What Do You Do When They Won't Even TRY IT?

[APendejo]

I usually don't share my homebrew with anyone othe than a small group of friends, family and co-workers who appreciate the time and effort that I have put into my beers.
The first time I traveled out of state with homebrew I took a 12 pk ea. of a best bitter and a light ale I brewed for the occasion to my bro-inlaws place.
After dinner sitting around the pool the first night I brought out a couple of bottles of each and some fresh glasses to the table.
The bro-inlaw and his OL are big time Miller Lite drinkers.
Bro-inlaw poured a glass of the light ale and thought it was great, his OL would not try it because she had heard stories of people going blind from homebrew.
After we drank about 10 of the bottles we were able to get the bro-inlaws OL to try both the light ale and best bitter.
For the next 3 days all she would do was keep raving on and on about how that was the best beer she ever drank and wondering why I did not bring more.
BTW, she did not go blind.
AP

 

[Surly]

LMAO


I agree with the "more for me" sentiment except for the fact that very soon, I will be brewing far more than I drink. Sadly, I fear I will need assistance consuming my beer so that I can brew more.

But, a couple things you can do to reduce your aggravation: First, keg your beer. If it's kegged, you have no more worries. Second option, become better at bottle conditioning. It takes shockingly little yeast to bottle condition. You should be able to produce a bottle-conditioned beer that is clear and doesn't leave a funky cake of yeast at the bottom. Don't ask me how, it's quite the mystery to me... but maybe that's an angle you ought to pursue. It's a way of elevating your craft to another level. Making beer isn't all about brewing... it's about packaging too.

Next, consider pouring your beer. Stand proudly behind your beer at your next party and say, "Hey, let me pour you a sample." and "Let me pour you a pint". If they try to grab one of your bottles, just smack their hand and say, "I'm sorry, but you don't know how to handle a beer like this. This ain't some crap-assed macroswill and I'm not going to let you ruin it! Want a taste?"

I only read a few posts and ran into the one above by Sir Humpsalot. Well put. and I would only add the following.

The thread starter indicates he/she had a party. A party may not be the best venue to introduce people to home brew.

When brewing, we all like to control as many variables as possible. Why not the same during a, "party"?

No, rather than a party, I would invite small groups of people over and introduce them to your beer. Always a good idea to do so when you have very active fermentation in your carboy a bubbling away.

In addition, introduce them to a Kolsch or maybe better yet, Ed Waort's Pale Ale. A lighter colored beer may be a beer more receptive to the BMC crowd.

Keep trying though.

 

[The Bone2]

Right now, I'm sort of hoarding my beer. I've only been at it since Dec 1 (proudly 50 gallons in, 30 bottled). Now, I'm actually at a weird intersection where I'm running out of bottles to bottle the 20 gallons I need to bottle within the next couple of weeks.

So, at Super Bowl, I offered to bring chicken wings and home brew. I'm going to take a decent amount. All my friends and relatives are at the "least" curious, and at best very interested. They all love my cooking, so it intrigues them that I would have gone into brewing (I can't believe it took me this long, I've been cooking for years!).

I don't really care "how" they drink it, but I am planning on bringing nice beer glasses. I have drunk a lot of beer in my day, and I like it a little cold, too. Even the beers that are best at certain temps, I just like cold. Sometimes I like to throw a little A-1 on my Prime Steak, too....

All I care about is whether my guests DRINK ALL of their beer or leave dead soldiers.

Dead soldiers to me cannot be tolerated. If I found out who did that, they would be off of the list.

 

[DeathBrewer]

i actually threw some a-1 on my tri-tip the other day (it was all i had)...it went very well with the charred on the outside garlic and herb spiced meat.

 

[ronrad]

gee to have nieghbors that wont drink my beer what a dream, my nieghbor(apparantly with a drinking problem) stops by at 6am for a beer not like he ever wants to leave either. i just jokingly told my sister i need a way to mask the smell of my brewing beer because its drawing nieghbors. anyway if sir humpsalot has extra beer can i give his address to my nieghbor?

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

gee to have nieghbors that wont drink my beer what a dream, my nieghbor(apparantly with a drinking problem) stops by at 6am for a beer not like he ever wants to leave either. i just jokingly told my sister i need a way to mask the smell of my brewing beer because its drawing nieghbors. anyway if sir humpsalot has extra beer can i give his address to my nieghbor?

LOL heck no!!!! :cross:

I won't have my stocks up for at least a few more months.

 

[Kubed]

Don't let it get to you. Wait for them to try it their way, and when they said how good it is, tell them to try it your way because it's even better

And for anyone who gets freaked about drinking yeast... remind them about bread. Not only are they eating yeast, they're eating yeast burps and farts.

 

[sully]

sucks for them more for me!

 

[cclloyd]

I only read a few posts and ran into the one above by Sir Humpsalot. Well put. and I would only add the following.

The thread starter indicates he/she had a party. A party may not be the best venue to introduce people to home brew.

When brewing, we all like to control as many variables as possible. Why not the same during a, "party"?

No, rather than a party, I would invite small groups of people over and introduce them to your beer. Always a good idea to do so when you have very active fermentation in your carboy a bubbling away.

In addition, introduce them to a Kolsch or maybe better yet, Ed Waort's Pale Ale. A lighter colored beer may be a beer more receptive to the BMC crowd.

Keep trying though.

I hosted a party last fall - "Chucktoberfest" with about 30 people of whom maybe 10 had tried my beers prior to the gathering. I held pretty tight reigns on the presentation and pouring of my homebrews and had coolers of BMC out for the less adventurous souls. After a 4:00pm start at the end of the night all of my beers were gone and two coolers of BMC remained. No one griped about the pouring situation and in fact most of the guests were hip to pouring their own after being shown how and told why. Definitely an ego stroke and needless to say there will be a "Chucktoberfest II".

 

[Surly]

I hosted a party last fall - "Chucktoberfest" with about 30 people of whom maybe 10 had tried my beers prior to the gathering. I held pretty tight reigns on the presentation and pouring of my homebrews and had coolers of BMC out for the less adventurous souls. After a 4:00pm start at the end of the night all of my beers were gone and two coolers of BMC remained. No one griped about the pouring situation and in fact most of the guests were hip to pouring their own after being shown how and told why. Definitely an ego stroke and needless to say there will be a "Chucktoberfest II".

Sweet....

I bet a lot of it had to do with your personal presentation. Yet, having those ten more experienced HB drinkers would be a huge asset as well. They gave, "permission" to try it beyond the obvious proud craftsman/lady.

 

[sirsloop]

I think its kinda silly when people refuse to try new things. Penny does it sometimes with stuff other than beer, and it can be a little irritating. When it comes down to it, you aren't going to force beer down anyones throat so let them do what they want. Make it known that you have homebrew and if they show interest do your thing. I try pretty much anything I can get my hands on. I was at a chinese wedding and ate jellyfish and steamed whole baby octopus. I ate alpaca tongue and guinea pig in Peru. Why not? I'll NEVER have the seafood again, but at least I had it. Alpaca tongue was a little disturbing at first, but looking back the meat was quite tender! Some people are like me, other people only eat plain chicken cutlets, corn, and busch beer their entire life.

As far as temperature... sounds like you just need a fridge to keep your brew at serving temps.. LIKE A KEGGERATOR!

 

[shafferpilot]

yeah, my first couple events after starting brewing were a little awkward. I thought people would want to try my beer. If it had been a bottle of boos or wine, everyone would have been in line for sure. It took introducing my buddy, Charlie, to my homebrews one on one to spark things off. The next party night at our place, everyone brought their own beer, but several had a glass of this homebrew or that one. no one made a big deal out it being really good or really bad. the very next party, however, no one brought anything alcohol related. They marched straight downstairs and asked me if there were chilled mugs in the freezer or if they had to go upstairs and find one. Now I have a "tip your brewmaster" jar on top of the keggerator 'cause frankly, I can't afford to feed all these people beer all the time. They're gonna have to pitch in, if they plan on drinking my stuff all night Just give 'em time, they'll come around.

 

[jmiracle]

Wow, a lot of great responses. I think I'll try giving people a taste in the future. To clarify a little, it definitely wouldn't bother me if someone ended up preferring a brown ale at fridge temp or didn't want to drink hefeweizen mit hefe...it's just the refusal to EVEN TRY it that gets to me. Hey if someone even honestly prefers BMC to homebrew that's their business and I wish them well...but at least try it. I guess I'm like sirsloop, I'll try anything (at least as far as food and drink goes), I mean what's the worst that can happen? The absolute worst thing I can picture happening with a beer is that you somehow hate the first sip so bad that you puke. Well even then that's a great story.

 

[rdwj]

When I have a party, I usually have a couple of commercial choices including a typical american light. I also have my beer on tap. I find that most people that know me, except for a couple, only drink my beer when at my house. In fact, several of my friends and family ask "what's on tap?" as soon as they walk in the door.

I have one friend that refused to drink anything I made for a LONG time. I didn't push it, but I was always curious why. Eventually he tried it and claims to like it, but always drinks light beer when he's over. That's fine with me, that stuff would sit forever if he didn't drink it.

 

[sirsloop]

You also gotta remember... some people really don't like going outside their routine. I remember back in high school we did not have assigned seats, but everyone sat at the same desk every day. Funny thing was I used to move around all the time (day to day) taking other peoples seats. It used to REALLY piss them off. While that may seem completely unrelated, some people really have anxiety over new stuff. They like the old/normal way and are afraid to "puke if its really bad".

Lol, You should hit up supermarket and start getting specialty cheeses. Heh heh... you think people are afraid of tasting beer - try to stuff wierd looking cheese down their throat! HA! You have them RUNNING for your homebrew!

 

[Jester369]

I am really fortunate in that my friends are always up for new beer experiences - even my pizza delivery guy asks what's new on tap whenever he is dropping off! Of course, I am kegged, so no bottle pouring issues, and I set the temp, but I do set the temp to the lower end of whatever styles I have on tap and tell people if a particular beer would benefit from warming a bit in the glass.

 

[jmiracle]

You also gotta remember... some people really don't like going outside their routine. I remember back in high school we did not have assigned seats, but everyone sat at the same desk every day. Funny thing was I used to move around all the time (day to day) taking other peoples seats. It used to REALLY piss them off. While that may seem completely unrelated, some people really have anxiety over new stuff. They like the old/normal way and are afraid to "puke if its really bad".

Lol, You should hit up supermarket and start getting specialty cheeses. Heh heh... you think people are afraid of tasting beer - try to stuff wierd looking cheese down their throat! HA! You have them RUNNING for your homebrew!

I hear you on that brother. I guess I shouldn't be surprised being that the friend in the hefeweizen example, he lives in Chicago, everytime I go visit him and my brother out there I end up eating bar food all the time (burgers and fries) because he hates all seafood, hates almost all vegetables, hates any kind of ethnic food except lo mein from a Chinese place, and hates going to any place that you can't smoke. My brother for his part hates anything "spicy" and thinks EVERYTHING is spicy, claims all kinds of foods upset his stomach except fast food and mac and cheese, and is a huge tightwad on food. I live in a fairly small town, it'd be great to go to a sushi place or a good thai place or Vietnamese or Indian or something, but no...we have to order in pizza or go to the Irish pub and have burgers (at least they have good beer though).

 

[blacklab]

you can lead a horse to water...

 

[APendejo]

People can be funny. I have seen people at parties pull a pint off the keg and I am talking fairly good stuff like SNPA, Boulevard etc. then start BS'ing then go and pour the glass in the sink and pull another glass off another keg, over and over. I have stepped up and told them if you want to waste beer that is what the Budlight in the cans is for. There are others here that would have really appreciated what you just wasted. Their excuse was their beer got too warm, or they didn't like the taste of the beer, so they needed to try another one. I know, I'm an A-hole, but when I am the host I don't like people wasting stuff. I feel the same way about people who mooch cigars from me then nub them out like a cigarette after a couple of draws. Hey, it's only money----somebody elses.
AP

 

[tgrier]

We had a little party here .. a while back... and people were warming up to my beer at least the BMC were .. then one loud mouth woman that does not even drink beer .. starting saying that homebrew gave people the ****s and she would not drink it...

beer tasted good and people laughed it off... but man.. some people are just plain asses.

T

 

[mrkristofo]

When they won't even try it? I guzzle it down myself. More for me. They can enjoy the PBR.

We had a little party here .. a while back... and people were warming up to my beer at least the BMC were .. then one loud mouth woman that does not even drink beer .. starting saying that homebrew gave people the ****s and she would not drink it...

beer tasted good and people laughed it off... but man.. some people are just plain asses.

T

She was just scared of a yeast infection

 

[Chaos_Being]

Man, I'm glad most of my friends already love microbrews. All of my beers so far have been a hit, and everyone is waiting for more to be ready! The same goes for my wife!

 

[|-|edghog]

I say that just be happy they are trying out your home brew.

If they are leaving too much perfectly good home brew behind then only have limited amounts available to your guests...say 1-2 per person.

To keep your guests in beer during a get together you are going to need to go out and buy some mainstream swill from the store.

It's like my pappy always says...there is no accounting for taste.

Just my 2 cents

Hedghog

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

All of my beers so far have been a hit, and everyone is waiting for more to be ready! The same goes for my wife!

Your wife is a hit with everybody and everybody is waiting for your wife to be ready for more?

 

[Chaos_Being]

Haha, I guess I did word that a bit weirdly...

No, she likes beer

 

[mrfocus]

North Americans really have a problem (in general) with eating something that is close to being live. We're just to used to government agencies requiring that everything be so pasteurized and dead that most people don't understand that things like yogurt are actually fermented by live organisms (which afterwards are of course killed, but whatever).

Whereas places like France (where pasteurization was discovered) couldn't live without unpasteurized cheeses. Continental Europe also has Sauerkraut, and Asia has so many different fermented foods.