How to get mates to pay

[Judanero]

My mates pretty regularly stop in for a "pint or two", 9/10 times they'll bring a six pack of something along they think I'd drink and drink my homebrew instead. So far I've brought three of my mates to the darkside (brewing) and am taking another mate to buy a fermenter on the weekend.

My plan is working.

 

[mattdean4130]

I guess it really depends on how much they're drinking...

I'm happy to share a few brews with some mates, but i'm not happy to shout a free night's session under most circumstances!

Then again that said, maybe you could go about it with a bit more subtlety and ask them to grab a couple of pizza's on their way over?

You won't be getting cash, no. But at least it won't be a free ride!

 

[mckenry]

I would never ask for $. Just couldn't do it. If you come to my house, you're welcome to all the beer you can drink, for nothing. In fact, you're not allowed to bring beer. Exception is light if driving or something awesome. The latter has never happened...
I don't seem to have freeloader mates like the OP though, so its a tough one. Pretty much all my mates host each other now and then, so I get my fair share of payback that way. I can't really help with the morally right thing to do, but if someone continually dropped in for beers, I'd just ask them not to come so often. Tell them you're "off the booze during the week, see you Friday!"
Maybe instead of straight $, ask them to buy some food to complement the beer, or beers to do a side by side with. That way it doesn't look too tight on your behalf and if they really are tight, they should be too embarrassed to arrive empty handed?

(I did have a mate who would pay half of the cost. I would brew and we'd take a keg each, but different story.)

 

[mikec]

Funny, I've never even thought about asking visitors to pay for home brew.
And no one has ever offered, now that I think about it!

I am still experimenting with lot of different styles and I actually want people to help empty the kegs so I can brew something new.
That might wear off though.

Manticle I hear what you're saying and agree for the most part, but the speedboat example wasn't a great one.
Boats burn through fuel like nothing else on earth, and it's a shitty friend that won't offer some fuel money. I don't always accept though, depends on how cashed up the friend is.

 

[fcmcg]

I play in a band and we often have rehearsal in my studio.The guys know there is always beer on tap , which i always offer..but nine times out of ten , they bring a sixer of something

 

[Natdene]

I would never charge. I'm planning on have 7 beers on tap for my wife's 40th, all free, and some guys from work are complaining that I'm serving home brew at a party! WTF! I think some of them are stuck in the old days of shit brewed in the shed at 35 plus deg.
I'm calling it a "assortment of craft beer on tap" on the invites. However most of the guys coming cant wait to try them out.

 

[Goose]

Are they your mates or are they freeloaders ?

Homebreweing to me is less about the cost and far more about the time, TLC and pride that goes into it.... how could I put a cost on that ?

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Im always left with 6 packs of gold or Bud from when my mates come over and just end up drinking my homebrew. I don't think they bring the beer to be polite though, they bring it just incase my beer is shit haha. Most don't like those 9% IIPA's....they say "geez thats a bit heavy".

 

[manticle]

@mikec - big differencs in my mind between people offering and someone insisting. That's my point.
It's the vibe of the thing, your honour

 

[professional_drunk]

This thread reminds me of a time when I was in some farmland in rural Vietnam chewing on some sugar cane. I asked my driver if the farmers minded us eating their sugar cane. He said it's ok and free as long as we eat on the spot. If we take away, then they'd expect payment.

 

[pk.sax]

How different though is it to asking mates to stay back for a bite or even dinner. The ones that never invite you over don't usually get called over again...

 

[pedleyr]

In my first stint brewing I lived in a share house with three other blokes and only two of us brewed, but everyone drank it. There were some pretty wild parties at that house and we could never seem to brew fast enough to build up a reserve of beer. Even though we had basically no money the thought of asking for payment never actually occurred to us. But we also mainly did K&K until we went to extract at the end so we churned out some pretty average beer as well, so asking for money might have been a bit rich.

In my second stint which I've just started - first AG batch into bottles on the weekend - it obviously hasn't come up yet.

BUT, there's an option here that nobody else has mentioned, and I think that it is going to work really well for me: just don't have any mates. Problem is non-existent!

 

[Parks]

I find now that I make about 10 times what I can safely drink without the side effect of death so I'm happy for it.

I normally take some to work, to family etc and do so both because it's my hobby and I like to share and because I need help getting through it

However I'm in a very different situation to the OP who obviously has some scunge mates who are taking severe advantage of his "free piss".

 

[Greg.L]

Just wait a few years, your mates will all have wives, kids, mortgages etc, you won't see them very often and you'll be pleased to have someone come round and drink your brew.

 

[talco92]

Just wait a few years, your mates will all have wives, kids, mortgages etc, you won't see them very often and you'll be pleased to have someone come round and drink your brew.

I think that's the wrong kind of friends you want to have.
'please grace me with your presence!..... I have beer?!'

 

[petesbrew]

I think that's the wrong kind of friends you want to have.
'please grace me with your presence!..... I have beer?!'

Wait a few years and you'll see, talco.

You get to a point when you're not counting shouts. Just happy for company.

 

[talco92]

Wait a few years and you'll see, talco.

You get to a point when you're not counting shouts. Just happy for company.

I don't doubt that that happens; life can get busy.
I just don't think it should be affected by whether or not you have something to give someone.

 

[Greg.L]

There is a very old tradition of hospitality that says when you have guests you are obligated to offer hospitality, food and drink, and when you are a guest of others it is your turn to be offered hospitality. You shouldn't tot up whether you are ahead or behind, but if someone fails to reciprocate then you can just not invite them any more. Some might say homebrewers get off easy because the drinks they offer are cheaper than buying something in, but the effort of preparing something personally for your friends makes up for that.

I was annoyed about that horrible hobbit movie, because, in the book, at no time does Bilbo complain about having to feed all his guests. This principal was very important for Tolkien, but Jackson made the Dwarfs into nasty ungrateful guests, and Bilbo into a resentful host, it spoils the tone of the whole thing.

Don't become a Peter Jackson Hobbit, you will be much happier if you can be generous without expectation of any reward.

 

[manticle]

I was annoyed about that horrible hobbit movie,

Quite a good example.

I hated the movie too. A lot of made up drivel that had nothing to do with the original. Why would anyone think they needed to rewrite that story?

OT sorry.

 

[TidalPete]

There is a very old tradition of hospitality that says when you have guests you are obligated to offer hospitality, food and drink, and when you are a guest of others it is your turn to be offered hospitality. You shouldn't tot up whether you are ahead or behind, but if someone fails to reciprocate then you can just not invite them any more. Some might say homebrewers get off easy because the drinks they offer are cheaper than buying something in, but the effort of preparing something personally for your friends makes up for that.

I was annoyed about that horrible hobbit movie, because, in the book, at no time does Bilbo complain about having to feed all his guests. This principal was very important for Tolkien, but Jackson made the Dwarfs into nasty ungrateful guests, and Bilbo into a resentful host, it spoils the tone of the whole thing.

Don't become a Peter Jackson Hobbit, you will be much happier if you can be generous without expectation of any reward.

I absolutely agree that the books leave the movies for dead. So much has been left out of the film versions & so many facts distorted or ignored.
The Hobbit is the next movie "Trilogy" to grace our screens. HITBH are they going to do this? Have you noticed how thin Tolkien's book is? There is going to be a lot of non-Tolkien stuff added to spread things out. <_<

Wait a few years and you'll see, talco.
You get to a point when you're not counting shouts. Just happy for company.

Truer words etc, etc.
Most of my mates are either dead or too far away.
Just a fact of life.