Why are some professional craft brewers apathetic?

I think it is more of a time thing. These guys are busy making a living.

 

I value beer making ability, imagination and vision over customer interaction/schmoozing/marketing any day.
Something @chrisjws said - the good ones are like artists - not always the most social people. Alot of famous artists were better marketers and BS-artists than real artists - but that's another discussion.

 

For the same reason most comedians don't like to talk about their jokes. While they're happy you enjoy it, at the end of the day it's their work product and they're busy stressing about what they're going to do as an encore so they don't become has beens.

 

Also, most craft beer fanboys are intolerable. Go to the next hyped up beer release and you tell me if you'd like to spend your day fielding compliments/questions/criticisms from those douchebags.

 

Come to San Diego and I'll show you the complete opposite of what you've seen

 

Reminds me of when I was still on active duty and would come home on leave, all anyone ever wanted to talk about was my job. What's PT like, when are you deploying again, do you like jumping out of planes, and on and on and on. I understood that people thought it was interesting, but I wish they would have taken the time to think I was more of a person than what I did for a living.

 

It's like the people who get pissed at pro athletes when they don't take an hour to sign a hundred autographs every time they encounter a group of fans. Everyone thinks they should be special and it's just not reasonable.

 

To expand on what I said - I am in a creative field (photography) and I've finally learned after all this time - usually to get anyone to pay attention nowadays, you have to to talk about yourself, use social media, constantly market yourself, build hype. All of these things take precious time away from doing the creative thing you really want to do. So to be successful - you don't have to be the most talented at all - just the loudest. And in craft beer - that's fundamentally stupid and unfortunate just as it is in other creative fields. I'd rather be taking pictures, planning the next shoot rather than social media updates and I'm sure most real brewers would rather be working on recipes than customer service, etc.

 

Well I am a firefighter by trade (starting my 36th year) and when people find out what I do by and large they want all the stories, what calls I have been on, what's the most gruesome thing I have seen, etc. Now I can tell you I love my job. Greatest career on the face of the planet IMHO. But the last thing I want to do on my day off is tell war stories. I live that stuff and repeating it for the entertainment of others gets to be, well, rather tedious. So I imagine talking beer, after busting balls all day to make ends meet as a brewer, well, talking about beer is probably not front and center for them. I too have met a few who were that way but hey I understand. Usually when I go to my favorite haunts and see the brewer I say hello. If they continue the conversation then its all good. But if I get the requisite "hello" back and nothing else I don't take it personally. Just my view but hey its all good in my neighborhood.

 

They're giving up their days, day after day, to make other people drunk and happy. These guys are perfectly content with what they're doing, that doesn't require happiness. Within their own private lives, like the ones you're enjoying when you're there, are when they are happy, as well. I can assure you, all the brewers that showed up for Hunahpu Day and the Cycle weekdays were happy and drunk.

 

When does sky turn into space? And air into wind?

 

Perhaps it's because the last thing someone wants to think about after thinking about it all day long is the thing they have thought about all day long and would rather talk about boobies.

 

you can make money doing something you don't love with all of your heart and soul. My main theme at work is "good enough is good enough."


Not everyone gives a shit.

 

Maybe the passionate brewers are in the back making beer? After all, they presumably got into it because they want to make beer, not because they wanted to talk to the customers. See someone's comment above about introverts, they may be a lot more excited talking beer with people they know than they are with strangers. Also, some of them are probably not really passionate at all, more and more breweries are being opened by people who are just in it for the money.

 

UM WUT

 

That's sad. My favorite brewer, and he's local, is incredibly enthusiastic. I can't imagine going to a place where the proprietor isn't enthusiastic (unless it's one of those off days most of us have).

 

I'll take a stab at this one... My background: I drank my first beer when I was 16 years old. It was a Spotted Cow from New Glarus. For a few years, I drank craft beers, mostly from Wisconsin, and enjoyed most of them quite a bit. When I went to college in Alabama, I went to a keg party and had my first lite beer. I hated it. I realized pretty quickly that if I was going to enjoy craft beers in Alabama (at that time) I would have to brew it myself. I started home brewing when I was 19 years old. You might say I was fairly active as a home brewer, having brewed 300 gallons a year for the 2 years before I was hired at the brewery I currently work for.

When I was 21, I lucked into a job at a brewery in Madison, Al. I worked my ass off and developed several new beers and new procedures for the brewery. By the time I was 23, I was enrolled with the Siebel Institute in the World Brewing Academy program. I am now 25.

I have noticed myself over the last 6 years to have gone through many phases of beer geekiness. These days, I realize that I have a job that I love, but it is still a job. I have other passions and interests outside of brewing. For me, brewing has always been more about the creation of new beers, but never so much about the drinking. I love the science behind it, I enjoy the hard work, and I enjoy sharing my beers with customers and talking about them. However, I have gotten over the desire to go out and always find new beers, or post on BA. It is not because I am apathetic, but rather I spend so much time doing my job (which is still a passion) that when I finally have time to take a break and drink, I don't want to spend more time over thinking what I'm drinking... I just want to sit and enjoy talking to friends. On occasion, I still geek out, but that is normally with a close group of friends. Not to be mean or arrogant, but a lot of times customers come into the brewery and talk a big game, but they make ignorant comments, or a lot of times they go beyond fun beer loving enthusiasts and turn to beer snobs... That time of customer is really not fun to hang out with, to be blunt. I still love reading BeerAdvocate and meeting other forum members, but while I'm at work, I'm either in work mode, or wind down mode... Not in my beer geek mode.

 

My most recent brewery visit, I talked to the head brewer at length about where he sourced his equipment and some other technical stuff. I've got to say, he seemed refreshed that someone was interested in talking about more than "what hops are in xxxxxx IPA?" Either way, he was very friendly and extremely welcoming in a busy facility.

 

Not my experience at all. I know when to not bug people. When people do not meet your (one's) expectations, perhaps the judgement is the problem. As Jack Handy says, "brewers are people too".