I am not a cheap person. I love serving my homebrew to guests. However, when we have guests for the weekend, it is always up to me to serve beer. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it. But when I go to their house, they expect me to bring homebrew or store bought beer. Something is wrong here. My thought is if you come here for the weekend, at least bring a sixer of good Craft Beer since our small town doesn’t have the variety of big city beer stores. Now they are bringing friends to stay for the weekend now. To me, I would never, ever go to friends house for the weekend without at least bring something unique to drink. How to other homebrewers deal with non-homebrewing guests/visits?
Simple… I straight up tell people to bring food or good beer. My “good beer” usually turns into a mountain of Sam Adams winter lager though… So I’m starting to be more specific.
I share freely with my guests and expect nothing in return. When I go to their house I bring enough homebrew to share. When I attend a party I’m the guy who shows up with a keg or two. When my club has an event they can always count on me to bring a keg. I don’t keep score and never expect anything in return. I brew often and always have a steady supply so I share what I can. Homebrewers are kind, generous, and cool.
My in-laws mock my homebrew and make yeast infection jokes. They’d drink cat piss if it were in a Yuengling bottle, tho. It used to bother me, but now I realize they’re not worthy. I never bring homebrew to family events.
I share my brews pretty freely because I brew alot more than I can drink. Luckily I have plenty of beer geek friends and family members who appreciate craft beer - but the first guy who threw out the condescending yeast infection cracks would get damn sure cut off, and free to drink his Miller Lite (or whatever).
I’m a little in between the other guys…I always happily serve my homebrew when people who appreciate it stop by to visit. Key phrase here: people who appreciate it. When I travel - I rarely bring it. With my schedule, it’s tough to sneak multiple brew days in a month, let alone 1 brew day a month. So I like to stretch my homebrew as far as possible - as well as be sure I have enough to serve to guests who visit. It’s amazing how fast it disappears when you bring a few bottles here, a few bottles there. Nothing worse than running out of a delicious batch prematurely!
As a side note: one time I had co-workers beg me to bring in my homebrew (we work in a pretty relaxed environment - beer is always in the fridge). So - I had just kegged and carbonated a delicious IPA! I decided to bring in the entire keg thinking “it’s way too bitter for most to appreciate”. HA! Boy was I wrong! I brought home a nearly empty keg. Shame on me. I only had it on tap for about 2 weeks - very sad. Never did that again!
I love sharing my homebrew with friends that come over and hearing there comments. I don’t like people who don’t know anything about homebrewing beer or much about craft beer, like this guy who came to a party with one of my friends I invited and the first thing out of the guys mouth was which one of these beer taste like bud. I just turned and walked away not even answering him and gave my friend a look like who is this guy u brought.
^ I would look upon that as a teachable moment.
Hilarious
What I don’t like is when a guest gets a glass of home brew then doesn’t like it but won’t speak up. They’ll sip the same glass all night. I feel bad. I always have commercial beer they can get if they just fess up. My feelings aren’t hurt. I get that everyone’s taste is different. Lots of BMC folks don’t like malt and or hop flavors in beer. They don’t like the variety a home brewer likes.
So in the end I try to feel a person out before offering home brew.
I now also pour small servings at first so people try before diving all the way in.
+1
I live by the “Give more than you take” philosophy… I have plenty of homebrew to share. If not, or I am too far from home to bring some, I’ll stop, support a local brewer, and pick up a few growler’s to share. I’ve even started bottling again just to have a supply to travel with. The best part is when a newbie may for their very first time have that “Ahhhhhhhhhh” moment while having quaff or or two. Then I have the satisfaction of helping to create another craft beer junkie!
This thread reminds me of Lucy asking Linus to play jingle bells… you know ho ho ho, and mistletoe, and presents for pretty girls? That’s it!
But our beer geek side reminds me of her saying that she never eats December snow flakes.
The only beer I don’t like to share is when my homebrew doesn’t turn out like I wanted it to. Honestly sharing or giving away what I brew is one of the top three reasons I brew (recipe design & the science of brewing are the other two).
That and like someone above said, I brew enough that I have to give some away.
This is my modus operandi as well. Except for right now, I haven’t brewed in two months because of the move and even I’m not drinking any homebrew cause I’m out! :o I’m stuck drinking Negronis until further notice.
Thankfully most people who like beer like most of my homebrews. I gladly share all I have, because I always need to make room for the next batch. Brewing is not for everyone, but with those who brew, I enjoy a better conversation than simply hearing someone try to describe what they know little about… Or simply try to match my beer to a commercial brand. But in the end I am glad to enlighten their palate with something homemade. If I brewed much less, I might feel more protective about the beers I make, but luckily I can afford to give it away quite freely
My brew is on the verge of being something I’m proud of. I like sharing more when it’s pretty stellar. Most of the folks I share with are somewhat beer savy. But I have a few that still think bmc is the only thing they can drink. Not sure I’ll ever change them. Oh well
As to trying something new - I always say that as a kid in the candy store, I never chose just one kind of candy to buy! Why do that with beer?
I wish I had more people to drink my brew with. The jalapeno brew put me on a long halt to my brewing, I hated it. A lot of my friends said they liked it, but no one would take any from me. Finnaly my dad tried it and asked if he could have a few bottles. I gave him the whole case and now my fridge is ready for a batch to be put in.
If I am giving it is to give. If I want something in return that is a trade, and if after a reasonable amount of time the other party doesn’t get the hint, I either stop trading or Speak up.
Sounds like you don’t really want to be sharing and you also don’t really want to stop trading. if it’s fun for you to to share the fruits of your hobby but yo uare feeling put upon you should maybe speak up. Just keep it casual and say something.
You mentioned that your town does not have the same variety as his does, perhaps an inquiry about a particular beer your interested in.
Clear up your relationship: “Hey, I’d love to trade a couple bottles of that homebrew you really liked for a sixer of goose Island”, “Sure, yeah that’d be cool”.
Might be all it takes.
Put a fancy personalized label on your homebrew including a “suggested retail price” . Maybe it won’t seem so free then.