Are you the Black Sheep of your neighborhood?

[scoundrel]

I just came to the conclusion that I am. I bought my home during the housing boom. These days, I couldn't buy my house if I was a first time home buyer. I have some cool neighbors a few blocks away, but some neighbors that have lived here for some time, look down on my brewing hobby. Many of the husbands won't stop by since their wives don't approve. The good news is that it is not a deterrent. My wife supports me and frankly I don't care what they think. However, I am curious to find out if anyone else is in the same boat.

 

[iambeer]

If I cared about semi-strangers more in this world or even on my street I would only approach them as creatures full of fears and hang ups. I don't take anything personally and therefore I'm not the outsider black sheep. I think they're all heathen black sheep and I'm more like a minority white sheep with a penchant for lamb. ... so yeah sure I feel the same way as you.

 

[MalFet]

I'm more like a minority white sheep with a penchant for lamb. ...

*stares*

 

[iambeer]

*stares*

I think I accidentally copied and pasted a paragraph from the Se7en diaries... such is life...

 

[scoundrel]

I don't take things personally either. It's just funny since alot of the neighbors that "shun me" are always at the neighborhood happy hours and are have a liking for the beer and wine served (and the apple pie shooters I bring). I think their afraid their husbands will have a 4 tap fridge in the garage. It's kinda weird. I mean its not 1933.

 

[jsguitar]

Do you think your name might have something to do with it?

(J/K)

 

[Airborneguy]

People in my development who have seen me brewing usually think its cool. Two summers ago I had friends over and we brewed and smoked ribs outside. My 80 year old neighbor came out to hang out with us. He's all alone so he kept saying how great of a time he was having hanging out with "the guys" again. I haven't had a single negative remark in regards to my brewing.

 

[45_70sharps]

All the places around here are five plus acres so we tend to mind our own business.
I don't talk much to most of my neighbors. I work 30 miles away in another county, don't get home till near 6:00, then my attention is on my daughter since I'm a single dad.

The brewing is the last thing that would set me apart since that's not something that people see.
The old cars that come and go might be more noticeable but even that doesn't give them any reason to complain. I've got a three car garage and don't have more than one extra car in the driveway at any one time. Sometimes I've got more, but not that they see.

One house has an older couple that is very friendly. He's come over to help with a car before and come over for a few drinks a couple times. The others I don't really talk to.

 

[Dan]

My neighborhood is pretty quiet but people are sociable. I was grinding grain one night on my front porch, weighing out hops and putting them into little baggies. My next door neigbor was having one of his normal Friday night get togethers. Apparently one of his wife's friends saw me doing something "irregular" said maybe they should call the cops. My neighbor's wife said "No, lets go ask him"

I explained what I was doing, let them smell the crushed grains and the bags of hops. They think I'm a master brewer now! Ha ha.

My other neighbors don't give two hoots.

 

[mforsman]

I've had neighbors in my apartment building come by because of the smell to ask what I was making, but i know the neighborhoods you're talking about from where I grew up.

Organize a block party & brew / bbq for it. The husbands won't stop coming back with empty growlers after that

 

[GunnyB]

I used to have a house in a fairly laid back neighborhood. I would always help out a neighbor so they wouldn't get upset when I ran nitro r/c trucks up and down the street. Now I live at a golf course and about half the neighbors are stuck up. The ones right close to me are great so that's good enough. Who cares if you're the black sheep, live your life brother!!! It's too short and boring otherwise

 

[unionrdr]

I live in a newer developemnet where most of them make a lot more money than I did before I retired. I was doing something with a brew one summers day,& the neighbor's wife was on a cell phone,saying "yeah,it looks like a meth lab or something". How in the world would these straights know what a meth lab looks like? Let alone smells like?? Ignorance is annoying,but no big problems yet. The cops came over once for something unrelated,& he asked about my stuff. I gave a breif description of how I brew beer with the various elemnts he could see. It's all good.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

My neighbours are actually very cool and since I´m brewing I only think I actually look cooler to them. If it were different I wouln´t care. You find a lot of different random people that will think that you are a genius or and idiot. Don´t care about been a white or black sheep I try not been a sheep.

 

[VegasJ]

I am but brewing isn't the reason.

I guarantee I bring home double what anyone else does, I have the nicest vehicle in the area that I take care of, & I clean up the trash that gets tossed in my yard instead of adding to it...

that alone makes me stand out.

 

[scoundrel]

Do you think your name might have something to do with it?

(J/K)

Haha, it might be

 

[scoundrel]

I used to have a house in a fairly laid back neighborhood. I would always help out a neighbor so they wouldn't get upset when I ran nitro r/c trucks up and down the street. Now I live at a golf course and about half the neighbors are stuck up. The ones right close to me are great so that's good enough. Who cares if you're the black sheep, live your life brother!!! It's too short and boring otherwise

Your situation sounds similar to mine. I really don't worry about it at all. I love this hobby too much and the people who approve outweigh the few that don't.

I find it's typically wine drinkers who don't like or understand beer. Not to mention, I have 3 kids, so I think that plays a role. I think they think I brew to get hammered and lay around all day, which is sooo far from the truth. Ironically, one of my prime motivations for brewing is that it is a social ice breaker.

If they only knew how seriously I take brewing, I think it would be ok. I don't drink until I've pitched the yeast, have a detailed step by step process and take alot of pride in what I make. It's very similar to my bbq passion It's passions like these that make life worth living. As my friend TKNice says, "to be happy, you have to have something to look forward to".

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I don't talk to my neighbors unless I have to. I don't even like having neighbors, but that's the price you pay for living in town.

 

[huntingohio]

I actually am very involved in my neighbor hood. I love being out here and wouldnt change it for the world

 

[neosapien]

It's the opposite from me. I'm definitely the weird guy on the block, and I like it that way. Last weekend I was brewing, I had 2 random neighbors stop by and check things out and ask lots of questions, and another random lady on a bike wave good morning as she drove by asking if i was brewing again. I think as long as I am handing out delicious beers and they all keep bringing me delicious bbq, we'll get along just fine.

 

[jiggs_casey]

Whether I'm up at 5am with the smoker or outside all day with the mysterious 'large pot' or setting up what looks like strange 'clothesline', my neighbors really don't care anymore. They were curious when I first moved in, now, they just wave...

 

[A4J]

I don't brew in my garage so none of neighbors know what my setup looks like. A few of them know that I brew and have seen the kegs.

I bought my house at the top of the market and most of the ones that were here when I moved here have lost their homes so now I have new neighbors. Good bunch of people but most keep to themselves.

 

[bottlebomber]

I live in the perfect neighborhood at the end of a street where everyone minds their own business. I could probably do a lot weirder things than brew before anyone started getting nosey.

 

[boscobeans]

I live in the perfect neighborhood at the end of a street where everyone minds their own business. I could probably do a lot weirder things than brew before anyone started getting nosey.

Almost the same here. I run a smoker every so often throughout the year as well as my BK.. No one pays the slightest bit of attention to it.

bosco

 

[krackin]

No sheep here at all. I'm the badazz biker farmer child advocate from the wrong side of the tracks. I personally moved the tracks. I grind yuppies for AG.

 

[drainbamage]

My neighborhood is pretty quiet, and a lot of the families keep to themselves. While I like my privacy, I'm totally willing to help out when I need to.

Most don't care about craft beer so they don't have any interest in my hobby, but I think I managed to make myself the black sheep anyway around this time last year. The children of several households always hang out together, and took it upon themselves that they would relieve their boredom by harassing my wife and I...taunting our dog, shooting paintballs all over our garage door (on Christmas Eve, no less), and shooting out a lamppost by the driveway a couple weeks later. At the risk of being the "you damn kids get off my lawn"-guy, I called the parents on it. Since then, I've been on the neighborhood sh*t list with those families, but I don't really mind.

 

[Demon]

I live in a townhouse and we have "alleys" essentially between the garages. My direct neighbors all know about my brewing and occasionally stop by to chat for a few minutes about it. One unpleasant older woman felt the need to call the police due to people congregating outside my garage for my sons first birthday, and another yelled at me for hitting her house with a frisbee. Aside from those two, everyone is pretty cool. The next block over from me really gets into my brewing. Everytime I walk over there people want to know whats on tap, whats fermenting, etc. That usually results in a field trip back to my house to fill some glasses.

 

[mgortel]

Screw those stuffy stuck-up a$$holes.....

Several of my neighbors homebrew...in fact one of them got me started....

Luckily my neighbors are cool...and most of them are beer drinkers...hell, the wives are usually the ones that stop over to chat when I am brewing.......

 

[BrewGeek_Ohio]

That usually results in a field trip back to my house to fill some glasses.

That's what home brew is for! Social lubricant.

My neighbor to the left loves my dark beers already, his wife begs me to start doing wine. I just might! I'm sure there are more neighbors that will be interested once summer comes back around.

I brew in the basement though so it will be neighborhood chit chat that gets the word out.

As for me though, I really could care less what the neighborhood folks think. I'm sure the housewarming party expressed how we roll! Lol

 

[Bronco1500]

I brew in the backyard so its kinda on the down low. The only person who has mentioned home brew to me was the U.P.S. guy. As he was delivering hb supplies.

 

[porky_pine]

A lot of my neighbors brew beer too. I live directly across the street from a grocery store that sells more beer than anywhere else in Oregon and I brew on my front porch so I'm constantly having people come by and check it out the whole time I'm brewing.