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

CornyKegs 728
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gometz said:
I have pretty much given up trying to make special drinks for my lady. She is completely content with vodka sodas with limes that any time I try to add something different she doesn't even notice or care.
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At home, my wife has an occasional Bartles & Jaymes cooler. When we go out, sometimes she'll order something sweet like a White Russian. Once in a blue moon, she'll get a wild hair and spend a night mixing drinks out of my old Bartender's Guide. The leftover, dusty bottles of creme de cacao, Kahlua and Amaretto haunt the cabinet above our microwave for years afterwards....

But I think I found something she'll like: Fox Barrel Pacific Pear Cider. I found a bottle of it on the broken packs shelf of a local liquor store, and heck - even I liked it. It's a little sweet, but not sticky sweet and cloying.

Unfortunately, they only had the one bottle. Guess I'll have to make a run to BevMo next time I'm close...
 
One of my female friends doesn't like beer, but she tried some of my homebrew out of curiousity. She was OK with a lighter pale ale (she doesn't like hops or bitter beers), but she found that when she added a couple shots of Margarita mix, she liked it. Now she keeps asking me to make more of that recipe so she can adulterate it with more Margarita mix. Funny thing is, she thinks she's complimenting me because she's found a way she likes my beer.

The other night, I called her out on it. She's a trained chef and specializes in Italian cooking. So I said to her, "What if you spent an entire afternoon slaving away in your kitchen, making pasta dough from scratch, and made the most delicious baked lasagna you'd ever made, and you served it to me plated beautifully, right out of the oven, sprinkled with freshly-grated parmesan cheese, and the first thing I did was slather it with ketchup?"

She didn't get the comparison.
 
I wouldn't be too insulted. Beer coctails are the latest thing nowadays. To each their own,I guess. But I know how you feel. One guy last summer preferred the Bud light lime over my light & dark hybrid lagers that the rest enjoyed.
 
(Roomate) Is that beer you put on going to be ready soon?... ~4 hours after pitching on a pale, and dark ale..
 
gometz said:
I have pretty much given up trying to make special drinks for my lady. She is completely content with vodka sodas with limes that any time I try to add something different she doesn't even notice or care.
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Same here. My wife is pretty content with mixing a rum/bourbon & Coke, hot chocolate w/Bailey's (this time of year), or the occasional margarita. Which is fine, as we don't have to stock a lot of exotic mixers that we'd only use for one drink.
 
but when i was mixing the extract he told me he used brew wine in england.. "it will take a couple days to ferment" ok thanks for the info..
 
I understand people being anxious to taste a new batch, thinking it just instantaneously ferments.. I Usually end up tasting one or two that are flat and sweet.. but i can wait more then 4 hours lol
 
(not really response to hearing that I'm a homebrewer, but a response to trying some of my beer)

from my dad's girlfriend of 20+ years, the biggest coont on the planet

I should have known better, I've NEVER seen her drink a beer or anything other than wine or a cosmo, but she asked to try my 10% barleywine. it was one of my earliest brews, before I really had a handle on my process. It's not bad, but hardly stellar.

so I poured her a sample

"oh, god... this is horrible. really horrible. nasty. it tastes like... oh, just horrible"

holy flocc, could you at least have the decency to just say you didn't like it?

I've never heard my brew club buddies, giving brutally honest criticism say anything this tactless about anyone's homebrew.
 
"Do you sell your beer?"
"Nah, it's not legal. I do like to give it away, though. "
(rolls eyes, laughs)"No one has to know!"

This conversation was half - shouted across an office where I work with senior Parole officers.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I admit I didn't feel like reading the first 60 pages, but these are the ones I've gotten so far, often in a sequence like:

-Is it legal? "Yes, completely"
-How much do you sell for? Usually answer with "There goes the legal part."
-How much do you make? "5 gal a week or so"
-Can you make < X% BMC> "I could, but why would I want to?"

Another one people have commented on is that "Anything over 6% is gross." They don't understand that beer/barleywine can accommodate large percents because it has body. 6% BMC would likely be terrible.
 
Zepth said:
Another one people have commented on is that "Anything over 6% is gross." They don't understand that beer/barleywine can accommodate large percents because it has body. 6% BMC is terrible.
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FTFY. Bud Platinum wasn't good at all.
 
drainbamage said:
FTFY. Bud Platinum wasn't good at all.
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Thank you for confirming my suspicion. I usually have a great habit of using certain vagueness in statements I cannot personally confirm. Then if things go awry, I can fall back on that as my defense. It's foolproof! BTW, I did it in this post.
 
I've had bits of what everyone else has mentioned ("like moonshine?" "that german crap?" accusations of alcoholism, etc.), but the most annoying was probably:

"I don't give a f*ck about homebrewing because alcohol gives you estrogen and kills your gains."
 
sriq said:
I've had bits of what everyone else has mentioned ("like moonshine?" "that german crap?" accusations of alcoholism, etc.), but the most annoying was probably:

"I don't give a f*ck about homebrewing because alcohol gives you estrogen and kills your gains."
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Do you even lift bra?



Okay, now I am going to have to smack myself.
 
sriq said:
I've had bits of what everyone else has mentioned ("like moonshine?" "that german crap?" accusations of alcoholism, etc.), but the most annoying was probably:

"I don't give a f*ck about homebrewing because alcohol gives you estrogen and kills your gains."
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That must be why so many early famed strongmen were beer wagon drivers....:p
 
I am currently in the middle of a huge upgrade to my brewery. The whole garage is being turned into a brewery (pictures and build will be posted in the future).

Anyway, what I am now getting from people is this incredulous "wow you must really like beer to spend so much on making beer" or similar statements.

This coming from people who have 2 or 3 quads, a huge $50,000 4x4 truck they just drive around town with, 12 different guns, take week long hunting vacations, ect...

Have 3-4 horses...

I know one guy who made such a statement, then turns around and tells me about the $500 softball bat he just bought. I make beer, you hit softballs....

Compared to other people who have hobbies, I think I'm pretty cheap. And I get inexpensive great beer out of it.
 
Aileen said:
I haven't gotten any annoying responses yet (except from my mother, who thinks alcohol is the devil). Most people just seem really surprised - I look nothing like the "typical" Colorado homebrewer.
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You must shave....

Not your "typical" Colorado brewer myself. But enough of us could start a new typical
 
i get the .. ohh you make your own? why dont you just buy beer!? or i get .. all homebrew has that odd taste. also tend to hear.. man every time i have homebrew i get sick
 
I got this one from a blonde Bimbo coworker today who saw me showing another coworker pictures of my latest brew

"So what alcohol did you put in it cause I'm not a big vodka fan I prefer patron!"

I told her I used cheap tequila and make them just like you would a margarita.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app
 
another annoying one is..."can you make me some" that really ruffles my bean bag.
 
the one that usually grates me a little bit is "what kind?"

once my mean old neighbor said "isn't it easier just to buy it?"

or that guy who starts on about how he used a mr beer once

generally, though, most people find it novel or interesting
 
BigFloyd said:
Sister-in-law (after tasting a really nice smooth ESB I had on tap) : "Wow! This is really good. It doesn't taste at all like what I was expecting."

Me: "And what exactly were you expecting, dishwater?"

SIL: (sheepish grin) "Well........."

Turns out she had a boyfriend years ago who thought he could brew in his apartment and stick the fermenter in a 75*F closet. She thought that's what all home brew tasted like. Now I overhear her telling other folks how good it really is.

I get annoyed when someone says, "man I'll bet some of those darker beers you make really have a kick!"
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I've had some pretty amazing beers out of people's 75F apartment closets. Particularly Belgians.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a perfect setup but that doesn't mean they can't make good beer.
 
In defense of people who are surprised, I bet they were expecting something strong, hoppy, or bitter. A lot of beer people seem to lean that way - extremes- so an ESB is not what you'd think.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I'm a chef In a restaurant and work with several cooks who home brew themselves and a lot of ppl who have great tasting pallots naturally I have them taste my beers. One response I hate the most is "it's good" or any combination of one word responses! I have them taste it for them to pick it apart tell me it suck or tthat they taste this or that.

Other classic responses are " it's good but I could drink one" from the light beer drinker it very anoying.
 
I've been to a few craft brew pubs lately, and I definitely felt like some of the staff were a little condescending when I mentioned that I make homebrew.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Home Brew mobile app
 

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