Kosch said:
Another friend asked how he could buy beer from me, and I just said buy the recipe kit that you want and I'll make it for a 6 pack of the final product. He was more than happy with that.
In that case, I'd probably keep half (i.e. a case.) Not that I'm selfish about it (*far* more of my homebrew gets consumed by friends and family than by me), but brewing is quite time-consuming, especially since I do all-grain. For me to keep only a sixer, I'd have to just knock out a simple extract brew. Because I can brew a beer for less than $5/case ($2/gallon) with my AG setup and bulk ingredients (and there are, of course, other benefits as well), but the tradeoff is that it's also a lot more work, and since the person would be paying for their own beer, the upside of cheap batches becomes irrelevant to me, but I still get all the downside.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the process of brewing. It's the closest thing I get to meditation... it's definitely good for the head as well as the soul. But somebody who wants you to brew a batch for them is not very likely to just get the one batch and never ask again - unless your beer sucks, of course
. And if you do it for one person, you gotta do it for everyone. The problem is that just about wants great yet inexpensive beer. If people had their way, I'd be in a perpetual state of brewing! It just too much...
Also, quite possibly my favorite part of the whole homebrew process is recipe formulation, producing an amazing beer by using my own creativity to put together an ingredients list as well as a detailed procedure - a combination of the usual steps (e.g. sparging, boiling, etc), necessary choices (e.g. mash schedule, ferm temps, etc), and the optional and/more advanced techniques and processes (e.g. encouraging ester production by deliberate underpitching, using foil instead of an airlock, and brewing it at a much higher gravity than necessary so that it may be diluted after fermentation). I've *never* bought a kit. Ever. And not being able to have such creative control really takes a lot away from the joy of homebrewing, for me. If I'm going to be putting all that time and effort into brewing for somebody, they better not try to eliminate my favorite part. I can try to work with somebody to tailor something to their (and perhaps even my) tastes - which I've done many times, though rarely have I just handed that person the bulk of the beer - but if somebody insisted on doing a kit instead, I might possibly even feel a little insulted.
Now, if somebody asks me to brew a clone of a commercial beer that is available around here, I try to politely inform them of the almost absurd of time and effort that goes into making a batch, and that they should just buy it. If they already have a good idea of the work involved in making a batch and are just trying to use me to get their favorite beer for cheap, I'll rip them a new one. And it has nothing to do with me being selfish - I would rather brew something a bit different but of the same style, or a different style that shares similar qualities to the ones they enjoy about the commercial beer, that hopefully broadens their appreciation for the style(s) and craft beer in general. And if they really only just happen to like that specific beer, I'd be more than happy to buy a case of it to have on hand when they come over to my place, or even to bring with me if I'm going to their place.
And that's actually really the heart of this issue for me. It's not just that I don't mind being generous - I genuinely enjoy sharing with people. But some of the examples mentioned here would never get another drop of beer from me. While I like sharing, I DON'T like being used, taken advantage of, and *especially* manipulated simply for a person to get some free alcohol. If it's somebody who barely talked to me until they learned I brewed beer, and suddenly they're asking for some - forget it. People I have over are always free to have as much of my homebrew as they'd like (responsibly, of course... I *really* don't appreciate somebody coming over and just getting totally blacked-out drunk, unless that's pretty much what I invited them over to do), and I don't mind sending people home with a few bottles of brew. If it's something they didn't get a chance to try, or which I know they genuinely enjoy more than beers they can get commercially, then they won't even have to ask. But if it's somebody who's just been knocking them back simply because it's alcohol and it's freely available, and they repeatedly ASK me if they can take home a 6er or more of it - as opposed to someone who might ask, *without* specifying a large amount (really, specifying ANY amount makes it a borderline demand) on a single occasion where they happen to be particularly blown away by a specific beer - they're not going home with anything. And you can forget the ones who want something to take and enjoy in the comfort of their own hone, who can't even be bothered to join you in the comfort of YOURS!
Now, if somebody wants me to make them batches simply because they don't want to pay full price for beer, I won't immediately lose it. What I'll do is offer them the opportunity to help them learn to brew, even giving them full use of my equipment so that they can decide whether it's something they want to invest in. And I'll help them brew as often as they like, asking for only a bottle or two in return (I DO want to try something I'm involved in, after all), but make it clear that it won't just be me doing all the work while they sit back and drink - I'll show them how to do something if really needed, but they'll be getting their hands dirty, doing the bulk of the physical stuff and definitely cleaning their own mess (*especially* if it's MY equipment). Although if it's something where a 2nd person can be a huge help (e.g. bottling), I'll certainly help out. Why do I do it this way? Because if somebody just wants to save money, there's no reason they can't make their own beer, and it will give them a much better understanding of the time and effort involved in producing that batch. One person actually took me up on that offer, and is now a fellow homebrewer. Far more often though, people get even the slightest sense of the amount of work involved, and decide their time is worth far more than the bit of cash they'd save, and just continue to ask me to brew them batches, apparently not caring about the fact that they are continually asking me to do something FOR THEM that they are absolutely unwilling to do for themselves! And that's what *really* gets me - I enjoy sharing and am constantly going out of my way to help people, but when it becomes obvious that somebody is really just trying to take advantage of my generosity and willingness to help, I just can't continue allowing myself to be used. Heck, I'd probably give somebody half of an extremely expensive and work-intensive brew that I both made *and* paid for, if they would just help me clean everything up properly. That way, it doesn't matter if they can't afford to pay for it, and/or insist that they just really happen to like my beer (and thus brewing their own wouldn't cut it). But if they still never have even the slightest willingness to help with *just* the cleaning part, and yet have no problem asking for a large portion of a batch where I take care of that aspect IN ADDITION TO EVERYTHING ELSE, the message is loud and clear.
