What are your contrarian/"unpopular" beer opinions?

Yakima 728
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ProblemChild said:
canned beer is actually good now......
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Damn right it is. Case in point would be grapefruit sculpin. I first had it out of a bottle and didn't understand the hype. Then I had it in a can and understood. FWIW I see more and more cans popping up in my local bottle shop.
 
Beer abv by in large is too high, I think for the sake purely of inebriating low brow craft brew drinkers.

Because of which I think a lot of craft breweries sacrifice complexity, freshness and quality for just boozyness
 
Rhaop said:
My unpopular opinion is notty is not a clean neutral yeast, the ester profile dominates my palate even fermented below 60* F unless i use it in an IPA, i've tried s-04 and mj's dark ale with similar results
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I think Notty's reputation is that it's a clean, neutral yeast for an English ale yeast. I use S-04 specifically because it's got esters I enjoy, and Nottingham is a boring-er version of S-04.

Don't ever feel like you need to apologize for not liking a yeast, mate. I can't stand the yeast Harpoon uses, and many people I know love their yeast character. All in the eye of the beerholder. :mug:
 
Trail said:
I think Notty's reputation is that it's a clean, neutral yeast for an English ale yeast. I use S-04 specifically because it's got esters I enjoy, and Nottingham is a boring-er version of S-04.

Don't ever feel like you need to apologize for not liking a yeast, mate. I can't stand the yeast Harpoon uses, and many people I know love their yeast character. All in the eye of the beerholder. :mug:
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And I've hated every beer I've made with S-04! We all definitely have our own tastes, likes, and dislikes.
 
I still tell any newbies i meet to try s-04 and notty if they haven't already, I try not to bash it because my palate is whack lol

Trying some various liquid english yeasts is on my to do list, i am ashamed to say in 6 years and 50 batches not one liquid english yeast strain!! Mostly American, german hefe/kolsch and a few Belgian strains, i usually pitch s-05 for non yeast driven styles
 
I've tried both S-04 and Nottingham. I plan for my next brew to be a Nottingham dry cider. These are two very different yeasts. Both are extremely active, but S-04 imparts much more ester flavors than Notty. My experience with Nottingham is that it chews through whatever you give it until its done. If you want body/mouthfeel you better put something in there that no ale yeast can feast on or it'll eat it.
 
haze doesn't matter - haze does not affect the taste - I like hazy beers - we should all get to like hazy beers - haze is a matter of perception - haze is good for you - its deliberately hazy - haze is the new craze, get hip! haze sells! . . . sigh

The voice of dissent calls out - chicken soup should be hazy, beer should be bright :)
 
MSK_Chess said:
haze doesn't matter - haze does not affect the taste - I like hazy beers - we should all get to like hazy beers - haze is a matter of perception - haze is good for you - its deliberately hazy - haze is the new craze, get hip! haze sells! . . . sigh

The voice of dissent calls out - chicken soup should be hazy, beer should be bright :)
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Chicken soup should be bright, too. Like perfect matzo ball soup where you can see the bottom of the bowl.
 
SlitheryDee said:
I have yet to have an IPA that I really liked. They're so bitter that it's off-putting to me. From what I can see, hoppy beers are kind of an acquired taste though, so that could change as I delve into brewing more beer styles.
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It will, not could, change if you drink more beers. The first time I had Arrogant Bastard by Stone I thought OMG this is just a big hop bomb. Now it is a rather hoppy old ale. Good stuff at the right time. :tank:

At the Stone brewery the tour guide said "drink it till you like it." :rockin:
 
you've had to have seen this one

BLASPHEMY.png
 
At my local store, the owner gets the seasonal Paulaner brews in cans. The can comes with a one liter mug. The first time I saw one on the counter, I shouted "MINE", snatched it and put it on the register for the clerk to ring up.
Fast-forward a few years later, I have three boys in college. Two of them have taken to liking drinking out of liter mugs because it seems "cool". In case my Paulaner liter mug goes "missing", I have another squirreled away.
 
You don't have to take hydrometer readings to be sure your beer is done. The most cited reason for taking hydrometer readings regularly is to prevent bottle bombs. If you wait 4 weeks and your beer hasn't had any real krausen for 3, the beer isn't going to get any doner by checking it with a hydrometer. I would agree with the statement, regular hydrometer readings might show earlier that the beer is done, but most people let it sit and "clean up" for a week or too. I'm not saying bottle bombs aren't real or that they aren't dangerous, just that patience and sanitation are the tools that keep them from happening, not hydrometers.
 
AZCoolerBrewer said:
You don't have to take hydrometer readings to be sure your beer is done. The most cited reason for taking hydrometer readings regularly is to prevent bottle bombs. If you wait 4 weeks and your beer hasn't had any real krausen for 3, the beer isn't going to get any doner by checking it with a hydrometer. I would agree with the statement, regular hydrometer readings might show earlier that the beer is done, but most people let it sit and "clean up" for a week or too. I'm not saying bottle bombs aren't real or that they aren't dangerous, just that patience and sanitation are the tools that keep them from happening, not hydrometers.
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I'm with you on this. I'm usually 3 weeks and done with normal-sized beers (≈1.060) and add a day or 2 per gravity point for anything bigger.

still take a hydrometer reading, but it's just to determine FG (with the added bonus of tasting the sample!) before bottling.

3 readings is a waste of almost a full beer!
 
Since I started kegging, and no longer worry about bottle bombs, the only time I take a FG is if I need to know the ABV, like if it is a beer I am serving at an event.
 
Yeah, I never do the hydrometer multi-check and never have. I just wait 2-3 weeks depending on the yeast (5 weeks for kolsch). I do take a final reading at bottling time to confirm abv, but that's it.
 
AZCoolerBrewer said:
You don't have to take hydrometer readings to be sure your beer is done. The most cited reason for taking hydrometer readings regularly is to prevent bottle bombs. If you wait 4 weeks and your beer hasn't had any real krausen for 3, the beer isn't going to get any doner by checking it with a hydrometer. I would agree with the statement, regular hydrometer readings might show earlier that the beer is done, but most people let it sit and "clean up" for a week or too. I'm not saying bottle bombs aren't real or that they aren't dangerous, just that patience and sanitation are the tools that keep them from happening, not hydrometers.
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This is why I love the Tilt! I don't use it to be accurate (although they are close!) but to watch trends - you can see when SG is stable. Once I see stability I'll wait a few more days, or up to a week, and keg/bottle. I'll do a hydro reading then to record FG but that's about it.

No reason to leave the beer in the fermenter for a month when you don't have to.
 
I can tell by the smell in my fermentation chamber whether the beer is done or not. I usually take a reading prior to kegging to get an accurate ABV
 
Murphys_Law said:
This is why I love the Tilt! I don't use it to be accurate (although they are close!) but to watch trends - you can see when SG is stable. Once I see stability I'll wait a few more days, or up to a week, and keg/bottle. I'll do a hydro reading then to record FG but that's about it.

No reason to leave the beer in the fermenter for a month when you don't have to.
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Man... those look good, but at $120 a pop they're just unfeasible. Maybe the second generation units will be more affordable.
 
MSK_Chess said:
The voice of dissent calls out - chicken soup should be hazy, beer should be bright :)
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some beers should be bright. most crap commercial beers have traditionally been bright. many beer styles are naturally hazy when properly brewed and served. I don't have a problem with that. That's almost contrarian anymore tho, now that all the hipster doofuses have climbed aboard the 'i hate neipa' train, lulz.
 
This isn't a contrary *opinion*, but just a way I suspect I'm different from most homebrewers: I'm about to brew my 45th batch, and I've never once used extract (apart from DME for starters).

This wasn't by design. I started brewing when I was given a kit for christmas which happened to be all grain, so that's just what I learned to do. I'm sure at some point I'll get curious and give extract a try, but it just hasn't happened yet.

This probably at least in part because it seems like every time I brew a beer, I'm doing something different. Sometimes these changes are fairly major like getting a chest freezer so I could lager, or very minor like skipping the vorlauf. Right now, I don't forsee ever running out of new things to try, whether it's ingredients, method, equipment, etc.
 
AZCoolerBrewer said:
You don't have to take hydrometer readings to be sure your beer is done. The most cited reason for taking hydrometer readings regularly is to prevent bottle bombs. If you wait 4 weeks and your beer hasn't had any real krausen for 3, the beer isn't going to get any doner by checking it with a hydrometer. I would agree with the statement, regular hydrometer readings might show earlier that the beer is done, but most people let it sit and "clean up" for a week or too. I'm not saying bottle bombs aren't real or that they aren't dangerous, just that patience and sanitation are the tools that keep them from happening, not hydrometers.
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Your yeast can stall. Happens all the time. And then restart itself. Also happens all the time. But by now the beer is in the bottle. So... NO!
(Unless you enjoy cleaning up glass shards from your bottle explosions, then yes, you should never measure gravity)

I have had fast beers and slow beers. Some take 6 days from brew day to serving. Some take a month or longer. No reason not to use hydrometer.
Or thermometer. Welcome to 21st century. I mean 19th century.
 
55x11 said:
Your yeast can stall. Happens all the time. And then restart itself. Also happens all the time. But by now the beer is in the bottle. So... NO!
(Unless you enjoy cleaning up glass shards from your bottle explosions, then yes, you should never measure gravity)

I have had fast beers and slow beers. Some take 6 days from brew day to serving. Some take a month or longer. No reason not to use hydrometer.
Or thermometer. Welcome to 21st century. I mean 19th century.
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That's why I like brewing with plastic. I had one beer that restarted fermentation in the bottles and the bottles swelled up a lot and I got a **** ton of head while pouring but no explosions or even popped tops. After that I don't sweat it.
 
Bosh said:
That's why I like brewing with plastic. I had one beer that restarted fermentation in the bottles and the bottles swelled up a lot and I got a **** ton of head while pouring but no explosions or even popped tops. After that I don't sweat it.
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There are NUMEROUS benefits to having a hydrometer that go way beyond avoiding bottle bombs. Such as - getting a better information about your yeast health, your attenuation, your efficiency during mash, your ABV, any possible contamination etc. How do you make any corrections or changes to make a better beer if you don't even use hydrometer? Or refractometer.

Not using a hydrometer in homebrewing is equivalent to being a doctor in 21st century and treating every illness with blood-letting.
 
55x11 said:
Not using a hydrometer in homebrewing is equivalent to being a doctor in 21st century and treating every illness with blood-letting.
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Nah, it's like being a cook who doesn't use measuring cups. I don't need to measure a recipe I've made a thousand times, doesn't matter whether it's my beer or my carne guisada! I can tell when they're done by looking at, smelling, and tasting them.
 
baking requires measurements.... cooking does not

brewing does, but on most measurements, I have a wide margin for error. ounce or 2 of water, ounce of malt, 1/4 oz off on hop measurements doesn't make a huge difference in the final product

I do use a hydrometer, but I'm not so anal I have to measure 3 days in a row to know I'm at terminal gravity. one reading is my FG as it goes into bottling bucket and 9 times out of 10 I've overattenuated and am reading lower than my estimated FG.

NEVER have had a gusher or a bottle bomb. including my Grodziskie, which I bottle at 3.5 volumes
 
I love sour beers but my opinion is that there needs to be more precise naming and labeling of these beers. The usual style terms used are "sour", "tart", or "wild" beer.

All of these words mean totally different things. I might describe a Berliner-Weiss as a tart beer, but not sour. I've seen "wild ale" used for a clean tasting gose. Totally inaccurate.

Breweries should just actually tell the consumer what the style of the beer is, and not try to mask it for marketing purposes.
 
Unpopular opinion: I don't have to try a peanut butter stout to know I don't ever want to make one. I'm all for zany adjuncts, but c'mon man.
 
ShareBrewing said:
I love sour beers but my opinion is that there needs to be more precise naming and labeling of these beers. The usual style terms used are "sour", "tart", or "wild" beer.

All of these words mean totally different things. I might describe a Berliner-Weiss as a tart beer, but not sour. I've seen "wild ale" used for a clean tasting gose. Totally inaccurate.

Breweries should just actually tell the consumer what the style of the beer is, and not try to mask it for marketing purposes.
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I'd describe a Berliner as sour, a sour blended with a fresh beer as tart, anything with Brett as funky or wild.
 
Cavpilot2000 said:
The only pigtails I know of are the ones you use as handles for...well...I'll keep it family oriented here and leave it at that...
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....I think that's actually worse if it's "family oriented." o.o

Hmm, have we hit on the "anything over 8% ABV requires months to years of bottle aging to be 'drinkable'" silliness yet? It's been a few posts here.
 
NoIguanaForZ said:
Hmm, have we hit on the "anything over 8% ABV requires months to years of bottle aging to be 'drinkable'" silliness yet? It's been a few posts here.
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Not here, at least not "anything." I've had beers at 15% that drink as smooth as any session beer - and ones at 7% at hot and boozy as they come.
So. Some beers need months or years of aging to be drinkable. Some are ready to go when they leave the brewery.
There is never an "all" or "none" when it comes to aging beer.
 
InkBird 300

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