Unappreciated Homebrew!

Well, i try to give a six pack away every chance i get, to local friends, family and visitors of the Monastery. My last gift was an american stout, and it came out great. First keg lasted 4 days, second about the same. But when i asked the friend who got the gift, he couldn't drink it! He just didn't like the taste, which i thought was odd since he said he liked guinness, which isn't the same beer, but a dark beer nonetheless.

Too many complex flavors for a Guinness man? Nothing wrong with the beer to us, in fact, one of the best recipes I've ever done. Deschutes Obsidian Stout.

Do you need my address

Thats really a shame that you can't give it away.... the next time I'm out on the Islands I'll look you up lol..... Got a reciepe for the Deschutes... That beer is complex with flavors as it comes to room temp....I just love it

Guinness Stout is a dry session beer, so it isn't too complex, has a low ABV and a very clean finish.

Colorowdy said:

Do you need my address

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Im not yet ready to ship beer off island, I just dont trust the travel. All our beers get bottled fresh from keg and promised to be driven home and drank that night!

david_42 said:

Guinness Stout is a dry session beer, so it isn't too complex, has a low ABV and a very clean finish.

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My thoughts as well

yours could definitely be too complex for him. my neighbors differ on what their tastes are. he loves my homebrews, esp the porters and whiskey-barrel apa's. she says they "taste too much like beer", and won't drink them. i won't brew the water she drinks

Do not feel bad. Most people do not like their beer to have very much beer in it. The only brew I have made that my beer drinking friends liked was my cream ale. and to me it is just ok. A good lawnmower beer.

Makes sense. I gave a 12 case of our Alt to the same friend for his wedding recently and he loved it, a much milder beer compared to an american stout

I took the approach to see if i could educate our friend with the stout, by giving him a BJCP style guideline sheet explaining how the beer should taste. I also increased his beer vocabulary and explained what a complex beer is all about.

He had since given most of the beers to his father after the first tasting. After our "beer class" he went home and tried the last bottle he had...and is regretting giving the rest to his dad!

I guess his awareness changed when he could spot different flavors and knew what they meant. Hes now hoping more can come his way and according to him "Guiness will never be the same"

RJS said:

I took the approach to see if i could educate our friend with the stout, by giving him a BJCP style guideline sheet explaining how the beer should taste. I also increased his beer vocabulary and explained what a complex beer is all about.

He had since given most of the beers to his father after the first tasting. After our "beer class" he went home and tried the last bottle he had...and is regretting giving the rest to his dad!

I guess his awareness changed when he could spot different flavors and knew what they meant. Hes now hoping more can come his way and according to him "Guiness will never be the same"

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That's the way to do it. I'm reminded of: http://xkcd.com/1053/

Most commercial beer drinkers do not appreciate home brew. I don't let it bother me anymore. I don't offer it either. I keep a 6 pack of Sam Adams or Coors on the shelf for those that don't want the good stuff. More for me!

I gave my dad a 6 pack of a Kolsch I recently made. This was the best beer I made. He like my first brew better, an amber with all kinds of flaws and off flavors ( not too terrible though). I took the Kolsch to a home brewing friend who has been brewing for longer then I've been alive. He said the Kolsch rocked and I nailed it.

All that to say, I know how you feel about giving your beer away to people that aren't as into beer. If its a style they don't particularly care for, they don't like it. The more I brew, the more I appreciate other brews. I recently made a Cascadian Dark Ale. Not too many people I know will like that beer, but that means more for me.

Most of my friends hate the beers I make, but there all pretty tasty to me. All this amounts to is the person doesn't like or has never tried the style I make. There all bud light drinkers and just assume that because my ESB, or Irish red doesn't taste like bud light, it's bad beer.

I quit offering my beers away. I drink 99% of my homebrew, unless the odd friend asks for it.

Go buy a growler of kolsch. Ditch the label, recap it and tell him it's yours. I'm pretty confident you'll get the same response.

I just spent two weeks in Princeville. I would of gladly offered my expert taste testing ability. By the way you live in the most beutiful place on earth.

iceemone said:

I just spent two weeks in Princeville. I would of gladly offered my expert taste testing ability. By the way you live in the most beutiful place on earth.

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Thats very true...

Hate to say it, but there's always the possibility that your beer isn't as good as you think it is. Maybe it wasn't a very good beer? I know I've made beers that weren't very good, but I thought they were something special because they were my baby.
As mentioned before, too, most people aren't beer geeks and don't like much beyond BMC.
Either way, why worry? Enjoy your brews.

Most of my friends dont even like BMC, let alone craft brews! Besides SWMBO, theres only like one dude i know locally that can give me honest, articulated feedback on the brews.

BTW, i'm fine with that. Aside from the occasional experiment, it means i can repeat a handful of recipes i like, and tweak them into my version of perfection.

What does the Bhagavad Gita say about Non Attachement?

"...for by performing action without attachment man reaches the Supreme."

Don't worry what people think about your beer, or if folks drink it or not. Brew it because YOU love to...

Revvy said:

What does the Bhagavad Gita say about Non Attachement?

"...for by performing action without attachment man reaches the Supreme."

Don't worry what people think about your beer, or if folks drink it or not. Brew it because YOU love to...

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Well said my good man. Nothing more to say than that.

The sad, sad truth is that most people don't know what real beer should taste like. Anything that deviates from the macro lagers is 'crap'.

It's sad really....

RJS said:

Well said my good man. Nothing more to say than that.

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I just looked at your gallery and saw what you get to do, and where. I imagine you're surrounded by indescribable beauty while you go through your day.

If that's your picture in the gallery you looked in pure bliss when it was taken.

It's rare to see anyone, especially a man in this 21st century world, to show such joy on their face.

Regardless of other people's reactions to what you make, if you and other folks get pleasure from it, that's all that matters. Those who don't it's their loss...and that just means more for those who do appreciate it.



I take it, this is you guys?

If that's the case, I think the head monk should make you give all the Vishnu Statues at the monastery a fresh coat of nail polish for thinking such baser thoughts.

checking out the site now... i'm getting married next year and i don't suppose you'd let some HBT shmuck get married? lol... gorgeous.

inturnldemize said:

The sad, sad truth is that most people don't know what real beer should taste like. Anything that deviates from the macro lagers is 'crap'.

It's sad really....

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Meah. Not everyone has the inclination to really get into "real" beers, which are often times not as purely 'drinkable' as macro-lagers. Some people love BMC's because they go down like flavorless water. Give them an IPA or a Stout and they'll choke on it, as its just not what they want in a beer.

Do you like regular coffee? Ever hear coffee nuts talk? Anything coffee bean that didn't come out of a civet cat's ass is boring to them.

Do you like a shot of whiskey every now and again? A Scotch snob is super annoying when he's turning his nose up at your delicious & nutritious Jameson.

For every single food product in the world, there are a class of purists who turn their nose up at the bland commercial versions. We happen to be like that with beer, but don't forget how annoying it is to deal with those people when you are just trying to buy some Velvetta and the Cheese-Tard behind the counter is berating you for not picking up the $20/pound aged sheep's milk Stilton, which smells like vomit poured through a gym sock.

Besides, the more BMC they drink, the more real beer is left for us!!

ghpeel said:

We happen to be like that with beer, but don't forget how annoying it is to deal with those people when you are just trying to buy some Velvetta and the Cheese-Tard behind the counter is berating you for not picking up the $20/pound aged sheep's milk Stilton, which smells like vomit poured through a gym sock.

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hey, i work in cheese and i resent that!

and if you have a place that sells a stilton for only $20 a pound, i'm jealous :fro:

try brewing something that caters to them. my biggest successes, among friends, were my cream ale and watermelon wheat. most have never experienced great beer, so you have to start them slow.

Revvy said:

I just looked at your gallery and saw what you get to do, and where. I imagine you're surrounded by indescribable beauty while you go through your day.

If that's your picture in the gallery you looked in pure bliss when it was taken.

It's rare to see anyone, especially a man in this 21st century world, to show such joy on their face.

Regardless of other people's reactions to what you make, if you and other folks get pleasure from it, that's all that matters. Those who don't it's their loss...and that just means more for those who do appreciate it.



I take it, this is you guys?

If that's the case, I think the head monk should make you give all the Vishnu Statues at the monastery a fresh coat of nail polish for thinking such baser thoughts.

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Revvy, thanks for the kind words. Fortunately, its true, bliss is a real thing here. And i also get to oversee fermentation several times a day, making sure temps are right where i want.

You lost me with the nail polish, but yes, thats us.

jtakacs said:

checking out the site now... i'm getting married next year and i don't suppose you'd let some HBT shmuck get married? lol... gorgeous.

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This is a popular question. No weddings here, just blessings for before and after...

Many of my friends are slowly becoming turned on to the various micros available...we were out for an afternoon beer and ordered an IPA or a pale...my buddy w/ an astonished look says....this tastes like your beer.

If it makes you feel better, I specifically brewed a light lager for my step-father...he only drinks miller lite. When I told him I was brewing him a lager, his response was "I don't like lagers...I like miller lite."

I shared some Alt with a friend from PA recently and he loved it. He shared with his 2 sons, one of which (the Sam Adams drinker) liked it, the other (the Bud Lite drinker) did not. I had a good laugh and took that as a compliment!.

Recently been giving beers to friends of the monastery after a long break. The last two people gave a beer to a bar owner and one gave to a brewer. Both asked if i could sell kegs for their taps.

I took that as a compliment.

Craft beer is 20% of the US beer market. That means 80% of the drinkers you may encounter prefer But light, miller, coors or something similar. Break that down and only one in 5 people you may meet are craft beer drinkers. OK, those numbers don' really pan out , but I'm just trying to make a point: most people like beer that has very little flavor and they really don't even want to think about it.
So if some people don't like your beer, don't worry about it. For better feedback, enter some brews in a competition.

That's great RJS. Thanks for updating the thread, I enjoyed reading it. While I still occasionally get a "good" or "okay" response to my brews, I share them with a bar owner and bartender and sometimes get very good reviews. There is nothing more rewarding to me as a homebrewer than making someone happy with my beer.

lol its been awhile since coming to HBT, ive been super busy in the brewhouse, renovations, new equipment, 3 bbl capacity now, yeast slanting, lots of fun.

I've found that most light beer drinkers don't really like beer much and are a lost cause, so I simply don't offer them any. There's no sense in wasting good beer on someone who won't appreciate it.