Controversial Beer Opinions Thread

I don't understand this filtered/unfiltered fined/unfined business. Well brewed beer in my experience (I was a homebrewer for 30 years) drops bright fairly quickly without treatment. Much Burton beer wasn't fined because it was unnecessary. Beer which used finings was advertised as "Fine Ales", I always thought it was self praise

 

I think I see the point you are trying to make now. And I agree on some level, but not entirely. To use your example of someone going to an onsite-only release of any beer and proclaims it to be world class, the validity of the proclamation could be questioned. If this person had sampled many types of beer produced by many highly regarded breweries, the proclamation would carry some weight. Even if it was the first DDH lacto sour IPA with strawberries that this person had tried. If this person had never tried a beer produced from outside their region, then obviously the proclamation wouldn't carry much weight.

I hadn't needed to have sampled many hefeweizens when I had Weihenstephaner's hefe to know that it was a world class beer.

 

Their beers are solid, but I'm not amused by Against the Grain's can art. I've actually refrained from purchasing some of their stuff because of it.

 

They are fucking idiotic.

 

It is simple. You're an Englishman with a very historic view on beer who is less vulnerable to marketing scams. You're also not living in the overly competitive and overactive beer scene, like the US, that completely relies on trends and fads in order to get consumers to pick up your beer.

 

I don't think everyone that mentions drinking Hamm's on this forum is drinking Hamm's.

 

It may be. But still a different animal than cask. I like both. I think you sort of jumped to the defensive a little unnecessarily

 

After reading all the Hamm's hype (and the generally pro-AAL shift) on here over the past year or so, I wish it was available here in NY (Long Island) so I could at least try it.

 

I live on LI too. I have had Hamms before. It is NOT a very good beer. People love the taste of nostalgia.

 

Where'd you find it? Not available on LI (or NYC) according to Beer Menus, only NJ.

 

Not in NY. In Connecticut. My cousin buys it so I sometimes partake when I see him.

 

Yeah I don't get it either. It's funny though I do use the price of a can of Hamms at a local watering hole to judge inflation. Used to be 1.50 a can, now it's up to $2 or $2.50.

 

Uh, he basically said cask ale was "the pinnacle of beer drinking", which logic indicates all other forms of beer to be inferior.

 

Man you must really hate lacto IPAs with Strawberries since you keep bringing it up.

I've argued before that there's no such thing as a sour IPA. You can have a brett IPA, but that's not necessarily sour. Hop-derived compounds with a lengthy boil which produce [IBUs] inhibit bacteria like lactobacillus and pediococcus from propgating. You can dry-hop a sour beer, but that doesn't make it an IPA. It's just a confused style and I've had a couple attempts that just haven't been great. Dry-hopped sours can be good, and low-bitterness sour beers can be good. And IPAs can be good obviously. Maybe you could brew an IPA and then spike it in secondary with copious amounts of acid... I'm not sure that's a good idea though.

 

I have on occasion had the (ostensibly) same beer on cask,bottle,can or keg.
My conclusion is that the cask version ,if well kept and served, is markedly better.

 

Totally agree for the type of beers you drink. Getting landlord bottles over here was an epic anticlimax

Though for a lot of US “craft” beer I’d say the reverse is true. Give me keg/bottle/can any day. Some of the cask attempts just don’t work

 

Perhaps it's because beer brewed to be served in a cask doesn't taste as good when it's older and colder and with more carbonation? Coincidentally my Melvin IPAs don't taste as good when they are "warm" and nearly flat.

 

I think the beer industry is only ~80% asshole free

And in a craft beer centric bar that number is more like ~60%

 

Where is this mecca you live in?

 

Fuckin' nerds.