I took a sixer of homebrews to a poker game Saturday night...

The host had SNPA, Red Hook, and something from Breckinridge.

As the evening progressed, everything but my HB was getting depleted (including my chips). Finally I just said "You know, the HB I brought is honest-to-gosh good beer, in case you were afraid to drink it."

A couple guys had one, and then raved over them.

I even started making a comeback at that point (managed to bring my losses back into a range that SWMBO wouldn't flip about). Maybe it was the HB.

I absolutely love the faces of people when you try to give them a homebrew. Kind like that face little kids make when you try to feed them lima beans. They they try it and go friggin nuts over it. Always a fun thing to watch.

Tony said:

Kind like that face little kids make when you try to feed them lima beans. They they try it and go friggin nuts over it. Always a fun thing to watch.

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LOL. Aint't it the truth!

I did a blind taste test on my Hefe last week. I poured two plastic beer cups. All you could see was foam on top. 1 was my Bavarian Hefe and the other was Ayinger Hefeweizen from the bottle.

SWMBO could tell the slight differences from them, but could not tell which one was mine. Sweet!

No to try it with some Franziskanner.

Yeah, I have a few friends that appreciate the homebrew but most aren't even interested. Fools! Oh well, it's mine, all mine!!!

"People like blood sausage. People are idiots."

-Bill Murray in Groundhog Day

SWMBO?

Please inform me.

robbase9 said:

SWMBO?

Please inform me.

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She Who Must Be Obeyed

aka wife/girlfriend

Others are located here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=5349

Ize

all of my friends think i am just trying to save money so they think i make terrible beer(they all drink natty light-aint college great!) i dont correct them, more for me!

EdWort said:

LOL. Aint't it the truth!

I did a blind taste test on my Hefe last week. I poured two plastic beer cups. All you could see was foam on top. 1 was my Bavarian Hefe and the other was Ayinger Hefeweizen from the bottle.

SWMBO could tell the slight differences from them, but could not tell which one was mine. Sweet!

No to try it with some Franziskanner.

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Any chance you'd share the recipe (if you haven't already)?

I'm having the neighbors over for a drink this evening. He's a Miller Lite kinda dude...so, naturally, I stocked the fridge with homebrew. Gonna drop some learnin on his ass.

I've stopped taking homebrew anywhere except club meetings. Too many people who say they like craft brews, really like names and know squat about beer.

david_42 said:

I've stopped taking homebrew anywhere except club meetings. Too many people who say they like craft brews, really like names and know squat about beer.

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Makes sense. In this particular case, the guy hosting is a homebrewer and he and I have brewed together before and traded beers. Otherwise, yeah--I probably wouldn't even have considered bringing HB to a poker game with mostly guys I didn't know.

I mostly share my beers only with people who have expressed an interest in and appreciation for them. I have no particular interest in proslytizing or converting people into EACs.

david_42 said:

I've stopped taking homebrew anywhere except club meetings. Too many people who say they like craft brews, really like names and know squat about beer.

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You think it's bad with brew---you should see how much label design affects wine purchasing decisions for much of the general public. At our shop, you'll see poorly designed labels on great wine, and it'll stagnate for months until we start forcing down the customers' throats. At the same time, I get more requests for that idiotic "Goats Do Roam" stuff than I'd care to think about. Luckily, we don't carry it, and so I have the opportunity to show the customer a real Cotes du Rhone that is actually good.

Everything I'm reading on here about the reaction of friends/aquaintance's attitudes towards home brew seems all too familiar.

I continually hear criticism from people who have never tried real home brew. I try and tell them that what I do is not the same as what they've probably had before as it doesn't come from a kit purchased at the local supermarket. I use real hops, real grain and a real process yet it is lost on them. The most common comment is something to the effect of, "I prefer drinking non-cloudy beer and I don't have to throw the bottom inch out.". I try telling them that my beer isn't cloudy and that countless commercial brews are what they call cloudy because they're bottle fermented they just don't care.

Oh well, they're welcome to their crappy Bud Light. I'll take my stout and IPA any day.

Evan! said:

You think it's bad with brew---you should see how much label design affects wine purchasing decisions for much of the general public. At our shop, you'll see poorly designed labels on great wine, and it'll stagnate for months until we start forcing down the customers' throats.

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That is VERY sad, indeed!

Indeed, it is a complete waste of time trying to convert bud drinkers.

On the other hand people that drink good mircro brews are a different story they are already use to beer with flavor, so its not a shock to their delicate system when they taste hops and malt in a good home brew.

EdWort said:

LOL. Aint't it the truth!

I did a blind taste test on my Hefe last week. I poured two plastic beer cups. All you could see was foam on top. 1 was my Bavarian Hefe and the other was Ayinger Hefeweizen from the bottle.

SWMBO could tell the slight differences from them, but could not tell which one was mine. Sweet!

No to try it with some Franziskanner.

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If you're talking about the Ayinger Brau-Weisse, that is the best Hefe-Weizen I've ever had. Franziskaner is pretty good, but not as good. I haven't had any Schneider in while; maybe it's better than I remember.

david_42 said:

I've stopped taking homebrew anywhere except club meetings. Too many people who say they like craft brews, really like names and know squat about beer.

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This is why my extra fridge and kegerator are in my basement workshop.

They always ask to taste and I always say..."do you like Mich Ultra?"..."Yes"

"Then sorry, you won't like real beer." I make em beg and then when I finally give in, I always paint a story around the beer style and the ole country way of doing things and the process of grains and starch conversion etc. blah, blah blah...

Hands down, when I make them insist on a brew and give them some "marketing" around it, the reaction is always much better than if I simply say "here, wanna taste my home made beer?"

I get this comment a lot when I introduce people to, IMO, quality beer, whether it be my own or good craft

"I dont like dark beer that much"

I've noticed so many people who taste a beer that actually has flavor and aroma consider it "dark" even if it may be a pale ale, or IPA or whatever. Its "dark" and therefore "hard to drink" if its not BMC.

Luckily the people who matter most to me in life have already been converted over to the "dark" side.

Most people don't understand that darkness is a completely seperate quality from flavor, bitterness, hoppiness, and maltiness.

Stone IPA is really light, but I don't think it's an easy-drinker for your average BMC lover. Something like Shiner 97, which was a black lager, was as dark as any porter, but it tasted almost the same as their light and bock, and people liked it.

Heh, I actually used that to trick people into trying porters when we ran out of 97, and amazingly, most people, primed by their experience with the black lager, liked the porters as well. So much of it is psychological.

Torchiest said:

Heh, I actually used that to trick people into trying porters when we ran out of 97, and amazingly, most people, primed by their experience with the black lager, liked the porters as well. So much of it is psychological.

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Yeah, this is largely in people's heads. I think a lot of people who aren't big beer drinkers tend to prefer maltier, less hoppy styles. Well, newsflash--a lot of those styles tend to be darker colored.

I bet a good Munich Dunkel would be just about the perfect starter "real" beer for a lot of people if they could just get past the "I don't like dark beer" thing.

My wife could take or leave most beers--she thinks the best beers I've made are a (very) dark mild and a dubbel.

and strangely enough, it was a munich dunkel that made me want to make my own beer. :cross: