Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Topic of the Week: When "The Beer Geek" comes to visit.

"What kind of beer should I get for you? I know you like different kinds of beers." "You like those heavy beers, right. What kind should I get for you?" "Are you bringing your own or do you want me to pickup something for you?" I'm sure you've heard these types of questions before or maybe your the one asking them. As "The Beer Geek" I usually feel awkward and pleased at the same time. It is really awesome my hosts are so thoughtful. At the same time I don't feel like I should be suggesting a harder to find or more expensive beer. I'm likely to say things like...
  • I'll drink whatever you have.
  • Don't worry, I'll bring something for us to try.
  • Surprise me.
  • Yeungling
  • Sam Adams
The way I see it, I'm a guest in their house so I'll be courteous and drink what they offer me. On the other hand, they genuinely want to offer something I like. I understand what a wonderful gesture that is, but, it gets complicated. Do I tell them that I'd love a hard to find Rochefort or St Bernardus? Do I send them off to the local brew pub for a growler? I also have the problem of wanting to spread my beerness to everybody. I like to take interesting beer with me so I can share it with people. I'm worried that they may take this the wrong way and think their beer isn't good enough. Do you have the same problem or do you know a beer geek you are trying to please? What does one do when "The Beer Geek" comes to visit?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I usually will offer to bring my own for us to "try". I also say anything Sam Adams or Brooklyn works for me.

Anonymous said...

I have the same problem. In such cases, I usually suggest an easy-to-find fallback beer, like Bass Ale or Sam Adams.

My reasoning is that even if they could find something more "interesting" it's likely that I will be the only one drinking it (meaning any left over will wait for me to return or will go down the drain) or that, even if they find it, there's no guarantee that their local retailer moves enough of it to keep it fresh.

I'll do my own beer adventuring.

Bryan Kolesar said...

Well, I gotta give Joanne (my sister-in-law) big credit for her efforts in having some decent beer on hand when we came to visit this week.

She and her husband, Mike, are big (big!) wine afficianados, but she wanted to make sure that they had good beer on hand for us too.

So, she went out and found Lagunitas IPA, Pyramid Thunderhead IPA, Gordon Biersch Pilsner, and Anchor Summer.

Thanks Joanne...job well done and much appreciated!

(and she was really liking the Russian River, Bear Republic, and Fantome that I brought over to their house.)