The nitro works well in Ode to Mercy—just enough to enhance the mouthfeel without tempering the toasted malt flavor or the bitterness and roastiness of the coffee.
An Imperial take on Funky Buddha’s Last Snow, a Porter that’s brewed with coconut and coffee, Last Buffalo has a warming alcohol hitting 11.5 percent alcohol by volume and a lush, full-bodied mouthfeel you’d find in a souped-up adult coffee drink.
In countless posts across the internet we see “overrated” used (and misused) as a default reference to beers and brewers, usually with no substance to back it up.
There are no more excuses for ignorance. We’re not talking about becoming an expert, but rather getting informed with the basics and understanding beer and the core brewing process.
If you don’t like a beer, don’t drink it. Life is too short and good beer is too plentiful. But do you really need to brag about your drainpour like a cretin?
As it applies to reviewing beer, far too many people lack the attention span to read or write anything longer than a tweet. They react to clickbait headlines without reading, would rather tick beers and move on, and take as fact any information that’s delivered to them immediately in blurb or list format.
It’s our collective responsibility to create a better beer culture by challenging ourselves, having those hard discussions about our community, naming names and remaining open to constructive criticism.
Brewers need to pay more attention to reviews and the long-term quality of their beers as they flow through the marketplace—the two are unarguably connected.
While the internet has given beer lovers access to information and communication avenues that we could never have imagined decades ago, the value of many social media options to breweries is harder to gauge.
To be of value, constructive criticism must be offered in an identifiable manner, whether in person or online, not through protected and anonymous channels. It must be offered thoughtfully and sympathetically, in the spirit of a joint effort toward an improved experience.
Why are so many people indirectly celebrating mediocrity by letting it pass as good beer simply because it’s craft, local, from someone they know, or a combination of all of the above?
The first competition, back in 1987, had 12 categories; this year, there are 83, and if you count subcategories, which don’t get awards but help further define style parameters, 135.
First, and foremost, our users are consumers. Subjectivity inevitably comes into play, and with it, human error. We are not a body of professionally trained judges conducting reviews in strictly controlled environments.
The point of the craft beer revolution was to reestablish the reputation of beer as a quality drink, not to show how clever we can all be. The beers that will achieve that aim will be achieved by beers that are well made, not simply different.
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