Biggest beer pet peeves

Some of those are the same parents that take their kids to a nice restaurant and tell them to go play till the food comes out so mommy and daddy can have some quiet time. I'm not talking chuckie cheese or places with games but nice places . I've seen more than one waitstaff get plowed into by a kid running wild and end up sending food every where. I have no problem with responsible parents taking their children out because they behave but the ones that let them run wild should either hire a baby sitter or go some place where the kids can play.

 

I hear ya, man, but that's why it's called work, not super happy relaxing fun time. Every job comes with the good, the bad, and the ugly. I might add, they don't allow that in this state.

 

1. Lack of information in packaging or labels. Not only bottling dates but sometimes I find beer I've never seen before and can't tell what they are or their ABV without looking it up in my phone.

2. Brewery websites that makes it a puzzle to find the their "Beers" section.

3. Two related to the untappd "nearby" function: (a) Frat boys checking in their strings of NattyLight from the frat house spamming the feed, (b) people in private bottle shares or sharing/drinking a personal bottle that use the bar location in the check in. Yeah, this sounds very stupid but some of the bars around here without online menus or reputation for good selection would get something nice every now and then and I've found out using this.

 

I don't mind 4-packs so much...but overpriced 4-packs (which seems to be most of them) irk me.

 

FT = for trade. ISO = in search of. The person wants to trade a really good beer for another really good beer. I think

 

They have conversions online, which I use frequently, but that being said I would like to see the Julian, a normal bottled on and best by dates.

 

I actually agree with this, but the rules of this site make it difficult to avoid. For instance, I have several Parabolas and Sucabas in my fridge (admittedly just baby whales at best). I would love to be able to just say "FT: P or S ISO: Just give me a bunch of your smaller locals". But we can't do that. We have to pick something specific to ask for, and no one wants to trade their Dark Lord fora lower tier IPA or something, so the trades are stuck at the "FT: Solid Gold Hunahpu ISO: Platinum BCBS" level. That's why I've also started trading on the Beer Trades Facebook page. It's a lot less informal.

 

I work in a Wine & Spirits store. Having to hide cool, new beer behind the counter (KBS, Pentagram, Pseudo Sue, GI Bourbon County, etc.) because of the bastards who try and buy up everything for trade-bait really sucks. We set limits and there are still people who pay strangers to go back in and buy more. I respect the loophole exploitation, but they're still vultures nonetheless.

 

For me, apart from no bottle dating, it's overhype. For example, I live on the Central Coast of California, just a few scant hours from the SF Bay Area, and I can't get Pliny. Anywhere. As soon as it hits store shelves, it disappears. I chased it for a while but I gave up. I'm not playing into that crap. It's good, but not that good. And it's not like we have a shortage of excellent beers in my area (I'm 40 minutes or so from both the Firestone Walker brewery and Barrelworks). It's actually harder for me to get Pliny because I can't even trade for it, since the people who can get fresh Pliny have access to all of the CA beers that I do.

 

Abbreviations were banned on BA (Beer Advocate, barrel aged, British Airways, Bank of America) for a time but it didn't stick.

 

Why can't I bring my grandchild to a liquor store ?

 

Interestingly enough I did this a couple of weeks ago downtown (DC), the bartenders couldn't understand but they are being educated on basic serving tips on craft as the taps on most bars are going through big changes to survive. I say if you are educated enough to know what you like then the establishment should be able to serve you, the customer, per your request if they can. It's not as if you were asking her to brew the beer for you. *shrug*

Disclaimer: I knew these bartenders so they were much more open to basic knowledge on this.

 

FiftyFifty Eclipse Woodford Reserve Aged... on New Year's...

 

Former Binny's stock boy here. Work one shift in the beer aisle, you'll understand why beer is treated the way it is there.

 

Not really sure I get how this relates to holding any and all rare releases behind a counter? Doesn't it lead to more people just bugging you?

 

It's not about us being bugged, it's about keeping customers calm.

 

Epic and subversive movie reference. Great.

 

Wax- only a bother if the beer isn't worth the effort of removing the wax?

 

Over priced large format bottles shameful really.

 

My pet peeves:

1) Uninformative labels or websites. I know you want to include the tale of how the beer sprang forth fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, and that's perfectly fine but don't be in such a hurry to spin the tale that you can't be bothered to let me know things like ABV and style.

Yes, when it's just a bad label I can look it up on my smart phone but I really shouldn't be forced to do so and if it's a horrid website I'm SOL.

2) Uninformed servers. If I ask what you have on tap and you respond with "W have X, Y, and Z." and X, Y, and Z are the names of brewers don't look confused (or worse annoyed) when I ask for clarification about just which particular beers from those brewers are on tap. Also, if after this request for clarification (and your possible trip to the bar because you don't know) don't tell me the number of beers from those brewers (e. g. 3 New Belgium, 2 Triton, and 2 Bells). It's like asking what cheeses are available for my cheeseburger and being told, "3 Kraft and 2 Sargento." While I suppose it's true it's not the information I need to make a decision. This also applies to beer lists, don't just list breweries.

3) Stores selling 12 oz singles without having any six or four pack carriers. Most stores either have generic carriers for you to use or spares from the packs they broke down to stock the singles shelf/endcap, yours can too!