Bitch about stupid bartenders here - Page 3

**Schlenkerla** · 01-23-2009, 04:33 PM

I think at times you have to dumb down the beer-speak for people who are not really beer savvy. You can ask for a porter or bock and I'm guessing often you'll get a blank stare.

I generally don't get offended by people being ignorant about beer. I usually ask what they have and work with them get what I want.

I hate people thinking they know about beer and try to BS me more than anything else.

Awhile back I posted about a micro that was giving me Irish Reds. Each beer was different. It wasn't until I stood at the bar and saw I was getting their micro-brewed bock watered down with Miller Lite. The Irish Red was gone, the keg was dry.

NOW THAT IS A REASON WORTH GETTING PISSED OFF. They should have erased the chalk board saying

Micro Brews On Tap:

Wheat Beer
Irish Red
Bock beer

Boerderij_Kabouter · 01-23-2009, 04:35 PM

Wow!!! In Wisconsin you could have gotten them one MASSIVE ticket. It is illegal to falsely identify a beer. Wrong tap handle trying to hide a beer, not in Sconi,

TexasSpartan · 01-23-2009, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schlenkerla

I think the worst case of dumba$$ bartender has been with understanding up charging with imports.

I've been upcharged with these beers...

Sam Adams Boston Lager
JW Dunde Honey Brown
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
New Belgium Fat Tire

If they said all micros & imports are this much and BMC is this then OK.

I've had Shiner Bock charged to me as an import, and I live in freaking Texas

**IrregularPulse** · 01-23-2009, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjung

The manager is the owners rep. on site. That IS the person that you talk to in a situation like that. She then forwards the problem to ownership, who then either takes care of the situation, or ignores it.
With a beer selection like they have, WE ARE the people that they're catering to.
Also, the O.P. was the one asking for a dark beer, not me.

I apologize, I was assuming normal bar/restuarant style management. Maybe mention that section next time when speaking of management of this palce.
About the "Dark" beer, my mistake, I was thinking you were the OP.

zman · 01-23-2009, 06:24 PM

Thank God we do not have such problems in Colorado. It is Micro Brews on Steriods here

rph33 · 01-23-2009, 06:55 PM

Well I AM the OP...

Quote:

Originally Posted by IrregularPulse

Also you act so knowlegable of beer, yet you're still asking for "Dark" beer. If you wanna be a snob ask for porters or stouts.
What would you have done if when asking for a Dark beer the waitress came back with, We have several Porters, Stouts, Ambers, ect, could you be moer specific?

I don't want to "be a snob". I just want a goddamn dark beer. You act like the assumption that an employee of an establishment will KNOW WHAT'S ON THE MENU is out of line, and what's more, you seem to think that the question "Do you you have dark beer" is somehow pompous or said under false pretenses.

I don't ask "Do you have porter / stout" because most bartenders around here don't even know that these words refer to a type of beer. If I was in a brewpub, I would ask for a stout, but it's just a bar, so I try to be a little more general.

What's further, if a bartender said "We have several stouts, porters, etc., could you be more specific", well, YES I COULD and I would be very appreciative of their knowledge, and I would then ask them for a tall glass of either Old Rasputin or anything resembling RIS that they had. It isn't like I would balk and stutter and say "oh, I'll just have a Guinness".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boerderij_Kabouter

I have to agree with Pulse.... if I was a bar tender and someone asked me what dark beers I had, I would assume they like Guinness and think that makes them hardcore.

Also, I think being a beer snob is dumb. If you know more about beer than most people great! Use that knowledge to further someone else's knowledge not to compensate for you small wiener. People like this make me ashamed of knowing a lot about beer. .

You're honestly saying that my question of "Do you have anything dark" is unreasonable? That it's just some attempt to make myself look hardcore? You REALLY think that the question is some sort of rhetorical, general question that I said to puff up my own ego?

So by that logic, if I go into a Mexican place and ask "Which dishes are spicy?", I am just trying to prove what a hard-ass I am?

Kind of ridiculous reasoning I'm afraid.

If you want seafood, you ask "Do you have any fish on the menu?" You don't say "Do you happen to have parmesan-encrusted line-caught open-water roughy filets with lemon-cream sauce?" And so by the same reasoning, I ask "Do you have anything dark", not "Do you happen to have bottle-conditioned micro-brewed Russian Imperial Stout made with a blend of black patent and chocolate malts, primed with molasses, stored in the cellar of a goddamn church for a year, and with preferably over 75 IBUs?"

If I just drank Guinness all the time, I would just order a ****ing Guinness. The question "Do you have something dark" is totally valid and is not in any way pompous or self-ingratiating.

Boerderij_Kabouter · 01-23-2009, 07:04 PM

I am not saying anything about you... really, no hard feelings at all

My point was, from the side of a bartender, most people who ask for a dark beer, are people who think Guinness is a big heavy monster beer. Not you, just most people. A different approach may work better. Or I could be way off and the dark thing is the best where you're from ??? I don't know, I just know how it goes around here.

My approach is to ask for what they have on tap other than Bud, Miller, or Coors products. Then I ask for a list of what they have in bottles. If you are nice about it, 99% of people will be very helpful. You situation could be that one percent, in that case a cockpunch usually fixes things

kidding, but sometimes you are just SOL.

Related story, at this TexMex place I go to they serve their beer and glassware so cold that the beer literally turns into a slushy! I have to specifically tell them to put my beer in a hot glass out of the washer and order two at a time just to avoid a weird jelly beer thing..... I always get weird looks fro the wait staff, but at least I get what I want and it is no sweat off their back.

Cheers

rph33 · 01-23-2009, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boerderij_Kabouter

I am not saying anything about you... really, no hard feelings at all

My point was, from the side of a bartender, most people who ask for a dark beer, are people who think Guinness is a big heavy monster beer.

Related story, at this TexMex place I go to they serve their beer and glassware so cold that the beer literally turns into a slushy!

Cheers

I just woke up and haven't had caffeine and might have taken it the wrong way

'Cos don't get me wrong, I AM definitely a beer-snob, my point was just that I don't flaunt it, and I never ask questions with the purpose of broadcasting my beer-snob-status.

I guess you are right about MOST people ordering "dark" beer and expecting Guinness as the be-all-end-all of dark beers. I still have some douche-pig friends who, upon seeing somebody drink a Guinness, will say something like "OH MAN, THAT STUFF IS LIKE BREAD IN A BOTTLE!"

It's comments like this that REALLY make me want to turn on the beer-snobbery and go on a rant about real stouts, but I am able to keep that side of me in check.

And the Hooters across the street from where I work ALSO serves the beer so cold that it has frozen beer pieces in it. It's good if you are ordering their big-box swill, 'cos drinking that stuff cold is the only way to go, but it makes ordering any of their more flavorful ales pointless.

prost