Do your friends appreciate Beer as much as you?

Just asking cause my friends do not get my love for beer and brewing. I hear the usual, "why brew when you can buy, it cost about the same". They are of course the corona drinkers, ack. I do not have any friends who enjoy good beer. Their fridge is stocked with corona and bud, while mine has Pliny's, Firestone anniversary, Stone lucky bastards, and a belgians. I think I need to make new friends. I guess Im venting more than asking a question.haha.

Ya i hear you. i was at my brothers house and asked if he had any good beer. He said ya i have some beer, i have some Bud light in the fridge. Thats not what i was thinking of good beer

Many of my friends appreciate good beer, however, I always have to keep some Bud handy for my brother-in-law. I bought a case over a year ago and when he comes over to visit he always picks that over anything else in the fridge.

Almost all if my friends DO NOT know a good beer when I give them one. They think good beer is pale yellow fizzy corn water.

I have a few friends that appreciate complexity and flavor in beers.... one is a fellow homebrewer. just about everyone will drink the good stuff i bring around, but always come back from the store with Old Mil.... or Beast. Ack, give me a bud light anyday over that.

They usually ask me if I have any homebrew ready to drink, so there is much hope

I hear you guys. I have only one good friend who really enjoys well-made beer. His favorite is Great White. Otherwise, it's that they dont like beer, or they dont like good beer.

I am not sure if "appreciate" is the right word, but they sure as hell like to drink vast quantities of it. Very little BMC, mostly homebrew and craft beer.

As for the "cost the same" comment, that really doesn't apply to all-grain brewing. Homebrewing, at least for me, is cheaper by about a factor of 2-4 or more for most beer styles (less for session beers, more for high-gravity beers). It's only the mass-produced beers that are cheaper on a per-volume basis than homebrew.

Most of my close friends are beer appreciators like me so we go out to really good beer bars, which is nice. I have even been able to convert some of my BMC loving friends into 'real beer' lovers :rockin:

I don't hold it against my BMC friends though, if they want to drink swill then its more delicious beer for me

All my friends drink naty, BL, or the more expensive budweiser. There is only 1 friend who will even step outside the box and drink a homebrew every now and then. I guess that means more homebrew for me.

most of my friends prefer good beer.

Not me, most, if not all of my friends appreciate good beer to one level or another, all the way from BMC drinkers who like the occasional micro or homebrew to die hard geeks like me. Same with my family. Like gravitates to like in my experience.

BTW, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a fridge of bud, or corona, or whatever beer on the planet if they respect you and, more importantly you respect them.

It's not your job to convert them. People like what they like.

My thing about all this is....The craft beer industry has existed since right around the time I turned 21, about 24 years ago...at least that's when I first noticed there were OTHER beers around besides BMC....there was snpa, and bell's and sam adams starting to pop up in a few stores in Metro Detroit at that time, as well as imports like Guiness, Bredore's and Double Diamond (from England- the first non bmc bottled beer I ever bought)...This stuff was first in my awareness in the mid to late 80's....

In fact when I was underaged I had my first taste of bud, spat it out and made my decision that beer sucked...and drank other things in the interum, mostly wine, and bourbon...in fact the first legal drink I ever bought was a bottle of calvados. Yet, since I loved to read, I always heard about beers like guiness, and other things...so I kept hearing that there was "good beer" out there.

Then I turned 21 and shortly after, like I said above, I began to see these OTHER beers around in bars and better beer/wine stores around my college campus. Plus the first micro brewery was in a resteraunt near campus as well.

I think my first non BMC beer I tried in a bar, was a guiness....And, as much as I think little of it NOW, it was a soul changing moment...I truly found out that there was something better than a budlight out there.

The point being..There has been alternative to BMC somewhat readily available since probably 1985...and more and more everyday.

Despite bmc's control over distribution craft, or imported beer has managed to be available to one degree or another for a lond time.

And now with commercials for Sam Adams, and even a show about dogfish head on one of the most popular cable channels...it really is NOT invisible anymore...if it ever was...And I don't believe it ever was.

Just like it was my choice to explore the world of beer for 24 years, it has been other folks choice to make Budlight the best selling beer on the planet, despite the fact that personally it makes me want to puke. Craft beers make other folks want to puke...It's just the way it is.

It's not AHB's "fault" that their product is the top seller...Nor is it totally a vast conspiracy to manipulate the marketplace as some of us beer snobs want to convince ourselves (though it does go on to a greater or lesser extent) But it's NOT the main...

The main reason is that more folks like those safe, (flavorless to me) light lager style of beer.

And despite a 10% loss of sales over time...it's still going to be the top seller in the market place...

Why? Because the majority of folks choose it over the vast array of other products out there. It simply reflects the relatively safe tastes of human beings...especially the american populace. Most folks like safe, relatively bland food and drink....Hence the popularity of "predigested" fast food like mcdonalds, burger king, et al....Blandness prevails....

Most people are afraid to try new things...so their horizens or limited...but there's also going to be folks, who DO try craft beers....and go back to BMC...because that's what they prefer....there's nothing wrong with them...it's just their choice....

Just like it is our choice to like the alternatives...that's just the way it is.

The majority of my friends drink BMC, but my closest couple of friends drink good beer. On New Years we split an Sam Adams Infinium, some Unibroue and a Southern Tier mixed pack.

My other friends brought cases of Coors Light.

I get kinda frustrated by the lack of beer snobbery in my current group of friends. The only friend that really loves beer and loves to brew is back in CO, and I am in MA now. When I was visiting family in CO over the holidays my brother was really excited because he got hofbrauhaus ceramic mug for christmas. He wanted to break it in, but we were out of beer, so he says "Man, I wish we had some good beer, what kind of beer should I get?" I reply "Well, being back in CO, why don't you get some Odell's or New Belgium" to which he responds "oh. You want something like that?" ummm.. yeah...

In the end, he broke in his awesome ceramic mug, which I am super jealous about, with an O'Douls. Not quit O'Dells. That mug has been tainted, so I am not jealous anymore!

Are you asking if my friends appreciate beer or if I would like to make fun of the beers that my friends do appreciate? It seems like more of the latter.

The majority of my friends have an appreciation for all styles of beer, even the BMC drinkers. I don't think you could know me without ending up at my house or in a bar without me saying, "here try this, this beer is awesome!"

I assume nobody I know "appreciates" beer as much as I do, until I see evidence. I'll let people try anything I have available. Then I'll start talking to them about commercial examples of a similar style.

If I pour them an RIS, then I might ask if they like Old Rasputin. This lets you know real quick what they consider good beer.

Of course, they don't have to demonstrate any particular level of knowledge in order to drink my beer, but I will probably be more inclined to go out of my way share ("hey, you wanna try my latest IIPA?") with someone I think will really enjoy it.