Brew your own - Social condemnation?

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Grossy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
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Location
Tucson
I have been brewing now for about a year, I was talking to my partner at work about the IPA I am brewing tomorrow. A detailed conversation about the amount of Hops, Pliny the Younger, ect..

An associate at work hears us and makes an off-the-cuff comment about how we sound like a couple of alcoholics.

I have heard to many versions of this kind of remark:
"Wow you must drink a awful amount of beer."
"Do you brew beer to get cheap alcohol?"​
I have had three job interviews this year*, and I never bring up brewing for fear that someone on the panel may be anti-alcohol.

Anybody else run into this type of social condemnation?

And just for the record: I drink often, I don't drink a lot. (well occasionally I do :cross: )

(I was about to be laid off at the end of this month, fortunately I just got a job offer this week, so this weekend will be one those times that I drink too much!)
__________________
 
Same people find nothing wrong with endless yakking about buying a case or two of the latest Shiraz or Pinot Noir.

I enjoy wine as well as beer but some people get the idea that beer is for guzzlers and wine is OK as long as you extend your pinky finger when drinking it.

At 66 I could give two ounces of well sparged spent grain for their opinion.


bosco
 
"(I was about to be laid off at the end of this month, fortunately I just got a job offer this week, so this weekend will be one those times that I drink too much!)"

Congratulations on that. I will drink to that as well!
 
Around here, people just say "Wow, that's cool!".

pretty much the same with me. People see it as an extension of a passion for cooking and other artisanal food endeavors. In Metro Detroit we're so inundated with craft and micro breweries and are used to seeing craft beer in even the dinkiest and run-down liquor stores, that people understand what I'm into and are usually interested.

Most of my bosses in my "normal" jobs know, and many of the congregants of my church know, since often if we go out to lunch after church, it's usually to a place with a decent beer selection.

Heck I do a small annual beer tasting for some of my faculty instructors at the medical school. A lot of the instructors and researchers there brew, have brewed at some point or are interested in brewing.

It's pretty commonly known after a Sunday where I preach that I'll be heading over to Motor City Beer works, with my volunteer coordinator, the drummer, and sometimes the music director, for pizza and a couple pitchers of Ghetto blaster mild.

I'm proud of my hobby, and beer culture, an I tout it whenever possible...I have nothing to be ashamed of...
 
"
Congratulations on that. I will drink to that as well!

Then I raise my glass with you, thank you.

The department I worked in was eliminated, after three interviews with other departments within the organization I landed a great job, with only 1 month to go.

I can literally see the gray hair on my head returning to brown.
 
Definitely congrats on the new job!!!

Re odd looks and/or comments from people I'm in Utah, so there are a lot of people here that assume if you drink that automatically makes you an alcoholic. So yeah, I've had my fair share of odd looks and occasional comments from people when I start talking about brewing.
 
I live in the South, so I get the occasional unapproving glance when they hear me discussing homebrew at work. There are still a few folks down here that equate ANY drinking to "evil." I really don't care. For every one of those types, I also get the random person who walks past my house when I'm brewing and asks when the beer will be ready.

Funny story, I have a good friend who is single, over 40 and lived alone. He's from the South as well. So a year or so ago his mom comes to visit for a week. The day before he shows up at my door with, no joke, a case of brew and two bottles of wine. He had me keep them for him while she was in town.

Apparently, "Momma didn't approve," of that kind of stuff. Seriously.
 
I hear you OP....I live/work on/in the reservation and not a lot of beer geeks around these parts, although the local grocery store does maintains rexpectable Montanan, pacific northwest and western influence, with the occasional Midwestern offering and usual BMC products. When I was brewing outdoors today I made the effort to conceal what I was doing just to void the hassle of walkers, drive by gawkers and alley way winos. Lots of people I work with(work in health care, with N. Americans) just would equate brewing beer with bathtub gin....unfortunately..l
 
I get the whole alcoholic thing here in Tennessee. People in the bible belt are very judgmental in general.
 
Yeah, you should remind people who scold you that by following that logic anyone who cooks food is a gluttonous overweight fat ass. :rolleyes:

If anything I drink a *lower* quantity of beer now that I homebrew and have access to quality craft beer. You can have a couple great beers and be pretty well sated in all senses of the word, which is way better than drinking a ton of crappy beers where you're left only with the desire to run to the bathroom. So cheers to homebrewing, drinking good beer, and your new job! :mug:
 
I sometimes get the same thing... Like when I told my wife that I was going to build a 6-tap kegerator to replace my 3-tap kegerator... "Seriously, do you really need *that much* beer around???" Uhh, yeah, I do. It's not that I'm going to drink more, it's that I'll have more variety on tap at any given time.

Being here in CA, everyone's pretty much cool about it at work. Inviting them to my place to drink off said kegerator certainly helps :)
 
I always find it funny since many brew lower alcohol beer so they can get a great taste and not get drunk. The most common reaction I get is that we're making swill that can't possibly taste good. This is often from newfoundlanders who remember homebrew that was made from basically anything that they could get their hands on. The rest of the time it's people who can't imagine putting the effort in when molson canadian will do.

I had an interview last week, and given that I'm a scientist, I make no qualms about telling people I brew. Many people use yeast daily in my field for research, so it's not frowned upon. Interestingly, many people still working in labs, and even more of the old-timer scientists still brew in the labs as a bit of distraction from the disappointment that research can bring some days....
 
Get really wasted and tell them to shove it! :D:cross:

Seriously, though, who cares!? If these people don't like you and your wife, why even hang out with them? My advise is to find more accepting friends. I am SURE you are not the only beer nerds in Tuscon! ;)
 
I've had no issue at all. But, we're in an area where the craft beer culture is starting to spring to life in conjunction with a great and growing wine culture. People are getting used to the idea of alcohol as a craft and not a means to a stumbling end.

I know a lot of people who brew. All of my coworkers know I brew. I even used the fact that I brew as an icebreaker at a training. One of the higher-ups in my agency was at my table and expressed a genuine curiosity about the hobby.

I also make it easier on myself by sharing a very genuine enthusiasm for craft beer. My coworkers and I like to have gatherings at out local craft beer bar. I often get asked for recommendations. I think, outside of the idiots whose opinions should be ignored, most people will get the right impression if you show the right kind of interest in your hobby.
 
Congrat's on the job!

I'm in the north Mississippi/Memphis, TN area and I used to catch a lot of flack for brewing but not so much lately. At work, my boss brews too so we spend a lot of time comparing notes. People that we work with just kind of laugh about it. I haven't gotten any criticism to my face at work but I do live in the south, afterall, where people love to save their criticisms for when your back is turned. :)

I get a lot of interest in it at my church. I've handed out a lot of homebrews to people that I worship with and even helped a buddy from church brew his first batch last weekend.

Overall, I would say I get a pretty positive reaction from people about it.
 
Beer culture has been about getting blasted for a long time now. Maybe that's starting to change, but only for a subsegment. When I'm in Europe I love being able to get all kinds of non-alcohol beer and have no stigma around it. Forget about that in the US. The assumption is that you drink beer to get drunk and there's no reason to have it otherwise.

So when I tell people I homebrew... the image it creates is often moonshine and drunken mayhem. If they have homebrewed... it's a whole different story. "What styles do you make?" "What kind of equipment do you use?" "Where do you get your ______ from?"

I just keep it to myself largely.
 
From the replies to this post I am starting to see a pattern based on where people live.

Now I will say that most people I talk to about brewing are actually quite nice and interested, it's just the occasional jerk that ticks me off, and yes I ignore them.

That being said, the temperature here in Tucson is expected to be quite cool today, at around 101 degrees (it was 111 last week). I started brewing at about 6:30am to beat the heat. The mash is just about finished and it is now 9:00am, thats close enough to 10:30 baby!!!

I'm cracking the first one!!
 
My parents' friends usually look at me funny when they find out I brew my own. In fact, one of them is staying at the 'rents house for a few days for a classical music festival, and she was skeptically curious about my hobby. I reassured her that I (mostly) drink because I love the taste of good beer and not to get drunk, but she still seemed leery. I poured her a small taste of my summer ale that I had brought over for my dad and she quickly asked for a whole beer and we discussed the brewing process for 20 minutes.

Non-BMC beers (even mediocre ones from inexperienced home brewers) seem to strike a positive nerve once they have been tasted.

However, I also don't bring it up during the "what are your hobbies" portion of interviews :drunk:
 
Just tell them you that you brew right after cleaning your guns.

Or tell them you brew beer while taking a break from either making moonshine or meth :rockin:

All my coworkers and friends know I brew. None of them brew, but a handful know others who do. I don't really get any negative reactions, generally just curious ones. One coworker keeps asking me to make him Miller Lite (jokingly- he's a BMC drinker, but knows enough about it from me to know why I'm not going to do that)
 
When I order my supplies online the UPS guy always drops my stuff off at work. Everybody from the company owner on down knows I homebrew. Most think it's pretty cool.
I get the usual stupid questions like "are you making moonshine too"?
Most people are just ignorant to the homebrewing culture and don't understand what we are about. I was the same way before I started brewing and I didn't know jack chit. You just have to understand people's ignorance about it, it's not their fault.
99.99% of Alabamians don't know it's still illegal to homebrew here, including some homebrewers. I didn't know either when I first started.
A good number think homebrewing and making moonshine are the same thing.
 
99.99% of Alabamians don't know it's still illegal to homebrew here, including some homebrewers. I didn't know either when I first started.
A good number think homebrewing and making moonshine are the same thing.

You home brew in Alabama even though it is illegal!!?

Your street cred just went through the roof!!

I raise my glass to you Sir.
 
CA seems to be fairly enlightened when it comes to beer in general, and craft beer in particular. Pretty much anyone I've mentioned homebrewing to is really curious about the whole thing. I do typically get asked the question if it's cheaper and I end up telling them it's cheaper than the kind of beer I buy, but not cheaper than Bud Light.
 
I never got that reaction. I did get a comment once about how my house must smell like a brewery.:confused:
 
I never got that reaction. I did get a comment once about how my house must smell like a brewery.:confused:

I had a neighbor come by and tell me what I was cooking smelled so good, "must be boiled peanuts, man that smells good." I politely told her it was just as good, I was brewing beer. Grin to semi-frown in about .2 seconds. "Oh, well I thought it was peanuts. Okay then, have a good day."

Here in the South they can still thumb their nose at you, but in a polite way.
 
What? You bake cookies? You eat so much junk food you need to make your own sweets?

Same thing.
 
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.
 
Sounds like the ashat yuppie scum around here. I had the door open one day,& I saw one out on the sidewalk talking into a cell phone. "Yeah,it loks like a meth lab or something!" how in the blue **** does this ho know what a meth lab looks like? Let alone smell like? No noctious chemicals here assclown. No lab equipment. No pill presses. No strange cars coming & going. No serious money being spent on the house that I've earned. ****ing ******* assclown butt munchers!!!!!!!
 
Around here, people just say "Wow, that's cool!".

i get what denny said a ton, but i also get a few weary people. Everyone at work knows i brew, there is another gentleman here that brews as well. i just let it slip... if they're going to be uneduated at the situations they are commenting on, they don't need my attention.

"you home brew? must be that dark nasty crap" "you have a kegerator at your house?? you must drink everynight!"
 
Don't hold back bro, tell us how you really feel. :D
Showdown,you bet...& I haven't even saddled my pony yet! Well,that's how I really do feel about our detractors. Friggin assclowns. They likely have never done a drug in there useless lives,but all of a sudden,they're experts. The worst form of hypocrisey.
Nary a week goes by when that very phrase doesn't pass through my head at least once.
I'm glad it's not just me in a way. I hate it when they look for excuses to hate. It's so pathetic...:confused:
 
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"
 
Most of the people that now I brew ber think it is great. It is accepted enough that we even have a facebook page for himebrewers in the neighboorhood.
 
Around here, people just say "Wow, that's cool!".

Says the guy from Eugene OR. Of course!

Overall I get very mixed responses much like that you mention. If I was making wine, people would understand and think I was sophisticated, since it is beer, the ideology is completely different.

The people who I have had over to see my equipment and actually drink it start to really understand.
 
The Mr. must have told plenty of people that I've started brewing. My BIL delivers "grain" of some type to a brewery, and says he can get some for me cheap as well as their beer at wholesale prices. Someone else has given up drinking and offered me a wort chiller and an IPA ingredient kit. So I've gotten positive responses so far. :)
 

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