What are your contrarian/"unpopular" beer opinions?

[SmokeyMcBong]

American light lagers are wonderful beer

Secondaries aren't the devil

Cider > Beer

 

[FatDragon]

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.

 

[55x11]

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.

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.

 

[violinguy]

IBU over 70 does not a good beer make

 

[TheMadKing]

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.

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

 

[Yeastieboy]

Plate chillers are silly. Use an immersion chiller for God's sake.

eBIAB is the ideal way to brew at home.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

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.

Bruh... I thought we weren't supposed to bicker?!

 

[TheMadKing]

Bruh... I thought we weren't supposed to bicker?!

Not bickering, you just had a mistake in your facts so I was trying to help correct it. If you'd rather carry on with your original opinion that's none of my business, just trying to help.

 

[captwalt]

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.

 

[Un-sane]

Belgian beers suck... with very few exceptions

 

[Anyhowe]

I know there is no arguing, but just a rebuttal to your one point. ...

Further proof that when we say or use the word 'but', it really means that everything we said that preceded the 'but' is a lie.

 

[Roland_deschain]

My opinion......beer is FINE at breakfast.

 

[jtfarabee]

Liking to drink beer and brewing beer does not make your palate more sensitive. I've only had a couple of beers in my lifetime that were so bad, I wouldn't drink them again. I may not PAY for some again, but free beer is free beer.

Mediocre beer > not drinking beer.

 

[TheHopfather]

InBev will make Northern Brewer great again!

Fixed that for you.

 

[motosapiens]

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.

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?

 

[203PH]

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.

 

[Mainer]

My unpopular opinion: racking to secondary is almost always worthwhile.

[ducks]

 

[DromJohn]

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.

 

[FruityHops]

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.

 

[italarican]

"SWMBO" is a stupid abbreviation for several reasons. One of them: this "abbreviation" is longer than gf or wife!

 

[Dan_K]

Jester King is overrated and only makes 1 good beer.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

. 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.

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.

 

[motosapiens]

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.

lol, funny how it tastes the same as my kegged beers, and better than the majority of commercial beers.

 

[Redlantern]

Expiration dates on dark heavy beers at the beer store (not beer warehouses) are "don't drink until" dates for me

 

[jmark]

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.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Jester King is overrated and only makes 1 good beer.

Heresy!!! 🤘🍻

 

[Mainer]

Glass carboys are better than plastic.
Kegging isn't worth the money.
Water chemistry isn't important.
IPAs age well.

 

[John Eberly]

Pilsner Urquell is the best beer in the world.

 

[brewcat]

Cider > Beer

Must be all that weed smoking. Get the F outta here!

 

[Vellum]

Jester King is overrated and only makes 1 good beer.

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!