Are you the Black Sheep of your neighborhood?

Let's see, self-employed, work from home mostly, 30 yrs younger than everyone, don't have a 'We still believe in Merry Christmas' sign out by the road, acre plus garden this year, and several hog killings....nah, we fit in great. The worst part is probably how little I cut the grass. It's the number one pastime of all the retiree neighbors. Acres and acres of grass on a tractor. And they think we're strange. Funny thing is that my wife's family has been within 10 miles of here for over 200 years, so most of the people who think we're freaks are outsiders in my book.

 

I live in the burbs. Serious burbage, rows of houses all about 2000-2500 square feet all in a development built in the late 60's. We're all sitting on about 1/4 acre each, so it's about as average as you can get.

Sure I make beer, which is unusual...but my neighbor two doors down restored a B-25 engine in his garage last year and this year he's restoring two 1930's diesel tractors, so occasionally we walk outside saturday to see him joyriding a gigantic tractor at 5 miles per hour up and down our completely average suburban street.

So no, I'm not the black sheep... but everyone in our neighborhood likes the black sheep so it wouldn't be bad anyway.

 

Sounds like a fun neighborhood.

 

I wish my wife loved homebrew. Whenever I ask her opinion, she will reluctantly taste it and say "it tastes like beer" Although supportive, I think she'd push back at the other wives if she could tell them how good it is.

It's mostly wives of the older men in the area. One neighbor loves Guinness and he said he once tried to put a kegerator in his basement and his wife was flat out against it. It may be the old mentality of "what will the neighbors say". So, I think when the guys see how cool home brewing is, the quality of the results and how my wife is ok with my 4 tap fridge, the men love it and the wives don't.

 

This is totally our situation. We're in our mid-thirties and both of our neighbors are nearing/past retirement age. Our next door neighbor has a landscaping crew at her house once a week, and our backyard neighbor did a $10,000 backyard remodel about eight years ago and cut down every tree in his backyeard and had new sod put in about two years ago. He can frequently be seen with his backpack leafblower blowing leaves IN THE DARK! I think I cut my grass three times this past summer because I would rather be doing things like hiking, brewing beer, going to shows and playing disc golf.

We had a number of trees cut several months ago and figured it would be easy to find people that would want it for firewood so we didn't have the tree crew haul it off. Turns out over half of it was sweetgum which nobody likes to burn, so we're stuck with all this yard trash that is going to be either extremely laborious or expensive to remove.

Life is too fun and too short to spend endless hours cutting grass, raking/blowing leaves and trimming hedges. When we bought this house, our first house, we wanted something with a nice yard and trees, unlike the newer developments you see with tiny yards and no trees. Our next house will have exactly that.

I've bought a propane burner and larger pot with the intention of taking my brewing outside, but being in bass-ackwards Alabama where homebrewing is STILL illegal I'm still questioning the wisdom of moving outdoors.

 

One neighbor is the Mayor and he thinks it is great that I brew! He's a cool guy and is all about letting folks do what they want (within limits, of course) without judgement. Another neighbor is a craft beer guy who trades me beers for my homebrew pretty regular, so no problem from him either! The others surrounding my are all friends except for two who stay to themselves, so don't know how they feel but would wager one of the two would be totally cool with it. I've got it made, pretty much

 

One of my neighbors like to mess with me on brew days and threaten to call the feds (it's technically illegal to brew here), but he's a good guy and I usually give him a few. Another neighbor will occasionally come over for a brew day. But we do have a few families around us who are super Christians with an agenda, so I usually don't advertise when I'm brewing. I brew in the garage, so the big door is down and the smaller door is open.

 

I think I see the problem.You should really have your smoke shows during daylight hours so everyone can fully enjoy the visual as well as the aroma and audio.

 

Every other person in my neighborhood is 2 - 4 times the age of my wife and I. We're the "young in's" in the neighborhood for sure. I've only brewed out on the driveway/in the garage the last 4 weekends in a row, so they haven't had much exposure to it yet. Mainly I just get people walking by looking, but not seeming overly interested.

And lawn mowing is definitely a favored past-time for about 2/3rds of the neighborhood. I have one neighbor that mows every 3 days regardless of if it needs it, if its raining, or if the grass has stopped growing (they mowed this past weekend, when it was 35F out).

I'm assuming they'll stop once there's actually snow on the ground? Maybe?

 

I have also said before that brewing is allot like BBQ in that very small attentions to detail make one big difference in quality. And I think people who are into both are very close in personality. BBQ was my gateway drug, haha.

As far as my neighborhood, I don't think anyone even notices or could care less maybe its a CA thing.

 

Maybe you could grow oyster mushrooms. About a year from when they were cut is about right for inoculation.

 

I live in the city.
I wear bib overalls.
I brew beer.
I garden.
I grow 12 foot tall sunflowers.
I grow hops.
I have a Shih Tzu-terrier mix (read lady dog) dog.
I'm heavily tattooed.
I ride a bicycle.
I own a truck.
I prefer not to wear shoes during the summer.

I just may be..... :rockin:

 

/me Removes hat in respect.

 

Heh, when I put up my hop posts, they kind of look like a row of 4 huge crosses in the back yard. I had about a half dozen people gingerly ask what they were within the first week. Once I told them they were for growing hops, people were fine with it. One person even said "for making beer!?" as soon as I said they were hops.

 

Ya mine looks like a cross too. My next door neighbor is a vegetarian and asked me a lot of questions. He has a huge garden. It's funny cause I overheard his wife say "what is that... What is it for?" She thinks its an eye sore. Apparently, It's not nearly as nice as her 30x10 garden with 10 foot high chicken wire fence to keep the deer out, lol.

 

Fortunately we live in a neighborhood where the smallest lot is a half acre (mine), and the largest is about 3 acres. So while its a close-knit little neighborhood, you're not really right on top of each other. And once people find out what I'm doing, they seem more interested, like they'd never thought of something like that before.

 

My neighborhood is pretty normal for New England I think. People are friendly and let others do what they want.

I brew in the front yard (driveway) and the first few times I got questions . . . but the normal way. The neighbor wives asked my wife what I was doing the other day. Still... I do talk to the other people in the neighborhood (usually at the school bus stop if I'm home for it). Other neighbors make alcohol -- but they make Italian cordials (Limoncello, sambuca, strega, etc).

My kids are at the destroy-the-house age, so we don't tend to host parties, but I'm thinking of trying to run a block party or two spring through fall this year. I just bought extra kegs (50% off MW, thank you); I'm going to try my hand at Root Beer; and I might make the portable dispensers from the most recent BYO. ("The Beer Tower" from http://byo.com/stories/issue/list/issues/298-december-2012 ).

 

I'm contemplating spending this Sunday building a beer tower/portable dispenser like that for a new years party. I want to take two kegs, and I know they won't have fridge space for them.

 

I'm curious. Right now my kids could care less about my beer but when they reach the destroy-the-house age I'm worried about the 5 gallon kegs. Did you put security measures in place or did you just tell them that you'll know if beer is missing?

 

I wonder the same thing. My kids are 8&9 but I really don't feel like I will need to worry. I expose them to it, they see me brew, they even help. They know the deal. As for measures though, I'm installing an RFID lock once I finish me smart keggerator controller. Coming soon to a brew house near you!

 

I live in area where any alcohol is evil. Even though the Bible often mentions alcohol and our country was founded by beer drinkers and brewers but facts have no place in their world only beliefs grounded in falsehood.

 

Move my way bro. It's obvious you have no business living where you are. In my state I think its illegal to sell Bibles.

 

Yea I got lucky with my wife. She comes from a small town that was dry till about 6 years ago. She has an open mind about everything so she will try new things. Which includes beer apparently haha.

 

There was a time when I woke up in strange places in my youth and believing in a few of those falsehoods may have been beneficial.

 

I don't have neighbors any more. My 17 acres butts up against the far side of their 40 acres but I wouldn't call them neighbors. Maine is nice that way. However the people who live in the other side of the river (widest river in the state) can see me brewing on my back deck. Kind of like how I can see their kids smoking dope down by the riverbed. Again, it's Maine and cares are not given by either of us

I used to live in a trashy neighborhood in the city, in a 3rd floor apartment no less so I did get a lot of looks, and sideways glances when I was lugging 5 gallon batches, and gear up from the driveway.

Just brew on its not any of the neighbors business what you are doing.

 

My "destroy the house" kids range from 1-7 years old, so they can't reach the taps yet.

I plan on putting tap locks on, but for now the (yes it's "finished") basement dwelling children are very good at staying out of my section (where the toys aren't).

I'm hoping the teenage years I'll get my house back to myself (mostly) and they'll just destroy their rooms. That's how my siblings and I were (.......for the most part).

 

My neighbors haven't said anything about my brewing, if they've even noticed me doing it. My meth lab on the other hand...

 

As I live behind a funeral home, I'm not even on the radar...

 

I raise my glass to you good sir.

 

At least you don't have to worry about waking the neighbors.

 

Three days ago I was making a keggle in the drive way and some random stranger was walking by with his dog giving me the stink eye. I thought to myself, what the hell is that guy's problem...then realized that I'm throwing hot metal sparks in every direction, creating a huge racket with some obnoxious power tool while he is gingerly stepping around a giant pool of VERY old american lager running down my driveway.

Then yesterday my minister neighbor across the street saw us brewing for the first time which is odd since he lives directly across the street. He saw the toptier rig and asked "What the heck are you making?"

I yelled back "BEER!" and he laughed and yelled back "Of course you are!".

 

I'll find out soon. Just moved the brewery into the new house. Mostly a very young neighborhood so I'll either get some looks or be wildly popular.

 

also, I now have a handle bar mustache. Check Mate...

 

I'm in that boat, but it has nothing to do with beer brewing. My DW was married for 19 years and was going through the process of a nasty divorce when we met and started dating. She'd been married to a chain smoking, molsen ice chugging idiot that was a schmoozer and well liked in the neighborhood, then completely abusive and an icehole at home. He fought tooth and nail for full custody of their 13 year old daughter and I modified her rear view mirror to hold a hidden digital video recorder that could record for eight hours at 1080p facing straight ahead. He did all of his drinking and smoking in the garage with the door opened and he usually pounded down a twelve pack of molsen ice every night. During the course of the divorce, we recorded months and months of smoking and drinking and general family avoidance while he and his neighborhood buddies had a big old time in the garage.
When push came to shove, we were able to come to the table with over 200 DVD's worth of drinking including seven documented DUI's. He wound up settling for supervised custody to avoid showing the DUI's to the judge. He moved out and my DW got the house. Six months later we got married and I moved in in 2010.

The neighbors are just starting to get over it and warm up to me. I've been friendly to them and we've since had a new baby girl, and she's been the ice breaker. All is working out the way it should be. My DW, step-daughter and youngest are now in a stable, loving household and life couldn't be better.

 

I live in a rural area that is rampant with drugs and crime...several times this year I could smell the scent of pot coming from the neighbors house straight into my window, so it's very likely my home brewing isn't going to attract any negative attention.

Also around here you have to travel 30 miles to get a good craft beer, so if anything the neighbors might enjoy a good home brew rather than the same old Bud or Busch Light.

 

Hmm.. How close to Mendocino County CA are you?

 

we are the only smart people in our neighborhood. so I suppose.

 

Well my neighbor came up to me and asked me to let him know when I brew next so he can bring a friend to watch the process. Also, we belong to a neighborhood monthly happy hour (which is right outside of my neighborhood) and we get to host it in April. That should be interesting. Things are looking up.

 

I moved into my house right at the beginning of 2011, and frankly brewing in my street-facing garage is how I've met most of my neighbors!

Of course, one of the reasons I chose to move into this neighborhood is the wide variety of garages crammed full of interesting stuff and pickup trucks in the driveways, which frankly is *NOT* the norm in my area of Orange County. So I had a feeling I'd fit in better here

 

Neighborhood happy hour. Oh man,I wish.