Neighbor says my rig looks like a Meth Lab

[Calichusetts]

Next time, snicker a little and tell him you thought he was a meth user from the way he has acted in the past few days...but be vague. That way he will begin to question everything he does

 

[FTG-05]

Tell him to call the cops then. Screw him.

Not here, I won't. It's illegal in this state.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Anyways, I get all kinds of strange looks from people walking or driving by when I'm brewing.

This exact reason is why I love brewing on my front porch. People get the craziest looks on their faces when I have my cooler mash tun up on my porch wall and my bk on the steps. It's priceless and I love every second of it!!!

And to the OP... Looks like its time to start brewing some wild beers. The pellicles will blow his mind.

 

[Skin5482]

My neighbor jokingly asks this every time my brother and I brew. He knows exactly what we're doing, he just thinks it's funny.

 

[organ]

I don't abide people being judgmental. If one of my neighbors thought I was doing something illegal, I'd tell them to put it on the line and call the authorities. End of conversation. We shouldn't have to justify ourselves to anyone who's not legally in position to question us.

You don't seem very friendly.

 

[Airborneguy]

I don't deal with nonsense well. I get along with all of my neighbors, but then again, none of them have accused me of anything illegal.

 

[bottlebomber]

You don't seem very friendly.

Yep, he's a pretty nasty guy. Been known to drink ale from the polished skulls of his enemies. And he brews his beer in outer space.

 

[Frige]

Outer space beer? Now theres a reason to continue the space program. I wonder how you would contain the boiling wort?

 

[zzARzz]

Outer space beer? Now theres a reason to continue the space program. I wonder how you would contain the boiling wort?

Teaching the little grey men how to brew saved me from getting probed the last time I was abducted. No more tin foil hat either!

 

[dfess1]

I'm the opposite. Met new friends earlier this year, they (husband, wife and 11/2 y/o daughter) were walking to a playground, saw us in our garage and did the friendly, neighborly thing and introduced themselves as homebrewers too.

Since then, they've joined our homebrews club, have carpooled to meetings, shared homebrew, and had them over with some other families to brew the White House Honey Ale.

They live a few blocks over and I'm grateful they were friendly and outgoing enough to stop by uninvited - probably would never have met them otherwise.

I had this happen this week. I had just kicked off the boil on the second brew of the day. I was inside updating a google calendar I maintain for my hockey team with the new schedule, when we saw legs walking past the windows in the family room (room is sunken in the ground by 3 feet). It was new neighbors that were out walking the dog and smelled the wort and saw the rig in the driveway. Wanted to know what we were brewing, check out how the system worked. They had just gotten into homebrewing themselves. So we invited them to our next homebrew club meeting and barrel brew. Nice way to meet the neighbors.

 

[mlyday]

Lots of stainless steel and containers of white powder make people nervious. I always keep the hop bags and have a printed recipe out there while brewing, might be easier to explain to the authorities. This is one of the reasons we are looking for some land slightly out of town. A pole barn with a dedicated brew room is in my near future. I cant wait.

 

[jmzcustomz]

Ha nice thread. I often wonder how many looks I get. The immediate neighbors know I brew. The down side is I live in MS so it IS illegal. I never worry though now it appears a MS highway patrol officer is moving in across the corner so we shall see.

 

[unionrdr]

This sort of thing is also why I'm glad I brew on the stove. Bad enough they saw into my man cave with all my brewing stuff neatly stored in the old printer stand I re-purposed as a fermenter/storage stand. I should think the beer bottles drying on the bottle tree would've been their 1st clue...

 

[stat]

I brewed in the garage yesterday because of the rain, usually I'm in the back yard.
The neighbor across the street came out and started taking pictures of me but didn't say anything and no cops showed up so I'm not really sure what that was about.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

"Thanks for a nation where no man is free to mind his own business" ~William S. Burroughs.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

funny thing my neighbor thinks that my meth lab looks like a brew rig

 

[bad67z]

Last Halloween it was unusually cold, so after we handed out the treats I decided to start a fire in our fireplace and have some warm cider. Shortly after ignition there was a knock @ our door. It was my neighbors 17yr. old son (I would like to add, a great kid) informing me my chimney was on fire.

Long story short, I had the fire out by the time the township FD arrived, and they are only 400 yards away. But they were very through, I had 15+ professional FF, a pumper truck and a staffed EMS vehicle on site in 4 minutes. This makes me sleep well @ night.

As I'm standing in my back yard with the Asst. Chief watching his team on my deck checking my 35ft. chimney for hotspots, I thought it would be a good time to explain the 2 sanke kegs, 3 carboys, 4 cornys, cooler with hoses attached and the 2 very suspicious looking copper immersion chillers that were on my deck. I said " I just want you to know that the equipment on the deck is not for producing any illegal substances, I'm a homebrewer, I brew beer". Without hesitating he replied "Mr. Sherry you have 30 new friends just down the road, let us know when you need us to taste test your finished product".

 

[Husher]

A bit off topic but I came across this and busted a gut laughing. Thought I'd share. Cheers.

 

[jerrodm]

Back when I was still in the Navy, I was stationed overseas and was coming back for a stateside tour in Georgia. We had done a little homework ahead of time and in March bought a great house in a nice quiet neighborhood, but weren't going to be moving in until July, when I finished up my overseas tour. So the house sat vacant for about four months, although I had a buddy in the neighborhood who went by once in a while and checked on it for me.

So come July, we pull up in a moving van and start unloading stuff. My family had made a road trip out to help us unload, so we had basically fifteen people suddnely staying in a more-or-less empty house which had been standing vacant for about four months, overgrown lawn and all. And of course, as soon as we get the boxes out of the truck, I decide it's time for an inaugural homebrew session. So we pull out the brew equipment and start up a couple of batches in the front driveway. Meantime, my two brothers and I decided to get out my pair of water pipes that I had bought living overseas to smoke some shisha (flavored tobacco) in the driveway while we're brewing.

Needless to say, we were something of a spectacle for this quiet family neighborhood. A couple of months after we moved in, we were over at our neighbor's house (we became fast friends) and the wife confessed that she seriously thought about calling the cops when we first showed up, fifteen people occupying a formerly vacant house, boiling large quantities of unidentifiable substances and smoking what appeared to be bongs on the front porch--she thought we were some kind of itinerant hippie-gypsies! I mean, she wasn't TOO far off the mark, but we're basically harmless...

 

[pabloj13]

I brewed in the garage yesterday because of the rain, usually I'm in the back yard.
The neighbor across the street came out and started taking pictures of me but didn't say anything and no cops showed up so I'm not really sure what that was about.

See, now that would tick me off. I love when the neighbors come over to look/ask questions. The more people that are interested in brewing/good beer the better. But taking pictures of me without consent and then not even coming to talk? Yeah, no. That's not ok.

 

[CoalCracker]

I used to live in a somewhat unsavory neighborhood. Brewed beer out on the porch all the time. Never got questioned at all. I'm pretty sure everyone knew what a meth lab looked like / smelled like. Not to mention, there were no cops being called on anything other than a murder. LOL I'll be moving to a pretty well to do neighborhood in March and can't wait to see what happens. My fiance and I are the only one's that don't drive a lexus, BMW, Mercedes. I drive an Xterra with Off road tires and she drives a Santa Fe. We will be the talk..

 

[GoodDogShelby]

Little I do shocks my neighbors anymore!! My neighbor's six year old son always walks over and asks when I'm going to make more beer. My other neighbor's eighth grade daughter wants me help her use fermentation as a school science experiment. (It's a Catholic school!!!).

The only funny looks come when the some guys from the club come over for a brew out.

My wife always says that someone will drive by and think I'm cooking meth. My response, "Cooking meth has got to be easier than this. They cook meth in coke bottles driving down the highway on motorcycles."

 

[LandoLincoln]

I wish that cooking up beer involved as much scientific glassware as cooking up meth. I like to play with that stuff.

 

[VegasJ]

i sent a pic of my setup to my dad...

his reply, "what are you, cooking meth now?"

He knows better... he's a retired cop. and a smartass.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Yeah, I think there are probably a lot of folks who say it to break the ice and try to be funny. If I had a rig in my back courtyard I bet my neighbor would say "hey buddy, ya makin' moonshine?"

It wouldnt be funny, but it comes from a good place.

However, I would take any and all possible legal action against whomever put a camera in my window. Even if my neighbor WAS making meth, its none of my business.

 

[highgravitybacon]

Every meth "lab" I've seen was just a 2L bottle in a back pack of some vagrant. To call what these people do a "lab" is like calling fermented ketchup and tang "homebrew." Nobody except the mexican cartels has any real size lab. All the laws on pseudoephedrine have pushed out the domestic meth labs to super labs south of the border. The cartels get their precursor ingredients wholesale from suppliers in the far East and just send it north for distribution.

First it was cotton, then automobiles, then televisions, then tech support and now meth. Eventually everything gets outsourced.

 

[Homercidal]

I welcome anyone walking past to inquire. It helps promote the hobby, which helps us pass laws to allow more of it.

And I would hope that anyone who sees someone actually making meth would call the police. That stuff is not only a terrible substance for users, the process creates toxic hazard, which I for one would not want in my neighborhood. Couple was cooking meth in a house practically across the street from the elementary school in our town. They got caught because there was a small explosion and they were found outside walking around half coherent with smoke coming from the house.

That is not the kind of thing we need.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I forgot about the chemicals and explosions to be fair. Top 3 qualities I appreciate in a neighbor in ascending order of importance: lack of odors, minds their own business, quiet.

I'm not saying if I live next to you and youre a chatterbox that I mind that, or even if you throw a shindig on a saturday, just dont meddle in my business and keep me awake on work nights. And oh, if you call the fuzz (y'know, the coppers, the people, the longarms) and have them come to my apartment for anything less than a home invasion I'ma gonna make your life miserable.

And oh yeah, neuter your cats. It makes the whole house reek when they spray.

 

[mlyday]

What I always wondered was If were were actually making meth would we do it in the driveway for everyone to see?

 

[nasty_rabbit]

What I always wondered was If were were actually making meth would we do it in the driveway for everyone to see?

It looks less suspicious if you are out in the open rather than hiding somewhere. Back in the day, "a friend of a friend" would smoke a left hand cigarette walking down the street rather than hiding in an alley or door way with the belief that no one in their right mind would be so bold and the onlooker would think they must be mistaken.