What are your contrarian/"unpopular" beer opinions?

[jmark]

NE IPAs *aren't* IPAs... they may be delicious, but an IPA is supposed to be bitter, dammit! Call it a NE Pale Ale or something...

Grenade thrown... see y'all later

 

[Mainer]

Fair enough, but I bottle in the neighborhood of 100k-120k bottles a year at work using state of the art equipment and it is still a PITA. I've rebuilt my brew rig many times and regretted plenty of past investments, but I would buy new kegs and keezer annually without batting an eye.

Oh, bottling is DEFINITELY a pain. But if you're making cellaring beers, it's the only way to go. I've got about 15 varieties in the cellar right now. I could never keep that much on tap.

 

[jodell]

NE IPAs *aren't* IPAs... they may be delicious, but an IPA is supposed to be bitter, dammit! Call it a NE Pale Ale or something...

Grenade thrown... see y'all later

I throw that grenade. If I want juice I'll drink juice

 

[Schreiner]

New England IPA's are a fad.

 

[Mainer]

New England IPA's are a fad.

The reinheitsgebot is a fad.

 

[Redlantern]

The reinheitsgebot was a lie about quality.

It was all about reserving the name of beer for people that had the luxury of reserving land for hops and the facilities for malting barley. It ensured that only rich people could make was was allowed to be called beer. Everything else had to be called something other than beer.

 

[r4dyce]

The reinheitsgebot was a lie about quality.

It was all about reserving the name of beer for people that had the luxury of reserving land for hops and the facilities for malting barley. It ensured that only rich people could make was was allowed to be called beer. Everything else had to be called something other than beer.

Is that really an opinion? I thought that was pretty much fact, that's how I've always heard it.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Big fat resiny fruity bitter as fuuuuu<uuuuuuuck IPAs might be the greatest thing ever invented by man. Malt bombs suck big fat devil balls &#129304;

 

[Redlantern]

Is that really an opinion? I thought that was pretty much fact, that's how I've always heard it.

In the beer stores - it just irks me to hear people talking about reinheitsgebot like it makes good beer.

OHHHH! look, this one is made IAW the German purity law - so much better than other beers that are made with water, barley, hops and yeast.......That is why German beer is so good...

I don't know a whole lot about beer (no where near as much as a lot of the folks in her for sure) but it just makes me want to gouge my eardrums out with a paint can opener/bottle opener hearing that.

 

[TimmyWit]

New England IPA's are a fad.

NE IPA's are tasty and they are here to stay. Hipsters will call NE IPA's a fad in a desperate attempt to "call it" before they go out of style.

"I said NE IPA's weren't cool before they weren't cool"

 

[honeycon]

I was looking for a place to post my manifesto-
1. My city tap water tastes good, it's my terroir. In the old days breweries started around tasty springs. Adapt recipes as necessary.
2. Cleaning is largely unnecessary, sanitation is stupid
3. Yeast rehydration conquers many mistakes, but isn't required
4. Bottling is stupid
5. Homebrewing engineers annoy me, we need the voices of more people who do not care about PIDs and fluid mechanics.
6. I don't clone beers
7. I give literally zero ducks about trub
8. No such thing as a fault, just more tools in the recipe bag
9. Chuggability is the height of virtue
10. Mead is the height of folly
11. Bitter is better but IPA's all taste the same. Brew with some finesse.
Malty beers are for women and children. I want balance, complexity is good but beer shouldn't leave the same cloying aftertaste as candy nor give you hop heartburn.
12. brewing should take no more than 3 hours.
13. brewing should take 8 hours and give me an excuse not to do yard work for an entire day.
14. Wort chilling isn't necessary. Leave the darn thing outside for a night and deal with it tomorrow.
15. Sure, a little oxygen is good once the wort cools down but I've never needed more than splashing. If I lived with my gramdma I would definitely use the oxygen tank though.
16. I only vaguely pay attention to volumes, use a lot of water for mash and lauter, boil aggressively if you overshoot.
17. I embrace the funk.
18. Hops should start with a "C" but "s" kind of sounds like "c" sometimes so it counts too.
19. Clarity is for piss water
20. Piss water is great sometimes.
21. I love making light black beers and being a nerd to guests explaining that it only takes a few ounces blah blah blah
22. Espresso stout may be the perfect beer if done correctly. Malty balanced with bitter coffee.
23. Saison and IPA cannot be used to evaluate the quality of a brewing establishment.
24. It takes about 10 batches to really get a beer right. Anything less is playing- you don't "brew a 8% imperial stout" if you've only done it once or twice. Really, it takes one disaster then one disaster overcome resulting in identical finished product
25. Please don't talk to me about brewing extract, or even clones for that matter. I brew to make cheap delicious beer that I want to drink more than commercial offerings. Why would I clone it if I have the power to change what I don't like in the beer?

# 10. As I sit here with the memory of the taste from backyard black Muscat grapes with a hint of rhubarb and honey from the same backyard all making a nice spring sipping mead. But now the taste of the dark wild honey and caraway seed mead is being enjoyed. Both medium dry waiting to be bottled. I think # 10 is not folly, but to most, little explored.
But hey, this is the beer forum! Back on topic.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Oh, bottling is DEFINITELY a pain. But if you're making cellaring beers, it's the only way to go. I've got about 15 varieties in the cellar right now. I could never keep that much on tap.

You could cellar in 5 gallon bottles........

 

[SanPancho]

Belgian/abbey beer sucks. Either syrupy sweet or full of weird spicy flavors- like some weird medieval xmas beverage. Gross.

Barrel aged fruit/sours excepted.

 

[Bosh]

Belgian/abbey beer sucks. Either syrupy sweet or full of weird spicy flavors- like some weird medieval xmas beverage. Gross.

Barrel aged fruit/sours excepted.

Agreed mostly, but also I'd make an exception for the (rare) black ones as that balances the sweetness well. Had a great one of those in Quebec...

 

[JKaranka]

Belgian/abbey beer sucks. Either syrupy sweet or full of weird spicy flavors- like some weird medieval xmas beverage. Gross.

Barrel aged fruit/sours excepted.

Do you mean real Belgian beers? I like the fact that many are nicely dry. The one I remember finding disappointingly full and sweet was Struise's Pannepot (which hold a 100/100 rating in ratebeer...).

 

[theowlman16]

Fruit is for smoothies. Fruit in beer is like gummy bears in my mashed potatoes.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Fruit is for smoothies. Fruit in beer is like gummy bears in my mashed potatoes.

Agree and disagree. Fruit can be stellar in some beer styles but some breweries will go way overboard trying to add exotic fruits that add virtually no flavor. Like a beer I tried with Buddha's hand fruit. Whole bunch of expensive imported fruit added to a simple blonde ale and you couldn't tell they added fruit at all. Total waste.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Ratebeer and Beeradvocate and can be trusted for the most part and are great beer resources, but all the ratings on those sites should be taken with a grain of salt. There are many over- and underrated beers because the vast majority of users on those sites don't have an in depth brewing knowledge or a very educated palate.

 

[r4dyce]

Ratebeer and Beeradvocate and can be trusted for the most part and are great beer resources, but all the ratings on those sites should be taken with a grain of salt. There are many over- and underrated beers because the vast majority of users on those sites don't have an in depth brewing knowledge or a very educated palate.

Not sure I agree with a "vast majority." I actually think most people on there drink a lot of beer and have experienced palates. And I don't think brewing knowledge is requisite to appreciating beer. I do agree lots of beers are overrated/underrated based on reputation though. I.e. I happen to think Heady Topper is wildly overrated because people think they are supposed to like it and scarcity creates a mythology of demand. Similarly I think if you put a different label on something like Sam Summer it would be rated much higher.

On a side note, there's lots of interesting studies with wine judging that shows people favor more expenses wines, but that preference goes away when you hide the prices and label from them. Similarly, even trained wine judges will rate the same wine wildly differently in a blind tasting if they have the same wine even a few hours apart. Basically all reviews should be taken with a grain of salt ha.

 

[Mainer]

You could cellar in 5 gallon bottles........

Possibly... but then once it was open, I'd have to drink all 5 gallons at a sitting. We can't have good beer going stale.

 

[bajaedition]

I am kind of in the middle of you two

first I think trained and expereinced are 2 different things

a trained palate will compare a beer according to that style, after all if you do not think a Light American beer is worth drinking a trained palate will still tell you if it is a good example of that style.
I think to many of the guys doing those reviews are trying to rate according to the beers they want to drink.

That is a problem to many of the rating systems on the internet today, no matter what the item being rated. There are very loose standards to why it is rated that way.

So either way both of your opinions has merit

 

[Mainer]

Not sure I agree with a "vast majority." I actually think most people on there drink a lot of beer and have experienced palates. And I don't think brewing knowledge is requisite to appreciating beer. I do agree lots of beers are overrated/underrated based on reputation though. I.e. I happen to think Heady Topper is wildly overrated because people think they are supposed to like it and scarcity creates a mythology of demand. Similarly I think if you put a different label on something like Sam Summer it would be rated much higher.

On a side note, there's lots of interesting studies with wine judging that shows people favor more expenses wines, but that preference goes away when you hide the prices and label from them. Similarly, even trained wine judges will rate the same wine wildly differently in a blind tasting if they have the same wine even a few hours apart. Basically all reviews should be taken with a grain of salt ha.

I find the comments on these sites useful, but I find the ratings far less useful. When you're applying a 1-100 score, I think people give undue consideration to the scarcity of the beer. People buy into the mythology, the obsession with having the latest "White Whale" IPA that you have to go on a heroic quest to obtain, and as a result they're less concerned with the actual quality of that beer.

So yeah, reviews where people actually enter thoughtful tasting notes? I read those and value them. But where it's just a 1-100 score and like "THIS BEER WAS GOOD" or "THE BEER WAS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD" I tend to be far more skeptical. Individual reviews are almost always smarter than aggregate scores.

 

[Newsman]

(snip)
So yeah, reviews where people actually enter thoughtful tasting notes? I read those and value them. But where it's just a 1-100 score and like "THIS BEER WAS GOOD" or "THE BEER WAS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD" I tend to be far more skeptical. Individual reviews are almost always smarter than aggregate scores.

Yeah, I like when people will put on a review WHY they liked or disliked a beer. When I review a beer on Untapped, I try to put in what I liked or disliked so that anyone reading my review will at least understand what it was that made me review it that way.
Just because Hoplanta is a hop bomb doesn't mean someone else won't love it. I just don't like hop bombs.

 

[JonM]

Sometimes I'll google a brewing issue. If I can't find the answer on HBT, then the AHA forum or Northern Brewer forum may have the answer. BA's forum pops up in the search results and they always seem to have bad advice.

 

[cmac62]

I think pliney the elder is just another IPA.

 

[cmac62]

Serious question: When did you realize you liked really hoppy beers? Did you have to build up to it or was it just love at first taste? I'm definitely going to be trying some higher IBU beers, but I find that I have a very low tolerance for hop bitterness. The few ipas I've had were all downright unpleasant because of it. Because of their undeniable popularity, I'm convinced I must be missing something though.

When I did the Stone tour the guide said something that made sense, Drink it till you like it. I know my palate has changed significantly since I started drinking craft beers. The first time I tried Arrogant Bastard I thought it was gross. Now I can enjoy it when in the right mood. Lagunitas Sucks is one of the best tasting hopped beers I have ever tried.

 

[cmac62]

"Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." Euell Gibbons

That brings me back a few. LOL Here's to a Euell Gibbons quote.

 

[FatDragon]

Drink it till you like it.

It's how I started drinking beer, so why not expand my palate in the same way, right?

 

[cmac62]

Durian Hefeweizen? I have never tried durian, but from what I have heard you may want to brew fewer than 5 gallons. And I thought my rosemary, sage and lavender gruit was out there.

 

[FatDragon]

Durian Hefeweizen? I have never tried durian, but from what I have heard you may want to brew fewer than 5 gallons. And I thought my rosemary, sage and lavender gruit was out there.

It's still just an idea - I need to figure out if durian will ferment well or if it's not going to work at all. However, I love a good, fresh durian and the flavor would meld well with a yeasty hefeweizen, so I'm trying to figure out how to make it happen.