Bite Your Tongue!

I avoid going to those kind of bars all together. Your pretty much guaranteed to get...out of date beer,bad tasting/unclean taps,and bartenders that get pissed when you ask for a beer that's not Bud on draft. Example great old school pizza place down the street from me. BUD and Miller lite on draft for $1.50 for a 10 oz pour. Its gonna taste like crap but the pizza is so delicious that you either slug a few down (and the old timers love ya) or get you pizza to go and drink good beers at home. Cheers!

 

Definitely depends on the situation...I'm kinda a loud mouth in my comfortable situations, but in a new environment, I have a tendency to keep my mouth shut.

I had a situation years ago, at a bar talking music to some random guy...I took guitar lessons about a million years ago, and I'm talking like I friggin' Joe Satriani. The guy is pleasant enough, smiling and nodding, and eventually leaves the bar. 15 minutes later I see him on stage, he's the lead guitar player in the band, and he is really freakin' good...I felt like a big ass

 

Out of town a couple of weekends ago with my wife and daughters, we had had good food/beer and we finished up the night at a bowling alley because it just sounded right. Nothing but Bud products on tap so we grabbed a pitcher. The glasses reeked of chlorine, along with the pitcher. Kept out mouth shut and switched to bottles. The whole place was a shit show. Lane kept hanging up, so after I was thru with the manager, we ended up bowling for free. Didn't bitch about the beer, but let him know the mechanical stuff wasn't cutting it. I can eat a $10 pitcher of beer, but not $70 unlimited bowling spending half of my time pushing buttons and waiting for lane to get unhung.

 

If they don't have anything other than crappy beer, I'll just order Glenlivet. If they don't have that, I'll settle for Dewar's or Johnnie Walker. If their Scotch selection isn't any better than their beer selection, I'll have diet Pepsi or Mountain Dew. If they don't have that, then ice water it is.

 

Part of my job requires me to visit tons of bars/taprooms. If there is a problem with their lines I will for sure let them know and even ask if I can look into it for them. I dont want my beer served through dirty/malfunctioning equipment.

 

More likely to bite my tongue when at someone's home than at a bar. Any decent business should be open to feedback, whether they like it or not. However, no need to offend people you actually like or have to interact with.

 

Most of the time when I'm out at a restaurant these days, I don't order beer.

The place either has a basic selection: Sam, Sierra, Corona, maybe Lagunitas IPA (which is fine but I don't normally drink it).

Or has stuff that I've had so many times that I'd rather wait until I get home. (Racer 5, Sculpin, etc)

But to answer OP's question, I definitely try to hold my tongue in certain new situations with beer. I'm sure I can come across as an arrogant ass half the time anyway, so If i can save face in beer situations then i do

 

Almost daily.

Usually while logged on to BeerAdvocate.

 

We were out at a new brewery that had gotten a lot of buzz for their good beers, but we were there after their grand opening had cleaned them out of beer. They only had a handful on and the ones we tried were average at best, and one was completely flat. The manager was a friend from high school, so when she stopped by I bit my tongue and said everything was fine, but really wish I'd said something. Average beer is fine if that's what they do, but no reason for flat beer.

If it's dirty lines, I'll send a beer back and order a bottled beer or water. That's just gross to think about what could be growing in the lines.

 

Yah Hey Dere, why you go meesin wit da lokals?
Seriously for all they knew you were a FIB or a Fudgie coming up to mess up the trails and sometimes you're better off walking in, looking around, leave some money on the bar and go across the street and I say this kindly and respectfully as a FIB myself whose parents have lived in the Northwoods for over 20 years, it's just the way it is.
When in Rome...and I love it up there, I really do, but it took some getting used to
Now, you wanna n pickeld egg wit dat?

 

Yeah it happens from time to time. It's best to smile and move on.

I was at a sports bar a while back. I was surprised to see an imperial stout on the beer list so I decided to order it. The waitress delivered the bottle to the table as though it was a Bud Light. I kindly smiled and asked for a glass. She looked at me like I had two heads. It happens. It's becoming less common though. I've found many places that aren't craft beer bars are starting to serve beer in clean proper glassware.

In summation yeah it happens, but if you have a good attitude about it you can usually get what you want/need.

 

I talk about beer on BeerAdvocate. By comparison, I don't really engage in beer talk outside of it.

When I was conversing with locals in Brussels, through some small talk, I revealed in interest in drinking Brussels beer. They looked at me like I was some super connoisseur because I was an American that appreciated the Belgian beer that most of the natives didn't care for. When I later revealed that I enjoyed English and German beer, their looks of admiration changed to disdain. I was taken off the pedestal they put me on. I was a connoisseur of garbage. I was happier in that new position.

 

I never bite my tongue; I attempted to explain the issue in a very subtle way.

 

Last time I was at a snowmobiling bar.... Let's see. If one watches the news or is observant in the least, there is no shortage of lunacy that just might cause anyone to have an intellectual or petulant explosion. Luckily, I've found other avenues of escape. It is generally humor. It seems to work. My skin is thicker than it once was and I have begun to allow for all kinds of nonsense that once I might have taken either personally or too seriously. My gold standard of understanding was always that "the boondocks" include surprises at every point, mostly good.

 

I've asked for a non-frosted glass before after one was brought to the table and was looked at like I had a ****** mustache...


One that stands out to me, and this was before I started drinking craft beer: My friends and I were out at a local bar and we ordered a pitcher of either Bud light or Miller lite (i know, I know). When the waitress brought it over to the table there was some crusty red stuff all down the front of the pitcher, so I took it up to the bar. The girl behind the bar looked at it and nonchalantly said "Someone probably ordered a tomato beer is all," then offered the pitcher back to me like no big deal. My response was "well we didn't order a tomato beer, and would like a clean pitcher." If looks could kill, you know the rest. Needless to say we finished it, paid and never went back.

 

This is no different than getting dirty silverware. Beer is food item, don't serve it or accept it in a dirty container.

 

It depends.
I will let them know if the beer doesn't taste right, although sometimes they act like you don't know what you're talking about. Had to return a Hopslam the other day. Luckily my wife had ordered one too, so I tasted hers just to confirm I wasn't going crazy. Hers was fine, so it was probably an issue with my glass.
If it's along the lines of somebody saying craft beer is crap, I don't say anything. There is no way you're changing their minds, so it's best to let them be ignorant. It's like trying to tell a racist grandfather that it's not like that anymore.

 

I must be lucky, I rarely run into any problems. (Probably the charming British accent) Some wait staff at chain type restaurants don't really understand the nuances of drinking craft, so when a bottle is plunked down, I pleasantly ask for a glass, non-frosted, and rarely get an attitude. After all, they'll be looking for a tip, so why piss me off? On drafts, once or twice the wrong beer (usually a crappier one) has been brought to the table, I assume its a genuine mistake and send it back for the correct brew. If all they have is beers I don't care for, It's decaf coffee time.

Then again, being a Brit, I always sound snobby anyway

 

Ha that reminded me of an incident a few weeks ago. The gf and I were at PF Changs and I had ordered a Heretic hoppy red and was brought a bud light. The poor waitress had no clue that a red ale was, in fact, red. I simply told her that I had ordered a red and she went and got it. It worked out though since it had been a while since I had Macro, it made me appreciate the craft that much more