Exactly. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
I feel for ya Major. I get the same thing in the sheet metal shop. Everyone knows how to do it better than the guy they hired to do it for them. :
I say, you don’t like how I do it, then do it yourself.
Rob Widmer’s college roommate lives here in town. He said he had never seen more beer on tap in someone’s living room until he met me. ;D
the part of this that the original post stated- and mentioned again later- that no one has commented on is the key in my opinion… “that guy” HADN’T EVEN TRIED THE EFFIN’ BEER!!! People are so quick to pass judgement and give advice on beers they haven’t even tried. That just kills me. STFU, drink the beer, then discuss.
On this website, every day, there are at least a hundred people who give advice on a hundred beers they haven’t, nor will ever drink. If you want to cut down the number of people who can provide commentary on beers to only those who have tried said beers, we might as well shut down the whole AHA forums.
If we did that where would we go for comic relief?
But we get to see the recipe and can make judgments based on our personal and collective experience. Big, big, BIG difference there. I can tell if you have 5 lbs of crystal malt in an extract beer and you are waisting all you amarillo hops at the 60 minute addition that you are headed the wrong way. 
That’s what you always say about my beers!
seems like something you see in every field.
I have been doing what I do for nearly 20 years now, and I pretty much know it inside and out. I get flyboys all the time offering their “opinions” about what they think will work or how they can save costs. Well, whatever, opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one.
Dont let that guy get to you, there will always be folks that try to talk about things they do not know, and even try to talk to experts about things they do not know. Roll it up and call it a day. Have a beer and relax brother, you got successful people problems… aka who cares what he thinks.
Not to mention that people post stuff here ASKING for our opinions.
If I take my product to a public event that I arrange, where I intend to talk to other humans about my product, why is it so unreasonable to assume that I want feedback about my product? What if the person hasn’t tried your product but is familiar with other, similar products? Can they use their personal experience to inform their opinion about your product? It sounds like the answer here is ‘no.’
It’s not like this guy walked into the brewhouse and started giving orders, or even went up to the brewer and started talking shop at him. Since none of us (including the OP) actually know the person we’re talking about, why is everyone assuming the worst about this person because of third-hand knowledge?
The crux of this, for me, is that I take umbrage with the idea that every beer is a beautiful snowflake, that requires intimate, personal experience to understand and appreciate, yet a human being can easily be reduced to a caricature without knowing anything about him, except a single thing he said with hardly any context.
I just want to tell one little story, and then I’ll take all of you guys’ advice and stop worrying about what other people think:
There is a guy down the road who owns another tackle store. He’s an accomplished fly fisherman. He’s one of those “I’m really good at what I do, and I don’t care what anyone thinks about me” kind of guys. He’s the kind of guy “that guy” can’t stand. I’m not an expert, and I try to be respectful of all people, even if they’re blowhards. Turns out “that guy” is my best customer. So while my gross has doubled over the last three years, the guy down the road can’t keep product on the shelf and is going out of business. You don’t have to kiss “that guy’s” ass, but if you have nothing but disdain for him, he’ll be able to tell. He’ll take his business elsewhere, and you might be surprised at just how many of “that guy” are out there.
I think we all lost track of the original post, so here it is:
““That guy” is the guy who showed up at our “Randall” event at a draft to go store yesterday. I wasn’t there, I was at the brewery, brewing. But “That Guy” walks up to one of my partners and starts flexing his brewing muscles, asking questions about the beer, and then telling my partner why it wasn’t the way he would do it. eg: I don’t think an IIPA should ever be over 8% abv., and other assorted, sundry, observations and points.”
I think it was not so much what “that guy” said but how he said it that made the partner take umbrage. Personally I have very low tolerance for arrogance.
Nateo, are you being purposely obtuse??? Have you bothered to read any of my posts about the subject? I certainly never said I didn’t want feedback from my product. I get plenty of it. If you had bothered to read or perhaps attempted to comprehend the gist of this thread I simply can’t understand how you could be taking such a position.
I just don’t get it. Obviously criticism is good, but 1) There’s a time and a place for it and 2) Don’t assume you can do it better, especially when you haven’t brewed anything over a 10 gallon batch before and 3) TRY THE F’ING BEER FIRST!!!
The whole point of this thread is the outright arrogance of some people who make too many assumptions based on their own delusional abilities. Just because you can brew a 10 gallon batch of excellent SNPA clone doesn’t mean you can walk into Sierra Nevada and rival the brewers there.
i didn’t catch anywhere where “that guy” critiqued the brewing, the quality, the flavor etc. merely a statistic associated with the brew. or even less the style.
one doesn’t need to be a professional painter to know that the white you were expecting isn’t the red that came in the can.
not everything sn brews is worth drinking
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a 1.083 IIPA is out of style guidelines??? It’s hard for me to express his attitude over the internet, I recon. Condescension is rarely a heralded trate.
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And did you read my description of the brew? It fits perfectly within the style!
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And your point is? Just because you don’t find a particular beer to be “worth drinking” doesn’t mean the brewery doesn’t have a good monetary reason for making that beer. It’s not always all about what the beer snobs like to see in bottles, it’s about what sells as often as not. Maybe you don’t really get the full grasp of why Sierra Nevada sells the beers they do. Maybe your favorite IPA recipe would cause them to lose money.
Honestly, it seems like you’re stressing about this way too much.
If you’re this burnt up about it, and you weren’t even there, you should really RDWHAHB.
Sounds like the guy was a pompous douche. No reason to ruin your week over it.
I’m amazed that there’s four pages of this. Time to let it go.
I’m not stressing, I just think it’s a good conversation. Am surprised to see such a range of feelings on the topic. I figured there would be a lot of talk on the topic when I posted it. Did not figure there would be as much defense of what I consider arrogance and assumptions.
I should add I guess I can see how my adamant posting on the topic could be taken the wrong way. I’m just having a bit of fun conversing right now. But I’ll back off.
Two words for ya major:
Tim Tebow 8)