Beer snobbing

[Homercidal]

Not every place knows exactly what glass is appropriate for each beer. Not every place cares, or wants to have that much different glassware.

But somehow they all know that Blue Moon and Oberon is supposed to have a friggin orange! Last time I went to the local bar I ordered an Oberon and the lady grabs a frosty mug. Uh, ok, I can live with that I guess... But then she starts walking over to the cooler and I yell 3 times "NO ORANGE!" but I guess she can't hear me.

Well, it's not the way I prefer it, but it's not terrible.

It's my bad for forgetting that the rest of the world wants frozen orange infused Oberon.

 

[40watt]

Not every place knows exactly what glass is appropriate for each beer. Not every place cares, or wants to have that much different glassware.

But somehow they all know that Blue Moon and Oberon is supposed to have a friggin orange! Last time I went to the local bar I ordered an Oberon and the lady grabs a frosty mug. Uh, ok, I can live with that I guess... But then she starts walking over to the cooler and I yell 3 times "NO ORANGE!" but I guess she can't hear me.

Well, it's not the way I prefer it, but it's not terrible.

It's my bad for forgetting that the rest of the world wants frozen orange infused Oberon.

That's funny stuff. Luckily, I don't mind the orange.

 

[marcycaulkins]

Well, one of my service pet peeves is when I'm pondering the beer selection, trying to decide what sounds good at the moment, and the server, noticing that I'm female and thus obviously dumb and wimpy about beer, tries to be helpful... "well, the (insert BMC or BMC clone here) is nice and light".

 

[redcoat_or_rebel]

a guy at work was just tellingme this, he ordered a Blue Moon at some new restaurant called Upper Deck. first one was warm so they sent it back, second one they were out of orange so they put a lemon wedge in it. wtf?

they complained to the manager on the way out and he just said Sorry adn turned around and walked away.

i think alot of places don't know the difference between was is good, bad or ugly when it comes to beer nor do they have (or possibly even want) customers who are that discerning.

we are the minority but we are gaining on them!

 

[McGarnigle]

Well, one of my service pet peeves is when I'm pondering the beer selection, trying to decide what sounds good at the moment, and the server, noticing that I'm female and thus obviously dumb and wimpy about beer, tries to be helpful... "well, the (insert BMC or BMC clone here) is nice and light".

There's enough of that going on at these forums. "I want to brew a light, fruity beer for my wife."

 

[McGarnigle]

a guy at work was just tellingme this, he ordered a Blue Moon at some new restaurant called Upper Deck. first one was warm so they sent it back, second one they were out of orange so they put a lemon wedge in it. wtf?

they complained to the manager on the way out and he just said Sorry adn turned around and walked away.

i think alot of places don't know the difference between was is good, bad or ugly when it comes to beer nor do they have (or possibly even want) customers who are that discerning.

we are the minority but we are gaining on them!

This is where I'm sympathetic with them. I don't know how warm the warm beer was, but I wouldn't want mine ice cold. And I never would've guessed an orange was proper but a lemon was wrong (I'd take either fruit and toss it aside).

 

[bruin_ale]

Well, one of my service pet peeves is when I'm pondering the beer selection, trying to decide what sounds good at the moment, and the server, noticing that I'm female and thus obviously dumb and wimpy about beer, tries to be helpful... "well, the (insert BMC or BMC clone here) is nice and light".

Classic.. Reminds me one when I was on a vacation with my wife in Munich. We ordered our beers, I had the hefe and she had the dunkel. When a different server came back with our beers he didn't ask, just put the dunkel in front of me and the hefe in front of my wife. Made me laugh, I didn't realize I'd ordered a woman's drink.

 

[SwampassJ]

I go to this local Mexican place where only hot women take orders/serve bar and they like to put limes in all the Mexican beers. Dos Equis? Lime on the rim. Dos Equis Amber? Lime on the rim. Corona? Lime on the rim. Modelo Especial? Lime on the rim. It doesn't matter if you say no lime they still bring it out with the damn lime. Fortunately all of the air heads are out front and the people in the kitchen are ugly men who can cook.

 

[redcoat_or_rebel]

I go to this local Mexican place where only hot women take orders/serve bar and they like to put limes in all the Mexican beers. Dos Equis? Lime on the rim. Dos Equis Amber? Lime on the rim. Corona? Lime on the rim. Modelo Especial? Lime on the rim. It doesn't matter if you say no lime they still bring it out with the damn lime. Fortunately all of the air heads are out front and the people in the kitchen are ugly men who can cook.

that's funny. in texas and and the "southwest" its same - anything that could even be confused as mexican will have a lime in it. my sister studied "abroad" (i use quotes because south texas might as well be mexico) in Mexico and they use lemon, not lime, in beer.

 

[stocktires]

Maybe it just happens to me, but a lot of places locally switch up taps. The other day I ordered a Boston Lager (for the girlfriend) and out came noble pils, which was the tap beside it.
I get pints from time to time where I can tell the lines are dirty, and other times the beer is obviously skunked and even bartenders can't tell. That come with the territory of living in a place where there are three types of beer known to everyone...BMC.

 

[bovineblitz]

Recently I was at a local brewpub with SWMBO. I ordered a peppery saison and she ordered the low ABV IPA that she likes. I'd never had the saison before. The waiter brings us our beers, mine in a snifter and hers in a stemmed pint glass, and I sip mine and say out loud "wow, this is really bitter". It tasted like it had the bitterness levels of an IPA but still had some belgian notes so I figured maybe that's what they were going for. I wasn't thrilled but figured it's a decent beer, just not really a saison. SWMBO on the other hand found her beer to be terrible and wasn't pleased at all. I tasted hers and it was a little phenolic with some esters (which she hates), but also quite bitter. Holding both the beers up to the light, they were identical and tasted pretty much the same as well but they were both pretty bitter so I wasn't 100% sure they were the same (more like 70%).

I flagged down the waiter and told him that her beer was not correct, perhaps it was the belgian IPA that they also had on tap. He smelled her beer (which I found a little off putting) and said "oh no this is correct" presumably just because he smelled hops, then grabbed MY beer and smelled it and said that it was wrong and whisked himself away before I could say anything. We were left looking at each other confused as I was okay with my beer and she was not happy with hers at all. He came back and apologized for my beer and gave me the saison then quickly left before I could say anything. The saison was quite good and filled with notes of various peppercorns which was what I was going for so I was happier.

SWMBO though, was still not pleased but at this point she didn't want to complain. I'm not one to pay premium prices for something I don't want so I flagged down the waiter again and said that I seriously think her beer is wrong and mentioned that I tasted phenols and esters and that it was definitely made with a belgian yeast, perhaps the bartender's mind slipped a bit when he was pouring and he poured us both the same wrong beer but in the correct glassware. The waiter seemed annoyed and definitely didn't believe me. I guess since I used 'big beer words' though he took the beer away. SWMBO spotted him tasting it with a straw, then he came back with a new beer and apologized profusely saying I was right all along.

It was quite the hassle to get the beers we wanted but eventually we got the right ones, haha. It was so confusing though, especially since the glasses were different. I'd never had a problem there before and I'm not going to hold it against them, it's a great place and the beer is awesome. Everyone slips up sometimes, all I ask is that they fix it when I ask them to.

This was a great example of being a connoisseur seriously coming in handy.

 

[MoPhunk]

My buddy had his bachelor party on saturday and we went on a local brewery tour. We were at The Great River Brewery in Davenport,IA Great beer. I had the Farmer Brown and the Hoppapotomus. Both were delicious. The next place we stopped was **** in comparison. Their brown was real sweet on the front and had a twang on the back end. I tried to drink it but ended up just switching it for their basic pale ale. Even though I was disappointed in the beer the bartenders around here will always give you another beer even if it's because you just don't like the taste of teh beer.

 

[bovineblitz]

Well, one of my service pet peeves is when I'm pondering the beer selection, trying to decide what sounds good at the moment, and the server, noticing that I'm female and thus obviously dumb and wimpy about beer, tries to be helpful... "well, the (insert BMC or BMC clone here) is nice and light".

That happens to my gf all the time. It's funny too cuz she often winds up ordering a RIS or IIPA.

 

[Zamial]

So far...I have seen 1 "maybe" beer snob post here...

Which brings me to the next point..."Beer snob". By just about every definition I can find or have seen used in common language has been "Someone that is VERY particular about their beer." Well, I hate to point at the bleeding obvious here folks but that describes 100% of all of my BMC drinking friends. I have 1 guy that has actually convinced himself that he is allergic to any other beer other than Bud Light. Talk about a whinny SOB when there is not any to be had and no other BMC crap will do...

I prefer to think of myself as "beer enlightened" or "Lupilin deficient" anything other than "snob"... I hate to also point out I will drink a greater varitey of beer than most of the BMC fanboys I know...and I am the snob?

I don't think so scooter.

:rockin:

 

[Hoodweisen]

my hometown in Missouri is a black hole for beer I wouldnt trade her for anything after having traveled the rest of the country for work but life is hard here we have two bars in town one sells mostly can beer and its everybody thats been ran out of the other bar the uptown bar only has bottles the owner tries he started carrying stuff like guiness and two new belgiums and boulevard wheat because he knows my bestman myself and the occasional tourists will drink them. But since i started homebrew i dont even drink "the weird beers" as the waitresses say anymore. Honestly, i get smashed at home have the wife drive me up to the bar and i sip on couple BMC to fit in because all of my friends know me and my strange habits by now and ive actually gotten several of them to come to the darkside in the last few months but theres always a different toothless cowboy thats gotta bring it up. Toothless cowboys are huge beer snobs. None of you have it as bad as me Im going to go drown my sorrows in homebrew now.

 

[Chuginator]

Recently at a trendy pub, a couple came in and sat in a booth behind me and my wife. The guy asked for something hoppy; the waitress ended up suggesting a relatively non-hoppy pale ale over an IPA. Made my ears burn and I wanted to turn around and throw my hand out and scream "NOOOOO!!!!!", but in hindsight, there were a couple of interesting things about this:

* The guy that ordered the beer was obviously a newbie, but somewhat interested in "real" beer because he knew enough to want something hoppy, but not knowledgeable enough to know which beers on tap were hoppy.

* Perhaps the relatively non-hoppy pale ale was hoppy to the waitress, but she was obviously not aware of what IPAs are. If someone asks for something hoppy, that's what you serve them. This wasn't a case where she didn't suggest the IPA because the lines (or limes! LOL) were dirty or because the keg had blown, as I was drinking one at the time and it was delicious.

* It made me contemplative. I find it a wonderful state of affairs that the word "hoppy" was even heard in public - the world of beer has come a long, long, long way in the past 40 years. I thank the beer gods every day that there are choices now other than "Bud" or "Coors." I'm the type that gets ecstatic when I see a beer on tap that I've never had before and order it instantly, regardless of style (unless it's a Belgian, then I need a sample first).

Am I being a beer snob here in the regards of thinking that the waitress should know what they're selling and study the beers at least to the point of knowing the difference between the major styles? The employer should make them pass a simple test!

I also have a friend that has the opposite type of "try anything new" mentality. He is a snob in that he refuses to drink anything but Miller or Keystone Light. While I drink a fair share of Keystone Light while working in my shop, I just don't understand this attitude. That's like saying "no, don't bring me that wonderful Italian pasta dish on the menu, I'd rather have SpaghettiO's." He's not even curious (frankly I think it's some kind of image problem - he'd never get caught drinking wine, for example), but I tell you what - I'm going to convert him, or at least try. I'm going to invite him over to watch me do an all-grain batch of a house pale ale and explain that this is the real McCoy (beer for real men) and see where it goes. Probably nowhere, but it's my duty to try!

 

[Scruffy1207]

Recently at a trendy pub, a couple came in and sat in a booth behind me and my wife. The guy asked for something hoppy; the waitress ended up suggesting a relatively non-hoppy pale ale over an IPA. Made my ears burn and I wanted to turn around and throw my hand out and scream "NOOOOO!!!!!", but in hindsight, there were a couple of interesting things about this:

* The guy that ordered the beer was obviously a newbie, but somewhat interested in "real" beer because he knew enough to want something hoppy, but not knowledgeable enough to know which beers on tap were hoppy.

* Perhaps the relatively non-hoppy pale ale was hoppy to the waitress, but she was obviously not aware of what IPAs are. If someone asks for something hoppy, that's what you serve them. This wasn't a case where she didn't suggest the IPA because the lines (or limes! LOL) were dirty or because the keg had blown, as I was drinking one at the time and it was delicious.

* It made me contemplative. I find it a wonderful state of affairs that the word "hoppy" was even heard in public - the world of beer has come a long, long, long way in the past 40 years. I thank the beer gods every day that there are choices now other than "Bud" or "Coors." I'm the type that gets ecstatic when I see a beer on tap that I've never had before and order it instantly, regardless of style (unless it's a Belgian, then I need a sample first).

Am I being a beer snob here in the regards of thinking that the waitress should know what they're selling and study the beers at least to the point of knowing the difference between the major styles? The employer should make them pass a simple test!

I also have a friend that has the opposite type of "try anything new" mentality. He is a snob in that he refuses to drink anything but Miller or Keystone Light. While I drink a fair share of Keystone Light while working in my shop, I just don't understand this attitude. That's like saying "no, don't bring me that wonderful Italian pasta dish on the menu, I'd rather have SpaghettiO's." He's not even curious (frankly I think it's some kind of image problem - he'd never get caught drinking wine, for example), but I tell you what - I'm going to convert him, or at least try. I'm going to invite him over to watch me do an all-grain batch of a house pale ale and explain that this is the real McCoy (beer for real men) and see where it goes. Probably nowhere, but it's my duty to try!

Well, thats how I started out, I had an IPA one day and thought it was terrible. A week went by and I wanted to take another crack at it. Drinking IPAs sparingly, and moving my way up from BMC to browns and now I can't touch BMCs unless I'm playing a game of BP or out camping. I used to ask for something hoppy. Now I find out what they have, and sometimes try (but mostly fail) at finding out the IBUs. As for the waitress, it's kind of her job to know what they sell. She couldn't get by serving a slightly spicy tomato bisque over an actually spicy jambalaya, just because it's beer doesn't make it okay. imo

 

[rico567]

If problems aren't brought to the attention of those running the establishment, the probability of those problems being resolved goes down drastically. The natural human tendency is "let someone else do it," but there are ways of bringing those things to people's attention (some good examples of which have been outlined in this thread) without being a prick.

 

[Chuginator]

Definitely so - I'm never a prick when it comes to this kind of thing- because when you bring it to their attention, they should consider it constructive feedback on what might be going astray.

Not beer related, but I did go to a restaurant a couple months back and had some absolutely terrible ribs - they were inedible. At the time, I paid my bill and left, but it stuck in my craw and I really started to feel like I got shafted. So I wrote them a very positive e-mail indicating what my experience was and let them know that I was just doing it because I was concerned about their business and the chance that others might have a bad experience too. They e-mailed back a $25 gift certificate and an apology. I can't get my wife to return after the experience, so I'll be stuck taking my BMC friends there to drink it up.

 

[Seamus]

I rarely have issues at bars but when I do I don't feel the need to get technical with the server and never had to prove why I wanted something sent back. He/She probably won't understand and doesn't care. I think it's definitely snobbery throwing around brewing terms.

I'd have to laugh if I saw someone lecturing a server on Maillard reaction when they got burnt toast.

 

[bovineblitz]

I rarely have issues at bars but when I do I don't feel the need to get technical with the server and never had to prove why I wanted something sent back. He/She probably won't understand and doesn't care. I think it's definitely snobbery throwing around brewing terms.

I'd have to laugh if I saw someone lecturing a server on Maillard reaction when they got burnt toast.

I normally wouldn't throw around brewing terms, but in the case of the story I posted I had to complain about the beer several times and the server didn't believe me and I was right. I didn't demonstrate my knowledge until I'd already complained a couple times, it seemed like it got his attention.

 

[scottland]

I've been brought the wrong beer more times than I can count. Sometimes, if it's something I like, I'll just drink it. If it's not, i'll send it back. Sometimes I get a funny look, but sorry, that's simply not what I ordered. If I order a turkey sandwich, and I'm brought a burger, unless a burger sounds really good at the moment, i'm sending it back.

It happens to me quite a bit here in Phoenix, as our big local brewery(Four Peaks) usually has 2-3 beers on tap at a lot of bars. Thankfully I love their beers, but often times I order their Pale Ale, and get their Scottish, or vise versa. It's as simple as the bartender pulling the wrong 'Four Peaks' tap handle, so i brush it off.

A couple times I've had glasses that just reek of soap, i've sent back a few beers because of that. I usually just ask the waitress to smell the beer, they instantly notice it smells like a bottle of Dawn, and take it back without question. If you're nice when these things happen, people usually understand.

 

[mattd2]

The guy asked for something hoppy; the waitress ended up suggesting a relatively non-hoppy pale ale over an IPA.

Just playing devils advocate here but, maybe the waitress knew more about beer than you gave her credit for and thought if she gave that "newb" a hop bomb that he would probably not like it and never order/return to the place again because of it. Now she might of thought that she would give him a more tha BMC hoppy beer to get him started down the road and if he orders another maybe then go for something with a bit more hops. As I said, maybe she did know about beer... but your version of the story is more likely

 

[BenjaminBier]

There's a brew pub in my town that is proud to offer Cask Ale. They up the ante on beer snobbery a bit saying that they have all their lines done very carefully, the brewer loves cask ale and always gives the cask beer special attention, always tries the most interesting recipes, etc.

Not a lot of people order the cask ale cause the beer is usually a specialty beer, not their popular flagship beers.

The first pint I get is always so stale like the beer's been sitting in the line forever. The first two times I ordered cask ale I would just deal with it, order a second pint, and enjoy it. The second pint is always fantastic.

So I started asking the server to have the bartender clear the line a bit before filling the pint. Absolutely wouldn't do it and treated me like I was telling them to throw away the best beer in the house.

I guess my point is that if bars want to appeal to 'snobs' they need to do it right :snob:

 

[adfirmus]

I can only think of one story related to this thread. Most of the bars around hear only serve BMC beer. Fine. It's a college town. I've actually had a bartender not know what "Draft" is.

Anyways, I decided to grab a beer from around the block at a bar that I havent been to before. Most of the time, locally, I'll just get BMC. It's the selection and It's cold and it's beer. I figured they would have more than BMC since it was a nicer pub-style bar that also served lunch. I ask "Can I get a Sierra Nevada pale ale?" Most bars around that serve food at least have SNPA, so I figured they would. Bartender goes "Sure thing," and heads to the bar. He looks around a couple of time. Then he turns to one of the regulars at the bar. "Hey Phil, do we have Sierra Nevada?" Phil shakes his head, "no." So I ordered a Yeungling draft. I guess he at least knew what draft was.

Basically, there is not much of a market here for bars to serve craft beer, but it's getting better. One establishment, with great food btw, used to try and have more crafty beers like Sierra Nevada, Leinie, and Sam Adams, actually stop carrying a lot of those beers. I guess they didn't sell well.

 

[Rev2010]

But then she starts walking over to the cooler and I yell 3 times "NO ORANGE!" but I guess she can't hear me.

Well, it's not the way I prefer it, but it's not terrible.

Ha, the story of my my beer ordering life lol. The problem I definitely have with oranges and lemons come down to two things:

1. Pits in my beer!!! Or worse yet possibly getting stuck in my throat. And it's not like you can get them out.

2. The sourness left on the edge of the glass. I can't say how many times I've taken off the damn lemon that every bar sticks on any wheat based beer just to eventually land my lips on the sour area where the lemon was wedged. Now I try to keep drinking from the same side for the whole beer to avoid the nasty puckering taste.


Rev.

 

[RIT_Warrior]

Once I went to a bar that didn't have a great tap selection. Luckily, they had SNPA in bottles, so I got one of those.

They just opened the bottle and gave it to me. I wasn't mad, but I asked for a glass. Bartender looked slightly annoyed but gave me a frozen shaker glass which seemed to hold exactly 12 ounces of fluid. Didn't complain about the glass or the chilledness of it, but I did mention that SNPA is bottle conditioned and you probably don't want to drink it right out of the bottle. Bartender looked at me like I was talking a foreign language, but said she would bear that in mind from now on.

So it could have been worse. I don't mind too much, but I wish they gave me a 16 ouncer instead of one which couldn't hold all of my beer.

 

[mattd2]

Once I went to a bar that didn't have a great tap selection. Luckily, they had SNPA in bottles, so I got one of those.

They just opened the bottle and gave it to me. I wasn't mad, but I asked for a glass. Bartender looked slightly annoyed but gave me a frozen shaker glass which seemed to hold exactly 12 ounces of fluid. Didn't complain about the glass or the chilledness of it, but I did mention that SNPA is bottle conditioned and you probably don't want to drink it right out of the bottle. Bartender looked at me like I was talking a foreign language, but said she would bear that in mind from now on.

So it could have been worse. I don't mind too much, but I wish they gave me a 16 ouncer instead of one which couldn't hold all of my beer.

I'm confused, why did she give you a shaker glass? What were they using for pouring tap beers?

 

[MeatyPortion]

I ordered a Rochefort 6 at a bar in town and they just gave me the bottle. I asked for a glass and they gave me a shaker. I said no give me a goblet and they did. You want to call it snobbery? Fine. But I'm not paying 9 bucks for a beer if it's not to my liking, plus this place should know better.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

I just moved to San Antonio from Waco. Back in Waco there was a bar with tons of taps... like a ton. The problem was that the lines were almost always dirty and the girls working the bar had no knowledge about beer. As a result I didn't go there very often. But here's a great conversation I once heard.

Girl Bar - wench: Hi what can I get you?
Guy: Well I wanted to try something new. I don't like anything sweet. And my buddy keeps telling me to try something called an "IPA". Do you have one of those?
Girl Bar - wench: Yeah we do. But you probably won't like it. They're all REALLY sweet.