Excellent list, Charles. I totally agree that experience is way better than Google, and so on down the list, with one exception:
While I do think a lot of clone recipes are rubbish because they are poorly put together, researched, etc., I do find that there is great benefit in learning brewing skills if one attempts to clone a commercial beer and then brews several more times with tweaks until he/she gets it just right. I find that cloning a beer is indeed possible, with sufficient artistic knowledge and skill. Is it easier just to buy the stuff? Well yes of course, unless the beer isn’t being made or sold anymore, such as Pete’s Wicked Ale or whatever. Even if it’s not identical, at least you can get a recipe somewhere close if you crave it.
Wow, that’s pretty bad. So, either you have terrible brewer friends, or you’re super picky, or a super-taster. Of these, I find that I am super picky in some regards (e.g., Marzen) but not others, such that I can enjoy more things. It might also be helpful that I am apparently either a sub-average taster or a so-called “non-taster”. As such, I think a lot of my homebrewer friends make really fantastic beers, with IT and the whole she-bang. My “friends” say “give it to Mikey, he likes it, hey Mikey”, referring to me as the Mikey. On the other hand, I am hyper-critical of my own beers. I think I truly kind of suck at brewing. But it doesn’t keep me from trying! Except for 2-3 years a while back when I’d brewed a string of rotten beers, I did get fed up for a while. But anyway…
While I do think it is still advantageous to become a judge for numerous reasons I won’t mention here, I do also totally agree with your statements above, and I have been fairly vocal about this, much to the chagrin of many Master judges. And it’s a damned shame, because at the same time, I also truly believe that quality wasn’t always so bad. Only in the past 6-7 years has quality of our judges really tanked. Feedback from comps was way more beneficial in the early 2000s. The average judge today I think hasn’t much clue what they are really doing, and this goes mostly for the Recognized and Certified judges, with a few Nationals as well unfortunately. Many of the Nationals and Masters I think still know their stuff, but fewer of the Certifieds, and the Recognizeds? good luck. Why is this happening? There is bloat involved – too many judges and WAY too many “styles” for them to learn and try to interpret, many of which they’ve probably never tasted before. That I feel is the biggie – bloat of all kinds. Plus I wonder if the online exam for newbies is either too easy or if people are cheating while taking it, I don’t know which, probably some of both, and I’ve never taken the electronic exam. I’m one of the “legacy” guys from about 2006/2007 who basically had to take the Master level essay exam just to get in as Recognized. Ah, yes, those were the days… :) So, yeah, I don’t enter comps anymore either, or extremely rarely, as I find them so very much crapshooty. I find that I judge my own beers WAY better all by myself in most instances, with minimal bias up or down (actually it goes both directions for me).
Yup. Folks need to learn how to interpret feedback. I’m sure Palmer took more than 6 minutes to write How To Brew. You can’t expect judges to teach you how to brew in 6 minutes. Having said that, judges also need to understand that the purpose of a competition is to raise funds for the host club. Writing snarky hurtful feedback not only hurts the brewer but the fund raiser as well because they probably won’t be back, and bad word travels fast. You’re hurting the BJCP too. So don’t do it please.
Disclaimer - i know there are great judges out there, many on this site. BUT, I’ll pile on the comps. I’ve gone through phases for 2+ decades where I’ll enter comps for a while, get sick of it and stop for a couple years, rinse, repeat. So along the way I’ve gotten the message that it’s a crapshoot, with things like palate fatigue, level of experience/knowledge of the judge, and personal preference being variables that all come into play. But in the last year or two the feedback has gotten overall just plain awful. Admittedly, I don’t enter comps for feedback - I enter beers I feel strongly about to see if they’re good enough to medal. We’ve all entered different comps with the same beer and gotten wildly different scores and feedback, but the feedback and scoring seems more extreme and random lately, with average feedback being non existant to ill-informed . It’s hard to point to much other than average judge knowledge and experience. I think I’m entering a no comp phase for awhile, where I get to drink more of my beer and spend less $ on shipping. I’m my own biggest critic and can critique my beers pretty effectively anyway.
I love brewing/drinking both “West Coast” and “New England” type IPA’s.
I think the two biggest problems with homebrew that I taste are also the two simplest things to fix - Sanitation and Water issues (usually hardness and/or chlorine).
I find it odd, that home brewing seems to be one of the few (only) hobbies where “I don’t want to spend any money” and “I don’t want to take the time to do it” are popular opinions.
I guess I finally found something that is an unpopular brewing opinion that I hold. While I would agree if the point is alcohol, but those are rare I think. The issue is flavor. If you want to pack more flavor into a beer it requires more ingredients. To maintain balance malt will be increased… which can’t help but lead to higher alcohol. It is really all about what one wants in a beer. What I want is different than what you want.
I can and do appreciate a well made pilsner, etcetera, but right now the beer that I can’t wait for has just been announced at Bale Breaker Brewing here in Yakima. They just started brewing their seasonal Mt. St. Humulus Imperial IPA. Nectar of the gods I tell you. Nirvana in a glass.
I love jazz, but often what I hanker for is some serious kick-*** Classic Rock… which is sometimes referred to as Bourbon Barrel Yada Yada.
Cool topic.
I don’t know if my unpopular opinion aligns with the judging opinions already voiced, but I think BJCP and cicerone, etc. is a bunch of sh*t. Just because you took a test and have BJCP certified by your name doesn’t mean you know and can taste beer. And, drinking beer is about enjoyment, trying to nitpick and find flaws instead of drinking for enjoyment and socializing, is for the birds. Also, on the cicerone part, “knowing” how and what foods to pair beer with is also for the birds. Just drink, eat, and enjoy. Eff all that noise.
Another unpopular opinion? IPAs. American craft beer has become synonymous with IPA and HOPS HOPS HOPS. Seriously, there’s more to beer than hops, get over it America! Cripes! I like a nice pale ale or IPA here and there, but when I go out and the taps are 75% hopped up beers, I’m annoyed as hell. American craft beer drinker’s palates have been desensitized to the point where everything has to be MOAR MOAR MOAR.
Not to pile on in regards to IPAs, but I like bitter beer. Burton ales really hit the spot for me here. None of this 100 ibus but somehow still tastes like a sweet pine tree commercial stuff.
Those who question the value of BJCP or Cicerone certification should get certified then re-examine their opinions. That should be unpopular in this thread!
I attribute some of the “nit pick” blowback to some judging styles. One of the best bits of encouragement I got regarding judging is to start with a view point of looking for what is GOOD about the beer. We’re too focused on finding faults it seems. Finding fault is easy. I prefer, and I think many entrants would appreciate, here’s 3 nice things about the beer, and here’s a couple things that could be improved. That and “there were better beers in the flight” is kinder than “you suck as a brewer”.
My opinion is that the default batch size of 5 gallons is an impediment to bringing new people into the hobby and keeping them brewing. While there are small-batch entry-level kits and plenty of ways to start small and keep going that way, the 5-gallon batch is the implicit default batch size, and it drives how long a typical brew day is, the average cost of a homebrew session, and what kind of equipment is needed to manage the process, from extraction to carbonation. It also assumes that there are points in the process where the homebrewer can successfully lift very large quantities of liquid and/or wet grain or acquire the equipment to do so.
The hobby seems much more open to smaller batch brewing than when I started brewing in early 2009, but there’s still that 5-gallon mindset. It’s as if the bakers on that British baking show had to not just bake really great cake, but bake a cake the size of a small shed.
