Controversial Beer Opinions Thread

Bad beer is beer with flaws or gone off/stale. It is not the same as beer you don't like.
A poster a few pages back said Westvleteren 12 is not the best beer in the world. Of course not,such a thing simply doesn't exist.Beer is to be drunk and enjoyed, not placed on a pedestal.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1805/134344/
If you want a super hazy gruit made by a New England brewery.....Comes in cans too!

 

@AlcahueteJ I was going to suggest BoF list too. Though I checked it just now - been a long time since I looked at it - when did the parameters change from beers with over x number of reviews to beers added 15 or more years ago? Pretty meaningless now. Half of the top 20 are Cantillon, so hardly accessible. And whatever the review minimum is, it’s low. Beers with only 50-100 reviews on there. The old BoF list was much more meaningful/accessible (by the standards of people on the internet scoring beers)

 

Yup, those are exactly some of the folks we want to cut a bit of slack for.

But first, let me make a correction. The name is Newcastle-upon-Tyne not Newcastle-on-Tyne as I originally wrote. (Shows what happens sometimes with memory. I seldom, if ever, use the word "upon" rather than "on" in talking about being on the banks of a river. )

Why should we cut them some slack? Well your two links are a perfect illustration. In the first link, despite any "corrections" google may or may not have made, the distributor you link to writes it "New Castle Brown Ale" twice in either all caps or in a bolded heading. The written usage "Newcastle" only appears in the fine print (so to speak). (Also IIRC the most recent brewing location listed, Tadcaster is in England rather than Scotland, which the distributor lists being as the country of origin for the beer.) In your second link, probably not intentionally, you've pointed to someone totally new to the site who appears to have just discovered flavorful beer and asks one question about one beer he's just discovered before disappearing for over 5 years. (Perhaps he remembered the all caps letters and spacing used by the Hoboken folks? )

Also it's the case that "New xxx" is more common in the US than "Newxxx." IIRC you live in New Jersey, sometimes have lived in New York and could easily consider driving to New Castle, DE. (Although I suspect you'd not be making a trip to New Hampshire unless for a vacation. ) Also, IIRC there are more towns, etc. in the US that are named "New Castle" than are named "Newcastle."

So the odds are stacked against someone new, or who lacks detailed knowledge, knowing enough about beer to always write it "Newcastle" rather than "New Castle."

There are all kinds of oddities in English Usage which can be quite confusing to those who lack certain knowledge.

E.g., When people go out to dinner and decide to have a steak, most folks haven't the foggiest notion of why it's called a beef steak. But ultimately the answer lies in the fact that a guy named William (and his troops) defeated a guy named Harold (and his troops) in a very important battle.

E.g., Most people have absolutely no clue why the word "ghost" is spelled with an "h" when the h is silent and the word is pronounced "gost." (Clue: it has, in large part, to do with the fact the Printing Press was invented in Germany and the fact that England was often at war with France.)

So yes I think those of us who may have learned some of the interesting bits of history and trivia about why such things as "Barley Wine" became "Barleywine" in fairly common usage, or why the proper written version is "Newcastle" rather than "New Castle," should, indeed, cut a bit of slack for those who don't know the history of such things. If I've only heard the name or read what your New Jersey beer distributor wrote in all caps as the name of the beer, why should I know any better?

@zid

 

Confirmed! I went to uni there. You can also call it The Toon

And written or verbally, you’ve no idea how many New [massive pause] Castles I’ve endured since living here

And don’t get me started with Edinburgh or Glasgow (where I’m actually from)

 

I know a few Cicerones that don't really know that much. They were forced by their company to garner the "accolade", but really don't have the breadth of knowledge and experience of a great many non-cicerones that I know very well.

 

Probably been a bit unhappy with "Edinberg" rather than "Edinburgh" as well.

 

I took the weekend off to let you catch up.

Though you're obviously trying to be funny, saying something is "in cask" makes me want to stick a red hot poker in my dickhole, so that it'd be "in dickhole" not "on dickhole".

Indeed.

No harm in trying to find a Unified Beer Theory, is there?

But . . . but . . . but . . . LISTS!!!!!

You definitely have less time for more productive things, I'll give you that.

 

Eedeenberg

 

OK. Clear something up for me please. When I was in England in 1970, we were drinking a few Newcastle Strong Brown Ales. To my memory these brews were nothing like the iced tea colored modern Newcastle. They weren't my favorites though. I was always drinking the most local "bitter" and loving them!

 

I wish I could solve this for you!

I went to uni there in 2001. Newcastle Brown was invariably in bottles and regarded (aside from a few stalwart locals) as pish. Like you, I (and anyone else who liked good beer) stuck to the cask ales. Never came across a Newcastle Strong Brown

 

Me too. I am terrible when it comes to ankle biters in public. I don't think kids belong in a bar anyway and if it's a brewpub with food then fine, but realize the environment should not be for the kids. I also am not fond of dogs or specifically their dander so again, cute dog go sit over there.

 

All in favor for locking this thread at 1000 replies

 

By me or just in general?

 

Truthfully I like M-43 and Boss Tweed but Old Nation can't make anything else good. But my understanding a true NE IPA won't be like orange juice whereas M-43 is. But I say fuck M-43 because well it's the controversial thread.

 

I totally think there should be adult-only drinking places. But while they vary, in general breweries seem to often cater to families and I don’t think (as long as the kids are well behaved), parents should feel they can’t bring their kids. As @zid and some others have pointed out, the US could probably benefit from a more European approach on the kids/alcohol/pub/brewery front - in terms of cultivating an overall healthier cultural relationship with alcohol. And frankly I would have thought that you, as someone who seems proud of their European roots and regularly espouses the benefits of European attitudes towards alcohol, would have been more on that side of things

 

Absolutely not - let it run. I'm using it to compile a list of friends and enemies.