Commercial brewers are a$$es!

So we went to a tour at Troeg's they are a local brewer who pride themselves as starting out as homebrewers.. I asked a few questions and mentioned we home brew and the owner was a total prick about it. I don't understand..

Anyway I have some questions. They only ferment the beer about 7-10 days for ales and 6 weeks for Lagers. Is that long enough?

How was he a prick? What did he say?

I guess I would answer your question with a question back - is the beer any good?

Troegs makes a great product. Don't discount one experience, as the general attitude of commercial brewers. Did the founder give the tour?

To simply answer your questions in regards to fermentation schedules, these are not unreasonable fermentation periods, although they may vary from brewewry to brewery, and beer to beer.

Most brewers I've met have been good people. The two that weren't, didn't make very good beer. One lasted three years, the other less than 9 months.

Fermentation times are ok. A commercial setup, even a small one, will be brewing more or less steadily and re-cycling the yeast for most batches. Also, the pros don't use secondaries fermentors, they have bright tanks.

the_bird said:

How was he a prick? What did he say?

I guess I would answer your question with a question back - is the beer any good?

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He just made a real smart comment about 5 gallons and how huge his were. It was one of the two founders giving the tour. I thought I was being very respectuful and expected him to be the same. Maybe I read him wrong but he seemed insulted when I said we home brew.. While he was showing the bottling/keg area he was also trashing other breweries. It was the whole expericene that left me not liking them. Their beer is ok but I would not say it is some of the best I have had. Sam Adams brew master collection blows it away.

Ive only taken a tour through one place in Jersey here... Gaslight in South Orange. We bought a bunch of stuff from their homebrew shop, had samplers, burgers, and played hand shuffleboard. The owner gave us a complete tour of the place, talked with us for while... gave us some free malt extract. Overall an excellent experience and i'll be going back!! Only thing thats bad about it is its location... its like 10 blocks from some real shady ghetto in Newark, NJ. Not a place I feel save leaving my Mustang parked.

My family is close friends with some winery owners... Ive never had a bad experience at any place I went wine tasting up in Upstate NY. For the most part, these are people that run/took over their family owned winery/micro, or got into brewing beer and wine becuse they are alcoholics and can make great money while being trashed all day

I've been wanting to tour one of our local breweries (Berkshire Brewing Co) for a while. They do tours every Saturday, and I love their beer (I'd love to clone their River Ale, just a great, very well-balanced American Strong Ale). At least now I feel like I have enough knowledge to understand what I would be seeing and to ask intelligent questions. We should start a thread that lists/summarizes people's experiences at various breweries, so that if you are planning a tour, you know which to hit and which to avoid.

When I toured the Bud plant, I felt like I was in some sort of chemical lab.

Now that I think about it, Bud basically IS chemicals.

Nevermind.

Cheers,

knewshound

I've never had a bad experience talking with the "big boys." He might have been crabby...

Some pro brewers look at the fact that hey brew large batches to be what all the skill of a bewer is about. While others are really interested in taste and almost seem envious that we don't have to brew the same 3 or 4 beers all year.

lol... i can imagine brewing bud lite year after year can get boring as heck. Its not even fun to drink!!

We have a club member that's a brew master for BJ's. He is a really nice guy and gives anyone yeast if they need it, just bring in a sanitized jug and he'll fill it up. My problem is that it's 60 miles round trip so I decided to ask the brewer at a local brew pub.

He told me that he'd rather throw his yeast in the trash then give it to me. I told him I'd rather go the BJ's and drink thier beer.... The guy came off like a total jerk so I won't be going back there.

knewshound said:

When I toured the Bud plant, I felt like I was in some sort of chemical lab.

Now that I think about it, Bud basically IS chemicals.

Nevermind.

Cheers,

knewshound

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I am by no means a Budweiser fan but can you tell me exactly what chemicals are in Budweiser?

sirsloop--it never even dawned on me to ask Dan for a tour. He's a knowledgable guy and has helped me out...is that store open upstairs or do you basically tell him what you want/need. The latter was my experience there.

Also, you can never tell what's going on in a person's personal life. His son might be into DRUGS instead of ALCOHOL.

I went to Blue Point brewery on Long Island in NY. They were extremely nice to us. Got a tour of the tiny brewery from the dude who does the racking. He showed us everything and talked to me about homebrewing a bit because he brews also.

BJ's makes beer? As in the wholesale place? Is it any good?

Denny's Brew said:

Some pro brewers look at the fact that hey brew large batches to be what all the skill of a bewer is about. While others are really interested in taste and almost seem envious that we don't have to brew the same 3 or 4 beers all year.

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funny you say that, their system is completely automated. They don't do anything to actually make there beer.

As a pro I always felt it was my duty to be as big a prick as I could possibly be, especially to those little wienner homebrewers. I figured it was part of the job description!

Honestly, I liked brewers coming by, it was an excuse to stop working, show-off and drink some beer. Sometimes however homebrewers were the biggest pricks, all "my brews don't manifest any of the problems I have come to associate with mass produced products..." In those cases we would be rude, piss in their cups before filling, and hit on their girlfriends.

I worked at Tree brewing and would be a brewing assistant now if they could afford ot pay better and I didn't have this dang chronic foot problem. Anyway, they are friendly to home brewers and will give you yeast, though Stephan would like it if you bought some beer before you left.

Stephan (the brewmaster) was trained in Germany and has never homebrewed and seems to have a mildy ammused look whn you discuss homebrewing. Dave, the head brewer, on the other hand seems quite interested about homebrewing and thier Brewing asst. used to brew for a local brewpub and is keen to talk about stuff with you. As long as you aren;t a prick and tell them how much better your beer is. Noone has the tolerance to deal with that.

RichBrewer said:

I am by no means a Budweiser fan but can you tell me exactly what chemicals are in Budweiser?

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maltose
ethyl alcohol
humulene, lupulone and other similar chemicals (although very little)

There are others too, but the reason Budweiser is so bad is the massive amounts of dihydrogen monoxide that they add. This is probably what ruins the taste for most people.

So it's not just naturally disgusting? Huh!

hmm... I just picked up a 12 pack sampler of Troeg's. Now I wish I got something else. How do you pronounce that name anyway? Tro-egs? Troigs?

opqdan said:

There are others too, but the reason Budweiser is so bad is the massive amounts of dihydrogen monoxide that they add.

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That stuff will kill you, especially if you accidentally inhale too much of it.

For more info, go here: http://www.dhmo.org/

I add dihydrogen monoxide to all of my batches. It does help a little in the sparging process....

Stop plate tectonics!

Four years go by, and we don't even get a "So There!"?

Those are my favorites, by the way. Four years later, someone says, "My uncle's brother did this, and it was good. So there!"

Yooper_Brew said:

Four years go by, and we don't even get a "So There!"?

Those are my favorites, by the way. Four years later, someone says, "My uncle's brother did this, and it was good. So there!"

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Didn't I tell you that I did the same tour and when I mentioned that I homebrewed the co-founder offered me my own line of beers and 49% of the company? He was a great guy, so there!

BorisLobb said:

Stop plate tectonics!

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Damn hockey players.

Uhhh...ok so I guess since I resurrected this thread I might as well properly contribute so.... Flying Monkeys Brewery in Barrie...went there recently...told the tour guide I was a homebrewer and he was very helpful...also the owner is a great guy...yeah...that's all I got really

Wait, was he trashing other micro/craft brewers?

SwampassJ said:

Damn hockey players.

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What have you got against hockey players? One of my favorite people is a hockey player!

I don't know too many commercial brewers, but the ones I know or have met have all been awesome to me. One guy gave me a gallon of acid wash, a 3 gallon keg, and a full tour of the brewery. He was wonderful to me, and to other homebrewers that went in there that I know of.

I'll add a bit to this.

I've toured the Budweiser plant in St Louis twice. Say what you want about the beer, the story of AB is a very interesting story with a lot of US history in it. The plant is actually a national historical something or other (been a few years) I'm not a Bud drinker, never have been. But I was amazed at the history lesson I got at the brewery. Too bad they are not American owned anymore.

the_bird said:

I've been wanting to tour one of our local breweries (Berkshire Brewing Co) for a while. They do tours every Saturday, and I love their beer (I'd love to clone their River Ale, just a great, very well-balanced American Strong Ale). At least now I feel like I have enough knowledge to understand what I would be seeing and to ask intelligent questions. We should start a thread that lists/summarizes people's experiences at various breweries, so that if you are planning a tour, you know which to hit and which to avoid.

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BBC is a great brewery to take a tour at. I have gone there a few times.

BorisLobb said:

Stop plate tectonics!

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I would pay to watch you do this... :rockin:

Necro up a thread with the oddest comment ever? why??

What does Plate tectonics have to do with beer? or brewing?? (Other than the San Andreas brewing company)

I guess keep on enforcing planetary pole realignments...

I stopped by Frankenmuth Brewing Co in Frankenmuth, MI a few weeks ago, mentioned I was a homebrewer to the lady in the gift shop and she went and got an assistant brewer. We talked for about 15 minutes and he had to get back to work, they were brewing that day. A few minutes later the brew master came up to me and we talked for about 30 minutes during which time I asked him to sample some HB that I had with me. He was a very nice guy and said my beer was "very good".

I'll stop there again, the beers were ok, IMO, but the people were great.

Beach

Yoop said:

What have you got against hockey players? One of my favorite people is a hockey player!

I don't know too many commercial brewers, but the ones I know or have met have all been awesome to me. One guy gave me a gallon of acid wash, a 3 gallon keg, and a full tour of the brewery. He was wonderful to me, and to other homebrewers that went in there that I know of.

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I hate that guy! I was there a week earlier and noticed the 3 gallon keg and he didn't offer it to me!

J/K he was great, we talked for quite a while even though he had a hangover.

And +1 on hockey players. As long as they aren't checking me into the boards that is.

Every time I am in Harrisburg for business (1-2 times per year) I stop at Troegs. NEVER had a bad experience with those guys. In fact, the 2nd time I was there, they actually remembered me (even my name) a whole year later! I guess it helped that I gave out some stickers with our beer label on it the first time I went! Great prices on growlers and fills. Where else can you get a fill for less than $8 and a really nice flip top growler for $15? One of the best breweries around in my opinion.

I used to live real close to Troeg's (it's pronounced Troe - gs, long O sound, btw) and have been going there since I've been of age. I've taken quite a few tours there and have asked my share of questions but have never had a bad experience. I'd have to assume maybe it was just a bad day, as from my experience, I've never had any problems with either of the brothers. I'd give them another shot some time, it's among my favorites breweries. My main regret with moving is that I can't frequent them as much any more!