Store employees embellishing?

the thread was started about an employee talking out of his ass, IBU's and ingredients have not been brought up from what I have read. My girlfriend loves good beer as do several of her friends. I am now burning a bra and singing Cum-Ba- Ya as penance for my heinous testosterone filled rant that has offended beer shoppers everywhere.

 

hahaha and that is what we call using people

 

Do you chat up Nolan, BBQ, et al? Thats how I got my in.

 

Na, I never have really chatted up anyone there, save for a couple people that aren't there anymore. I didn't mean for it to come across as a negative comment....more often than not I just want to get in, get what i'm looking for, and get out, so I really don't care how chatty they are. I'd say they just come across as a bit more standoff-ish than Ted at Bottle Rev or the guys at Tasty Bev.

 

Im not sure theyre trying to be that way, they just get the job done and sell drafts. Its not negative, just is what it is. If you want more personal service, head to a smaller retail store. If you want massive selection, Sams is your boy.

 

Well @markdrinksbeer is technically right because a full keg is a barrel. No need to correct him.

 

Unfortunately with the increasing popularity of this niche market, the folks looking to profit on the unknowing and fanboys has and continues to increase dramatically.

 

Sadly I agree with you...this is a terrible trend that is occurring more and more frequently

 

I have a few liquor store "Beer Guys" who I talk to when I go in , they shoot me text messages about any new brew or rare stuff coming in , other than those guys I don't talk to any other employees other than the normal hey how ya doing? Is my beer guy in? You always get the cashier that says "That much for one bottle of beer" You could have bought a case of Natty light for that

 

Sounds like a lot of folks have "a guy" or frequent a store where they are "in the know". Without these relationships how would all the hoarding occur (see all the trading pics if you want to know what a mean) and how would the fanboys survive? What ever happen to enjoying good beer for the sake of enjoying good beer?

 

@Immortale25
Where are you seeing 31 gallons kegs? And who would call a keg that holds 5.2 gallons a 1/6th of a keg (1/6th of itself)? What does that make a corny keg? Anyways, was just giving him a friendly correction. Surprised you felt the need to comment. Cheers.

 

Oh well, as long as we get it!

 

They don't make 31 gallon kegs anymore. Just saying, these days there's no such thing as a full keg. The big ones we see all the time are half kegs. Therefore, markdrinksbeer's terminology was correct and your correction was invalid. Sorry if I came across as dickish but I thought I was just making a friendly correction myself.

 

As a "guy" at a beer store, we really do like helping out the people who go out of their way to make good conversation with us. Be a regular, tell me what you want, tell me what you've had, and just be really friendly with me and all the staff and we'll know you by name, we'll know your tastes by heart, and we'll instinctively save stuff for you. Hell, whenever my favorite customers come in, I spend at least an hour just chatting with them about beer. They'll tell me which ones to cook with, which ones they're homebrewing, etc., while asking me questions about what I've had and what I like. Maybe it's just a thing for a small store like mine, but I've really gained respect for a personal business/client relationship while I've been working at my place. People who are "against" the idea of having a beer guy, realize that it's just about being constantly personable to the people who try to get you the best beer possible. Big corporate stores don't do this--it's the small mom and pop shops that care that have this happen.

 

OK, so after some Googling I found that a 1/6 barrel = 19.8 gallons which roughly equals 5.2 gallons. A 1/6 keg = 9.7 liters which roughly equals 2.5 gallons. So I'm assuming all of the "sixtels" I've ever handled have been 1/6 barrels, not 1/6 kegs. It was my understanding that all the big kegs I've ever seen are called half kegs (15.5 gallons) because they used to make full barrel kegs but when I Google "keg" I get the 15.5 gallon result. Can anyone confirm or deny the existence of full barrel kegs? I remember reading a thread where someone talked about how they saw them around back in the '80s. Also, can anyone confirm or deny the existence of 1/6 kegs (2.5 gallons)? I'm seeing a lot of websites come up when I Google 1/6 kegs saying they have them but then they say they're 5.2 gallons. Sorry BrettHead for the erroneous correction.

 

We do at many other places. I dont care what he has or how "rare" his flavor of the week is I refuse to spend my money there. GR has plenty of great shops that dont gouge their customers.

 

Trust is big for you?

Good luck getting it.

Personally, if you came to me about anything beer you would get it because that is what I am knowledgeable in. But if you came to me about spirits or wine and whilst I do profess to have some knowledge about how to differentiate between different styles if you came up to me with x bottle of wine all I would be able to say is hey that is a terrific bottle you have chosen which is either me making that up or based on what another customer has said. And 90% of bottle shop assistants imo would be exactly the same across all alcohol they sell.

 

The problem with "Googling" is trusting the source it links to. Not sure what you turned up - and I assume that 19.8 gallons (highlighted in blue above) is supposed to be "liters" - but US beer containers were never in metric sizes.

Traditionally, "keg" was the term for a small barrel, that was for all wooden containers, regardless of contents - think "a keg of nails" - and most contemporary sources will say it was typically under 10 gallons.

Within the US brewing industry the standard measurement unit for volume was the "barrel" which was eventually settled to be 31 US gallons for both lager beer and ale. The barrel was both a physical container and a unit of measure. Smaller containers included "half barrels" (15.5 gallons), "kegs" (7.75 gallons which equals a quarter of a barrel), as well as even smaller units which contained 1/6 (5.1, although usually just noted to be 5 gallons) and 1/8 (3.875 gallons, sometimes advertised as 4 gallons) of a barrel of beer. Sixth eventually disappeared, and post-Repeal, these were the official size draught beer containers, along with their casual terminology (from the Master Brewers' The Practical Brewer, 1946):

​

So, while some people will casually use the terms "keg" and "barrel" as synonyms, and for any size container, those usages are technically incorrect. Calling something a "half barrel keg" is wrong, and calling something a "quarter barrel keg" is redundant. Of course, that is not going to stop anyone (brewers, retailers, customers included).

In additional, with the disappearance of the old 1/8 bbl. "pony" keg, that nickname has sort of "migrated" in many regions to the quarter barrel kegs (hey, it is a cool term and one often used for a "small" containers - the 7oz. pony bottle, for instance). And, in the recent decades, a new 1/6 barrel (5.1 gallon) size has been introduced, usually called a "sixtel" but sometimes, casually, a "log". Throw in imported beer in metric sized kegs, and things get even more confusing.

In the US, the true 31 gallon barrel disappeared by the 1980s with the near universal adoption of the sankey keg by the industry, although given its size and weight most brewers had long abandoned them.​

 

Sounds to me like the store is marketing in a great way (using social media to reach out to their customers). In many ways, I wish my local beer stores were more socially active in this way. This way I could stop checking their website inventory frequently, or calling and obviously bothering a busy sounding employee to check for me. And "wannabes?" How do you know what these individuals like to drink? I myself, am stoked to hear of people buying great craft beer over the other brands. Whether it's their first taste, or not. I think that attitude gives "beer geeks" a bad rep. Try and see if the store could hold a few special releases for you. If not, it may be time to find a new store. One that will make the effort to please a potentially long standing customer.

 

I agree with what @semibaked said. It happens all the goll-durned time, and I have not blindly trusted anyone since my neighbor tried to get me to eat the special blueberries growing underneath his rabbit cage when I was five.

About the only thing you can trust at retail is the DATE CODE on packaged beer, and even insofar as that is concerned, I recall instances of crafty proprietors getting their employees to remove or alter them...