Brew your own - Social condemnation?

Another Pacific North West'er here. When I bring up brewing for the first time to people - they go nuts. They want to talk about the more famous microbreweries around like Mac & Jack's, Black Raven, etc. This is a nice little spot for the HB community.

JonM said:

I had a thought knocking around in my head about this. I was at a beer dinner at a local restaurant and the head brewer from the featured brewery was there. He said "It used to be that the only thing you could pair with beer was pizza" and went on to talk about how craft brewing has become so sophisticated that we can make incredible pairings with food.

I bet we could get through to at least some of these nitwits with that kind of talk. "I've carefully crafted a beer recipe that pairs perfectly with my BBQ ribs/secret chili recipe/herb roasted chicken/homemade knackwurst/grilled salmon etc. and the whole family loves it"

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I'm new to the forum and am still waiting my brew kit for the first go but one thing I know is...... I can't think of anything a crafted beer doesn't go with.

When I told my parents i was home brewing, the first reaction from my dad was, "where is it?" I went home and brought back a six pack, and it was gone in less than an hour, between my dad, my BIL, and myself. Now, whenever we have a family function, I usually bring the beer. Others here are usually very curious and ask tons of questions, but I still get that look, like "you must be a raging alcoholic" from others. I usually just ignore people that either don't know what good beer is, or that think beer is just a cheap drunk.
On a good note, I got 2 or 3 guys here at work started brewing, so now I'm not the only one that gets requests to brew a BL clone.

jrodskreet said:

I get it some too. One case in point.

Upon returning from my deployment to Iraq we had a 90 day post deployment health assessment. I told the Physician I drank 2 at night and 5 or 6 on the weekends. Which was the truth. So he put it into his calculator and voila I'm a raging alcoholic (per Army standards). Well needless to say I was set up with counseling. Not only that but my command gave me a nice chewing out for being honest and not giving the standard answer of "none". So, yeah, now I try not to tell many people about this.

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I was homebrewing before I joined the Army. When I was doing the ridiculous amount of paperwork at the recruiter's office, I came to the question about how much you drink and the recruiter told me to just put "none" so I didn't get a psych evaluation. I didn't tell him that the Army would probably think I was a raging alcoholic because I drank 1-2 beers a day.

MultumInParvo said:

Says the guy from Eugene OR. Of course!

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One of the MANY reasons I live in this great place!

I sell wine for a living, and brew beer on the weekends, so I'm pretty much a Social Pariah around here.

When I tell people what I do, they look at me strangely with a sort of "Oh you poor thing, I'll pray for you" kind of look.

The way I look at it, if all the brewers are going to hell, at least there'll be some good stuff to drink

One idea is to find a community of homebrewers and craft beer appreciators and hang out with them. For me, that's my local homebrew club - its been great to make friendships there, with people who are a part of the same culture (beer culture) as I am.

Look, there will always be the unenlightened. There is a couple we occasionally have dinner with, and he's very condescending about beer - he thinks home-brewed beer and craft beer is low quality because its not like Miller Lite. But I know he's an idiot (he's narrow and provincial in other ways, too) and I've got plenty of beer-making friends who more than counter-balance.

Cheers for beers . . .

My friends think it's awesome and some of them usually come over on brew day. I haven't really had any negative feedback from anybody yet. Which is surprising seeing that I'm in the south and there's a TON of southern baptists here. Most of them are stuck in the mind set that any alcohol is bad, and you'll be a raging hooligan after taking a sip. I actually kind of enjoy some of the looks I get from older people when they find out I brew.

I'm in Memphis and everyone I've been around loves the idea of homebrew. People on the fence I give a brew to and they are hooked. I usually wouldn't give them a porter, but something lighter like a summer ale and they love it. Several have been over to the house when I did a homebrew and will probably start homebrewing soon.
I'm also in the military,
I had an interview with the psych and he asked me if we lined up all the beer I drink in a week, how much would be on the table. I told him 6 or 7. He reminded me that honesty was the best policy. I told him we'd need a bigger table.
He laughed and I screened favorably.

I would say that the south is revitalizing its historically pro alcohol stance. With many breweries opening up in the southern appalachian mountains (Asheville nc), I believe people are tapping into the mountain spirit of I can make it and I don't need your help or permission. Also this area was settled by scoth-Irish and Germans whose roots run deep. The first person I met that brewed his own beer was my pastor. Now at his church in Utah he brews it in the church basement and locks the carboys up in the nursery closet. Most churches around here that are reformed in nature realize the ideas of the reformation were hatched in a bar and we look to keep that tradition alive.

I agree mudminnow. Areas like Greenville and especially Asheville are definitely more forward thinking then where I'm at (between Spartanburg and Gaffney...ugh). But coming from Chicago where having a few beers between friends and family is no big deal, to the complete opposite is still a little strange to me. I was too young to drink when I lived up there, but whenever my family got together that would certainly be the case. But when my group of friends turned 21, some of their parents almost completely forbade drinking. Like there's almost a certain taboo that some of my friends parents still have about it. So it's sorta fun to tell the older folks that I brew beer, because it's not a big deal, nor should it be.

Being from greenville also I understand. It reminds me of the advice my uncle gave me about taking baptists fishing. He said to always take two, if you take one baptist he will drink all your beer. If you bring two they won't touch it.

I usually get positive reactions from people...mostly just curiosity stuff. I never feel like they're really judging or making assumptions, but then again I'm in Wisconsin. I even brought it up in a job interview with the president of the company and he thought it was really cool and started asking a bunch of questions solely about brewing for a good 10 minutes.

If people are uneducated that's when judgement gets passed and assumptions are drawn. Educate them and they'll start to see it in the same light as we all do.

JonM said:

What? You bake cookies? You eat so much junk food you need to make your own sweets?

Same thing.

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New Signature.

Here I feel the same. I have one coworker who brews (ex-coworkers got me into the hobby). The other's joke like it's moonshine but typically think it's interesting. I don't talk about it much at work though.

Outside of work, whole other story. several family members are the "you drink so much you have to make it" type. Most church members when they find out look down on me for same reasons (most will drink beer or wine themselves). Preacher likes to take stabs at me whenever possible for drinking. He won't confront me cause I will remind him he wears Polyester and shaves his beard and eats pork. .

I have one friend who brews a lot of Mr. Beer kits (Like upwards of 40 batches), so we share and exchange a lot of beers. Other than that my friends are typically uninterested except for "Free Beer!" One friend's SWMBO just thinks I am drunk all the time, as I typically drink beer at every party. Says same thing about a couple of our other friends too though, and I think she is a fat snobby bitchy hypocritical cow. but we are entitled to our own opinions.

Why is everyone putting down people who make moonshine? I would put homebrewing in the same category and I would be proud of it. There is a history here in the dark corner of sc of moonshining with recipes and techniques that are passed down through generations. Moonshining is legal in sc in small quantities and allows us to embrace our heritage. One day I hope to have a still of my own

what blows my mind though is people always ask me if i'm making moonshine....

and to mudminnow, homebrewing isn't in the same category if it is legal in your state, because, as in mine, Homebrewing Beer = legal. Making Moonshine= illegal. not to mention the practice is HIGHLY dangerous and the end product can kill you if not done properly.

homebrewing, while infection is possible with careless brewing, the likelihood of killing yourself in an enormous mash fire, or making yourself incredibly sick with the end product is massively lower.

There are a lot of myths about moonshine and I see you have bought into them. As long as it is not being distiller in the family's old ford radiator you aren't going kill anyone. Probably is a lot safer when made in small quantities than frying a turkey

Sorry to hijack the thread. I am done talking about the legal distilling of shine for private use

This is all covered by the initial quote in Ken Burns' documentary Prohibition:

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits." - Mark Twain