What if it tastes like crap? Do you tell him?

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Chillibeerman

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Fellow home brewers are few and far between where I live. Occasionally, you meet someone that enjoys the hobby. When I do meet someone, I feel a strange bond with them. I recently met a husband of a co-worker who enjoys this hobby. He sent me a bottle of his aged cider for me to try. I drank it tonight and found that it was truly terrible tasting stuff. Now, come Monday morning I will probably be required to give some feedback. Is there proper etiquette that I should be aware of? What should I do since I barely know this guy?
 
Just tell him cider is not your favorite...then lie about the rest of it too...;)

Don't forget to ask for the recipe...from there you may be able to tell where he went wrong and you can TWEAK his recipe and give him one of yours to sample later...then tell him it's his recipe, but you tweaked it.:D
 
If you knew the guy personally and you were good friends, you might try just being honest. But it sounds like you don't, so it is perhaps acceptable to fib somewhat in that situation. Like when coworker asks you if you like her new hairdo.

Something like this maybe...

Say, co-worker, I had that bottle of Bob's (or whoever) cider last night. It was good. Quite interesting. One of the things I liked about it was x (fill in with some characteristic you liked, even a little bit). It's not every day I get to sample something like that. Tell Bob (or whoever) thanks very much. Ask him if I could have his recipe. Did he like the homebrew I sent home with you?

Or, if your co-worker is a good friend...

You know, co-worker, I drank Bob's cider last night. It was quite interesting. I'm definitely glad I got to sample it, but to tell the truth, cider is not really my thing. (This won't work if you are really into cider.) etc.
 
Tell him that you dropped off the urine sample at the Vet, and that his horse seems to have developed diabetes.:cross:

I don't think there's really a good way to tell somebody the truth without hurting their feelings.
 
Get to know the guy. Perhaps it was an infected bottle. Maybe he'd like your help because he knows it's bad. Make friends with him and if all his stuff tastes bad, help him tweak it. Like you said, it's not like brewers are a dime a dozen. And we all know how hard it is to make new friends at this point in life.
 
"There's something a little different about it than any of the other ciders I've had - how did you make it?"

No point in being a jerk.
 
Most homebrewers want to make the best product they can. I would be honest & tell him how it tasted. Homebrew does go bad. Was there a lot of yeast in the bottle? "crap" isn't a useful description, autolysed is. Having smelled a septic tank and a very old bucket of trub, I can say they smell about the same. Didn't taste them though. Maybe the cider is now cider vinegar.
 
yeah, honest is best, maybe not blunt, but i wouldn't say it was good if you didn't like it.

i've passed out beers i knew where ****ty to my friends(mostly heffes and whits gone wild), and they said, not your best offering, can i have the pale ale instead. i appreciate the honest opinion of those drinking my beer.
 
2nd Street Brewery said:
I hope you're that nice with me bird. I'm bringing a 4 pack of my porter for you to sample:D

Likewise with the IPA and PA.

Actually, I *do* want honest feedback, that's the only way I'll figure out what I'm doing wrong. If it's really, REALLY bad though, just tell me through a PM... :D
 
It's so funny that you mentioned receiving nasty homebrew(or cider,whatever).We had a similar experience at our Octoberfest homebrew party.An acquaintence friend brought over a sixer of his own homebrew,a stout that he was ever so proud of.In the first place,he didn't even take off the old labels.And the beer......NASTY(i really hope he doesn't read the forum:eek: ).Three people agreed.It was way over carbonated and a peroxide like taste.Hard to describe but icky.I tried to talk about technique and methods and stuff but he seemed to think i was being too technical about it all and he just wings it.And that's cool too i suppose but i think the proof is in the beer.He loved my hb by the way.He wants to teach brewing also.I haven't had to lie to him about it though yet as i haven't talked to him since the party.I hope i'm not being a d**k about it.After all,it was a wonderful gesture for him to bring it :) .
Cheers:mug:

P1-NewYearsSpiceAle
P2-waiting patiently
S1-CanadianAle
S2-Diabolo(high grav)
Bottled/Drinking-Amer.Wheat....Yummy
Bottled/Aging/Tasting-Dunkelweisen,ShortBlondeAle(AG)
Brewing tomorrow(Sunday)-DeerBrownAle(AG)
 
david_42 said:
Most homebrewers want to make the best product they can. I would be honest & tell him how it tasted. Homebrew does go bad. Was there a lot of yeast in the bottle? "crap" isn't a useful description, autolysed is. Having smelled a septic tank and a very old bucket of trub, I can say they smell about the same. Didn't taste them though. Maybe the cider is now cider vinegar.


It is hard to put my finger on the problem and I am not trying to be funny when I say that I would truly compare it to a glass of vomit. It had that "sour stomach" type of thing going and was high in alcohol. There was not any yeast at all in the bottle and no sulfur taste or smell. It was not at all vinegar like.
 
How about rancid, "cooked cabbage" or solvent-like? Cooked cabbage always smelled like vomit to me. That would be from a bacterial infection in cider.
 
I haven't made a beer that I would share yet ( I think that is going to change with the oktoberfest I'm bottling today!) But when I do offer a beer to someone to try it, I want an honest answer. ESPECIALLY I would want the opinion of someone who has brewing expierence! Bottom line: If you give your opinion in a respectful way and he gets upset, then he's the one with the problem,
 
On the other, more paranoid hand.... Co-worker could have told friend about this damn homebrewer he works with that tries to educate the rest of the office about good beer ( I'm bad for this at work) . Maybe friend sent in a bottle of known to be bad cider to test your brewer aptitude. If you go with the Large White Lie, you'll look like a polite idiot, or they may mistakenly think that you don't know your stuff.
I'd have to go with the polite cricism school of thought. Just to be safe.
 
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