Has this ever happened to you and am I a beer snob?

[bernerbrau]

To people who think all beer tastes the same, you are being a penis.

But if you can tell the difference and you're paying for that difference it's your prerogative to get what you ordered, and if the waiter thinks all beer tastes the same and doesn't mind telling you so, that's why tipping is technically optional.

 

[GraphBrew]

Is it wrong to ask for a glass that is not frozen? My local bar has a few good things on tap. At the moment New Castle is nice. They keep glasses in the freezer and when it gets to you it is pretty cold. Too cold IMO. I felt kinda like a d-bag when I asked for a unfrozen glass last time I was in there.

And we are going out to eat (not our usual) when a little women gets home and all these stories will be fresh on deck. I'm just going to walk over to the bar and find out on my own from now on so I'm less annoyed with the clueless wait staff.

Dude, I will spaz over this. If my food isn't up to par (at an every day restaurant) I won't complain unless it's something drastic. If my beer gets mixed up I'll even take it easy as long as the beer is on the same tier. If I order a Raison D'etra and get a Miller Lite however, it's on...luckily though that has yet to happen. But there's one thing I can't stand and it's serving me my beer in a frozen glass or pouring it the wrong way. I ordered a Guinness at a local bar that my friends love for some reason and the idiot behind the bar grabs a Coors Lite glass out of the ice (so not only is it cold, it also has ice and water in the glass) and pours a Guinness like it's in fact a Coors. I looked at the guy, looked at the F'ing blue mountains..."5 bucks buddy" he says. I got up and left without saying anything and haven't been back since. This was last year

 

[DrJekyll-HomeBrew]

same thing happened to me at friday's (I hate that restraunt with a passion now) they claimed they poured a sam adams oktoberfest and it was more like the boston lager..

 

[RunBikeBrew]

I was at a really fancy restaurant in Providence for a family party. They had a great beer selection and I ordered a Biere de Garde (or was it a Saison?) from some small Belgian brewery. They gave me the bottle and a glass. No problem. A while later, I had poured all of my beer, being careful to leave the yeast sediment in my glass. The waiter came by and "helpfully" poured the remaining contents of the bottle into my glass (i.e. all the dead yeast). I was so shocked that I think I over-reacted a bit (not rude, but definitely surprised). I tried to explain the situation, but I felt like a total snob-ass. I hate feeling this way, but I'm pretty sure this beer was approaching $10, not to mention that is was a really good beer...right up until it got infused with dead yeast. To the waiter's credit, he listened attentively and apologized, but if I were him, I'd go complain about the yuppie-beer-snob to my buddies.

 

[Homercidal]

I was at a really fancy restaurant in Providence for a family party. They had a great beer selection and I ordered a Biere de Garde (or was it a Saison?) from some small Belgian brewery. They gave me the bottle and a glass. No problem. A while later, I had poured all of my beer, being careful to leave the yeast sediment in my glass. The waiter came by and "helpfully" poured the remaining contents of the bottle into my glass (i.e. all the dead yeast). I was so shocked that I think I over-reacted a bit (not rude, but definitely surprised). I tried to explain the situation, but I felt like a total snob-ass. I hate feeling this way, but I'm pretty sure this beer was approaching $10, not to mention that is was a really good beer...right up until it got infused with dead yeast. To the waiter's credit, he listened attentively and apologized, but if I were him, I'd go complain about the yuppie-beer-snob to my buddies.

Dude, that is messed up! Why would a server ever go and pour your beer for you? WTH was he thinking? "Here, allow me to follow you into the bathroom and wipe your butt for you too!"

I hope they gave that beer to you on the house.

 

[TexLaw]

Dude, I will spaz over this. If my food isn't up to par (at an every day restaurant) I won't complain unless it's something drastic. If my beer gets mixed up I'll even take it easy as long as the beer is on the same tier. If I order a Raison D'etra and get a Miller Lite however, it's on...luckily though that has yet to happen. But there's one thing I can't stand and it's serving me my beer in a frozen glass or pouring it the wrong way. I ordered a Guinness at a local bar that my friends love for some reason and the idiot behind the bar grabs a Coors Lite glass out of the ice (so not only is it cold, it also has ice and water in the glass) and pours a Guinness like it's in fact a Coors. I looked at the guy, looked at the F'ing blue mountains..."5 bucks buddy" he says. I got up and left without saying anything and haven't been back since. This was last year

Maybe you overreacted a bit, here? Folks do stuff like that because they don't know any better. If we want beer serving "conditions" to improve, we have to be the ones to go out there and educate. All you did was make an enemy, and you didn't even tell the guy what he did wrong. Keep the ego in check, make a friend, and make the world a little place for everyone.
Every time you "spaz" you make it harder for the rest of us to educate these folks.


TL

 

[DRoyLenz]

really? bro take it easy. I'm a server and i honestly dont deserve any of the **** people pull on me. I get yelled over **** that is rediclous. If you knew what a server deals with/does, you would never be a dick to them. I am a home brewer and a server so i know what all this **** is about. Simmer down and just relax. If you want a beer that is your way, brew it or buy it in a bottle, dont get pissed if you get the wrong thing. I got a franziskaner hefe when i ordered a dunkelweizen, but hey, i drank it and tipped 25%, dont be a dick, be a good guy and everyone wins.

I know the waitstaff deals with a bunch of crap on the daily. I know the pay sucks, especially when you get short tippers. I've worked in the restaurant industry for a couple years, and my sister has been a waitress her whole life. Both her and I have come home b****ing about some customers being unreasonable clowns.

That being said, her and I have NEVER compromised our standards at doing our job the best we can. If I order a steak medium-rare, and it comes medium (more times than not) I'll eat it without saying a word, happily, BFD. However, if I order a Chicken Sandwich and they bring me a BLT, I'll send it back. Just as if I order an IPA and they bring me BMC, you better believe I'll say something. I'll be nice about it, I understand mistakes happen (and it was likely not even the waitrons fault) and I will tip just as nicely as I would have before, if they rectify the situation, but they need to rectify it, and do so politely.

 

[GraphBrew]

Maybe you overreacted a bit, here? Folks do stuff like that because they don't know any better. If we want beer serving "conditions" to improve, we have to be the ones to go out there and educate. All you did was make an enemy, and you didn't even tell the guy what he did wrong. Keep the ego in check, make a friend, and make the world a little place for everyone.
Every time you "spaz" you make it harder for the rest of us to educate these folks.


TL

Reasonable...except for the fact that I asked for a dry/room temperature glass. Also, they had one of those goofy "Perfect Pour" posters hanging right in front of the guy. It's not like I cursed at him or insulted him. It was sort of busy and instead of taking time out of the guys night (money out of his pocket) I just rolled...I see no harm.

 

[godofcheese]

That being said, her and I have NEVER compromised our standards at doing our job the best we can. If I order a steak medium-rare, and it comes medium (more times than not) I'll eat it without saying a word, happily, BFD. However, if I order a Chicken Sandwich and they bring me a BLT, I'll send it back. Just as if I order an IPA and they bring me BMC, you better believe I'll say something. I'll be nice about it, I understand mistakes happen (and it was likely not even the waitrons fault) and I will tip just as nicely as I would have before, if they rectify the situation, but they need to rectify it, and do so politely.

Heck, if they fix it most times I end up tipping better.

 

[Flywheel]

If you ordered a pepperoni pizza and he brought you an onion and anchovy pizza, no one would think twice about you asking for what you ordered. It's not being a snob, it's getting what your ordered and are paying for. No reason for debate.

 

[novafire]

Long story short, I think more people need to speak up if their beer is not up to snuff.

Short story long....

It really bugs me when a restaurant or bar with a decent tap list does not even attempt to train their waitstaff/ bartender on what they have on tap. On one occasion I ordered a porter of some sort (can't remember), at a fancier new restaurant in Fitchburg, WI with about 25 beers on tap. When the beer came, it was amber in color and fairly hoppy. I figured there was a mix up and did not care because whatever IPA they brought in it's place was very good. I then asked for a porter for my second beer and again got some sort of IPA. I asked the waiter if he could check on why my porter was not a porter. He came back and said that they were out of the porter and had an IPA on tap in that spot now. So who knows how long they were serving an IPA to people who ordered that particular porter. I would like to think any bartender filling the beer order or waiter would at the very least notice that something looks a little "off" about this porter. In any case, that restaurant is now a vacant building -- it only lasted about a year.

In another case, at a BBQ place in downtown Madison, I inquired about some beer on the list that I had not heard of before. This bar/ restaurant has about 5-6 beers on tap, ranging from Miller Lite, to Spotted Cow, to rather hard to find things around here like DFH Sahti. I don't remember the particular beer I asked about, but I was told that it was "their lightest beer on tap right now". Considering that they had Spotted Cow and Miller Lite on tap, I passed right over the beer and ordered something that I have had before. I later looked up the beer on the brewery's site and found out that it was a DIPA. WTF, I would have ordered it had I known.

My final rant is about dirty lines. I checked out a bar in Minneapolis last weekend that serves their own beer, Gluecks. Their dark lager tasted a lot like their pilsner.... very "off". So I ordered a Summit Winter Ale next, because I actually really like that beer. It tasted like sour dirt. If you are going to serve your own beer, clean your lines! I ordered another Winter ale at a bar later in the night and it tasted great.

 

[Flomaster]

read through all the comments great read.

I work a second job at a small bar that has a restaurant in the back. I work only Friday and Saturday nights in the restaurant for the Fish Fry and Prime Rib Dinner. our draft selection is pretty piss poor: Bud, Bud LIght, Coors Light, Miller Light,Blue Moon,Grand Canyon Bock,and Alaskan Amber.

my customer orders I Grand Canyon, I give the bartender my tables orders, 4 beers couple cocktails. bartender shift ends before my customer ordered his second Grand Canyon. I ask for a another from the new bartender and she tells she she's out and has been since last night.
ME:I am thinking WTF did I server my customer then. well just give me another of what I got before.
Bartender: I have no idea what you got go ask Toni.
Me: looking all over for Toni ask for another beer. what bottle was it etc etc.
Toni: ok I'll make another one

I take it to the table he says what is this crap it's not the same as the last one.

turns out she mixed Alaskan with this and that and some other thing. and used the last bottle of this.

so I had to return to the table and tell them they in fact didn't get Grand Canyon and the Bartender just mixed and matched and is not able to make another beer the same.

I was pissed to have that **** pulled on me and the customer wasn't to happy either.

lesson learned it isn't always your servers fault more often than not its the bartenders fault.


-=Jason=-

 

[sportscrazed2]

you have a right to get what you paid for. it would be very easy to test just take a few ounces out of correct tap and compare

 

[jgln]

read through all the comments great read.

I work a second job at a small bar that has a restaurant in the back. I work only Friday and Saturday nights in the restaurant for the Fish Fry and Prime Rib Dinner. our draft selection is pretty piss poor: Bud, Bud LIght, Coors Light, Miller Light,Blue Moon,Grand Canyon Bock,and Alaskan Amber.

my customer orders I Grand Canyon, I give the bartender my tables orders, 4 beers couple cocktails. bartender shift ends before my customer ordered his second Grand Canyon. I ask for a another from the new bartender and she tells she she's out and has been since last night.
ME:I am thinking WTF did I server my customer then. well just give me another of what I got before.
Bartender: I have no idea what you got go ask Toni.
Me: looking all over for Toni ask for another beer. what bottle was it etc etc.
Toni: ok I'll make another one

I take it to the table he says what is this crap it's not the same as the last one.

turns out she mixed Alaskan with this and that and some other thing. and used the last bottle of this.

so I had to return to the table and tell them they in fact didn't get Grand Canyon and the Bartender just mixed and matched and is not able to make another beer the same.

I was pissed to have that **** pulled on me and the customer wasn't to happy either.

lesson learned it isn't always your servers fault more often than not its the bartenders fault.


-=Jason=-

That is weird, why not just say he was out?

 

[Flomaster]

That is weird, why not just say he was out?

every week I go to work they are out of some thing, its no surprise, yeah telling me they were out would have been the best thing to do, not concoct some Franken-beer that can't be duplicated because you used the only bottle of xxxx that you had.

-=Jason=-

 

[Meisterlowin]

Yep, I've definitely had some watered down Guiness before. There's a specific level in hades for those who commit such blasphemy.

Also, kinda off topic, I've on more than one occasion been brought a glass of wine from a bottle that has been open for way too long.

I've only recently begun appreciating good beer and distinguishing how certain labels/styles are supposed to taste. I'm afraid my blanket of ignorance has been lifted and I will soon be having similar wrong/diluted/mixed beer experiences in the near future.

 

[bovineblitz]

At Sunset in Allston SWMBO ordered an Oaked Unearthly. She tasted it and was not too pleased (she much prefers oaked imperial IPAs) and after I tasted it as well, being an Unearthly fan, it was pretty obvious that it was the regular Unearthly which they also had on tap. We flagged down the waitress and she was really resistant to fixing the mistake, saying she saw the bartender pour the beer (what waitress watches the bartender do his job?), but eventually we convinced her to fix the mistake. She brought back the proper beer and SWMBO was happy.

 

[bosdave]

I know the waitstaff deals with a bunch of crap on the daily. I know the pay sucks, especially when you get short tippers. I've worked in the restaurant industry for a couple years, and my sister has been a waitress her whole life. Both her and I have come home b****ing about some customers being unreasonable clowns.

That being said, her and I have NEVER compromised our standards at doing our job the best we can. If I order a steak medium-rare, and it comes medium (more times than not) I'll eat it without saying a word, happily, BFD. However, if I order a Chicken Sandwich and they bring me a BLT, I'll send it back. Just as if I order an IPA and they bring me BMC, you better believe I'll say something. I'll be nice about it, I understand mistakes happen (and it was likely not even the waitrons fault) and I will tip just as nicely as I would have before, if they rectify the situation, but they need to rectify it, and do so politely.

This is very accurate.

As a long time server while in school, there is a very important concept for people to understand.

Yes, you have a right to get what you ordered how you ordered it. However, abusing the waitstaff is immensely stupid.

-If your steak is cooked improperly, well your server did not cook it, nor are they going to cut up your steak and try it or look at it, they have no clue.

-If your beer is even slightly the correct color, well we don't make a habit of trying everyone's beer, the onus is on the bartender here.

Guess what! When you serve tables you eventually become pretty jaded because of people that take all manor of things out on you. Having a bad day? Must be your servers fault! Food took too long? Must be your servers fault! etc. etc.

If you (this is aimed at no one in particular) take the time to be very polite - even overly so - you will likely get to the bottom of whatever problem you have quickly and easily. If you are standoffish to begin with, well you are likely to be ignored. Yes you have the power to tip, but frankly if you are being that difficult/rude all of our experiences tell us that you are likely a lousy tipper anyways and not worth the time. This is not always the case, but often is.

Heck, if they fix it most times I end up tipping better.

Good on you!

 

[Revvy]

What the hell is all this I'm hearing about bartenders mixing beers at the tap lately? I've never heard of this happening and on here this week there's been like three different discussions about this...

I've never heard of this happening before. You'd think there'd be some law..If I'm oredering guiness, I don't think the brewery would appreciate some pissant bartender mixing Miller and god knows what and calling it their beer.

Is this as prevelant as you all are making it seem. I don't tend to go to chains or non-brewpub/serious beer geek establishments. I think the folks who frequent the places I go to would a) notice in a sip that something was wrong, and b) tear the place apart if we discovered that nonsense happening. I wonder that if contacting the distributor or even the brewery if we noticed that would be a good thing. I don't think THEY would approve either.

 

[bovineblitz]

Lol, this is my yelp review of a crappy Irish bar called Kitty O'Shea's in the Fanueil Hall area of Boston:

I had a couple friends visiting from out of town and decided to go pub hopping around the Fanueil Hall area. We're more or less beer connoisseurs (big fan of Publick House) so we like our beer done right. Kitty O'Shea's was the first bar we wandered into. The place seemed alright, a little frat-ish but good for a beer or two of the usual boring Boston mediocre pub selection.

We ordered a round of drinks: Two Smithwicks, a Boston Lager, and a Cherry Wheat. My friend who ordered the Cherry Wheat was disgusted by her beer... we passed it around and it tasted extremely salty to all of us. The bartender apologized and said he just changed the tap so he didn't know what was wrong. She then ordered a Summer Ale, and it was sub-par as well. Very watery, still salty but less so.

Our Smithwicks' and Boston Lager were also very thin and had less taste then normal, and once we tasted the saltyness of the other beer we could detect a saltiness in ours as well, though to a lesser extent. After a couple more minutes, my friend was convinced that the beers weren't being dispensed with normal CO2, there was seltzer water or something similar being added to them. With this revelation in mind, the entire party of seven people agreed with that conclusion. We wound up drinking about a third of each beer and left them on the bar, disgusted. The bartender seemed like a jerk, so we didn't bother to complain. He obviously heard and saw us examining and complaining about the beer and didn't do anything about it.

Who does that? This is Boston, we know our beer. Don't insult us like that.

Do not give this craphole your money, they don't deserve it. We should've stayed in Brookline.

We now refer to the place as ****ty O'Shea's.

 

[deflagratio]

If you want education in your servers you tend to have to go to nicer places. A Italian restaurant staff should have a basic grasp of wine. For beer you often need to go to a beer snob friendly place. Having worked both nicer restaurants and regular family style the server education is very different. At family style restaurants they have the wine and Sam Adams in case someone happens to want specifically that but they spend no time educating their servers on them. I often got called by other servers to talk to their tables since I was one of the few people with actual alcohol knowledge beyond BMC and jack with coke.
Also it's sad that they are never trained on how to properly pour a beer. When I serve one I bring glass and bottle to the table and offer to pour for the customer. There are actually many people who don't know how to properly pour a beer and are quite impressed by this. Heck it's the same thing with wine. I love the look on customers faces when they order a bottle of wine and then see me actually open it and follow the proper steps for serving vs. just open and pour glasses.
Two final thoughts. Often restaurants won't try to train any servers below drinking age on alcohol. Also for those complaining about the lack of a beer list on a menu there are 2 reasons for this. 1) It is a corporate menu that is used by every location in the country and therefore beer selection will be different in each. 2) This gives them the freedom to change the selection without reprinting menus. Is it annoying? YES

 

[Flomaster]

Revvy in my years of bartending I NEVER nor any of my other bartenders mix beer other than making a black and tan and it wasn't even that. (bottle guiness and NewCastle)

oh and tonight we were out of Bluemoon.

I had a table order a Med Rare Flank Stake it came out medium he sent it back. I left his veg and baker so he wasn't sitting there empty plated. Cooked made a new steak Med Rare. customer was happy I gave him free bread pudding, I got $10 tip. so it just goes to show that even mistakes do happen and you don't always get shafted if your honest.

mixing beers and lying about it should be punished by chopping off your hands.

-=Jason=-

 

[vicratlhead51]

I had an issue kind of like this on Friday night at an Unos. I ordered a Newcastle Brown and when I got it it had a kind of wierd metallic offtaste. I just figured it must not be a big seller and must have sat in the lines too long or something. Anybody know what could cause a taste like that? My next beer I just ordered a SNPA in the bottle since I didn't want to trust their taps. I generally like to get draft beer when I'm out since I can drink any bottled beer I want at home for half the price. My biggest gripe about the whole deal was that the SNPA wasn't my first pick (not that I don't like it, in fact I love SNPA, it just wasn't the top of the list that night). I ordered 3 different beers off their list before it and was told they didn't have them. I mean do these places have long lists just to look impressive since most people only order what they know? This wasn't the first time I ran into this, it actually happens quite often. I mean if people don't drink some of these "fringe beers" enough to keep them on hand then take them off the list. I didn't bitch at the server at all because I know none of this was her fault. On the other hand I am seeing a lot of "be nice to the server" comments on this thread but really the server is the representative of that establishment. If they get bitched at too much then there's something wrong with the restaraunt. If people don't like something the only one they can talk to is the one who's standing in front of them, if the server can't take it then get another job. It's what PR is all about.

 

[Pick]

Whoa! This thread is a real eye opener. I thought all beer tasted the same.

 

[Fletch78]

SWMBO is a former Applebee's manager, she said it would be highly unlikely that keg lines got messed up accidentally.

 

[b33risGOOD]

I once had a waitress bring us several pints of Canadian beer, which had probably been dried with funky dish cloth. All of our beers at a disgusting foot like aroma. So I kindly told the waitress who informned me I wasnt the first person to complain about this so she brough out the manager.

Older dude, who insisted the glass and beer was fine. Well I told him I drink beer at restaruants constantly, no this is not fine and that I was trying to do him a favor so he wont loose customers because this tastes like total ****.

He shut up and brought out a few free pitchers.

 

[raestlyn]

I think I'm lucky not to live in the USA, as this never could happen here in Finland. All the kegs and lines are marked, so its impossible to mix them. And even though most of the waiters/waitresses don't have proper training on beers, they have someone (like me, nearly 2.5k different beers tried and huge knowledge on the subject) to ask from.

 

[vicratlhead51]

I think I'm lucky not to live in the USA, as this never could happen here in Finland. All the kegs and lines are marked, so its impossible to mix them. And even though most of the waiters/waitresses don't have proper training on beers, they have someone (like me, nearly 2.5k different beers tried and huge knowledge on the subject) to ask from.

Yeah it'd be nice to have some one like that at any restaraunt that serves beer. I mean I wouldn't expect it at some of the chain restaraunts but I think it'd almost be a necessity for some of the higher quality places that take pride in the way they serve beer, or anything for that matter. There's some training you can take right? A certified Cicerone or something like that.

 

[jiggs_casey]

I've never been brought the wrong beer but, I have beer served from dirty lines... slackers!

 

[raestlyn]

Yeah it'd be nice to have some one like that at any restaraunt that serves beer. I mean I wouldn't expect it at some of the chain restaraunts but I think it'd almost be a necessity for some of the higher quality places that take pride in the way they serve beer, or anything for that matter. There's some training you can take right? A certified Cicerone or something like that.

Yeah, Cicerone training takes place in Chicago, as far as I know. I looked trough their training material and it looks comprehensive.