"judging" Experience

[Paleman]

Ant that sucks, i put myself through the same thing with almost every brew i make by telling my friends how excited i am about my latest brew and asking them to have a taste, i never get good feedback and it really gets me down sometimes, i just have to keep reminding myself these are people who don't brew some don't even drink beer that often and when they do it's always VB. one of my friends does brew but only K+K i personally don't like most of his brews there drinkable but there's no flavour, thats how he likes them tho and i always tell him there good and ask him what sort of brew he wants to do next and try and give him some advice on adding hops and grain (he still won't steep any grains but i'll get him there one day)

anyway sorry about the rant i was really only ment to post this, peas and corn mentioned this thread so i went looking for it

Beer Critique, How without offending people

cheers all

-Phill

This is actually a good thread for all homebrewers to read. I too have mates that dont brew, and would rather drink a VB than my best homebrew. They are often not backward in coming forward.

I also have a mate that does brew. His mainstay is Coopers Bitter, brewed with an Enhancer and the kit yeast. Its a pretty good drop. To me, my beers using grain are better. But i am a beer lover, of taste and effort. And i appreciate the effort he goes into, to share a drop with me. And it makes him feel pretty good when i say his Bitter is top notch. Id rather a glass of that, than not have any VB at all on a hot day.

Its all about appreciation. Those that knock others home crafted beers are knob gobblers. If its really not good, then its all about tact and constuctive feed back.

 

[mikem108]

"Mate, its just shit"

In a situation like this if I can be bothered I usually explain that no "your taste buds are shot from drinking your horse piss" Theres nothing wrong with the beer. I follow it up with a well rehersed disertation on what methods are employed to manufacture their beloved VB and if they are happy to keep poisoning themselves they should continue to do so and not waste my homebrew on their uneducated palates.

Most aren't quite as agressive as those guys though h34r:

 

[Voosher]

In a situation like this if I can be bothered I usually explain that no "your taste buds are shot from drinking your horse piss" Theres nothing wrong with the beer. I follow it up with a well rehersed disertation on what methods are employed to manufacture their beloved VB and if they are happy to keep poisoning themselves they should continue to do so and not waste my homebrew on their uneducated palates.

You may wish to summarise your disertation here so others can be better armed as well.
We could all memorise it and have it as the craftbrewer's Anthem.

 

[ant]

Thanks folks one and all for your words of advice, sympathy and understanding - I thought there would be a few here who would feel my pain... I just get staggered now and then that there are people like this in the world who haven't died from acts of extreme spontaneous violence from random strangers that come into contact with them on a daily basis.

It's all pretty much been said, but yeah, it gets me that he couldn't have just kept his trap shut and the tact control dialled up a little, it irks me a bit more that he didn't have the common courtesy to wait until I'd left to tip it out, and it shits me to the point of my eyes bulging out that he and his scaly mates jumped a locked gate to help themselves.

I could have argued the point about the clearly educated and informed opinions and experiences that went into the classification of the beer being "shit", highlighted the differences between our beers, explained to him that there were ales and lagers; that these tend to have fundamental differences and that yes, an APA was indeed a style, that beers come in a range of colours, pointed out to his mate that hops tend to make things bitter rather than sweet, but in the end I just couldn't be bothered, sometimes it's just easier to finish the beer, say thaks very much, walk away, shake your head and leave it there. After you've spilled your guts on a forum of course...

At least he was a HBer...