"I like beer that tastes like beer."

[BinghamtonEd]

Just got back from a week-long family re-union (wife's side) in Outer Banks, NC. I brought two cases of home brew to share. 1.5 cases was a cascade/willamette IPA, the rest was a SA Summer Ale clone.

My brother-in-law normally drinks only Yuengling and Rolling Rock, nothing else. Didn't touch either until he'd made sure all the Summer Ale was gone. Success. My wife's cousin went crazy for the IPA. My father-in-law, who only drinks Guiness and Stella, says "I don't like this. It tastes weird. I like beer that tastes like beer." At which point, he poured himself a glass of wine. FACEPALM. Note that weird = hoppy (citrusy).

You can't please everyone, nor do I am to. But when people like it, they really like it. Good thing I don't base my brewing success on my father-in-law. The only sad part is I have only 3 bottles left of the IPA, and 2 are going to the nanobrewer to share.

 

[Enoch52]

I totally understand not trying to impress him, but I'll bet you could bring him around with a cream ale or blonde (or a lager, if you have the equipment for lagering) for the Stella, or a nice creamy stout for the Guinness.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

I was actually thinking the same thing with a cream ale. I don't have the equipment for lagering. I have an apfelwein in one bucket, and when I get back from my business trip, I'll have another round of IPA in the other. Once the apfelwein is bottled, I might do a cream ale just to shut him up

 

[Malty_Dog]

No offense but that's a pretty ignorant thing for him to say. But hey, we all have in-laws, some better than others. I hear you on the hops - plenty of people are put off by any perceivable level of hoppiness. Guinness drinker? Perhaps a nice robust porter or stout would placate him.

PS. Your BIL has to be from PA. HAS to be. So am I. I think I got baptized with Yuengling as a kid.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

No offense but that's a pretty ignorant thing for him to say.

I think it was 50% that and 50% of him enjoying pissing me off. He'll take the opposing side of an argument just to get on my nerves, for fun. After we'd put back a few we were watching the dirtbike high-jump on TV, and we got into an argument about use of the brakes in mid-air effecting the bike's pitch. I don't think he's ever ridden and he took the opposing side just to get on my nerves, until my MIL told him to shut the hell up.

PS. Your BIL has to be from PA. HAS to be. So am I.

Bout 10 minutes from PA. Close enough!

 

[Pappers_]

When you are in a gourmet or artisan hobby (which we are), it makes things easier if we get comfortable with the reality that most people are not gourmets or appreciate artisan handcrafted foodstuffs. One of the members at our congregation is a really good baker and at a potluck, she brought some great bread she had baked. It was dense, chewy, and flavorful. Needless to say, the commercial white bread disappeared well before her wonderful handmade loaf.

Many people would prefer a McDonalds meal to a hand-made, cooked from scratch meal.

There is a reason American cheese is the most popular cheese sold in grocery stores - most of the shoppers have not developed their palates to the point where they appreciate more artisanal cheeses.

I offer my beer to anyone, but am not offended if they don't want to try it, and do not pay any attention if they prefer a light lager. I have the great advantage, though, of having many friends (and fellow club members) who appreciate handmade beer, so I don't feel a need for the affirmation of those who are not.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

I agree 100%, Pappers. Though the comment he made was partially in jest, I doubt anyone at the pot luck told her her bread tasted weird, and not like bread.

 

[Pappers_]

I agree 100%, Pappers. Though the comment he made was partially in jest, I doubt anyone at the pot luck told her her bread tasted weird, and not like bread.

That's the insidious thing - we now think that 'bread' tastes like mass-produced white bread, real bread is weird and not good. Beer, of course, tastes like factory-produced light lager - anything else is weird.

You might appreciate Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation which I just finished reading http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EKOIN8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

He deals with fermentation and specifically beer making in this book, too. I found it thought-provoking.

And you have my empathy for putting up with the stupid comments about your beer, most brewers can relate to that experience.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

Slightly on/off topic, my brother-in-law is a baker by trade. He works in a local bakery that delivers to stores in the area, and handles making most of their artisan breads and relatively obscure styles, as he's the only one there who has pursued formal training in those areas. He provided all of the bread products for the trip, and he makes some darn good bread. I give him free beer, I get all the free quality bread I need. I'm trying to get him to come brew with me, as I think he'd be great at it.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

Pappers, thanks for the book suggestion. I'm leaving for a 10-day business trip on Monday, and our local B&N has this in stock, I might pick it up to take with me. Some of the reviews say it's great, some say it gets boring ("Maybe it was the 75 pages devoted to making a loaf of bread that wore me out.") What do you think? It sounds like you didn't find it too tedious?

 

[m_stodd]

When you are in a gourmet or artisan hobby (which we are), it makes things easier if we get comfortable with the reality that most people are not gourmets or appreciate artisan handcrafted foodstuffs. One of the members at our congregation is a really good baker and at a potluck, she brought some great bread she had baked. It was dense, chewy, and flavorful. Needless to say, the commercial white bread disappeared well before her wonderful handmade loaf.

Many people would prefer a McDonalds meal to a hand-made, cooked from scratch meal.

There is a reason American cheese is the most popular cheese sold in grocery stores - most of the shoppers have not developed their palates to the point where they appreciate more artisanal cheeses.

I offer my beer to anyone, but am not offended if they don't want to try it, and do not pay any attention if they prefer a light lager. I have the great advantage, though, of having many friends (and fellow club members) who appreciate handmade beer, so I don't feel a need for the affirmation of those who are not.

This year's home brewer of the year at NHC won with a Lite American Lager. Light lager does not not equal handmade beer. It would be interesting to have fans of 'beer that tastes like beer' do a blind taste test of a mass produced light lager, and a home brewed light lager.

 

[unionrdr]

I think it was 50% that and 50% of him enjoying pissing me off. He'll take the opposing side of an argument just to get on my nerves, for fun. After we'd put back a few we were watching the dirtbike high-jump on TV, and we got into an argument about use of the brakes in mid-air effecting the bike's pitch. I don't think he's ever ridden and he took the opposing side just to get on my nerves, until my MIL told him to shut the hell up.



Bout 10 minutes from PA. Close enough!

I'll put my 2c in here about dirt bike jumps. Just as you hit near the top of thejump/hill,pop the clutch & goose the throttle. It'll jump nicely. then you do keggles to push the back of the bike in the direction of the course mid jump to aligne the bike with the straight after you hit the ground. when you hit the ground,goose the throttle a little bit. this negates any wheelie after effects,ime. Breaking mid air is gunna hurt when you hit the ground. Nevermind how I know that...

 

[Eugenio]

When you are in a gourmet or artisan hobby (which we are), it makes things easier if we get comfortable with the reality that most people are not gourmets or appreciate artisan handcrafted foodstuffs. One of the members at our congregation is a really good baker and at a potluck, she brought some great bread she had baked. It was dense, chewy, and flavorful. Needless to say, the commercial white bread disappeared well before her wonderful handmade loaf.

Many people would prefer a McDonalds meal to a hand-made, cooked from scratch meal.

There is a reason American cheese is the most popular cheese sold in grocery stores - most of the shoppers have not developed their palates to the point where they appreciate more artisanal cheeses.

I offer my beer to anyone, but am not offended if they don't want to try it, and do not pay any attention if they prefer a light lager. I have the great advantage, though, of having many friends (and fellow club members) who appreciate handmade beer, so I don't feel a need for the affirmation of those who are not.

I cringe every time I see someone order an "americano", what a complete waste of espresso. I grew up with good coffee, so I tend to be a coffee snob, however I also grew up with crap beer but did open up to the opportunity of more artisanal beers after moving here. Never understood why a lot of people tend to be so closed and worried about experimentation.

 

[Pappers_]

Sounds like a great arrangement with your brother-in-law! And I did like the book, its got an overarching message about the social, personal and family values of preparing food, but its broken into sections on fire (BBQ), water (braising meat), air (baking bread), and earth (fermentation, including beer and cheese making). I didn't find it tedious at all.

 

[Pappers_]

This year's home brewer of the year at NHC won with a Lite American Lager. Light lager does not not equal handmade beer. It would be interesting to have fans of 'beer that tastes like beer' do a blind taste test of a mass produced light lager, and a home brewed light lager.

Absolutely. And I do not mean in any way to slam those who like BMC. I'm just pointing out that we are now conditioned to like products like BMC (and white bread, fast food and American cheese).

Making an outstanding light lager is one of the harder homebrewing tasks, I think.

 

[Schol-R-LEA]

I cringe every time I see someone order an "americano", what a complete waste of espresso.

I have to wonder how it is that something initially created as a joke (and a knock on American-style coffee - a well-deserved knock, but still) actually caught on the way the Cafe Americano has.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

I'll put my 2c in here about dirt bike jumps. Just as you hit near the top of thejump/hill,pop the clutch & goose the throttle. It'll jump nicely. then you do keggles to push the back of the bike in the direction of the course mid jump to aligne the bike with the straight after you hit the ground. when you hit the ground,goose the throttle a little bit. this negates any wheelie after effects,ime. Breaking mid air is gunna hurt when you hit the ground. Nevermind how I know that...

I never had a problem braking mid air to lower the front a wee bit. As long as I had the brake released and clutch feathered when I landed, no catastrophies. The rest of what you said is how I did it, too. My FIL just adamantly insisted that no amount of throttle/braking in the air would change the pitch of the bike.

 

[neo71665]

Can't say much, dad was brewing before I was born and I been helping since I was able to stand still enough to hold a recipe. Drinking beer when I could sneak a sip since I was 9 and at 33 I don't like hoppy beers. Can count on one hand the number of ipas I've managed to choke down to call finished. Some people like alcohol water with little flavor, some like sugar alcohol, some like bitter alcohol, and some like a nice blend. Brew your beer for you and share if others like it. If they don't enjoy that there is more for you.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

So I went on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw the book Pappers mentioned for around $16. Since I'm leaving on Monday morning, and no time to ship it, I went tot he store and found it there...for $28. I brought it to the checkout and asked if they could match their online price.

(lady)"We can't match that, because generally the books are a little bit higher-priced in the store because of the cost associated with getting it here."
(me)"So, it took $12 to ship this book?"
(lady)"Well, that is quite a bit of difference. If you're a member of our program, you can order it here and get it shipped to you for free."
(me)"Wait, so Barnes and Noble will ship it to me for free, but if they ship it to their own store, it's $12 more?"
(lady)"In this case, yes."

So not wanting to pay $28 for a book, I walked out empty-handed. Maybe I'll order it online. I've run into this situation before at other stores, and I've actually stood there with the salesperson, ordered it online on my phone, and selected "pick up in store". When you do this with B&N however, and select store pickup, it changes to give you their store price.

Went to Target later that trip, and bought my daughter this Little People Princess Castle for her 1st birthday. Listed 39.99 on their site, in-store for 49.99. Customer service matched Amazon instead, since it was cheapest, at 39.97. I like that Target will match Amazon, I just hope people don't start lining up at customer service wanting everything in their cart matched. I just wanted the Target sale price, but they made me happy.

 

[monnie]

You might want to remind him of the old 7th grade science experiment where you sit on the swivel stool and hold a spinning wheel out away from your body, and the stool starts to spin. The wheels and engine are basically gyroscopes, and given how little force is needed to move something that is airborne.............Or maybe I am hung over this AM.

 

[brokebucket]

I cringe every time I see someone order an "americano", what a complete waste of espresso. I grew up with good coffee, so I tend to be a coffee snob, however I also grew up with crap beer but did open up to the opportunity of more artisanal beers after moving here. Never understood why a lot of people tend to be so closed and worried about experimentation.

WHY? I make my own espresso, and make americano's all the time. Sometimes I enjoy espresso, sometimes I want an americano. Do you only drink one kind of beer?

Also, nothing beats a good iced latte after a hard run. That's right, drop that creamy espresso double shot right into a vat of milk.

 

[Clonefan94]

I'm always put off by people that make snyde comments about my beer. I'm pretty open when serving and usually preface serving to new drinkers with, "I like Hoppy beers and I know that not only does homebrew not appeal to everyone, but for all I know, the beer could just plain suck. So I will not be offended if you would rather drink the classic light American Lagers that I also keep in the fridge for really hot days or people who don't like the beer I brew. I won't be offended, it just means more beer for me to drink." I don't bash people for drinking BMC, why bash me for drinking what I like.

 

[Pappers_]

So I went on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw the book Pappers mentioned for around $16. Since I'm leaving on Monday morning, and no time to ship it, I went tot he store and found it there...for $28. I brought it to the checkout and asked if they could match their online price.

(lady)"We can't match that, because generally the books are a little bit higher-priced in the store because of the cost associated with getting it here."
(me)"So, it took $12 to ship this book?"
(lady)"Well, that is quite a bit of difference. If you're a member of our program, you can order it here and get it shipped to you for free."
(me)"Wait, so Barnes and Noble will ship it to me for free, but if they ship it to their own store, it's $12 more?"
(lady)"In this case, yes."

So not wanting to pay $28 for a book, I walked out empty-handed . . .

That is a lot for that book. I bought it electronically (on a Kindle) for $9.99, I believe.

In any case, hope your trip goes well!

 

[homebrewdad]

So I went on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw the book Pappers mentioned for around $16. Since I'm leaving on Monday morning, and no time to ship it, I went tot he store and found it there...for $28. I brought it to the checkout and asked if they could match their online price.

(lady)"We can't match that, because generally the books are a little bit higher-priced in the store because of the cost associated with getting it here."
(me)"So, it took $12 to ship this book?"
(lady)"Well, that is quite a bit of difference. If you're a member of our program, you can order it here and get it shipped to you for free."
(me)"Wait, so Barnes and Noble will ship it to me for free, but if they ship it to their own store, it's $12 more?"
(lady)"In this case, yes."

So not wanting to pay $28 for a book, I walked out empty-handed. Maybe I'll order it online. I've run into this situation before at other stores, and I've actually stood there with the salesperson, ordered it online on my phone, and selected "pick up in store". When you do this with B&N however, and select store pickup, it changes to give you their store price.

Went to Target later that trip, and bought my daughter this Little People Princess Castle for her 1st birthday. Listed 39.99 on their site, in-store for 49.99. Customer service matched Amazon instead, since it was cheapest, at 39.97. I like that Target will match Amazon, I just hope people don't start lining up at customer service wanting everything in their cart matched. I just wanted the Target sale price, but they made me happy.

This is a reason that I don't shop at Barnes and Noble much anymore. Kills me that they will frequently charge far more in store for the same book, yep ship it to you for little to nothing.

 

[progmac]

man, i can't even order an americano now? there are so many rules for everything!

 

[BinghamtonEd]

I used my $16 instead to purchase Papazian's "Joy of Homebrewing."

 

[Yooper]

That's the insidious thing - we now think that 'bread' tastes like mass-produced white bread, real bread is weird and not good. Beer, of course, tastes like factory-produced light lager - anything else is weird.

You might appreciate Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation which I just finished reading http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EKOIN8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

He deals with fermentation and specifically beer making in this book, too. I found it thought-provoking.

And you have my empathy for putting up with the stupid comments about your beer, most brewers can relate to that experience.

I just put that 'on hold' at my local library. Thanks for that recommendation! I'm not just a beer geek, I'm really into food traditions and culture as well.



Back on topic, my own dad called my beer "that homebrewed ****" and drank only my cream ale. But at his funeral, so many people came up to me and met me and said, "Oh, you're the one he was always talking about! He was so proud of you and he talked all the time about how you brewed beer that was better than the beers in the store and how you took him to private brewery tours. Um, did you bring any beer?"

He had told me that it was silly that I was traveling to take the BJCP exam, and that I wanted to drink all those "weird beers". But it turns out that he respected and enjoyed that about me. I just never knew that until his funeral.

 

[Smellyglove]

My gf and me just moved to a new house, which we are renting. So I thought it would be a nice gesture to give the guy we're renting from (he lives next door) two bottles of my first batch. Even though it was my first batch it tasted delicious (according to some of my friends, not just me).

I went over to him some days later for a small BBQ and some beers, and I could see my beer sitting there, opened and taken one sip of, and just by it there was a can of Tuborg (for all of you living in scandinavia, you know what it is. Thin low-taste sweet cheap pilsener). He commented me on the beer and said "Yea, that was something, it had a special taste to it". Up here in Norway, EU, "special" means "I didn't like it, but I don't want to be impolite".

What I found out later in the chat we had over the table was that he is getting that Tuborg from smugglers, and he has never been drinking anything but cheapo beer and bad moonshine. Never ever heard of IPA. I'll give him a few bottles of each batch until he gets used to flavors.

Really nice and funny guy though.

Btw, the beer was a Punk IPA clone which turned out alright, even if it turned out more hoppy.