Controversial Beer Opinions Thread

While that’s fucking annoying, styles that fall in the sour/wild range are way further up the pecking order in terms of styles that are misunderstood and thus rated down

 

I think there's more variation between two people saying the same letter than there is between someone saying each of them.

Your pronunciation of 'ss' and 'ß' will be more similar to each other than my friend Christians pronunciation of 'ss' and your pronunciation of the same.

And you say that masse and maße are pronounced differently. Ok, but that's not necessarily because of the form of s.

In English lead, and lead are very different and pronounced with different vowel sounds.
Bow and bow are also different, sound different but no different spelling.

It's called a homograph and doesn't necessarily indicate differences between the individual letters.

 

I'm fortunate to have had someone down that way send me some of their stuff. I haven't had the Schwartzbier yet, though- how do you find it in relation to something like Shiner's Black Lager?

 

They only have the Lager, Kölsch, and Alt packaged.
The rest was just available at the brewery. Excellent hefeweizen.

But comparatively the Schwarzbier was closer to Shiner Bock than it was Shiner Black Lager.
I was really disappointed because Schwarzbier is one of my favorite beer styles and all their other beers have been good.

 

Want an easy way to deal with this frustration?

Pay attention to within style pecking order and ignore between style pecking order.

The former involves a more level playing field. The latter is almost meaningless when it comes to quality since a number of important factors are not taken into account and so in some ways it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Both are fruit, both are sort of juicy, but there’s not much else they have in common, so a ranking becomes a popularity contest rather than a measure of quality.

 

Yeah I understand all that and do that. I guess my point is that we don't need to feel too bad for sours/wilds

 

I don't think this is true. It's a style, like Schwarzbier, where if you find a really good one, you don't really need to look for another good one. You stick. You drink. You don't discuss it much because it's not really a beer to talk about.

Anyway, that's my POV

 

Funny that you say this. Outside of these hallowed walls, I really don't find myself talking much about beer in and of itself. The most I'll say is usually, "That's a damn fine pint, that is." Other than that I can't be bothered with inane warblings about olfactory and gustatory nuance.

 

Here's a good one:

St. Archer is one of the most underrated big craft breweries out there, and regularly a very good value. They consistently put out very solid hoppy stuff, and I would even say their Hazy IPA is the best mass-distributed cheap hazy around, though that is not saying a whole lot. Not particularly true to style, but it has a much more prominent pungency and dankness than the bland garbage that passes for "New England" style IPAs these days.

I just had a can of Citra 7 and it was a damn good WC IPA, and affordable to boot. Their Mosaic double brings memories of Enjoy By back when it was an actually top-notch beer.

 

Couldn't disagree more, bud lite lime is NOT a real beer and certainly not craft!

 

• Tell me that the next time you reach for milkshake IPA or a fruited generic "sour beer' or an imperial oreo cookie stout.
• Bud Lite Lime is a beer and it is crafted as intended
• But if the term craft helps divide you in a human way, by all means continue to sulk in its meaning

 

Agreed... Bud Lite Lime is for all intents and purposes real beer.

Mango-a-rita etc.... okay, now the line is fuzzy. At least for me. Or maybe its just fizzy.

 

Bud Light Lime is certainly a real beer though not a very highly ranked one. To call it otherwise would be descriptively inaccurate.

 

BLL being a "real beer" is something we will have to agree to disagree! One thing I am certain of is that it is not "craft".

That is like saying an entree prepared using fresh quality ingredients by a talented chef is the same as a frozen tv dinner. One is "craft" and other is cheaply mass produced.

 

Suggested Saturday night pairing: Banquet TV Dinner + Coors Banquet

 

I have been drinking beer for over 55 years, most of which would be considered "craft" these days. It is glaring obvious that the word "craft" is meaningless when applied to beer. Even the smallest brewery is largely automated, the ingredients are largely bulk supplied.
The beers that I have enjoyed least have been from so called craft brewers , the bigger brewers have the resources to get it right every time. Because some brewers aim their products at the public at large means that it has to be acceptable to most people rather than to the self appointed connoisseurs.

 

If something is brewed using malted grain, hops, water, etc. it's a beer. Just because you don't like the final product doesn't mean it isn't a beer. Unless Bud Light Lime is bypassing one of those things completely, it's a beer. I don't see a difference between BLL and many of the adjunct stouts and kettle sours flying off the shelves beyond who's making it. Maybe I'm wrong and they ARE bypassing a step, but that would be news to me.

The Ritas don't even use the word "beer" on the label (at least not anymore), so there's clearly something different about those.

 

Yep, I agree. It is beer. The Rita stuff is what it is and what it is meant to be. Have no problem with its existence. It's not beer. It doesn't pretend to be

 

One thing which happens over here is when a brewery splits a batch and sells some of it kegged, the rest on cask. For some reason only the kegged portion is marketed as craft. Go figure, I can't.
Signs on the wall "Craft and cask Ales"...... the same beer.