Neighbor says my rig looks like a Meth Lab

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So, trying to drag this one back on topic...

I keep waiting for the day when the local PD pulls into the driveway on a brew day, but so far, they've just cruised on past - sometimes with a friendly wave. So I'm pretty sure I'm in the clear.

Most of my immediate neighbors now know that I brew, though one of them did initially ask why I fried so many turkeys back when I was still brewing with extract. ;) What adds to the fun is that I'm on a corner lot, so I have no true private back yard - I have people walking and driving by pretty regularly. I'll give folks a friendly wave and a hello, but I have yet to have anyone walk up and take a closer look. Lotsa rubber necking as folks drive by, and the occasional horn honking or fist raised out the window - presumably another brewer...

Edit: I keep expecting, as my rig gets a little more elaborate, that some neighbor is going to get suspicious and call in a complaint. The first time I broke out my hoses and camlocks and, especially, my CFC, I figured that would do it. But nope. So I figure it'll be smooth sailing...
 
bottlebomber said:
This got real gay and all that
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These threads always do. It's almost like people want police attention for some reason. News flash: homebrewing looks a lot more like cooking food than cooking meth. How often in these threads does someone actually say, "the cops stopped me and asked questions..."?

As tempting and "ingenious" as it sounds, criminals don't do the "out in the open because it's too obvious" thing. Other than a rare over-zealous eagle eyed wanna-be tv sleuth, no cop is going to drive by a homebrewing session and say "Hot damn! Look at that meth cooker in plain sight!"

Now if one of your ignorant neighbors call, that's a whole different story, because the locals have to respond then. Even in Brooklyn where neighbors seperated by 8 inches of dry wall don't know each other, I never got a call for homebrewing, which happens to be extremely popular in the boro.
 
Best I had was earlier this year. My hops grow on the side of my house facing the road. Well I get up one morning and the big ole' SWAT truck is parked on the road outside my house. I go outside with my coffee, part of me thinking, great, some busy body told them I was a pot farmer or something. Anyway one of the cops pokes his head out the window and asks "Hey, what kind of hops are ya growing?"

Turns out they were just in my road as staging for busting down a door a couple blocks over.
 
stat said:
I brewed in the garage yesterday because of the rain, usually I'm in the back yard.
The neighbor across the street came out and started taking pictures of me but didn't say anything and no cops showed up so I'm not really sure what that was about.
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I would have called the cops on him and said that he was taking pictures of your private residence. Creepy!
 
JordanThomas said:
I would have called the cops on him and said that he was taking pictures of your private residence. Creepy!
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So my options would of been ignore weird neighbors and go about enjoying my brew day.
Or
Call the cops and best case scenario piss off my neighbors. Worst case piss off neighbors and embarrass myself in front of the people that live 100 feet away and the cops.
Hmmm tough choice.
 
stat said:
So my options would of been ignore weird neighbors and go about enjoying my brew day.
Or
Call the cops and best case scenario piss off my neighbors. Worst case piss off neighbors and embarrass myself in front of the people that live 100 feet away and the cops.
Hmmm tough choice.
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Well, you made it seem as though it was obvious that he was taking a picture of your activities.

I guess typed word isn't the best way to express eggageration, so I'll clarify. I wouldn't actually call the cops, but I would say "HELLO!" loudly if I saw a camera. If they waved back, all good. If they ran inside like a scared kitten, I'd probably be annoyed, but let it go.

Man! Didn't think I'd get lambasted this badly.
 
JordanThomas said:
Well, you made it seem as though it was obvious that he was taking a picture of your activities.

I guess typed word isn't the best way to express eggageration, so I'll clarify. I wouldn't actually call the cops, but I would say "HELLO!" loudly if I saw a camera. If they waved back, all good. If they ran inside like a scared kitten, I'd probably be annoyed, but let it go.

Man! Didn't think I'd get lambasted this badly.
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Don't call the cops. Just smile and flip them off like Mr. Rogers does.

Mr-Rogers-has-had-Enough.png
 
If he was taking pictures of a bird in the shed that would indeed be hilarious.

Reminds me that in college one of the campus security guys, instead of in the little leather pouch, wore his handcuffs hanging off his belt. "There goes deputy dog, just itchin to take down some crim'nuls" we'd say. We genuinely, and generally, disliked him.

Until one day he offered me a ride to the other side of campus. I was surprised, so I asked him while he drove "I gotta ask, whats with the dangling handcuffs?" "oh man that little pouch they put on your belt bites into my ribs like a *****."
 
Jukas said:
While I lol'd at your comment, it's hardly the same thing.

My comment was directed about those who will spend 99% of their free time with their face plugged into some form of electronic, to the point where they're becoming socially stunted.

One of my step daughters will literally spend every waking moment either texting or on tumblr, Pinterest etc. She literally spends little or no time outside, or with friends. If you let her, she will literally spend all day and night in front of her iphone. I certainly don't like it, but it's behavior her father established before the divorce and continued to this day so breaking the behavior is like trying to shovel sand back into the ocean.

When I grew up (I'm 36), if it wasn't raining and the sun was out we were outside usually in groups of 4-12 other kids. The idea of sitting in front of a TV for hours on end was unheard of outside of a early Saturday morning cartoon binge. We rarely played video games, though we would have occasional marathon binges. Most of the daylight hours were spent outside, on bikes, skateboards, swimming blah blah blah.

tl;dr me likey intrawebs in moderation.
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I don't know if this applies to your step daughter, but I'm 26 and grew up in a neighborhood where the closest people in age to me were my parents who are 20 years older than me. My closest living friend was a 30-40 min walk along some busy roads. Also I live in a suburb of NYC where anyone that had an acre had a HUGE yard, so sadly not all kids have or had to opportunity to play outside as much. My only real outside play time was horseback riding at a local barn twice a week and going to the beach with my mom in the summer.

And I'm actually allergic to the sun and get hives the beginning of every summer and burn after being out in the sun for more than 30 mins, so lots of outside time wasn't fun.
 
The first time I posted a picture of this on face book. It was the first question I got.

Are you making meth?

image-2074545332.jpg
 
bad67z said:
Last Halloween it was unusually cold, so after we handed out the treats I decided to start a fire in our fireplace and have some warm cider. Shortly after ignition there was a knock @ our door. It was my neighbors 17yr. old son (I would like to add, a great kid) informing me my chimney was on fire.

Long story short, I had the fire out by the time the township FD arrived, and they are only 400 yards away. But they were very through, I had 15+ professional FF, a pumper truck and a staffed EMS vehicle on site in 4 minutes. This makes me sleep well @ night.

As I'm standing in my back yard with the Asst. Chief watching his team on my deck checking my 35ft. chimney for hotspots, I thought it would be a good time to explain the 2 sanke kegs, 3 carboys, 4 cornys, cooler with hoses attached and the 2 very suspicious looking copper immersion chillers that were on my deck. I said " I just want you to know that the equipment on the deck is not for producing any illegal substances, I'm a homebrewer, I brew beer". Without hesitating he replied "Mr. Sherry you have 30 new friends just down the road, let us know when you need us to taste test your finished product".
Click to expand...

That is a great story, I would be thrilled to live in a community like that.
 

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