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I'd tell him "Bring over some steaks and we'll enjoy a few brews."

The fun of homebrewing is about enjoying a nice brew with friend's family, not hand outs.
 
I am just getting into this homebrew stuff and working on filling my pipeline. Back in high school a friend of mine had a "favor" system going and i will be applying it here to my brew. Here are my thoughts on the various situations:
1. I might be willing to brew a kit for a friend if they buy the kit and give me half the beer.
2. Special events are an honor. Weddings, b-days, graduations, etc.... but only a few times a year unless i get some help in the form of bottles, kits, money for my time.
3. The moochers will need to bring empties and will only get half filled. And they better be clean!!!!
4. All in all i dont think if u bring alot of beer/supply the beer to a party of friends they should have no prob putting a little in for your trouble. If they do get some new friends.
 
friday said:
Brewing beer by yourself is kinda boring, a little company would be fun don't ya think?
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Personally, I prefer brewing alone. I've only made mistakes when brewing with other people around. Plus, its my unwinding time. My wife leaves me be on brewing days, I don't pick up the phone... it's my decompression time. ;)
 
What I did was have my cousin buy the ingredients under the condition that I would show him how to brew, he could use my equipement, and I get a 12 pack out of the deal. It only took one time for him to buy his own kit and now we trade...
 
Oddball said:
What I did was have my cousin buy the ingredients under the condition that I would show him how to brew, he could use my equipement, and I get a 12 pack out of the deal. It only took one time for him to buy his own kit and now we trade...
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I had somebody do that, though I only asked for a 4-pack. I appreciated him just being willing to make the effort, though... most people basically just back off when they realize it will take them a fair amount of time and effort, and that the beer doesn't just magically make itself.

And that's really the bottom line for me. It's about respect, and not just taking the significant investment (both time- and money-wise) that I put into making the beer, entirely for granted. Acting entitled to unlimited amounts of beer whenever and wherever you want, simply because I happen to make it myself, isn't going to fly with me. And yet, if you just show some appreciation and recognition that this beer is actually about as far from "free" as it gets, I'll be more than happy to let you drink as much as you want.
 
You know that you can't actually expect him to compensate you for giving him your beer, right? It's against the law.

Just tell him it's illegal if you don't want to share.
 
Cash, ass or grass. No one drinks for free. :)

In my house, my friends come over and they understand that brewing is a long, somewhat exacting process, and that it takes more than a month or sometimes much longer to arrive at the final product. They also know that I make some very good stuff. So... they either bring over craft beer, pay for any food we might have when they are there, or they pay me $10 for a sixer to take with. I don't ask for any of this, I might add, but owning a boat and not being shy about accepting gas money has taught me to put it in your pocket, thank them, and invite them EVERY time. :) One other thing my friends do that I like, is bring over their own beer to drink and only dip into my homemade supply every few, so as to stretch out it's lifespan. I find that very considerate.

I gladly give out 1 or 2 bottles to people to try, but if someone asks me for a full 6 or 12 or more, I don't have any qualms charging or trading them for it. I don't ask my artist friends for free paintings and such, so I don't feel obligated to give away this 'art' for free either.
 
About four months ago swmbo asked if the in laws could stay with us while buying a house. I said yes. My FIL who only drank bud his whole life ask if he could have some of my hb. I again said yes. Now four months later my pipeline has been drained down to my last two gallons in a keg all other 6 kegs are empty...

No thought from him as to how much money goes into a batch or time even though he watched me brew a red ipa.

Little does he know that the two cases in the basement are ready to drink. Those will be going into the fridge Saturday night since they are moving out Saturday morning!

Time to brew again.
 
Im in the process of collecting bottles as we speak and the current theme is if you're bring beers to the house, Please bring brown pop off bottles. They all know why and they all know without asking that im obviously gonna give em brews. On the other hand, my friends are all rather humble and we're all generous with everything we have... even for New Yorkers

The Barter system is gonna be your best bet, the best ideas so far imo

1. have him bring you a 12 of your fav brew and trade for 12 of your HB
2. Have him buy a kit, brew it, and skim off maybe 18-24 for the head and give him the rest (Id be totally happy with that idea if I were him)
3. Teach a man to fish... For Beer.
 
For those who haven't experienced this yet. It is hard to explain. To me it is way more about the attitude of the one asking than the actual asking. I have a friend who has a bad habit of telling rather than asking. he has actually looked at me and said " YOU ARE GONNA GIVE ME SOME OF THAT" when I had some blue moon made. ( he left empty handed).... I honestly give away 75% of what I make probably, but I despise it when it is just expected. If I think someone appreciated the beer rather than the buzz I have less issue also. I have a brother in law that can drink very very little but he loves good dark roasty beers. I will give him anything he asks for. I have a friend who lives out west and she visits about twice a year. I always plan a big skeeter pee batch to be bottled and ready for her when she gets here ( she loves that stuff)...she rations it out so she drinks her last one about the time of her visit. She always brings back all of the bottles CLEAN and usually way more than she took. SO the last time she was here I sent at least 2 cases of stuff with her along with several bottles of wine. I am taking a case or two of brews to a get together tonight with some guys I don't even know because a good APPRECIATIVE friend asked me to.

So those of you who act as if it is greedy, that has nothing to do with it. I just hate to see my work reduced to a chug fest to see how fast we can get drunk.
 
bcrderrick said:
About four months ago swmbo asked if the in laws could stay with us while buying a house.
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Wanna laugh? Very few people have an open offer to my brews. Two of those people are my in-laws. They are very generous people, always offer to take our daughter over night so we can be alone, have a habit of breaking out bottles of wine that cost more than a whole dinner, and most of all, they appreciate the craft of what I do and both have great palates worth testing my beers on. I always bring beer when we go to their house and whenever my FIL comes over and I'm not there, I make sure to remind my wife to have him try whatever is new.
 
All my family & old friends are scattered to the four winds. I/we don't really have adult friends,& I don't like bar flies in my house. They've had sticky fingers in the past. So now that I don't have any,I don't miss them. Once in a blue moon might be nice,but I used to hate it when I had friends as long as the beer & weed held out back in the day.
At least pop always brought beer &/or a bottle of Beam's choice with him.
 
bcrderrick said:
About four months ago swmbo asked if the in laws could stay with us while buying a house. I said yes. My FIL who only drank bud his whole life ask if he could have some of my hb. I again said yes. Now four months later my pipeline has been drained down to my last two gallons in a keg all other 6 kegs are empty...

No thought from him as to how much money goes into a batch or time even though he watched me brew a red ipa.

Little does he know that the two cases in the basement are ready to drink. Those will be going into the fridge Saturday night since they are moving out Saturday morning!

Time to brew again.
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I can picture him pulling back the tap handle and muttering "and this is for sleeping with my daughter you SOB...."
 
Lol. If that's why he is drinking my beer then he can have all he wants. Not much left anyways
 
When I was collecting bottles over the past few months, I offered 1 bottle of homebrew for every 3 bottles donated. Worked out pretty week and much cheaper than buying them from LBHS.
 
Airborneguy said:
I'm pretty stingy with mine, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But I have no problem offering beer to people who are visiting or bringing it to gatherings outside of my house.

BUT, I go absolutely mad when someone asks for it or otherwise tries to obligate me to provide some. I find that to be wildly insulting and disrespectful and make it damn clear to the offending idiot. If anyone ever asked me to fill 12 bottles for them, they would be lucky if I only returned them filled with water.
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Kinda how I picture all New Yorkers being.


_
 
I enjoy providing beer, but nobody ever seems to expect that I provide it. I have a rotating growler program with some co-workers. When I've got stuff ready from the pipeline, I'll generally fill up growlers of whatever I want to get rid of and give it to them. The only stipulation is that the bring back the growler with my nice B3 cap, empty and clean.
 
Wow...you guys are tough.

I can only drink so much beer...far less then I can brew, so my goal pretty much is to make beer good enough that I can brew whenever I want. If somebody wants a regular beer pipeline I'll ask them to pay for the ingredients, but the brewing...for me..is the fun part, and the more I give away the more I can brew. If somebody starts asking for more then I can comfortably part with...I'll just say so. It's no biggie.
 
I love having my friends taste, and enjoy my homebrew, but not just to take home and drink on their own time. Part of the enjoyment for me comes from seeing them try it and picking their brains about it. When my last ale came into aging well I had some friends over and we had a few pints out of my homedraft. He asked me to brew him a few cases of it. I gave him a list of ingredients to go online and order (no local hbs) and said to drop them off and I'll brew it up for him and give him two twelve packs. He gets a semi-custom brewed beer, and I get a couple cases too. I asked him to bring me back the bottles when he's done. I get to brew, I get to experiment a little with my recipe (he wants even more vanilla aftertaste) and I get free ingredients to boot!

His total came to under $20, so not a bad deal for him either!
 
I will give my beer to most anyone, but there was one guy on our construction site that asked me to "bring me some of that hooch" I was making.... dang... don't call my homebrew "hooch" and maybe he would have had a chance. :)

I also had a former coworker ask if he could pay me to make a batch. I counter offered with he pays for the ingredients and comes over on brew day. He gladly accepted, cleaned everything and even came over for the bottling! I told him he could come back any time and get whatever he wanted, just because he cleaned! :mug:
 
People bugging you for bottles of homebrew? Time to start kegging!

I offer beer to anyone who comes by my place, but I have never had a problem with people expecting or trying to take advantage of it. If I'm having people over for the night doing some moderate drinking, my friends will still buy and bring their own beer. Sometimes they end up drinking mostly homebrew, but they usually leave their left over commercial beer in exchange. I enjoy having the extra variety.
 
Why not suggest that since you are kind of busy that he should stop by the LHBS and pick up a sack of 2 row for you and happen to mention that things have been a little tight so you'd pay him next month. He might get the idea that making beer isn't free and that your time is somewhat valuable too.
 
pYr8 said:
I've just started brewing but it seems to me like about anything else. Someone expecting something that I do for nothing or next to nothing is a bit of an insult to me. E.G.: I work with computer for a living and for 20+ years I've had friends & family wanting "a little consultation" which turns to sizable time consumption. Now I'm willing to help friends & family but when it's over & over for years on end it gets to be called a loss in my spreadsheet. I'd say it's similar to home brewing. One puts time, effort & money into brewing and it looks "free" to others. In my opinion it's just best to sit them down, explain the particulars to them & see where they sit. There's nothing like a truthful conversation to clear the cloudy line between you & others.

And if all else fails a 12ga always works well:)
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IO agree, so much, especially about the tech support. I called it a wrap on that a few years back. Can't stand fixing someones malware ridden Dell, only to have them call me back 5 months later and tell me their comp is broke and it must have been what I did to it when I fixed it :(
 
My solution like many is to put people to work lifting, cleaning, bottling, sanitizing and scrubbing bottles, and then they can split the cost of ingredients. And when I'm talking about how long it takes to someone who is uninitiated I tell them it's in the 700 hour range to put it in perspective with one day of sweating in there too. Usually clears up the problems.

That said, I live in Las Vegas on the far northwest side of town and no one will drive to my house for a free beer no matter how many times I offer. Pretty nice living in a population of mostly self centered semi transient people who probably won't live here in a couple years anyway. I can't imagine what it's like. My neighbors barely come outside of their house on brewday. Except for the guy across the street, an MSU fan who likes to give me **** about Texas getting their ass handed to them.

But I do ten gallon batches so I try to move the stuff as rapidly as possible. Not easy.
 
emjay said:
I don't keg, so I'm really having trouble envisioning how that works :eek:
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Imagine a drinking straw suspended halfway above the bottom of a glass. Try as you might, you ain't getting the bottom half of that liquid sucked through that straw.
 
Shaft333 said:
I got a text from a family member who's been wanting some of my beer. It said something along the lines of, "so, if I brought you 12 pack of empty bottles. Would I get them back full of home brew?"

He's been wanting to buy it (can't), have me deliver it (without offering any tacos), and now just going for the handouts (and not just a couple; he's shootin' for 25%!!!!). I appreciate that he's a fan, but the man needs to understand that I brew for the fun of brewing, drinking something special, a bit of braggery, and the fellowship of tipping a couple back with a bud or two. But I'm not looking to start passing it out like the clerk at the packaged goods store.
The kicker is that he's family so I still got'ta be tactical about turning his offer of filling bottles for him down. Otherwise I will catch hell from others about being stingy or something (damn right I'm stingy!)

I know some of you have dealt with similar stories.

I figure I may have this guy come over on a brew day so he can see what goes into it. But he still isn't getting 25% without bringing over at least a burrito! :p
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I tell my friends if they give me 12 empty bottles I will give them one back full.
 
Not to throw more fuel onto this fire.., But I like many others probably give a very large number of my brews away and really like the response of WOW you made this, and then we go through the process in easy steps like making stew to get them interested. Have you family member buy the good and make him/her brew with you and you take a 6'er for your efforts.
I now have my nephews drinking my beer and they are ready to make their first AG recipe with my help.. It brings a tear to my eye those d@mn kids grow up so fast (and then drink the Sheet out of my beer at every family function leaving nothing for Uncle HB).
 
smokewater said:
Since he is family, tell him to bring over the 12 pack of bottles filled with your favorite commercial microbrew. Trade beer for beer.
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/nod

Bombers of Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout will do nicely.
 
sheeshomatic said:
Imagine a drinking straw suspended halfway above the bottom of a glass. Try as you might, you ain't getting the bottom half of that liquid sucked through that straw.
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I understood that much, but how do you then access the rest of the beer once the party dies down?
 

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