What are your "unpopular" brewing opinions

[klickitat_jim]

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.

I remember Denny saying that people should make beer flavored beer. I thought, “what fun is that?”

But… he’s right. So are you.

[pete_baker (pete b)]

Once you are able to make good beer you need not be anal. I can make good beer without software and terribly precise measurements and not take notes. I don’t recommend this if your new or trying to perfect something or dial in a new system of course and this isn’t how I brew all the time but I sometimes figure out strike and sparge amounts literally on the back of an envelope, measure water with the marks I etched on my kettles, and add hops based on experience without calculating ibus. And they taste great!

[dls5492]

IPAs are incredibly overrated.

Amen.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@klickitat_jim

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.

I remember Denny saying that people should make beer flavored beer. I thought, “what fun is that?”

But… he’s right. So are you.

Agreed. No offense to anybody who likes these things. I just steer away from beers like this with the exception of using coffee occasionally in stout. But I don’t like it to overpower - I don’t want carbonated, alcoholic coffee. Just a subtle accent (mostly aroma) to add to the roasted character. Each his own.

[yso191]

I’ve spent the last 30 minutes trying to come up with something, to no avail.  there are things I do which may be different than what others do, but I apparently have no unpopular brewing opinions.  I have jettisoned some, for example the spice/fruit/whatever additions.  I don’t typically go for those but it depends (I just had a terrific Abyss last night).

I also don’t think there are too many IPAs in the world.  I guess I am Switzerland.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@yso191

I also don’t think there are too many IPAs in the world.  I guess I am Switzerland.

I’m with you. I love IPAs (well made ones anyway, which rules out a good many) and APAs. I always have one on tap. But I love variety, too. That leaves the other taps for malty lagers or whatever. I have beer drinker’s ADD.

[santoch]

@dls5492

IPAs are incredibly overrated.

Amen.

Agreed.  I love a good IPA, but they are NOT my go to beers.

I’ll throw these out there.

“Beer connoisseurs” that can’t find the simple elegance of and skill involved to create a well made Pilsner, Helles, or even – I’ll say it – an American Lager, haven’t been tasting/making beer long enough.  This is why I never bother with the beer ratings sites.

Similarly, my favorite categories to judge are CAT 1 and CAT 2. (Light Lagers and Pilsners).

1. Only the very best brewers and the most naive ones enter them.  This makes judging them either a joy to drink or a quick list of obvious flaws.  Few are in the middle.  Makes judging them pretty quick and usually easy.
2. Nobody else wants to judge them, so I don’t have to beg like the 30 guys trying to get the Sours or Strong Belgians.
3. You aren’t hammered by lunch

[rcroel (RC)]

Once you are able to make good beer you need not be anal. I can make good beer without software and terribly precise measurements and not take notes. I don’t recommend this if your new or trying to perfect something or dial in a new system of course and this isn’t how I brew all the time but I sometimes figure out strike and sparge amounts literally on the back of an envelope, measure water with the marks I etched on my kettles, and add hops based on experience without calculating ibus. And they taste great!

No school like the old school! Amen.

[bayareabrewer]

never thought about beer styles from a judges point of view, interesting points on being a judge and judging lagers. I like the part about “the best brewers or the most naïve” enter that category. I’ll enter one of mine in the next comp I try and see which category I fall in

[braufessor]

If given the choice between most Belgian beers and a cold can of Milwaukee’s Best Light, I will take the MBL 9 times out of 10.

[dmtaylor (Dave Taylor)]

@santoch

I’ll throw these out there.

“Beer connoisseurs” that can’t find the simple elegance of and skill involved to create a well made Pilsner, Helles, or even – I’ll say it – an American Lager, haven’t been tasting/making beer long enough.  This is why I never bother with the beer ratings sites.

Similarly, my favorite categories to judge are CAT 1 and CAT 2. (Light Lagers and Pilsners).

1. Only the very best brewers and the most naive ones enter them.  This makes judging them either a joy to drink or a quick list of obvious flaws.  Few are in the middle.  Makes judging them pretty quick and usually easy.
2. Nobody else wants to judge them, so I don’t have to beg like the 30 guys trying to get the Sours or Strong Belgians.
3. You aren’t hammered by lunch

[alestateyall (tommymorris)]

I don’t like pepper, fruit, sour, spice, salt, smoke, bourbon, wood, imperial, 57 hops blended so I can’t pick out any of them, bacteria, yeast from people’s beards or horses in my beer. This eliminates most of the craft brew market. So, I brew my own.

[system]

When I say Belgian, I mean Trappist. And Duvel. Plus St. Bernardus. I don’t dig regional Belgian beers, or Lambic, etc.

I think there needs to be a clear dividing line. I’m trying to get better about prefacing with Trappist or Monastic.

[Philbrew]

I started out homebrewing (this edition) believing I was a lager only guy, but I’ve fallen in love with saisons.  Is this an “unpopular” brewing opinion?  ???

[dmtaylor (Dave Taylor)]

@Philbrew

I started out homebrewing (this edition) believing I was a lager only guy, but I’ve fallen in love with saisons.  Is this an “unpopular” brewing opinion?  ???

Saison is everywhere.  Your opinion is quite popular.

[santoch]

@dmtaylor

@Philbrew

I started out homebrewing (this edition) believing I was a lager only guy, but I’ve fallen in love with saisons.  Is this an “unpopular” brewing opinion?  ???

Saison is everywhere.  Your opinion is quite popular.

The Reinheitsge-stapo might feel otherwise, but I agree, LOTS of people have latched onto Saison.

[bboy9000]

@dmtaylor

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

Now that’s a mic drop[emoji3]

[charles1968]

Good thread. Here are a few more.

Most expertise on brewing forums is regurgitated on the fly from Google and not based on experience. (This forum much better than others in this regard)

Sparging is usually pointless.

Heavy dry hopping can ruin beer and introduce off flavours.

Flavour and aroma are the same thing.

Subtle flavours can be more enjoyable than overpowering flavours.

Belgian beers excepted, most beers should be under 5℅ alcohol.

Many homebrewers drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol and brew too strong. Check out the most popular recipes on HBT for evidence - they are nearly all >6%.

Fizzy yellow lager is good.

All clone recipes are rubbish.

[homoeccentricus]

I don’t like 95 percent of the homebrews I taste. And I can’t lie. So I either say it as it is or I stammer something meaningless.

[pete_baker (pete b)]

It turns out most “unpopular” brewing opinions are actually quite popular.
I’ll try again:
Becoming a beer judge is a bad idea. If you love beer why on earth would you train yourself to pick up flaws that you couldn’t taste before?. Simple recognition of off flavors and their causes is more than enough to improve your homebrewing. I miss the days of liking beers because they taste good and am sick of the heady descriptions of their “flavor profile” . Beer shouldn’t be pretentious but it is.
Entering competitions is a waste of time and money. Everyone complains that the feedback is inconsistent and incomplete at best and flat out no good at worse so the “I enter for the feedback” argument doesn’t fly.
The rest of competitions seems to be slavishly adhering to style and gaming the system. Then it’s just luck to see if those godawful pretentious beer judges like your beer better than others today. I am not paying to send them my hard earned home brew thank you very much!