Hi All,
Besides your own personal enjoyment of the art of home brewing, not to mention its greatest benefit, drinking tasty beer, who is your biggest fan base? For me, it’s my wife, close pals, our foodie group and a few work partners. With all respect to a guys like Mullerbrau or Brother Lenard and their volumes, they must be pleasing a small township or at least a big neighborhood :cheers:
So who are the lucky peeps in your mind and heart when you brew?
Sadly it’s hardly anyone. People tell me they like my beer, but don’t try very hard to invite themselves over for beer. I’ve been questioning why I brew lately. I like my beer okay, but is it really worth it…
Other than my wife (when she is not pregnant or on some crazy diet), my mother drinks quite a lot of my beer. She has a glass or two from the kegerator evertime she comes over, and always request that I bring some when I come to her house for family get togethers.
There are a few guys at work who ask for a mixed six pack from time to time. My brothers and sister usually go home with a six pack when they visit. The neighbors will also drink some, if it is in the bmc ballpark. And I always brew extra for give aways around the holidays
Of course it’s worth it! Brew on…
Twice a year, I have what I call a “grill n swill”, where I invite about 20 friends over, and grill meat and serve the beers I’ve been stocking up on. They all tell me they love my beer, but I’d say my mother and sister are my biggest fans. My wife can’t stand the smell or anything about it.
Paul
Sounds awesome
Of course it’s worth it! Brew on…[/quote]
I think I’m setting the bar too high or something. Every now and then, I get in this mood (like now) where I just want to quit brewing, sell all my stuff, and just buy beer when I feel like drinking it.
I think I just need to brew more varieties. For instance, I’d like to brew more lagers. They just take longer and require more patience.
Sorry to be such a downer to this thread!
My biggest fans are some of my co-workers. It took some time to get people to understand that I like it when they drink my beer (no, I don’t want to save it all for myself), but now that they have put the guilt aside they are always asking if I can bring a keg to the next party.
[quote="Beersk]I think I’m setting the bar too high or something. Every now and then, I get in this mood (like now) where I just want to quit brewing, sell all my stuff, and just buy beer when I feel like drinking it.
I think I just need to brew more varieties. For instance, I’d like to brew more lagers. They just take longer and require more patience.
Sorry to be such a downer to this thread![/quote]
I’ll buy the stuff!
Just kidding, you should come down for our next brew club meeting and get re-inspired.
My group consists of wifey who doesn’t drink my favs and I don’t drink hers. Then theres maybe a dozen people in our brew club, although theres usually so much beer at a meeting that you really can’t move any volume that way. I have found one friend who’s willing to take the occasional keg off my hands, and return it clean to boot.
An occasional keg off your hands? :cheers:
Im my biggest fan. THen my mom, and dad, and then my uncle and friend.
I had quit brewing for similar reasons. Since I moved and took my current position of employment, I’ve lost my network of fellow brew fiends and all of my family and friends.
There are very active homebrewers here. Dont get me wrong. Its just they meet during my work week and have less than no interest of moving the meeting date. And making friends in this area is a tough one. Its a pretty closed society of small towns where everyone knows everyone and their families for generations and outsiders aren’t tolerated very well. Additionally, I really dont fit in with the culture, mindset, or politics here. I have pretty much given up on fitting in at all here, and I’m just waiting to earn enough years for early retirement, then I am getting the hell outta here. I started brewing again last month, with my biggest fan being my wife. Our future son in law will drain a bunch with appreciation, and when fam or friends visit in summer or winter to use my place as a free hotel for local seasonal activities, they will hit the kegs too. Neighbors are all MBC types who think Coors lite in the can is good drinking.
Now I am getting back into it for myself. Going back and perfecting process at every step. Trying styles like sours for the first time. Its no where near as much fun as brew days with buddies or tasting nights like before. No anticipation to speak of.
Biggest fans would be the wife and close friends. We host new years every year and while I don’t claim to brew much (with the kids I’ll be lucky to get four or five batches in this year though I’m getting better) I will always have a new brew for new years and we kill it pretty quickly into the night. My great grandfather in law (wife’s great grandfather) was a brew master in Germany and as such my father in law can’t take anything I brew. Took a few batches to figure that out…wasn’t fun. Now I know not to even try.
Wife is probably the biggest fan - always key when it comes time to buy more stuff:) Beyond that, I have a half dozen close friends from college - all have brewed, a couple still brew. They are big fans. From there, some coworkers are big fans of “craftbeers” and love it when I have parties or bring them some brew. Other folks (the busch, miller, bud, coors crowd) usually will give it a shot, and are fans of things like wheats, kolsch, some lagers, etc.
Probably the highlight of “beer appreciation” was the last work party we had. I always buy 2 30 packs for those that don’t like “real” beer. After the party I went to empty out the coolers, put the beer back in the 30 packs - filled both back up. Not ONE canned beer was drank by anyone. Of course, the down side was 2 5 gallon kegs and another case+ of bottles were empty:)
im my biggest fan and my wife is the biggest fan of my wine. it works out well i dont drink wine and she doesnt drink beer. more for both of us.
No one. Girlfriend does not drink beer at all. Father criticizes every beer even if it’s perfect. Brother is diabetic, no beer for him. I have a sister who will drink 1 beer then swap to Miller Lite. I have a few friends who say they like my beer but none want to home brew. A friend a few weeks ago compared one of my hoppy ales to a Natural Lite. I almost choked him. Most people would not know a good beer if it jumped out of the glass and bit them on the butt. A few people compliment me on my beers, but I would not say I had any fans other than myself. I know my beers are good. I’ve made some crappy ones starting out and I know I’ve learned how to make great beer. But when you deal with people who think Michelob and Bud are the top of the line, what do you expect? Some people think McDonald’s is high quality.
I had quit brewing for similar reasons. Since I moved and took my current position of employment, I’ve lost my network of fellow brew fiends and all of my family and friends.
There are very active homebrewers here. Dont get me wrong. Its just they meet during my work week and have less than no interest of moving the meeting date. And making friends in this area is a tough one. Its a pretty closed society of small towns where everyone knows everyone and their families for generations and outsiders aren’t tolerated very well. Additionally, I really dont fit in with the culture, mindset, or politics here. I have pretty much given up on fitting in at all here, and I’m just waiting to earn enough years for early retirement, then I am getting the hell outta here. I started brewing again last month, with my biggest fan being my wife. Our future son in law will drain a bunch with appreciation, and when fam or friends visit in summer or winter to use my place as a free hotel for local seasonal activities, they will hit the kegs too. Neighbors are all MBC types who think Coors lite in the can is good drinking.
Now I am getting back into it for myself. Going back and perfecting process at every step. Trying styles like sours for the first time. Its no where near as much fun as brew days with buddies or tasting nights like before. No anticipation to speak of.[/quote]
Aw man, that sucks, sorry about it! Life’s too short to be miserable, why are you putting up with all that?
I’m not going to quit brewing, although I’ve thought about it, how life would be simpler just to go to the store and get a six pack of whatever I’m feeling…
But I do like brewing, I get a sense of reward when I tap a beer and it’s delicious, even i no one wants to come over and try it when I tell them I’ve got a good beer on tap. I’m probably reading too much into it, I don’t know.
But I do think I’m stagnating; I’m brewing styles that I’m getting sick of. I plan to start brewing more German style beers using WY1007 for faster turn around than lager yeast…I just don’t have the patience for lagers. I’ve done one lager and I could barely let it lager for 4 weeks, I just couldn’t wait.
my friends that drink craft beer seem to like my beer very much, while my bmc drinking friends could care less.
My wife and my brother-in-law are my biggest fans, along with my home brew buddies of course. My wife likes the less hoppier ales so I rotate pale ales and IPA’s and such with wheats and brown ales. She loved Caribou Slobber!
