Got called a meth dealer...

GilaMinumBeer said:

Until Oklahoma finally legalized Homebrewing I kept my brewdays mostly concealed in the garage.

Once it was legalized I stopped caring.

Click to expand...

???????
When was that? So it was ILLEGAL in the recent past?

drkwoods said:

I brew on the driveway too and have had similar accusations. I fixed it in a hurry by offering them a free beer. I bring um in the garage and even let them pull the tap handles themselves. I go from suspect to hero in 1 min

Click to expand...

Well you ARE in Chino hills, so I could understand the confusion.

jd3 said:

I am the owner/manufacturer/devoloper of an aquarium fertilizer product for Planted Aquariums. I have drums of Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, and monopotassium sulphate delivered to my driveway. If I'm not on a watch list somewhere I don't think anyone is...

One of the products I sell is in gelatin capsule form. It literally looks like I'm selling drugs...

Click to expand...

I'm not "THAT" bad, but I too am an aquarist (coral reef tanks) so on top of the bags of leafy green stuff (Hops), burners, kettles and vials, I also have a coral prop system in my garage with a 400w MetalHalide, bags of chemicals (CaCl - Driveway de-icer, CaHO3 - Pickling lime, Baking powder, Mg-sulfate) as well as some Solar-tubes on the roof over out livingroom with that blue Actinic light reflecting up off the water surface until late in the evening (about 10pm), and a HUGE electric bill.

Jefathome said:

???????
When was that? So it was ILLEGAL in the recent past?

Click to expand...

Uh, yeah....In 2009, Utah legalized homebrewing. In 2010, Oklahoma successfully passed its own homebrewing legalization law. This year, Mississippi has homebrewing bills pending in its legislature. It's still hasn't been voted on in Alabama iirc.

The Amish probably don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, so I don't give it much thought. Besides the horses I don't think anyone is closer than a mile from my house.

Okay.. here's a dumb one.. There's a few of us at a sports forum that have been arguing politics, economy, and religion for years.. We all know each other well from this forum, and we even get together once a year at a game... But like the rest of this country the ideology is sharply divided into two camps.. and the debate is pretty heated (most of the time)... But there's this guy that I can tell from his disjointed logic, that he gets up and hits the bong first thing every morning... Well, I posted some pics of my brewing set-up, and he accused me of having a still (because of the CFC)..

Here's the crazy part.. He's an avid home brewer.. WTF?

Gunfighter04 said:

The Amish probably don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, so I don't give it much thought. Besides the horses I don't think anyone is closer than a mile from my house.

Click to expand...

Everything I've ever learned about the Amish, suggests that they distrust the government far more than they would you, avoiding contact with them as much as possible.. so I wouldn't worry too much..

The Amish don't drink as often as other folks but it's not forbidden. And since they tend to do things themselves, you might just find one that would teach you a think or two about brewing your own.

r8rphan said:

Everything I've ever learned about the Amish, is that they distrust the government far more than they would you, avoiding contact with them as much as possible.. so I wouldn't worry too much..

Click to expand...

Besides, they have been known to run drugs with the pagans

r8rphan said:

Okay.. here's a dumb one.. There's a few of us at a sports forum that have been arguing politics, economy, and religion for years.. We all know each other well from this forum, and we even get together once a year at a game... But like the rest of this country the ideology is sharply divided into two camps.. and the debate is pretty heated (most of the time)... But there's this guy that I can tell from his disjointed logic, that he gets up and hits the bong first thing every morning... Well, I posted some pics of my brewing set-up, and he accused me of having a still (because of the CFC)..

Here's the crazy part.. He's an avid home brewer.. WTF?

Click to expand...

Do you realize that THIS is the only *ahem* "pot" reference on the ENTIRE forum this afternoon? I kept expecting a 4:20 @ 4:20 thread, or something. I haven't imbibed in that sort of thing in over 20 years since I tossed my cookies on some of the Motown Funk brothers I was "celebrating" with. But I do know what today is....and this was the only reference to a certain substance this afternoon.....

Sorry I couldn't resist.

(Back to our regularly scheduled program)

We're thinking of moving up to Columbus, OH... I see several brewers from there, so the supply/community must be decent.

Click to expand...

Living in Columbus and just started brewing about 6 months ago. There are two LHBS in town, both offering some unique items that the other doesn't stock. Several good beer shops, brew pubs, and beer related events in town as well. Drop a line if you do end up in town.

As for the Metheads comment, I brew in the garage/driveway and have received some strange looks from people passing by, but usually I just raise my glass and they put two and two together. The Mrs. does tease me occasionally by referring to the brewery (garage) as "The MethLab" though

ChshreCat said:

The Amish don't drink as often as other folks but it's not forbidden. And since they tend to do things themselves, you might just find one that would teach you a think or two about brewing your own.

Click to expand...

Yeah...I've definitely been to a few dive bars drinking next to some Amish dudes.

Revvy said:

I haven't imbibed in that sort of thing in over 20 years..

Click to expand...

Damn, I haven't smoked in almost 20 years, and I'm only 33! You kept it up for awhile huh?

Airborneguy said:

Damn, I haven't smoked in almost 20 years, and I'm only 33! You kept it up for awhile huh?

Click to expand...

I was under 30 when I quit....But honestly I didn't start it til I was out of college and working in radio/tv/the music industry. SO it was about less than 10 years. I actually never liked it as much as I liked beer. And then the whole hurling on the famous musicians thing....It took me awhile to live it down.

Yeah I can see how that would make it an undesirable substance

Oddly enough (for obvious reasons that you know ) I was the opposite. I HATED alcohol before I joined the Army. The plant that some celebrate today was a favorite companion of mine until I went off to wear the camouflage.

Airborneguy said:

Damn, I haven't smoked in almost 20 years, and I'm only 33! You kept it up for awhile huh?

Click to expand...

Been about 35 years since I smoked - started in college in the late 60's. Funny thing is - even then I preferred alcohol, or even both at the same time - a joint and a quart of Lone Star Draft.

leviticus said:

We're thinking of moving up to Columbus, OH

Click to expand...

I haven't read through the rest of the thread yet, so forgive me if I'm missing something, but Columbus is a good town. It's big and interesting enough that there's always something to do, if you know where to look, but small enough you won't get swallowed whole by the giant whale of anonymity (think, NYC). There's a lot of diversity, so you're bound to find a neighborhood you like, housing is affordable, and crime isn't too bad unless you live in the wrong place. Plus, we have Barley's Alehouse, who make the best damned English cask ales this side of the Atlantic (as far as I'm concerned).

Yeah, both sets of our parents live in Columbus, and HWMBO is from there, so we make it back every once in a while. We're just tired of Atlanta (not hard to accomplish IMO - lots of reasons), so the switch won't be a hard one.

I was used to dealing with annoying neighbors when we were in an apartment, and really enjoy the neighborhood life now, but the year in this rental and next to this neighbor has given us a much better perspective on what to look for in our next home. Regardless, the brewing will not be hidden wherever we live.

BTW - Thanks for the link on the legality stuff! I can't believe it's only 50 gallons in GA! Good luck enforcing that though

leviticus said:

I can't believe it's only 50 gallons in GA!

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's 100 gallons per adult per household here. So if you do move back to Columbus, you can brew 4x as much. Need I say more?

GLWIII said:

...give it a handful of some old hops ;-)

Click to expand...

You beat me to it.

leviticus said:

We're just tired of Atlanta (not hard to accomplish IMO - lots of reasons), so the switch won't be a hard one.

Click to expand...

I moved from Queens to the Atlanta suburbs last year and have had some good times in Decatur at Farmstead 303 and the Brick Store Pub. I definitely would not prefer to live there to Peachtree City (just bought a golf cart recently), especially with a neighbor like that.

GuldTuborg said:

I'm pretty sure it's 100 gallons per adult per household here. So if you do move back to Columbus, you can brew 4x as much. Need I say more?

Click to expand...

The limit is only how much is exempt from excise taxes of $0.48 per gallon. Not sure who to give the check if I ever encounter such a situation... If you brew the federal maximum of 200 gallons you would owe them $72 that they would probably be very surprised to receive.

I had a friend that threw up on a generals shoes when I was in the Jarines... The general came into the e-club to be with the 'troops' and bought everyone a bunch of rounds, and when my friend went to shake his hand, it just happened to all come up at that point.. The general decided to call it a night at that point.. My friend never lived that down either...

420 huh? Amazing no one has mentioned it on any of the other sites I go to either... And at one of them, there is definitely a lot of pot heads... I quit smoking that stuff a good 20 years ago too...

FYI, James Spencer of Basic brewing just posted this about Alabama legislation.

From Chattahoochee Brewing: Alabama is one of the last 2 states where it's still illegal to homebrew your own beer, mead, wine or cider for personal consumption, and that just wont do. Tomorrow HB266 is on the Special Order Calendar (SOC) and we need all the help we can get! call, email, fax or otherwise contact your Alabama representative and ask for their support on HB266. Let's get it done this time!

Click to expand...

Man i hate goofy neighbors its one reason i cannot wait till i move to the country. i got a piece of work that lives next to me. all i call tell you is let her dig a hole belive you me the police remember when they have to keep comming out over the same *****. then the day comes she will do somthing very dumb in front of you thats when you let the law take care of your problem for you

daniels said:

all i call tell you is let her dig a hole belive you me the police remember when they have to keep comming out over the same *****.

Click to expand...

I don't know how it is in other states, but in the NY/NJ area if a person abuses the 911 system, or even the local station, it can be a serious offense. Making repeated frivolous calls that person first gets a stern warning. If it continues the person can be brought up on charges. Reason being of course taking away personnel from being available for serious and real situations.

Rev.

leviticus said:

Yeah... she's entertaining, except for the fact that she kept us up a little later than we wanted to be that night.

Any good references to the actual laws of states that made brewing legal? Specifically, Georgia? Not concerned... just going to print it out on posterboard and on an easel at the end of the driveway when I'm brewing next.

We're thinking of moving up to Columbus, OH... I see several brewers from there, so the supply/community must be decent.

Click to expand...

If homebrewing is really factoring into your moving destination, you should move to Cleveland over Columbus. My good friend just moved down there to attend OSU grad school and said the local homebrew club there (SODZ) weren't very friendly, and the shops do not carry a lot/aren't very knowledgeable.

Plus, the breweries up here are 10x better than anything in Columbus!

Sorry about the crazy neighbor, sounds nutty. I have a neighbor that we affectionately refer to as the Disgruntled Former Policeman aka DFP. I once had to call the village police to report something and when the officer came to the house, he saw that the DFP was our neighbor and we shared stories and commiserated. My strategy is to be amused, rather than annoyed, as much as possible.

Hope it gets better for you and your partner soon.

Just be glad you don't have a neighbor pointing a ray gun at your electric meter. So it will spin real fast, and your electric bill will run so high, that you'll run out of money. Then the neighbor with the ray gun can buy your house for pennies on the dollar.

Service call, when I worked at the phone co., years ago. I asked my boss what that had to do with the phone, and he said, just go out and appease them.

when I'm brewing in the driveway, my neighbors just ask

"hey, when will that be ready?"

This is my 3rd year in my apt and since I've been brewing in the driveway( 2 times over the last month) I've met 4 of the 11 neighborson my section. One kid said man that smells good is that a smoker.... HEHE, so far I've got 3 of the neighbors waving at me everyday that they see me now. Before it was a mind your own business kinda thing.

My neighbors know I brew. Some come over when I'm brewing, others come and have a pint every now and then.

One neighbor brought me a sankie keg the other day, out of the blue. I handed him a liter of Hefe.

We do have a crazy drunk woman that lives catty-corner across the street. Never had any brewing issues with her, but she did get her car STUCK IN MY YARD one night. Called 911 on her drunk, dumb a$$. They hauled her off, and she was driving again the next day. Week later, she ran over another neighbors mailbox. She is still driving, every day. Good laws we have there.