job, a car, and my own place for a decade or so.

 

[whitehause]

I always love the old " I had homebrew once, I didn't like it"
As though there is only one kind of homebrew that was ever made.

 

[gometz]

With all of this being said though, I would like to say that a lot of the time when I meet someone for the first time and they offer me a homebrew, I get a little worried. I have had (and made) some terrible beers made by inexperienced people.

 

[ColeR]

My neighbor is a county sheriff. He loves my brews.:-D

In my 7 house dead end street, 4 of the houses are Padged Law Enforcement of one kind or another and yes they all love my home brew. I'm not worried about cops.

sad thing is, not a single marked car!!!!

 

[blefferd]

My wife does not like beer at all. With enough badgering I can get her to taste a sample of mine. I made a Cascade/Willamette IPA that tasted like grapefruit, and her response was a shoulder shrug and "That's not that bad." She still won't drink beer, but if I get a shoulder shrug and a passive response, I know I brewed something really good.

I have this problem with my wife lol. I will get her to taste it every now and then and she says "tastes like beer it all tastes the same to me since I dont like it!" oh well lol

I wish she did I would rather have her honest opinion than a "oh this tastes good" and they dont finish the glass lol.

 

[Crito]

Got annoyed that my inlaw was requesting a imperial stout for christmas even after I said I was not interested in that style of beer. (To much time and to much abv for my taste).

Just made one to make it. Turned out awesome. That's the one he tried.

Even told his wife to tell me to make it a week later.

 

[ColeR]

Was in Harbor freight tools and was getting a some stuff to help move kegs around, I told the cute 19yo cashier what it was for, she said she was only 19 and couldn’t buy any beer.. I told her this home brew stuff is awesome and I can make anything wanted and its cheap. She started asking if I would bring her some!!!

I got close to her ear and said “you don’t have to be 21 to make beer, at the LHBS they don’t even check your I.D.”

REALLY ?!?!?! was her reply as I was walking away.. I was smiling all the way home.

 

[jperry]

I rarely ever take extra home brew, to parties/gatherings because of the typical responses, mentioned here already. But, when I do, i'll be sharing some home brew, and somebody asks questions, out of interest. For example, how do you know what alcohol percentage is?, or how do you bottle it? etc... People asking genuine questions, is great, I love answering them. However, the really Annoying responses, aren't from the people asking questions, but they are from my friends/guests, that have had one to many to drink, and think they know everything about beer, from what little info, I've given them. They'll spout out a bunch of bull****, that they've somehow jumbled together, and they totally bombard a simple question, with difficult terms and no background info.

I try to be as easy-going as possible, and not overload a noob, which is very easy to do. I always try to answer simply, but some of my friends, will confuse the crap out people, leading them away from further questions.

One of my friends, always tells people, I grow all the hops in my beer. WHY?, most people don't even know what hops are, so why are you telling them this. Damn, its just annoying to me. Let me answer the questions, shut up, and enjoy the beer. Stop acting like you know everything.

 

[unionrdr]

JP,that seems to be the most common problem with beer snob wannabees. So do be a do bee,don't be a don't bee... would be a good reply. See how many know where that one came from if they're so intelligent.

 

[locusta]

The most annoying/worst response I've ever gotten was "But girls don't drink beer". I removed myself from that conversation pretty fast.

When people say they don't like beer, I understand. I use to think it was terrible. It took a homebrewer sharing a wheat beer to bring me around.

 

[DanH]

Followed on brew day with "Everybody else cancelled" and "Good eye. You are correct, I do not have pants on. That's a common rookie brewer question, don't feel stupid."

I totally read that and heard Ron Swanson saying it.

 

[gometz]

Was in Harbor freight tools and was getting a some stuff to help move kegs around, I told the cute 19yo cashier what it was for, she said she was only 19 and couldn’t buy any beer.. I told her this home brew stuff is awesome and I can make anything wanted and its cheap. She started asking if I would bring her some!!!

I got close to her ear and said “you don’t have to be 21 to make beer, at the LHBS they don’t even check your I.D.”

REALLY ?!?!?! was her reply as I was walking away.. I was smiling all the way home.

Oh how I remember the fun of picking up extract kits when I was 17. I thought it was hilarious that no one seemed to bat an eye at me obviously trying to get a hold of some alcohol.

 

[m3n00b]

I've noticed a trend from all my friends and family trying my HB for the first time. It's almost like a back handed compliment.

"Wow! That's actually good!"

Like they expected my beer to be bad or something....even though they all know and love my culinary skills.

I always reply, "Yeah of course it is. What did you expect? If it were bad do you think I would make 200gal a year?"

 

[podz]

I've noticed a trend from all my friends and family trying my HB for the first time. It's almost like a back handed compliment.

"Wow! That's actually good!"

Like they expected my beer to be bad or something....even though they all know and love my culinary skills.

I always reply, "Yeah of course it is. What did you expect? If it were bad do you think I would make 200gal a year?"

Didn't you know that producing alcohol is a black art?

In Finland, "kilju" used to mean pre-distallation mash (20% ABV sugar wine) that hardcore alcoholics still like to make, but nowadays people have come to call nearly all homebrew "kilju". Yes, it sounds just like the english "kill you", and that is also precisely what the Finns mean when they say it - the result of drinking it being anything from a headache that makes you wish you were dead up to physical death by methanol poisoning. In other words, drinking "kilju" is highly socially stigmatised, not least of all by the tax authorities.

My friend visited the other day and I asked him if he wanted to try some of my cider. He said "how is it?" I said "hasn't killed me yet!". He at least pretended to like it, and went on about how clear it was. I told him that I cold crashed it, which led us into a whole long conversation about the black art of making booze. It was fun.