About 10 years ago on a different forum, a thread like this was pretty fun and popular, we just gotta stick to one rule, no arguing or trying to change opinions. Just state your opinion or belief about brewing that doesn’t seem popular…
Mine is… I don’t like Citra hops, they taste like soap and bell peppers to me.
I don’t know if mine is unpopular or not. But, I don’t like to drink while I’m brewing. It’s a matter of safety and paying attention to detail.
I know it’s popular right now but after 2 or 3 years of tinkering, I’ve decided I don’t enjoy making sour beers or even prefer them often. I’d rather buy a good bottle of sour whatever occasionally when I’m in the mood and have equipment not tied up for 6 months+ on something I feel lukewarm about. Cantillon quality is not in my future and I’m good with it (love their stuff now and then though).
I don’t dig beers over 10% alcohol. I have a few favorites that happen to exceed that but as a general rule I prefer less than 9% with 10% as a max.
I just can’t see a legitimate reason to have beers that are 12% and above.
sometimes it seems like there’s a tipping point with high ABV beer and beer flavor, the difference between say a 5 % to a 7% beer versus a 8% to 10%.
I give a good Quad a pass there (being one of my favorite styles), but I attribute that to the attenuation vs many barleywines or RIS by comparison. But I agree, I’m brewing less big beers as time goes by.
me too. Rarely dip above 6 or 7%
Don’t get me wrong I still go big with commercial beers. Rochefort 10, SB ABT 12, Expedition, Ballantine Burton Ale, etc.
I definitely won’t brew anything of my own over 9% though. It seems like OG creep is a real thing, with people brewing 15% beers for reasons I can’t fathom. 1.120 OG and you’re having fermentation and attenuation issues? Go figure!
Unpopular opinions, eh? I’m hip…
I am a malt-head (as opposed to a hophead). I like IPA just fine, but what I really love is all the lagers, Scottish ales, etc.
I can taste a nasty twang in your extract beer every time. If you must use extract, then partial mash is way better, and all-grain is best.
I don’t think rye tastes spicy, not in the slightest. It’s bready and a bit earthy, but no spice. Any spice is associated with caraway or choice of spicy hops.
Carapils is worthless. I’ve been saying this looooooooooooooong before the existence of the recent xBmt.
American commercial breweries just really don’t know how to make good Marzens, or don’t care. I think I might be done tasting American versions, life is too short and it just doesn’t pay.
Almost every gose on the market is way too effing salty to be enjoyable. If you can taste the salt, you did it wrong.
Session IPA, Black IPA, Brown IPA, and Purple IPA are all terms that need not exist.
Homegrown hops are better for bittering than for flavor or aroma. Learn what your average alpha acid is through trial and error, like in the old days before the term “alpha acid” existed. :o
You don’t need to rehydrate your dry yeast. It’s one of the big advantages of dry. I know Denny agrees, but many do not, that’s why I include this as an “unpopular” opinion.
Glass fermenters are better than plastic buckets. There, I said it, again. Glass is dangerous, yes. Do be very careful with your big heavy glass carboys. Fortunately, stainless would also be fine.
If you value your time and just want to get your brew day over with, then you are wasting a lot of time if you mash any longer than 40 minutes, and probably about the same for boil time as well. Could save some energy costs there too.
Step mashes are probably worthless. More experiments are a good idea but I’ll probably not bother. When in doubt, just mash at 150 F for 40 minutes. You’ll get very good beer with this mash “schedule”. And…
If the temperature falls a few degrees during the mash, who cares. It’ll be fine. I don’t insulate.
It might not be worthwhile to chase high efficiency >85%. I finally ran one blind triangle efficiency experiment but need to run more as the results still were not very clear.
I only brew 1.7 gallons typically. There are numerous advantages to doing so. 5 gallons is too much for many people. I also brew on the stovetop, never did anything else and don’t own a propane burner. I am ridiculed endlessly by my “friends” for being “the small batch on the stove guy”. Whatever. Do what you like.
And… that about does it, for right now. ;D
Extract is okay but the only way to brew great tasting beer is all grain.
Designing recipes is an art, the brewing process is a science. Those that confuse the two are doomed to have the magic pixies that ‘make it go’ generally frowning at them.
And if you don’t measure anything or take notes, then why are you bothering?
IPAs are incredibly overrated.
I’m just almost there with ya. I did two batches of roselare beer this year as a last try. 100% pilsner, no hops, roselare, tart cherry concentrate in one, pomegranate concentrate in the other.
Me too. If I need more alcohol I have a Caucasian
For most beer drinkers these terms are interchangeable. IPA, craft beer, microbrew.
These same people know for a fact that dark beer is strong and thick, and German.
IBU are a nearly worthless measure in beers with a lot of flavor/aroma hops. Only slightly better in other styles.
Fuggles are delicious.
Crystal malt can work perfectly well in hoppy beer and many other styles. It all depends on the specific malt, its flavor, how it is used and how old the beer is.
They’re called cicerones.
(sorry, couldn’t help myself)
Everyone has to mash to what is in their capability but if you can direct fire step mash you can’t get a much better schedule than 20-30 min β rest into a 30 min α rest on your way to a 10 min MO.
Short and sweet with all the attenuation, body and foam you could ever want. Just another opinion of course. So I guess this post is my unpopular position that step mashes aren’t useless! [emoji6]
One of my unpopular methods is that I have two stirplates, which I only use for stiring agar into plate and slant media. I use oxygen to make yeast starters, and I pitch them at high krausen rather than letting them go dormant and crash/decant.
Hopefully it stays unpopular. I’d be fine with that being my little secret.
I am NOT a fan of fruit, spices, coffee, chocolate, etc. (including, now, vegetables–yuck) in my beer. If I want to taste grapefruit, I will eat a grapefruit, but please don’t put it in my beer. It’s not that I’m a grouchy old man clinging to a “back in my day” mentality, nor am I a Reinheitsgebot fanatic. And I keep an open mind when tasting beer. But I have never found a beer’s flavor to be enhanced by adding this stuff to it. It just tastes really gross to me. And pumpkin beer? No thanks.