Offering people homebrew and them saying that must be lethal

[graysalchemy]

My FIL won't touch my beer which is good more for me.

 

[calumscott]

I've got a few friends, one AG brewer, a couple of ale drinkers and a couple of lager drinkers...

I knew that the brewer would be all over what I was doing, and I wasn't wrong, full of help, tips and encouragement and always quick with an "Anything new ready to try?".

The ale drinkers I figured would be easy, just one very gentle arm twist, and they were tucking into my stash and getting all animated about it.

I figured the lager drinkers would be the toughest challenge. So I made sure I had a few of my BB Export Lagers chilled down alongside some BADweiser. The choice was a pint or a half... :lol:

...I was restocking the fridge, making space by taking out the budwater, after half an hour! The talk was all about the flavour, the "feel" of the beer, how it was so much smoother than commercial beer, the abscence of that acrid aftertaste all too common in mass produced euro-p**s.

Now, this is ALL kit brewing! AG#1 is still a few weeks away. Just proves what I've learned over the course of my first brewing year - that if you take care over your brews, if you put a bit of thought into your brews, if you don't cut corners, if you always strive (no matter what method you use) to produce the best bottle you can, you WILL produce great beer outstripping anything, even most of the "craft" stuff, you can buy in the shops.

All that said, I agree that there is a perception problem and it is little wonder. There was some real cr@p about in years gone by and TBH at the bottom end of the market there still is.

But the biggest problem as I see it is the marketing around kits. In the beginning I made kits as per the instructions, and while they were perfectly drinkable, they were just perfectly drinkable - nothing really special. The marketeers have got their hands on things and are trying to appeal to the "easy" and "quick" and "cheap" brigades. They will still produce stuff that is "What's the point?" at best.

Worse still, there is the subset of the "cheap" brigade, the "p***ed cheap" brigade who will still try to take a ten quid kit and make Tennents Super out of it. A perfect example of "a little knowledge being dangerous".

The trouble is that at any given time this portion of the brewing public will likely outnumber massively (albeit individually for a short time) those of us trying to produce decent beer. That's what I think perpetuates the "Homebrew? Must be rough..." attitude.

 

[james1988]

I agree with the sentiments so far. It irritates me when people comment that the beer I brew must be as rough as badgers arse however it's always the complete opposite. Many of my friends were at first entirely against the idea of trying one of my beers - two of my friends were 'brave' enough - but one by one they eventually began tasting my beers.

The first hit was my Hoegaarden clone (it was very good if I do say so myself) and the Chocolate Vanilla stout I brewed was a real crowd pleaser however, I brewed a Spiced Orange Ale the other week and was disappointed with the result. I took a bottle into work for a colleague as we often speak about brewing and he said he was willing to give it a try.

The feedback I got was, it was a good beer but he didn't feel he could spend all night drinking it; I thought this was fair criticism and at least he was willing to give it a go which then got me thinking. Taste is subjective, it doesn't matter how hard I try I cannot get 80% of my friendship group to even try a 'guest' beer in our local as they would rather drink their chemical rubbish that they've been 'told' and therein lies the problem - marketing.

If, perhaps, home brew grew to a point where it could compete with more (I use the term loosely) mainstream hobbies - such as baking - I think people would be far more inclined to at least give it a go and not writing it off before the beer makes it to their lips.

In other news, a different colleague of mine has taken up the hobby. :)

James

 

[DirtyCaner]

I'm fortunate enough that a lot of my social circle are into craft beer or real ale. Most folks are quite keen to try my brews, a lot of them have started putting them on Untappd. Even the people who aren't are still pretty keen and complimentary. Think I've only had couple of folk turn their nose up at it and they didn't rally lke beer. At Sundays brewday I cracked open several brews for my 'junior brewers' to try. The had brought a couple they had bought too. One was a reall ale stout, I though it was ok, but they said it was probably the worst beer we had tried that day. A great compliment.

Like a lot of people on here, I like to do things for myself and enjoy the creative process. I don't make my own beer, write my own music, bake my own bread or grow or cook all my food from scratch just to save cash. I do it so as I get things the way that I like them.

Cheers,

DC

:

 

[TRXnMe]

I call it home brew :)

But, my mates know I wont drink nasty stuff, they've had to change pubs too many times over the years to expect me to compromise over much on the quality of beer I drink.

As to the image of home brew, I think it depends on what the home brewer who introduced the folk to it was up to. My best mate's dad made some stonking wines, parsnip, carrot, elderberry, rasberry you name it he'd make it into wine :)

My Mum made beer from the Boot's kits, it was actually quite decent, better than the Sam Smiths I was subjecting myself to in the local anyway.

When I first started to think about making home brew it was kits that came to mind, it's only the bad influence of this place that lead me astray :)

 

[DirtyCaner]

I too was led down the dark path by this place and its various characters!

I used to make the boots kits when I was a teenager, I thought they were OK, but nothing compared with the stuff Im producing now!

To THBF and all who sail in her!

:

DC

 

[TRXnMe]

I too was led down the dark path by this place and its various characters!

I used to make the boots kits when I was a teenager, I thought they were OK, but nothing compared with the stuff Im producing now!

To THBF and all who sail in her! :

DC

:

 

[BIGJIM72]

Some interesting comments so far. IMHO kits have come a long way in the past 15-20 years, but with tinternet & forums like this added to better quality ingredients AG has upped its game as well. If you compare Dave Lines' recipes with BYORA or another more up to date AG book then you understand what I mean in terms of ingredients & technique.
It's hard to change a mindset,but I still think part of it is down to presentation.When you pull out your best WOW/AG/kit beer & it's nicely labelled,bright & in good condition don't mention the doubts you have or the mistakes you think you have made (as it is very easy to do) just let the brew do the talking.Although I never tried it, Tubby's **** ale makes the point better than I can (read the thread)-good looking beer,good label,mad recipe.

 

[Ian...]

I have just returned to brewing my own beer after 30 years. The kits were absolute crap then so I brewed mine with malt extract, brown sugar and hops and it was pretty good. I started then because I was out of work and couldn't afford to go to the pub and unlike now, there was a good home brew shop close by.
As I got work and my economic situation improved, I stopped. Now, approaching retirement and knowing I will have to make cut-backs I have started again. I hadn't found this forum but I found a home brew shop about 20 miles away (the nearest) and the guy there recommended the St Peters Red Ruby Ale kit. I can only say 'how things have changed!' This beer is incredible, absolutely superb. I'm staggered at the quality. Alright, it's top of the range in price but still comes in at under 60p a pint and way better than anything I have tasted in a pub. I have now expanded my kit and will be building up stock so I always have some on tap.
I hadn't really considered that 'homebrew' has an image problem but I will take up the cause. My son came home for the weekend last Friday. He lives and works in London and considers himself quite a beer expert. He's just coming to the end of his Phd so I reckon he has some beer experience under his expanding belt. I hadn't told him I was making my own beer, I just brought a pint in from the garage (where the beer is normally kept anyway) and I didn't say anything. Upon tasting, he immediately asked 'What is this? It's superb. How do you get a head like that from a bottle?' (it's kegged actually). I just said 'St Peters Red Ruby' he said, 'I've never heard of it. I think it's probably one of the best, if not the best, pints I've ever had.' He is a critical kind of person so that'll do for me! I can't praise it enough! I'm starting another next weekend, along with one or two others!
Cheers!

 

[phettebs]

We get that a lot over here in the US and this same thread has been on many of our forums. Sometimes people had a bad experience where some overly proud beginning brewer served them an infected beer to try. Or maybe the brewer made a lot of mistakes and it just turned out bad. I've had people say "Homebrew? Doesn't that make you really sick?" or "that must be like rocket fuel."

I think it's just people's misconceptions of what we do. All the more reason to educate them!

 

[Baldbrewer]

St Peters Red Ruby Ale kit. I can only say 'how things have changed!' This beer is incredible, absolutely superb!

+1 this was my 1st and only kit that led me to the darkside of AG brewing.
:thumb: welcome back Ian.

 

[pollymorph]

I'm very recent to brewing and was led to it through another forum coupled with a mate handing round her sloe gin. I had only done kits until I followed a recipe from here this week and have been pleased with the results so far. I'm lucky in that I have a mate at work who is into HB along with his dad so we swap info (pointed him to this website ) All my beers are currently too immature to drink although the cider is not far off at all.

I am planning on taking my stocks to our annual holiday in July which is about 30 of us camping in a field in Kent for a week so fingers crossed it will be fine. Have already had interest in what I'm brewing as well as some requests.

Bad side, I am running out of room!