What are your contrarian/"unpopular" beer opinions?

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Braufessor said:
*

* Water matters - a lot. It should be something a brewer pays attention to right from the first batch (as simple as just using RO water). Too many people tell beginners that adjusting water is "hard" and they should worry about it later.... no - they should do it right from the very beginning. UNTREATED Tap water with chlorine will ruin beer. Very hard water can ruin beer. It just is not hard to make sure that component is correct, or in the ball park. It is a disservice to convince so many people it is "difficult" when it isn't.
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Fixed that for ya
 
55x11 said:
drinking a few beers a day, every day, slowly, with food is actually good for your health - way better than not drinking any alcohol at all and better than almost any other, higher ABV alcoholic drink, including wine, for identical alcohol intake
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:ban:

I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally drink 30-90 oz of beer pretty much every single day, and I am FAR healthier than almost everyone. Probably has more to do with genetics and activity level and the sort of food I eat more than the beer, but whatever. I like beer and it makes me happy, and happy people are healthier. :mug:

My contrarian opinion is that brewing beer is pretty simple and easy and most of what people freak out about (sanitation, oxygen, various other bogeymen) is not worth freaking out about. Be reasonably prudent, but don't freak out.
 
I don't know if anyone has said this already, but the yeast pitch rate calculators online aren't realistic. I made a 2 gallon batch of Ale To The Chief White House Honey Ale. If I had done a 5 gallon batch Brewersfriend says I should ise 5 and a half packs of Windsor yeast.
 
AZCoolerBrewer said:
I don't know if anyone has said this already, but the yeast pitch rate calculators online aren't realistic. I made a 2 gallon batch of Ale To The Chief White House Honey Ale. If I had done a 5 gallon batch Brewersfriend says I should ise 5 and a half packs of Windsor yeast.
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So your beer had an OG of 1.193?

Because that's what you have to put in for it to require 5.5 packs (60.5 grams).. You did something wrong man

mrmalty is a better calculator in general though. :mug:

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TheMadKing said:
Agreed with everything until these two.. beer consumption and health is rocky ground at best. And most of those styles you listed are very old, especially bocks and trappist ales which have been around since the 1300's and 1600's respectively, and we HAVE the original recipes so we know they are similar.

Agreed that an american porter or saison is probably not the same as the english and french originals, but examples certainly exist of the originals for comparison.
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Alcohol consumption (in moderation, 2-3 drinks a day for men) reduces mortality by a whopping 30% compared to non-drinkers. There are numerous studies on this (famous "J-curve" of mortality vs. alcohol consumption, so-called "French paradox" etc.) - major theory behind why is that alcohol reduces risk of cardiovascular deseases and reduces stress - since heart disease and strokes are a major killer in modern society, regular alcohol consumption is good for you, according to research. Because of social aspects of increased drunk driving and social stigma of alcoholisms and binge-drinking among young adults, health policy experts don't necessarily want to advocate for an increase in alcohol consumption among non-drinkers. But statistically speaking, abstaining from alcohol is worse for you than smoking or being overweight. All of the positive health effects are just from alcohol (reservatrol effect in wine turned out to be fraud) - but low ABV drinks and slow drinking with food is crucial, so in that sense beer is much better than whiskey, vodka, tequila and other hard drinks.

As for traditional styles - Randy Mosher has a lot of research on this. see this interview, for example:

http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/11/15/historical-beer-myths-with-randy-mosher-beersmith-podcast-115/

Bock was never dark. Trappist Ales, Saisons/Farmhouse Ales (never brewed in Farmhouses) and most other belgian styles were "invented" after WWI. Porter ceased to exist in 1970ies except for baltic porter, and was re-defined again. Beers were often serverly under-attenuated. IPAs were aged for many months and sometimes years. Etc.
 
i just put a bunch of yeast in and don't worry about it. I can taste the difference between pitching one pack of liquid yeast vs using a starter or repitching, but i can't taste the difference between 250 billion cells and 350 billion cells.

And I don't care whether bock used to be dark or not. there are still plenty of lighter bocks in germany, but the darker ones taste better, especially when served in liter-mugs at the starkbierfest.
 
IPAs are better with some crystal color, residual sweetness, and some malty soul. Semi-fizzy, yellow, bone dry IPAs can be good, but the trend toward no tolerance for crystal in an IPA doesn't make sense to me. I like toffee red IPAs, and you should too. :)
 
Ballast Point's base beers are invariably better than their fruited versions, and their Victory at Sea is undrinkable. The infamous billion-dollar sellout may have exacerbated the problem, but it was already true before the sellout.

You don't need a ton of different yeasts to make a ton of different great beers. A single house ale strain will suffice for most ales unless you're doing a bunch of yeast-forward styles. Same for lagers with a house lager strain.

Similarly, any one of the big three dry yeast labs can cover 95% of your yeast needs even if you include yeast-forward beers.

The late hops on an IPA can be overdone, and it's not a good thing.

Adjusting your water chemistry is not a prerequisite to great beer.

Oh, and (as an all-grain brewer without access to reasonably-priced, quality extract) I'm terribly jealous of extract brewers.
 
Singletrack said:
IPAs are better with some crystal color, residual sweetness, and some malty soul. Semi-fizzy, yellow, bone dry IPAs can be good, but the trend toward no tolerance for crystal in an IPA doesn't make sense to me. I like toffee red IPAs, and you should too. :)
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I can go either way on this one. But here's a heretical, semi-trolly thought:

New England IPA is not a thing. It's just a very poorly executed west-coast IPA. Hazy to the point of murky, wrong water chemistry. Just because it looks like orange juice with pulp doesn't make it a good beer style.
 
55x11 said:
Alcohol consumption (in moderation, 2-3 drinks a day for men) reduces mortality by a whopping 30% compared to non-drinkers. There are numerous studies on this (famous "J-curve" of mortality vs. alcohol consumption, so-called "French paradox" etc.) - major theory behind why is that alcohol reduces risk of cardiovascular deseases and reduces stress - since heart disease and strokes are a major killer in modern society, regular alcohol consumption is good for you, according to research. Because of social aspects of increased drunk driving and social stigma of alcoholisms and binge-drinking among young adults, health policy experts don't necessarily want to advocate for an increase in alcohol consumption among non-drinkers. But statistically speaking, abstaining from alcohol is worse for you than smoking or being overweight. All of the positive health effects are just from alcohol (reservatrol effect in wine turned out to be fraud) - but low ABV drinks and slow drinking with food is crucial, so in that sense beer is much better than whiskey, vodka, tequila and other hard drinks.

As for traditional styles - Randy Mosher has a lot of research on this. see this interview, for example:

http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/11/15/historical-beer-myths-with-randy-mosher-beersmith-podcast-115/

Bock was never dark. Trappist Ales, Saisons/Farmhouse Ales (never brewed in Farmhouses) and most other belgian styles were "invented" after WWI. Porter ceased to exist in 1970ies except for baltic porter, and was re-defined again. Beers were often serverly under-attenuated. IPAs were aged for many months and sometimes years. Etc.
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Very cool podcast.. Don't agree with all of your interpretations of what he said, but meh.. way too big of a beer geek to not enjoy the heck out of that :mug:
 
Plate chillers are silly. Use an immersion chiller for God's sake.

eBIAB is the ideal way to brew at home.
 
my contrarian opinion is that there is a time and place for them. many on these forums poo poo anything that isnt a million ibu or a billion % abv or soured or fruited or barrel aged or made with the blood of polynesian virgins. More often than not I just want a drink. something wet, tastey but not taste bud paralyzing and something that wont put me on my ass too soon. a clean lager fits this bill. additionaly i have tried to brew these things and found it more satisfying than many other styles in the process and the finished product.
 
55x11 said:
I can go either way on this one. But here's a heretical, semi-trolly thought:

New England IPA is not a thing. It's just a very poorly executed west-coast IPA. Hazy to the point of murky, wrong water chemistry. Just because it looks like orange juice with pulp doesn't make it a good beer style.
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troll. ;)

it doesn't have to look like OJ, even if you make it taste juicy. the one I got from almanac looks very much like mine (hop hazy but not murky), and tastes very much like mine, and both taste alot like the murky well-regarded commercial one I had last month in colorado.

i think what makes neipa a 'thing' is that it has a consistently very different flavor profile than a traditional or west-coast ipa, and people who don't like traditional IPA's often like it. True, many of those people are girls, but so what?
 
Fancy glassware is over rated. Give me a nonic pint glass, makes no difference if its a pilz, ipa, double ipa, amber ale stout, porter etc...if it's good craft brew...tasty as hell.
 
Radlers are much better mixed than brewed.
Most gussied up commercial base beers aren't as good as the base beer.
Ingredients have a substantially longer shelf life than most HBTers advocate.
Gravity schmavity.
 
Bottling beer by doing an open air transfer, mixing in sugar, going through a spigot and bottling wand into un-purged bottles, then letting it sit warm for two week absolutely oxidizes and destroys beer.
 
55x11 said:
. All of the positive health effects are just from alcohol (reservatrol effect in wine turned out to be fraud) - but low ABV drinks and slow drinking with food is crucial, so in that sense beer is much better than whiskey, vodka, tequila and other hard drinks.
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I might add that beer is a better choice over soda pop, and any artificially sweetened beverage. I was wondering where you found that resveratrol is a fraud. I happen to know someone on the team of scientists at Cornel that did theresearch. Of course there could be a big difference in what they found and what marketers did with it. I'm just curious.

As for, my own contrary beer opinion American IPAs are not all that enjoyable... I mean, if I want to shock my tastebuds with grapefruit I'll have the real thing. They are refreshing from time to time in the summer, but I wouldn't miss them if I couldn't get them.
 
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FruityHops said:
Bottling beer by doing an open air transfer, mixing in sugar, going through a spigot and bottling wand into un-purged bottles, then letting it sit warm for two week absolutely oxidizes and destroys beer.
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lol, funny how it tastes the same as my kegged beers, and better than the majority of commercial beers. :ban:
 
Conicals are pretty much a waste of money :) I used my SS Brewtech for about 20 batches... worked great, but I get the same results from my new SSB brew buckets. I overbuild my yeast starters so no need for harvesting yeast but I could do that too if I really needed to.
 
Glass carboys are better than plastic.
Kegging isn't worth the money.
Water chemistry isn't important.
IPAs age well.
 
Dan_K said:
Jester King is overrated and only makes 1 good beer.
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I remember there used to not be crazy lines out there so it was fun to try whatever they had concocted. Now, waiting in line to try some weird, will never drink again, cost more per ounce than a brain surgeon's education beer just isn't worth it.

My contrarian logic which has been spouted in some form already is as follows:

Tinfoil works fine instead of an airlock, especially when you can't find the middle piece to the three piece airlock

Some of my bulk base grains are 5 years old (stored in trash bags inside 5 gallon buckets with regular lids) and still make good beer

I am my own worst critic, other people say the beer is good, I notice the flaws

A brewer's first brew should be whatever they want it to be. So they want to brew a banana strawberry chocolate, bourbon, peppermint, golf ball, milkshake beer and you know it most likely won't turn out, let them do it to get it out of their system

The best beer is the last pour of the batch!
 

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