How to sift through advice given?

[joshesmusica]

I've only been brewing beer for just over a year. I'm doing pretty well at this point, so this thread isn't really for myself. I guess I've gotten lucky, but it seems that I just always ended up trusting the right people with the advice given.

I just saw, and commented on, a thread that the following advice was given to the OP:

"If there hasn't been much airlock activity for a few days, then you're good to bottle."

"If you haven't reached FG, then just give it a good stir, and wait a few days."

And I see this kind of advice given all of the time on here. So how can we (or rather, those of you who are really some of the better brewers on this thing), help the new brewers discern which advice to heed and which ones to ignore?

 

[Qhrumphf]

Well, not a perfect metric by any means, but when I first started I would give more deference to post count. Some muppet with 3 or 4 posts saying something completely ridiculous (there's a few posters who come to mind immediately) would be ignored by me, but someone who's been on here for years, has thousands of posts, and seems to posting everywhere, would get a little more of an ear.

Of course, there's new folks saying great things in their first posts, and there's people who've been around a very long time talking absolute rubbish. But ultimately on an open forum like this, the whole "don't trust what you read from some random guy on the internet" still applies. That's why I'll direct new folks to How To Brew or the like. Because that's a good, comprehensive, valid source.

Aside from that, call out stupid when you see it, and that's about all we can do.

 

[h22lude]

The airlock advice isn't the best. The OP should definitely take a reading. Stirring up beer to get the yeast back into solution isn't all the bad of advice. If expected final gravity hasn't been reached, you can stir or slightly shake primary to get the yeast working again. Don't want to splash or get O2 into solution but moving the yeast isn't that bad to do especially if the gravity reading at the time is way off from what expected is.

To answer your question, I think people just need to read and not take one post as the best advice. Most of the time, someone will correct a bad post within the thread so all people need to do is read the full thread. This is true with everything posted on any forum. And those people posting the not so good advice, they may think what they are saying is the best way to do it so they think they are giving good advice. When I was building my spa panel for my EBIAB set up, I got 3 different ways of doing it from 15 different people and they all said the other ways were wrong. Even books written on these subjects can have advice that isn't the best or out of date.

 

[drunkEnough4U]

So are you attempting to make a sort of self policing thread, where we "politely" call out bad advice?

 

[h22lude]

Well, not a perfect metric by any means, but when I first started I would give more deference to post count. Some muppet with 3 or 4 posts saying something completely ridiculous (there's a few posters who come to mind immediately) would be ignored by me, but someone who's been on here for years, has thousands of posts, and seems to posting everywhere, would get a little more of an ear.

Of course, there's new folks saying great things in their first posts, and there's people who've been around a very long time talking absolute rubbish. But ultimately on an open forum like this, the whole "don't trust what you read from some random guy on the internet" still applies. That's why I'll direct new folks to How To Brew or the like. Because that's a good, comprehensive, valid source.

Aside from that, call out stupid when you see it, and that's about all we can do.

I did and still do the same thing.

So are you attempting to make a sort of self policing thread, where we "politely" call out bad advice?

I think that does happen here. If someone gives out dated advice or bad advice, people will correct them.

 

[drunkEnough4U]

well yeah of course it happens, I was wondering if his intention with this thread was to be specifically used for that?

 

[Qhrumphf]

I think it was less "experience brewers police bad advice" (which does already happen to an extent as already said), and more of trying to provide insight to new brewers how to tell the difference.

 

[kh54s10]

If I ask for advise, I hope that I get quite a few answers. I then look at all of them and disregard in most cases advise that is one response different than all the others. Look for a consensus.

I am sure that when I started I posted some iffy responses. I now only respond when I am fairly sure that what I advise is pretty good. If I don't know, I don't respond, at least directly to the question.

Sometimes the best advise is just a link to information so the OP can read and learn on his/her own.

 

[Sammy86]

if i ask for advise, i hope that i get quite a few answers. I then look at all of them and disregard in most cases advise that is one response different than all the others. Look for a consensus.

I am sure that when i started i posted some iffy responses. I now only respond when i am fairly sure that what i advise is pretty good. If i don't know, i don't respond, at least directly to the question.

Sometimes the best advise is just a link to information so the op can read and learn on his/her own.

+1

 

[Rhumbline]

We aren't talking about disarming bombs, the best teacher is experience. There are at least a hundred topics that we could get conflicting advice from experienced Brewers on.

I remember early on being told that it was absolutely impossible to brew good beer without a wort chiller, and not just from one person.

The best thing we can do for a new brewer is to point out how difficult it really is to brew bad beer as long as you take care of sanitation. Sure, it might not come out to be the beer you expected, but it will still be drinkable beer.

 

[joshesmusica]

well yeah of course it happens, I was wondering if his intention with this thread was to be specifically used for that?

no, i called them out (not specifically, but gave direct, opposite advice to what was given) on that thread.

this was exactly what qhrumpf (?) said, a way for newer brewers to get an idea of how to sort through the bad and the good.

 

[h22lude]

If I ask for advise, I hope that I get quite a few answers. I then look at all of them and disregard in most cases advise that is one response different than all the others. Look for a consensus.

I am sure that when I started I posted some iffy responses. I now only respond when I am fairly sure that what I advise is pretty good. If I don't know, I don't respond, at least directly to the question.

Sometimes the best advise is just a link to information so the OP can read and learn on his/her own.

I think this is it. When learning online, people need to realize that they should do more research than looking at one thread. Usually the best advice will be given multiple times and bad advice will be given less. Example would be the airlock activity. You will see less advice saying airlock activity correlates with fermentation and more advice saying don't look at the airlock but at your gravity readings. The person doing the research just needs to look at what is given.

We can't weed through the bad advice for new brewers. That would take so much time especially on a big site like this.


Side note, I see you are in RI. Nice seeing other RI brewers on here. Not too many of us out there...not too many people live in RI all together lol

no, i called them out (not specifically, but gave direct, opposite advice to what was given) on that thread.

this was exactly what qhrumpf (?) said, a way for newer brewers to get an idea of how to sort through the bad and the good.

That is the only thing we can do. If I see bad advice, I will usually quote it and correct it but nicely. No need to be mean about it because that person may think they are giving good advice because that is what they know.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Well, there's some different classes of bad advice.

There's the "will make beer but not the best beer" sort of stuff. That is what it is.

There's the "will make bad beer but not dangerous" advice. Again pretty much is what it is.

And then there's the stuff that's potentially dangerous. Unsafe use of propane, things with a high chance of leading to bottle bombs, etc. Those are a problem. And unfortunately some of the advice (like the aforementioned "if the airlock isn't bubbling you're good to bottle", etc), that's rampant falls into that category.