Neighbors!

This is awesome. We're here in Texas, on a canal that goes out to the bay that goes out to the Gulf. One day, we were paddling by a house, and I saw a corney keg and a 20 pound Co2 tank on their porch.

I waited until the weekend, and worked up the nerve to go knock on their door.

I walked up their drive and heard them out on their terrace. I made lots of noise so I didn't just wander in. They welcomed me, and said "Hello!"

I said, "This sounds really weird, but I kayaked by your house and saw a corney keg and c02 tank. Are you homebrewers?" All four said "Yes! Wanna beer?"

Oh my goodness- they were the nicest people and had a GREAT Speckled Heifer on tap (New Glarus Spotted Cow with some tweaks).

I mentioned my husband was probably paddling by soon, on his way in from fishing. They said, "Oh, the guy in the green kayak? We saw him earlier!" So when Bob came back in, they all got on the pier and yelled, "Hi Bob! Hey Bob! etc". Hysterically funny, and then Bob saw me hiding behind them, and just said, "Oh, there must be beer involved there."

I invited them for a beer to our house- about 10 lots away. I hope they come! Great people, wonderful beer, and we talked and laughed and enjoyed them very much.

What are the odds that my voyeurism would introduce me to homebrewers? Very cool day, and great fun. Oh, and I gave them the homebrewtalk.com website!

It is amazing how a small shiny inanimate object (to most) has the ability to bring complete strangers together. Congrats on finding some fellow homebrewers at your winter digs.

Yoop, this is truly the coolest thing I've heard/read all day! Sort of reminds me of the time I was walking past somebodys house & noticed a little gazeebo draped in hops...
They didn't brew at all, actually had no interest in brewing, but they did like the hops they had growing on the gazeebo. I'm glad your day turned out to be much, MUCH better. Hope you & Bob are having a great time.
Regards, GF.

Never mind all of that ... Can my wife and I move in with you?! I've always love houses along canals with all that water access. I grew up near the beach in Massachusetts and now I'm 100 miles inland. Warmer weather wouldn't hurt too much either!!

Imagine that! Yooper finds some Homebrewers and hangs out and drinks beer and has a good time...

I bet they'd let you brew on their equipment if you start getting withdrawals.

Homercidal said:

Imagine that! Yooper finds some Homebrewers and hangs out and drinks beer and has a good time...

I bet they'd let you brew on their equipment if you start getting withdrawals.

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I know!!!! Who would have thought I'd wander into some random strangers' place and drink beer and trade stories and drink more beer and have new friends?

It's not quite unusual for me, actually, now that I think about it.

The best part was them yelling "Bob! Hey Bob!" as he paddled down the canal past their house. Until he saw me behind them, he was baffled and puzzled and just said "Hi there!" and kept going. Once he saw me, he knew that beer was involved and that it wouldn't be unheard of to find his wife at a stranger's house having a beer or three.

But you are right!!!! Offers to brew at their house this winter and next since I can't haul my stuff. I can probably bring a fermenter, some grain, and some yeast, though- so maybe next winter I can brew here!

Another weird but great part of the story- they are retiring this spring and just bought some acreage in Wisconsin not far from our cottage (about 1.5 hours away) where they plan on spending 6 months in the summer. So, we're sort of neighbors there, too. They are very familiar with Wisconsin breweries and beers, and hence the New Glarus clone. Sometimes it's a very small world.

That's a funny story.

Amazing, meeting homebrew neighbors in the south and the north. Equally amazing, they make great homebrew but are not regulars on homebrewtalk!

I wish my neighbors were the same! My wife and I are young for my neighborhood, owning our home in our late 20's. We have a great location, perfect for raising a family and sending kids to school. Unfortunately most of our neighbors are much older than us, and look at us like we're drunk college kids all the time.

We get the cops called for every small gathering (and I mean 5-10 people). One time, they called the police when my folks were over helping with some maintenance projects. After a long day's work, we were out on the patio enjoying the Summer breeze. It was my wife and I, and my parents at a little before 10:00pm on a Saturday. The cops came through the gate in our fence to the back yard, and said they got a noise complain from a neighbor. The funny thing is, we were so quiet that my dad had fallen asleep in the chair while my mom and us were talking! The police were nice and a bit embarrassed, but nonetheless, another reason why our neighbors don't like us.

We'd invite you over for beers any time Yoop! I wish my neighbors could enjoy the company, rather than keeping the "image" of the neighborhood.

I'll trade neighbors with you. We have a cigar smoking midget, a pervert and mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors. I should invite them all over for beer sometime.

nyer said:

I'll trade neighbors with you. We have a cigar smoking midget, a pervert and mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors. I should invite them all over for beer sometime.

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That sounds like a good time.

Yooper, I will say that I'm jealous of ya. We spend a week in the Flour Bluff area each year and I always dread going home. I can't imagine spending a couple of months there and having homebrewers as neighbors.
I recently heard that Port Aransas has a brewery. Have you visited? If so how was it?

Yooper said:

That sounds like a good time.

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Until I pass out and the midget and pervert pull a move.

Sarge said:

Yooper, I will say that I'm jealous of ya. We spend a week in the Flour Bluff area each year and I always dread going home. I can't imagine spending a couple of months there and having homebrewers as neighbors.
I recently heard that Port Aransas has a brewery. Have you visited? If so how was it?

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Yep, we've been to the PA brewpub a few times. It's "ok". The pizza is good, the beer is "ok". They have cool t-shirts, though!

We stopped in there last weekend on Sunday, but at 2 PM it was crowded and we couldn't get a table without a long wait.

Flour bluff is nice- we drove through it a couple of weeks ago after getting pizza at B&Js, on our way to the Island. We ate our pizza on the beach, with beers from home. Definitely better pizza and beer than from the Port Aransas brewpub!

nyer said:

I'll trade neighbors with you. We have a cigar smoking midget, a pervert and mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors. I should invite them all over for beer sometime.

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My neighbors are awesome!

Mostly cause I am the perverted ethno-religious midget with the cigar.

GilaMinumBeer said:

My neighbors are awesome!

Mostly cause I am the perverted ethno-religious midget with the cigar.

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Is that you Dick? (the cigar smoking midgets name is Dick)

nyer said:

I'll trade neighbors with you. We have a cigar smoking midget, a pervert and mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors. I should invite them all over for beer sometime.

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Wow you have Mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors? I would be trying to get some milk from them for making cheese...

nyer said:

Is that you Dick? (the cigar smoking midgets name is Dick)

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After those posts, lets keep it to Richard. Mkay?

You can have my neighbors. The *******.decided midnight was the perfect time to listen to music. I have to knock on the jerks door every 2 weeks between 11pm and 3am.

I've got a good neighbor story.

I was brewing outside with a friend and the neighbor was walking home saw we were brewing and stopped over and asked what we were doing. He told me he brews also and he goes inside a pulls two glasses of his beer from the kegerator. We hang out for a little bit and he went home with a six pack from me.

We just bottled the first collaboration beer we brewed together last weekend.

SwampassJ said:

You can have my neighbors. The *******.decided midnight was the perfect time to listen to music. I have to knock on the jerks door every 2 weeks between 11pm and 3am.

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I'd do this exactly once.

I'd let the police do the following knocks.

I lucked out in the neighbors department. I helped the older Italian woman to my left fix her fence (true story) so no worries there ever, and then there is the greek family to my right. "Hi George, we're going to be having a party on Saturday, please let us know if we get too loud." "Loud? No, we've never had neighbors too loud for US".

Those folks can party and roast a mean lamb .

Also, why do I feel like I would enjoy chance encounters with Yoop and Bob? I know there would be some killer beer involved...

weirdboy said:

Wow you have Mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors? I would be trying to get some milk from them for making cheese...

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If you could smell the dairy barn you would quit drinking milk.

nyer said:

If you could smell the dairy barn you would quit drinking milk.

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Don't ever go visit a chicken coop then.

GilaMinumBeer said:

After those posts, lets keep it to Richard. Mkay?

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Ok Richard, by the way when did you get the sheep?

GilaMinumBeer said:

Don't ever go visit a chicken coop then.

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Preach, preacher!

We go through weird neighbors. We had one named David that went insane. He was a paranoid schizophrenic and would go off his meds about twice a year and get weird. His parents, both rich doctors, bought the house next to ours for him (great, thanks....). David's usual weirdness usually involved stealing plants and water from neighbors yards for his own and playing religious music until dawn at 120 decible levels. The last straw was David creating a trash version of stonehenge out of beer and soda cans in the driveway, only more creepy and hodge podge. He fought the police in hand to hand combat after neighbors complained for the last time and I guess his parents kicked him out of the house and had him committed.

The new neighbors are renters and while they appear to be nice, we're just hoping they don't invest their money in pitt bulls.

Our other neighbors on the left are only semi-nuts. My DW went through a pretty bitter divorce battle in 2007 and the neighbor-woman took my DW's alcoholic ex-husband's side. Shame, because my DW got custody and the house. Now it's always awkward-sauce between my DW and the woman next door. The man next door (another David, go figure) never took sides (smart) and is actually quite nice. That, plus they're barren, trying to have kids for 20 years with no success, and we just had a 9 month old baby. Jealousy all over that woman's face.

nyer said:

Ok Richard, by the way when did you get the sheep?

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On my last visit to a Baaaah-mitsfa.

This is getting good. I forgot one of my old neighbors.
The cigar smoking midget with a lisp named Dick had his cousin living in a camper with no heat, water or electricity behind our houses in the woods. His name was Bud and he was about 55 and lived out there for 2 years with a younger guy in his
20's with no teeth. Dick told me that they were lovers from San Francisco. So there was a 2 year period that my neighbor to the North was a cigar smoking midget with a lisp named Dick. My neighbors to the East lived in a camper in the woods and were always happy. My neighbors to the South were Mennonites with a smelly barn and my neighbor to the West was a pervert. I can't wait to move. The cigar smoking midget with a lisp named Dick is actually pretty cool though.

Schtop mekkin' foon of mah speesh impayde, inpedimo, problem.

To my north I have good German neighbor who likes to talk lawn grass over some beer. He does very well doing the exact opposite of what I do to keep his lawn thriving no matter what Oklahoma throws at it.

To the east we have a lovely mixed couple with two daughters. I yearn for the day their eldest is old enough to take my money for baby sitting services. Until then, I'll just continue to sit on my driveway during the summer nights smoking a pipe and drinking homebrew and enjoy the occasions where the woman of the house does her latenight dishes topless.

To my South is the wierd guy. I have lost count how many nights I had been outside late at night to hear him blaring the TV or the stereo just loud enough that I can follow what's on but, not so loud that it can be heard inside my house.

I know very little about the rest of the people in teh neighborhood, and I pregfer to keep it that way.

"Good fences build good neighbors..." and SWMBO has taught me a plate of cookies over the holidays sure doesnt hurt either...

We have good neighbors everywhere we go. We don't have anybody close to us, so that helps, I guess!

At our home, we have empty lots next to our house on all sides, but the neighbors closest to us are normal and we all are friendly but keep to ourselves.

At our cottage, we don't have anybody within about 300 yards, but the closest ones are awesome. We're very friendly with all of the neighbors there.

Here in TX, we stayed close with the neighbors we had last year (different house, same basic neighborhood) but again- no one right next door on either side (or in front or behind) so the closest neighbors aren't right at our doorstep. Still, I genuinely like everybody I've met. We go fishing with last years' neighbors, and talk on the phone, even though they are quite a bit older than I am. They're awesome, gracious people who I just adore.

We had a neighbor two houses down at our home a few years ago who is a hoarder. That was a sad case, as she literally had stuff over her windows like computers and weed whackers, but she was pleasant enough. She filled up her back yard with crap, but the front yard remained semi-clean due to code enforcement. Since a large area of vegetation covered most of it, I never had to look at her junk. She left (gone to a nursing home) and no one ever came to clean it all up but it's mostly covered with blackberry bushes now, and it's several hundred yards away from my house. We only have four houses on our street, with empty lots and gardens between our houses, so it really isn't bad at all. I have to admit that I never invited THAT neighbor over for a beer, though!

Man, I REALLY want to go check out that lady's stuff in her back yard!

I'm not a hoarder, I'm a SCROUNGE!

Homercidal said:

Man, I REALLY want to go check out that lady's stuff in her back yard!

I'm not a hoarder, I'm a SCROUNGE!

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I just remembered- you actually met one of my neighbors at the lake a couple of years ago!

He and his wife walked over through the woods, and apparently he walked back on the road with his wife's assistance as he was unaccustomed to anything except BMC. All we had on tap where IPAs, all 7-9% ABV, and he found out he really likes hops. He said he was pretty toasted though. He's a great guy in his early 70s, and we like him very much.

I remember those guys!

Has he come back for more beer??

Homercidal said:

I remember those guys!

Has he come back for more beer??

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Um, no.

He invited me over to his house for Miller, though! His wife gave him a Heineken mini keg last summer, and he also invited us over to crack that open. We were happy to oblige!

For homebrew, we gave him a few Belgians I made and he and his wife liked those.

He just needs more "experience". I bet you could make him a nice yellow fizzy drink he'd like.

14% carbonated SKEETER Pee?!?!

nyer said:

I'll trade neighbors with you. We have a cigar smoking midget, a pervert and mennonite dairy farmers for neighbors. I should invite them all over for beer sometime.

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Yooper said:

That sounds like a good time.

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Or the start of an interesting joke...

"So a cigar smoking midget, a pervert, and a mennonite dairy farmer walk into a bar..."