I know I have whined about this before ..BUT

I am sick of being asked for beer or wine or whatever it is I have made recently. I swear it is an every day 2-3 times a day thing anymore... phone calls...dropping by...text messages...pM's....Facebook..... Just happened again. I told my wife it is so aggrivating that I should just quit brewing... I also just had someone ask me to brew them a batch of beer and they would pay me.. when I explained that at minimum wage just my labor on brew day alone would be into 40 some bucks not to mention ingredients and bottles etc etc....I swear I am sick of people acting like it is free alcohol for them and their friends to suck down. Why can't people understand that by asking constantly they are taking a lot of the fun of the hobby away from me. IF I want you to have some I will OFFER IT TO YOU!! Add to that the fact that I am starting to NOT get my bottles back and I am close to just shutting the flow off to EVERYBODY! ok I am better now...carry on

Maybe you're too nice.

Maybe you should post on FB that you are leaving brewing for a while and post reasons why...

"Dear friends, I am ceasing my brewing operations for a bit. And here's why:
1. Brewing is expensive, every one wants to drink up but no one wants to ante up to help with ingredients.
2. My bottles that I work so hard to get and keep clean are not coming back to me. This is also another expense.
3. The 2 abovementioned reasons have started taking the fun out of it.
Maybe I'll return to brewing again someday but for now, I'm done.
Thanks, OhioSteve"

Or something like that. I am quite sure once everyone knows you are no longer brewing they will stop asking for freebies.

I would tend to agree. While one of my favorite parts of brewing is sharing with friends, I really need to do it on my own terms. I kept the fact that I brew a secret at work for the first couple of years. Then, during a passionate discussion about Munich beer with one of my coworkers, I brought up the fact that I brew and the rest is history. I constantly have people coming by my cube asking "what's on tap" and "could you make me a batch and bottle it." WHile I really appreciate the enthusiasm and encouragement, most people just don't know how much time and work it takes. You mean will I take a Saturday to brew you a batch while you go to the beach or the movies or whatever? F--k no I won't. Ass!

Tell them to buy it and help out on brew day, if they take the bait then what have you lost? Tell them you want a few out of the batch so that you can know what it was you brewed up exactly. They may end up in the hobby themselves this way...

Newton said:

Maybe you're too nice.

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have you tried just saying no?


edit: or.. just telling them what you said in your original post.. abbreviated of course... maybe they think you enjoy making beer/wine/etc. for them. Or at the very least, maybe they dont know it irritates you so much. I also like Grants idea.

Grant's idea is a good one.

Cut 'em off unless they go with you to LHBS where they buy the ingredients, then follow you home to do all the hard work while you supervise (read: "drink homebrew").

Otherwise you'll just have to cut 'em off. I would.

Bob

GrantH said:

Tell them to buy it and help out on brew day, if they take the bait then what have you lost? Tell them you want a few out of the batch so that you can know what it was you brewed up exactly. They may end up in the hobby themselves this way...

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Bottled a batch today with my son.. he helped on brew day ( I call him my brew ***** lol) and came out today and helped bottle..... he gets half the batch. I swear I have zero issue with sharing but damn it is like a mad rush at a walmart sale.

Newton said:

Maybe you're too nice.

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Agreed. I'm an *******, so my friends know that if they get to have any of my homebrew; it's on my terms, not theirs.

maybe switch to kegging? It'll keep the beer consumption social - if you want beer, you need to come here and hang out for a while, as opposed to 'take out'

prosper said:

maybe switch to kegging? It'll keep the beer consumption social - if you want beer, you need to come here and hang out for a while, as opposed to 'take out'

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That's one of the main reasons why I haven't got into kegging. Yet. I don't want people knocking at my door.

Damn, I am an *******!

Try the truth. Your stuff is so good that way too many people are asking for it and you simply cannot afford to keep brewing at the current pace.

Or lie and tell them you found out that the law prohibits you from giving it away outside the home.

Whatever works...

Isn't "Teach a friend to brew" day coming up soon? Make it a mandatory session.

Had the same"problem" and an ole' Hippie friend of mine suggested that, and I quote. "Tell the lazy a$$ bastage, if you buy the ingredients, help me (show you) how to brew a batch of "self-reliance".... and most dreadfully, help me clean up afterward; I would be more than glad to assist."

It worked and yet another home-brew maker is born....

Just ask for a donation for any to-go beer. My friends always do this unless I am straight-up giving them a bottle, which I do a lot anyways. If your product is good enough, they will want it enough to chip in a bit of money.

I only give people 12 oz bottles, 24s, or in rare cases 6 packs as a gift. Mostly, just enough to taste the beer. I give beer away out of generosity, but ultimately I want people to taste it, not drink a bunch of my beer for free. If I throw a keg party, my friends are kind enough to cover cost.

Just say no.

Sorry but if it bothered me that much, I'd say "No, sorry out of stuff to make it".

Edit: Maybe that's why I have no friends? Or maybe it's because we drink it faster than we brew it, which is really really tough to do.

:Solution..... Punch 'em
That's what I do And my bottles always come back!

jk! I posted my beer terms on Facebook and all of my friends took kindly to it. So I really do get my bottles back and rarely have people ask for a specific brew. When I share and someone likes it, I MIGHT offer them a 6 pack to keep them at bay. When they ask me; "Hey! You have any more of that insert beer here?" I tell them, "When I brew it again, and if I feel so inclined... I'll let you know."

Just my procedure and $.02

One suggestion for the none returned bottles - make it a bottle swap, if they bring no bottles to you they get no beer, bring 6 get 6. Ofcorse don't feel that you have to give a whole batch away to the guy who turns up with 2 cases of bottles

I have the opposite problem...I want to pace my beer production for personal use but I love making/bottling/anything with the process. To me it is a hobby meant to kill time and I drink 1-2 homebrews a week. I love having enough beer left to let it age.

So I kindly accept requests. My friend's dad wants me to brew him the same IPA I brought over the other night, but it was my second to last bottle from my first batch (brewed in may). I told him I can't accept money for it, but he can buy the ingredients off of me, as well as empty bottles.

AZ_IPA said:

Agreed. I'm an *******, so my friends know that if they get to have any of my homebrew; it's on my terms, not theirs.

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prosper said:

maybe switch to kegging? It'll keep the beer consumption social - if you want beer, you need to come here and hang out for a while, as opposed to 'take out'

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First, of all, NObody asks me for beer. Seriously. Nobody. My beers must suck.

Or, my friends are all, shall we say, older. We're not young, and we respect each others hobbies. I have a friend that has a mini-farm- I don't ask him for "free vegetables". I have a friend who quilts. I've never asked her for a free quilt that she spent 300 hours on.

They don't ask for free beer- seriously. Maybe that's a young person thing, thinking that hobbies produce free stuff. I can see how they think brewing produces free beer, but my friends have NEVER asked for beer.

Unless they come for a visit. They know where the beer glasses are, where the taps are, and where the sign for what's on tap is. That's why kegging is so awesome. I get a few people stopping by (lschiavo dropped by today to work on my keggle) and then they get a beer or two while we chat.

I did offer to brew beer for a retirement party, and he took me up on it. My daughter asked me to brew a beer for their housewarming party, and I said I would. Those are the only times I ever brewed "for" something though.

Germelli1 said:

I told him I can't accept money for it, but he can buy the ingredients off of me, as well as empty bottles.

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Classic, did the conversation go something like... "no, no, I can't sell you my homebrew, that's illegal. But if you want you can buy the ingredients off me. Tell you what if you give 4-6 weeks I'll even process those ingrediants and package them into standard size vessels to make it easier for you to carry/store/dispense."

Haha no I told him that I could make a list of ingredients I would need for a recipe of his choosing and he could buy them. The wort production is going on at my house, then once in the fermenter (but not pitched) it is going to his house. He is also going to pitch the yeast and keep the feremer at his house for the duration since bottling equiptment is easy to bring over.

Off the record...thats now how it is going to happen

My friends pay me for my beer. I keg as well so when there over they put money on the kegerator. I used to get embarrassed about it until they told me there too lazy to brew themselves so they pay up so ill keep brewing. Start bootlegging your suds bro let them pay for your hobby.

I know a guy that has two sets of tools... a really nice set he uses, and the crappiest stuff you could imagine that he keeps just to loan to people who ask to borrow tools.
He says, most people never ask to borrow his tools twice.

You could always bottle some horrible swill just for those that ask for beer. I doubt they'd come back for more.

Ohio-Ed said:

I know a guy that has two sets of tools... a really nice set he uses, and the crappiest stuff you could imagine that he keeps just to loan to people who ask to borrow tools.
He says, most people never ask to borrow his tools twice.

You could always bottle some horrible swill just for those that ask for beer. I doubt they'd come back for more.

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you have never met my friends and family... alcohol = good.. taste is secondary

Then it's time to cut them the hell off.

Frackin' freeloaders.

If your friends are taking that much of an advantage of you, they aren't much of friends. Unless people at work happen to be friends, you don't oh them anything and you shouldn't feel put off telling them no.

If you feel it will mess up your friendships telling friends no to free beer, start telling people you are cutting back on brewing because of the time/cost/wife/etc. so you don't have any to give out.

OHIOSTEVE said:

you have never met my friends and family... alcohol = good.. taste is secondary

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Well, I would have to think a cigarette butt in each bottle may discourage them.

I thought I read on here somewhere about one of the infections acting as a laxative. A few batches of something like that might get them to stop mooching...

if they ask me, i tell them it takes about 5 hours and is expensive. i never get asked a second time. i don't mention that it's 5 hours for 12 gallons, and that it's really cheaper than s.o.s. (sh!@ off the shelf, like buttwiper or miller)

Germelli1 said:

I have the opposite problem...I want to pace my beer production for personal use but I love making/bottling/anything with the process. To me it is a hobby meant to kill time and I drink 1-2 homebrews a week. I love having enough beer left to let it age.

So I kindly accept requests. My friend's dad wants me to brew him the same IPA I brought over the other night, but it was my second to last bottle from my first batch (brewed in may). I told him I can't accept money for it, but he can buy the ingredients off of me, as well as empty bottles.

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I totally agree.. In fact, I was going to mention something to this effect in my first post. I held back, because Im still in the honeymoon phase of this hobby and didnt think my eagerness was a fair comparison to someone with more experience (and thus more potential free-loaders).

But, Germelli has changed all that, so Im adding an addendum.

I love the process too, and would happily accept "donations" or people buying ingredients....then I have another opportunity to brew.

So I guess my updated (and more well thought out) response is: if you enjoy the process (Im assuming your not just in it for the beer)... just have your friends pay for the ingredients... then youll get to brew more, and no out of pocket. That way, THEY can be the ones to say no.

that said, I can understand the annoyance of people assuming that they have the right to request something for nothing.... but, maybe they feel justified for some reason and just need to be set straight.

by the way,

can I get a sixer of your next brew?

Would be tough if you were one of those guys who couldn't stop telling anyone who would listen how great your beer was...practically begging them to try it...then once they actually figure out they can get free booze from you, it's too late to kill the beast.

Pretty easy to say "I don't really have anything ready to drink right now." If you've not been prattling on about your latest batch, how would anyone know whether you were lying or not?

HItransplant said:

I totally agree.. In fact, I was going to mention something to this effect in my first post. I held back, because Im still in the honeymoon phase of this hobby and didnt think my eagerness was a fair comparison to someone with more experience (and thus more potential free-loaders).

But, Germelli has changed all that, so Im adding an addendum.

I love the process too, and would happily accept "donations" or people buying ingredients....then I have another opportunity to brew.

So I guess my updated (and more well thought out) response is: if you enjoy the process (Im assuming your not just in it for the beer)... just have your friends pay for the ingredients... then youll get to brew more, and no out of pocket. That way, THEY can be the ones to say no.

that said, I can understand the annoyance of people assuming that they have the right to request something for nothing.... but, maybe they feel justified for some reason and just need to be set straight.

by the way,

can I get a sixer of your next brew?

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I just finished my all grain set up (well made a complete working system...with all the upgrades I am planning I doubt I will ever be "finished"). So I am honeymooning as well. I just want to brew as many batches as possible to experiment, dial in some techniques and just all-around gain some experience.

I want to get as much experience as I possibly can by brewing easily replicatable recipes for others. I save the ones I brew for myself mostly for experimentation but I have one recipe I have perfected for myself and will brew every 1-3 months.

Say no.

My wife has been telling everyone that I am brewing my own beer and they all tell her they want to try it. If I let everyone who asks try it, I won't have any for myself.

Start a microbrewery?

Man, I know the feeling. When I first started brewing, my friends were all excited and so was I. I was happy to share with them, and thought they would reciprocate by doing things like bringing over food or a different beverage to share, etc. Nope. Never.

Of course, I tend to hang out mostly with graduate students since I am one myself, and I'll be the first to tell you that graduate students are some of the most self-centered and selfish asshats that walk this planet. For most of my "friends," if something is offered to them they treat it as a freebie and don't see any need to reciprocate.

Needless to say, I've stopped offering my beer to people who don't reciprocate.

Just be honest. If they come over and you offer them a beer fine. If they want you to brew something for them, charge them what makes it worth your time. The IRS isn't going to come after you for their share of $60. I brew for a bunch of parties every year. This year was especially heavy, I got paid what was fair, and get some new equipment or free beer for me out of the deal.

Their is no reason to turn your hobby into work or feel any pressure to please others.