What are your contrarian/"unpopular" beer opinions?

[mmiddleton]

Spoken like a guy that has never pulled a pint.

If you mean at home, that's 100% correct. Outside of the home, I've pulled a few, though I'm certainly no expert.

To be clear, I'm not against other people kegging. If it works for you, that's awesome! It's just not my jam.

Well I guess I'm bit of a weirdo as well. Eh, make that I am a proud weirdo. I don't mind bottling, and I do have a setup to dispense kegged beer for parties, the investment was better than being the bartender and less stressful than instructing every beer drinker that wanted homebrew how to pour.

I could see one of those garbage can keg dispensers being useful for parties and such. Guess I'm not popular enough to need something like that

 

[Murphys_Law]

+1 to bottling. I haven't got space for a kegerator in my kitchen. But I have got a nice cool cellar. Plus I like being able to go downstairs and pick from 8-10 varieties depending on my mood and what I'm eating.

I like going to my kegerator and choosing from 5 (soon 6) beers on tap, PLUS several styles that are bottled and in my beer fridge.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Totally agreed. I made an extract IPA that got a 30. The same all-grain IPA? 30. I've never tasted a twang. I think it's all in people's heads from hearing about it from other brewers.

When fresh, I will agree. But when an extract beer ages (say 6 months, give or take) it definitely becomes clear it's an extract beer. It has a certain taste that is common to all extract beers after a while. In fact, when I usd to do extract, I found it hard to tell my beers apart once they got 6-9 months old (yes, some bottles hung around that long). No kidding - I once couldn't tell if a bottle was the IPA (Classic English Style) I had made or a honey brown ale.

 

[Mainer]

When fresh, I will agree. But when an extract beer ages (say 6 months, give or take) it definitely becomes clear it's an extract beer. It has a certain taste that is common to all extract beers after a while. In fact, when I usd to do extract, I found it hard to tell my beers apart once they got 6-9 months old (yes, some bottles hung around that long). No kidding - I once couldn't tell if a bottle was the IPA (Classic English Style) I had made or a honey brown ale.

The only beer I still brew with LME is a Baltic Porter, and it's at its best after 6 months.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

The only beer I still brew with LME is a Baltic Porter, and it's at its best after 6 months.

That makes sense, because the Baltic Porter is one of the strongest flavored beers out there. Those heavy dark malts will mask the extract flavor.

As with any rule, there are always exceptions, but I'm sure there is a reason you don't make your pale ales out of extract anymore.

 

[--0o0o0--]

+1 to bottling. I haven't got space for a kegerator in my kitchen. But I have got a nice cool cellar. Plus I like being able to go downstairs and pick from 8-10 varieties depending on my mood and what I'm eating.

I agree with the bottling +1 but my contrarian opinion is that alcohol and food generally taste horrible together.

 

[Dan_K]

Contrarian/unpopular opinion. Many authentic English beers are bland and boring. Also served on the warm side and nearly flat.

 

[Mainer]

That makes sense, because the Baltic Porter is one of the strongest flavored beers out there. Those heavy dark malts will mask the extract flavor.

As with any rule, there are always exceptions, but I'm sure there is a reason you don't make your pale ales out of extract anymore.

Eh, I never did many pales with LME. By my fourth batch I was doing BIAB, maybe kicking up the strength on doubles with a little DME. But the Baltic has been so popular (my friends keep asking if they can buy cases from me) that I didn't want to tinker with it too much. Of course, in addition to the malts, it's a spiced Baltic Porter (anise and cardamom) so that's also masking the flavors a bit.

 

[popsicleian]

I agree with the bottling +1 but my contrarian opinion is that alcohol and food generally taste horrible together.

I sort of agree! I don't think they're horrible, but I'm much less interested in pairing than I am drinking and eating separately. I've had some good pairings, but I think that putting beer and food together often makes them both taste worse.

 

[normonster]

I like going to my kegerator and choosing from 5 (soon 6) beers on tap, PLUS several styles that are bottled and in my beer fridge.

Nailed it.

The answer is clearly both. I prefer to drink my beers from bottles and I think it is worth the effort, but I also enjoy pulling pints in my man-cave. I generally put blonde and pale in the kegs and all else in bottles.

If I could only have one, I'd take bottling. But since I have a job and only one hobby, BOTH!

 

[normonster]

My contrarian view is that all beer is good in the right moment. I drink the **** out of some Bud Light, Modelo and Corona and people always seem surprised by that when I tell them I also make beer.

All beer is good.

 

[theowlman16]

Twang or no twang, but my extract brews got dumped after I started all grain.

 

[cegan09]

I hate the stigma that comes with untappt. I use it to track what I personally have tried and liked. I have maybe 5 friends and they are the same. I will use it to reference back if I've liked certain beers or breweries when deciding what I want to try in the future. But nowadays using it is seen as being a huge over conceded beer snob.


That said, beeradvocate is a curse. Bunch of wannabees trying to jump on the next bandwagon and shout their hastily written "review" into the void. I went to extreme beer fest in boston and laughed when I saw the "Beer Snobs Suck" banner. Amazing tagline for that site.

those statements might contradict each other. I don't care.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

That said, beeradvocate is a curse. Bunch of wannabees trying to jump on the next bandwagon and shout their hastily written "review" into the void. I went to extreme beer fest in boston and laughed when I saw the "Beer Snobs Suck" banner. Amazing tagline for that site.

I rarely see a good review. A good example of the common practice when people are reviewing is Deschutes Pinedrops. I love Deschutes and I love that beer, but I just don't get pine from it, but since it's called Pinedrops everyone talks about the big pine aroma and flavor. Most reviews I see are copies of the beer description. The bros do a better job though.

 

[schmikey]

I hate IPA's. They all taste the same to me, and I just don't like the taste of them. Give me a Belgian tripel, or an Irish red ale or a good helles lager any day.

 

[soccerdad]

I drink the **** out of some Bud Light, Modelo and Corona

You can't have drank all the **** out of it. I had one the other day and there was plenty of **** to go around

 

[Mainer]

I like going to my kegerator and choosing from 5 (soon 6) beers on tap, PLUS several styles that are bottled and in my beer fridge.

You must have a gigantic house.
I live in a 900 square foot bungalow.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Eh, I never did many pales with LME. By my fourth batch I was doing BIAB, maybe kicking up the strength on doubles with a little DME. But the Baltic has been so popular (my friends keep asking if they can buy cases from me) that I didn't want to tinker with it too much. Of course, in addition to the malts, it's a spiced Baltic Porter (anise and cardamom) so that's also masking the flavors a bit.

Yeah, I pretty much do all AG, but I created a lemon-coriander wheat a few years ago that has been a consistent hit with my friends, but when I switched it to AG, I didn't notice a marked improvement, since the lemon and toasted coriander flavors are so prominent.
I could probably go back to extract with that one and it wouldn't take away from the beer.
But, I pulled a bottle out the other day (AG), and it still tasted about the same as when I made it in August. I'd be curious if one of my extract versions would hold up as well, given my experience with my extract beers not aging well (except for a 10% Imperial IPA I made once).

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Crystal(caramel) malts can ruin an otherwise potentially good beer formula. Better to get color from dehusked 'Carafa Special' (I,II, or III), or something similar, and maltiness from a bit higher kilned (yet still often diastaticly active to some degree) base malts (sometimes referred to as specialty malts). Candidates here would span the range of (in roughly ascending 'L' color order):

Maris Otter Pale
Vienna
Ashburne
Munich I & II
Aromatic
Melanoidin
and others....

 

[Mainer]

Crystal(caramel) malts can ruin an otherwise potentially good beer formula. Better to get color from dehusked 'Carafa Special' (I,II, or III), or something similar, and maltiness from a bit higher kilned (yet still often diastaticly active to some degree) base malts (sometimes referred to as specialty malts). Candidates here would span the range of (in roughly ascending 'L' color order):

Maris Otter Pale
Vienna
Ashburne
Munich I & II
Aromatic
Melanoidin
and others....

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion at all. I'd say it's the dominant opinion, at least on hbt.

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

sugar ,,,,, do da do da do da... ah honey honey .... you are are my candy girl.. 8 % percent into my bitter, smooths out Wyeast 1968 in a most appropriate way

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

one more..... there are a lot of people on HBT who have no idea what they are doing

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

So not trying to be a dick, but it's sugar ... da da di da do da

 

[Mainer]

And another unpopular opinion: brewing sanitation is important, but most people are overdoing it. The risk of infection is generally overstated.

 

[theowlman16]

I see this a lot on HBT..."I was making the Pale Saison, but didn't want to drive to the store so I just used what I had laying around so I used Roasted Barley instead of Pilsner, and I only had Lager yeast, so I used that instead of Saison yeast...Why does my beer not taste and look the same as the OP?"

 

[motosapiens]

Same here, I almost quit brewing because I hated the 2+ hour ordeal of sanitizing bottles, making a priming solution, siphoning to a bottling bucket, capping each bottle, and then cleaning up all of the drips and spills from bottling... AND then you have to wait two weeks before even knowing if all the effort was worth it.

2 hours sounds like a lot. It takes me well under an hour to bottle a 5-gallon batch and clean everything up. I typically do it either during a 1 hr mash or a 1 hour boil on brew day.

And then I don't have to clean the keg or the keg lines. (but I still keg for special events or when I run out of bottles).

 

[Murphys_Law]

sugar ,,,,, do da do da do da... ah honey honey .... you are are my candy girl.. 8 % percent into my bitter, smooths out Wyeast 1968 in a most appropriate way

I also use 1968 but with 9% crystal!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

We're brewing beer here, not participating in a science fair project.

 

[Murphys_Law]

I guess another one would be the "style police". I can certainly see where brewing to style is important (i.e. comps) but for the average home brewer who will never enter a competition I say brew what you want to drink and be damned with style!

And feel free to make a mocha lemon almond zest with coriander and caraway seeds if that's what turns ya on! You'll be drinking alone but heck, it's your beer...brew on brother!

 

[JonM]

Proper glassware is silly.

All I ever use is the standard pint glass, Nonic pint glasses, occasionally a Duvel tulip and a couple of opaque glasses for when I'm outside in the sunshine.

 

[Callacave]

That the focus on a NEIPA is "the haze"

 

[nwbrewing32]

"No, I don't make a Miller Lite clone".

"No, I don't make a Summer Shandy clone."

It's in line with home brewers, but the look you get from some people around here when you don't have these...wow.

Also, I pretty much refuse to believe that you cannot achieve an award-winning beer from BIAB. I've been told it's thinner beer, not as flavorful...wrong.

 

[kingmatt]

Session IPAs are **** and so are breweries that sell them for the same price as their double IPA.

 

[Redlantern]

...!t and so are breweries that sell them for the same price as their double IPA.

this was supposed to be an unpopular or contrarian point of view. Got a feeling that you are sharing a common belief on this one.....

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

Me too, about 8% sugar, 8 to 10% 40L crystal, have always used Maris Otter, but going to try Golden Promise in my next one.

I also use 1968 but with 9% crystal!

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

I get to Germany a lot, and friends say "wow you must love the great beer". No I don't, it's high quality but very boring.

 

[Bosh]

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion at all. I'd say it's the dominant opinion, at least on hbt.

Yeah it's gotten to the point where "you should ever use any crystal malt" is becoming a contrarian position.

 

[Bosh]

I get to Germany a lot, and friends say "wow you must love the great beer". No I don't, it's high quality but very boring.

I'm not even sure about the quality any more with all of the cost cutting that seems to be happening in a lot of German brewers. For a lot of the export stuff a lot of German beer seems like French wine: a good way of suckering people who don't know anything but want to buy something with prestige.

Now the good stuff is still very good but some of the very worst beer I've ever had is German. Yes, even worse than Beast.

 

[kingmatt]

this was supposed to be an unpopular or contrarian point of view. Got a feeling that you are sharing a common belief on this one.....

The session IPA hate was contrarian, the brewery hate was just me b!tching!

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

I'm with you, I often find myself lying when I taste beer my friends have brewed. They're so excited, so rather then dampen their enthusiasm, I agree with them that it's really good and I wonder aloud why they haven't gone pro.

I guess it's just one of those harmless lies, akin to some of the following Valentine's day lies ......"no, that dress doesn't make you look fat" .... or..... "I love you as much today as I did 20 years ago" ....or .... "your the best thing that ever happened to me"

There all just lies your have to tell to keep your relationships intact

I'll stir the pot a little with another opinion.

I don't think most home brewers have the skill to execute a half decent ale, let alone a half decent lager, and even fewer who have the technical background to make a LoDO the way it needs to be done.

And those are the people who rip on lodo the most. Enjoy your bucket fermented, oxidized, hazy, bottle sedimented beer that still hasn't cleared after 4 weeks on the cake and another 2 months in a carboy.