What are your contrarian/"unpopular" beer opinions?

[motosapiens]

Suggestions for those of us brewing without kegs or closed-system fermentation and bottling equipment?

my suggestion is just do like brewers have been doing for hundreds of years, making excellent beer without the latest techno-fad.

 

[ericbw]

I don't like high ABV beers. ~5% is my sweet spot.

I agree with this. Except Christmas beers. They can be 7-8%. It's a holiday!

 

[ba-brewer]

I see people calling out the green bottles for the reason some beers are skunky. I think the reason may have as much to do with the hops used as it does the green bottles. Every time I use hallertau mittelfrueh I get that same skunky aroma and taste of beers like becks and saint pauli girl and this is from beer that came from a keg.

I am also a believer in trying your beer as soon it get carbonated, the flavor of beer changes with time so if you dont try it early you will not get another chance to experience that flavor. If it tastes good, drink it.

 

[Kharnynb]

some people just like more hot sauce.

I've seen people pour on the hot sauce in amounts that it might as well be week old dry toast under the sauce for all the flavour leftover.....I feel similar about a lot of ipa's

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I love IPAs and am disappointed to see that it looks like they have jumped the shark.

 

[Barley_Bob]

Dryhopping an IPA more than 2oz in a 5 gallon batch is unnecessary and a waste of good hops.

 

[JonM]

3 oz of flavor/aroma hops in a 5 gallon batch of IPA is PLENTY.

I absolutely do not give the slightest of ****s that Northern Brewer and some distant subsidiary of AB/InBev are in cahoots. Same when a small brewery gets bought up.

I like Miller Lite and pretty much always have some in the house.

Semi beer-related: don't boil bratwurst in beer. Know all that stuff on the surface of the beer after you take the brats out? That's all stuff that should stay in the brat - fat (fat is flavor) and spice (also flavor.) if you boil the fat out, they dry out and get gross. Every time I serve properly-cooked brats to boilers, I get a "wow! How'd you get them to be so juicy?!"

 

[motosapiens]

I've seen people pour on the hot sauce in amounts that it might as well be week old dry toast under the sauce for all the flavour leftover.....I feel similar about a lot of ipa's

don't you hate when people exercise freedom? lol. fwiw, just because YOU can't taste anything but hot sauce doesn't mean other people share your lack of palate talent.

when in doubt, I taste before I buy, but the great thing about homebrewing is it doesn't really matter what other people brew. I only buy beer when I'm truly desperate (like at the end of summer when i run out of homebrew and don't have time until october to brew again), and I have no trouble finding stuff I like.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

o Brewing five gallons of beer is more trouble than it's worth.

 

[GPP33]

My unpopular opinion: Sours suck!!! Blech! They're the beer antichrist!

It's ok to be right even if others disagree with you. Sours suck, it's a fact.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

IIPA is even harder to spell than IPA.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

IIPA is even harder to spell than IPA.

Harder to drink too!

 

[motosapiens]

It's ok to be right even if others disagree with you. Sours suck, it's a fact.

what i find amusing is, on one hand, people are going the lengths of the earth to avoid the dreaded 'oxidation' that all beers have always had, even tho we like the taste of traditional beers, but at the same time, some of the *same* people, are excited about totally spoiled beer (sours). I get it, if you're a belgian peasant, you may not have another choice besides spoiled beer, just like some people like menudo or pigs feet or SOS because they were dirt poor growing up and that's all they had to eat... it reminds them of home and family, yadda yadda yadda. Me... I stay away from all that stuff. My family is climbing the social ladder.

 

[FatDragon]

what i find amusing is, on one hand, people are going the lengths of the earth to avoid the dreaded 'oxidation' that all beers have always had, even tho we like the taste of traditional beers, but at the same time, some of the *same* people, are excited about totally spoiled beer (sours). I get it, if you're a belgian peasant, you may not have another choice besides spoiled beer, just like some people like menudo or pigs feet or SOS because they were dirt poor growing up and that's all they had to eat... it reminds them of home and family, yadda yadda yadda. Me... I stay away from all that stuff. My family is climbing the social ladder.

You keep on climbing. More duck tongue, tripa tacos, and pork kidneys for the rest of us!

 

[GPP33]

You keep on climbing. More duck tongue, tripa tacos, and pork kidneys for the rest of us!

How big is a ducks tongue? Beef tongue, now that's a meal. Duck tongue though? That's gotta be an appetizer. Maybe half a jalipano, a little cream cheese, wrap it in bacon and toss it in the smoker. Sounds good, now I need to find me some duck tongue.

 

[njviking]

I've never tasted anything brewed by New Belgium brewing that's worth buying again. Frankly, I wouldn't drink it if it were free.

I'm kinda on board with tnis.

 

[Coathanger]

I can't stand anything pumpkin and I've never had a Christmas or "winter" beer I've enjoyed. My homebrewing friends go nuts for them and I always end up with a six pack which goes to waste.

 

[Know]

Imperial Stouts are disgusting They're basically sugary motor oil. Nothing that sweet should be considered a beer IMO, more like a boozy low carbonated extra hard soda...

IPA frequency Regular pale ales are much better. They oversaturate beer options. I just feel like it's trendy to love IPAs and drink nothing but right now. My biggest peeve with it though, is going to pick up a VARIETY pack and every damn one has 3-4 different beers, but they're all IPAs

Beer over complication Some people get WAAAY too into beer analysis and judgment. Some have to have the lastest trend, the newest hops. "(adjective/noun) notes this, and (adjective/noun) notes that".

Brewery bias People will love or hate a beer based on which brewery it came from. I guarantee most brewery biases wouldn't pass a blind taste test.

 

[pepindavid]

My "contrarian" opinion is as follows:

Since I started homebrewing (a little more than a year ago), I actually GAINED respect for the mega-breweries out there. To turn out such a volume, with such consistency, distributed everywhere, is quite something. The macro-adjunct-lager may not be tastiest beer that exists, but in the right circumstances, I'll enjoy a Coors Light or a Molson Export better than a "craft" unbalanced or inconsistent beer...

 

[JonM]

Exactly. I find it's a challenge to exactly replicate a recipe I made previously. These guys make lightly flavored American adjunct lagers exactly the same every time for thousands of batches simultaneously at multiple breweries across the country and on multiple continents.

 

[Weezy]

I've had a metric crapton of excellent beer that wasn't LODO.

 

[jmark]

I've had a metric crapton of excellent beer that wasn't LODO.

Ssh... someone will be by shortly to 're-educate' you

 

[motosapiens]

I've had a metric crapton of excellent beer that wasn't LODO.

that's impossible, you just didn't realize that your beer sucked. All previous beer everywhere was oxygenated and terrible, and if you don't believe that you're a science denier! There's a consensus, I tell you!:rockin:

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I can't stand anything pumpkin and I've never had a Christmas or "winter" beer I've enjoyed. My homebrewing friends go nuts for them and I always end up with a six pack which goes to waste.

I'm with you on this! I think for me it has a lot to do with spices that overpower the beer. The only pumpkin beer I've ever liked is a pumpkin saison by Three Barrel Brewing in Del Norte CO because the flavors were really subtle, complementing the flavors of the malt and yeast.

 

[Yeastieboy]

I've had a metric crapton of excellent beer that wasn't LODO.

Totally agree. All of the sudden anything less is sub-par. Be careful, this kind of heresy gets you banned!

 

[schematix]

Certain styles wouldn't be right if done LODO. Best example i can think of is english ales, especially cask ales.

The LoDO paper says, "Simply put, you cannot make a proper Helles without employing a low oxygen brewing process."

Oxidation doesn't inherently make bad beer, but it does change it. Whether one prefers beer produced that way or not has no bearing on that fact that oxygen does react with and change beer.

 

[jonny24]

Chilling is overrated. Just pitch the next day. No harm no foul.

I'll still chill down in summer, but mid winter and it's 11 at night? That suckers sitting right were it is till morning.

 

[motosapiens]

Certain styles wouldn't be right if done LODO. Best example i can think of is english ales, especially cask ales.

The LoDO paper says, "Simply put, you cannot make a proper Helles without employing a low oxygen brewing process."

Oxidation doesn't inherently make bad beer, but it does change it. Whether one prefers beer produced that way or not has no bearing on that fact that oxygen does react with and change beer.

'proper' is a matter of opinion. Small brewers have been making great helles for centuries with no modern equipment or co2 purges. Of course tastes change, and it is yet to be known if we are at the tipping point of a revolution in brewing, or just another religious fad that will die out like (hopefully) pumpkin beers.

I am very interested to try some LODO beers, even tho I don't really GAF about helles, and only drank it at places that weren't serving hefeweizen. I have had 7 liters of helles at a sitting, perhaps the LODO version would have let me survive the swinging pirate ship ride at the fest with less discomfort (in Augsburg germany).

 

[CGVT]

Sours? Why the hell would I want to drink spoiled beer.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Well made sours beers are Amazeballs! Brettanomyces are my favorite yeast and Brett beers ARE NOT SOURS! Well made DIPAs are juicy, hoppy, resiny, fruity, bitter pints of awesome. I love brewing well made (noticing a trend &#129300 session beers and I love sharing them even more. Coconut beer tastes like suntan lotion.