Controversial Beer Opinions (Round Two)

You already know mine: not everything has to be barrel aged, hopped to hell, or made with all sorts of wacky adjuncts

And I know you didn't ask, but some of the more juvenile artwork and names aren't doing breweries any favors

 

The only beer from cantillion I’ve had was Rose de gambrius

but I remember the days here where they were and maybe still are the holy grail

 

IPAs are one of my least favorite styles. West coast, East coast, and everything in between. If I never drank another one for the rest of my life I'd be perfectly fine with that.

 

I love all of their beers pretty much, hope to be drinking the hell out of them again myself in about four months. Justin and Adam are really good people, too.

Good hearing from you again too. Not only are things easier now, but fruited sours and mixed fermentation wild ales and saisons were barely even brewed in this country back in the day. My two favorite breweries? One had just opened. One hadn't opened yet. I get nostalgic for the "old days", but it was more because all of it was new, that made it all seem special when there were so few of us.

 

We should have a dedicated BA thread for that. Maybe a thread entitled "Let's drink a beer for Dave day". Sorta like WBAYDN but better!!

Cheers!

 

Yeah, but that's for the fruited stuff, which people tend to hold in higher regard.

 

Heineken is a great beer

 

One of the most controversial issue with Beer these days is the lines between clear, hazy, cloudy, murky and turbid. I have my own system to evaluate clarity, or the lack there of. I hold a Beer it front of my laptops screen and see if I can read through it.

Clear.
Self explanatory.

Slight Haze.
I can read through it.

Hazy.
Small text is lost.

Very Hazy.
Medium text is lost.

Cloudy.
Large text looks like a blurred line

Very Cloudy.
Forget about reading though it.

A this point bright light/sunlight are used.

Murky.
Semi-Opaque, I can see my fingers.

Turbid.
All light is sucked into the Beer like a black hole, nothing escapes.

 

Here are some of the beer opinions I have that are likely controversial...

1. English-style ales should be some of the most readily available craft options. Seriously, if a craft brewer widely-distributed 12-packs of a well-done ordinary bitter it would always be in my refrigerator.

2. With a given of number one above, craft lagers should be more readily available than craft ales.

3. Heineken, at least from a can (which is my only mode of purchase), is a good beer and a good bargain. With it being priced in the "premium" range, EG Budweiser, it's a no-brainer.

3. There is a time and place for adjunct American lagers, especially on a super hot day after doing yard work. Some days you just can't drink anything else.

4. Speaking of American lagers, Miller High Life is the best. Honorable mention to Hamm's and PBR.

5. I'm not going to buy a beer based off of the bottle/can design. Frankly, I'm sick of having to look at the small print of a bottle or can to figure out what the heck I am buying and from what brewery. A cool or pretty design is my last concern. Tell me who you are and what you are selling me, in a way in which I can scan the beer shelves from 4 feet away. My respect for you as a brewery and desire to purchase a certain beer style well lead me to purchase or decline to purchase your product.

 

Don't forget about all the dumbass IP infringement beers. Come up with your own brand.

 

Pretty much same brain about beer. Cheers to you. I’m lucky in that I have Yards Brawler, Conshohockens ESB and in summer Brooklyn summer for English options. Everything else totally agree I just prefer becks to Heineken and they are very similar

 

Craft beer was way better 5-7 years ago. More doesn’t always equal better, the flood of mediocrity (at best) over diluted the industry. Not even mentioning the atrocity of the ever increasing whalz-bro-ness of the scene.

 

Like the classic quote from The Endless Summer regarding surfing, “you should have been here yesterday.”

 

I concur, I still believe there are world beaters out there. No matter how sophisticated your palate has become it can still be stirred and awakened by something in the woods that’s a notch above.

 

Maybe it depends on where you are. Here in NYC, local craft beer 5-7 years ago was more or less nonexistent, and as much as I enjoy Bells/Cigar City/Victory/etc., I wouldn't ever choose a world where those are my only craft options over the current landscape where there's now over a dozen very good breweries here in the city doing all kinds of styles. And if I want a classic, it's not like those national brands have gone away.

Sure, if you just throw darts at the cooler in a bottle shop you may have a lower chance of taking home a good beer now that everybody and their grandma has a brewery, but it's not that hard to know which breweries do which styles well and are worth the $.

 

I have a differing perspective here. There are even more high quality brands to choose from vs. 5-7 years ago but it can be challenging to 'find' them since there is so many other brands out there.

Bell's Two Hearted is as good as ever.

Cheers!

 

OK, here's some:

• Macrobrews deserve every bit of the hate they get, and then some. What's more, they bring it upon themselves by producing insipid swill and using half-witted advertisements to shill their products. Yes, macros have a place, and that place is in the kettle for boiling bratwurst.

• Rogue doesn't deserve all the crap they get. I've never had a beer from them that I didn't like, and I am grateful to them for my Braggot and Roggenbier style ticks.

• I am sick of seeing big seltzer displays in the liquor stores I frequent. I wish this shit would die a quick and painful death.

 

In my experience - if kept cold, IPAs can be perfectly drinkable after a year.

I said it.

 

Preach!

 

Agreed with a very different style in that of saison. I’ll bug them without checking dates as long as they aren’t dusty