"Perfectly balanced"

I like beer to have something of everything present.I've had a pretty good spread of beers in my time from those which tasted so malty I could have been chewing on a spoonful of malt extract to beers with so much hop presence that they appeared one dimensional.I don't particularly like chewing hop cones.In beer terms, balance isn't a precise point but a range over which all the components play a part and if done well act in harmony.A hop forward or malty beer can still be balanced , it's just a matter of emphasis.

 

Understanding and reciting beer chemistry to attempt to describe balance is to me a rude stripping away at the beautiful mysteries of the magic of fermentables. I am all for science, and am a huge advocate for knowing "elementally" as much as we can possibly know. But, there are just some beers that speak to me and make me ponder why I love "it" so much. To me, this is balance. I do not need to understand, know, or be able to recite the specs. And, in 1970, there was a group of British guys (Moody Blues) who released an album, "A Question of Balance", which was intended to make less of a "studio" sound (all kinds of dubbing, etc.) so that live performances could include more of their songs. A simpler pure expression of their style.

 

You're a masterful wordsmith.

 

burica2020 mentioned New Glarus earlier. Agree 100%. Moon Man is my favorite example...

 

Its also a question of if balance is purely a chemical analysis, or a subjective one. If subjective then its frankly pointless argument to have. It's like saying I love this beer, so its "Balanced" to me and therefore everyone else must be wrong. NOT.

to me an IPA can meet a so called style description and be hoppy as hell or not. So for me balance is about bitter/malt ratio and to a scientific analysis its chemical. You know this anything subjective like taste is a total joke to argue about. but its sure is fun......

 

Sam, are you familiar with the SBU method to measure bitterness? In the book For the Love of Hops there is a statement of: There was a strong correlation between sensory bitterness and SBU.” This is from Thomas Schelhammer. “Techniques for Measuring Bitterness in Beer,” presentation at the Craft Brewers Conference, San Diego, 2012.

Do you have any links or references to white papers or articles on the SBU method? I would like to learn/read more about the SBU method.

Cheers!

Jack

 

That makes absoluetly no sense. Perhaps what IBUs really stand for is the type and quantity of hops used in the brew, not how bitter the beer is. Notice I said BEER bitterness and not hop bitterness. All us beer drinkers care about is knowing how bitter the beer will be. IBU doesn't coorelate apples to apples at all. The Heady Topper I drank last night was much less bitter than the Victory Headwaters Pale Ale I had the night beer and Headys IBUs are much greater.

 

I tend to usually consider balance in the style in which the beer resides. So a specific DIPA may not necessarily be a balanced beer overall, but it might be well-balanced for a DIPA. As mentioned, it's all subjective, but I've always felt that Aventinus was an amazingly well balanced beer. Racer 5, Old Rasputin, and Karmeliet are up there are well.

 

With the context of beer style in mind I concur that Aventinus, Old Rasputin, and Karmeliet are well balanced beers (and very tasty as well). I have no specific comment relative to Racer 5 since it has been quite some time since I drank a Racer 5.

Cheers!

 

And I'd take structure over balance every time.

 

Why don't you just not worry about those bitter and resinous IPA's if you don't like them. Lots of people really do actually like them and it certainly isn't effecting their dick size. Other beer's that are "balanced" as you say are still out there, so just worry about those and stay away from good IPA if you can't handle it.

 

I'm afraid this concept is much worse than 'oafish,' more like 'completely flawed at its very core.' Using IBU ranges from the BJCP guidelines to quantify balance is like using phrenology parameters from a 200-year-old textbook to quantify intelligence.

 

2 month old oskar blues g knight. perfect blend of sweet caramel malt and hop bitterness

 

Lets just say that Sweet Repute is NOT a good example of a balanced beer.

 

is lagunita's hairy eyeball a balanced beer?
sort of an American old ale with a ton of hops.

 

the problem with the style arguement in my mind is your arguing balance is a part of style and its not.
If a beer style is defined by how hoppy it is, in your mind it may fit the style and therefore be balanced for it, but chemically it is not. The problem is defining balance in beer first.

Also, the statement "if its balanced to me" is a circular argument that is impossible to discuss. we need to define terms. If we do not why discuss anything?

 

(bold added)
So, are you saying if I believe in IBU = bitterness I should have my head examined?

 

Balance is, imo, the ratio of bitterness (hop flavors) compared to sweetness (malt flavors). A super hoppy IPA with a fantastic nose is instantly ruined if the only malt used is generic 2-row pale. Example, Lag Sucks. Great hop aroma/flavor but a piss poor beer thanks to the complete lack of balance from the malt. In contrast we have Red Chair, fantastic hop aroma/flavor but also a nice malt body that has a character of it's own. In short, when reviewing a beer you should be able to praise both the hop and the malt character of the beer. If you are only talking about one or the other then the beer is unbalanced.

 

You ever wonder if all the posters here showed up for a great big party, how many of these name calling conversations would never happen? Not to mention I bet 10% are under 21...

 

But I think subjective stuff like this is always kind of impossible to discuss. We kind of give our opinions and some agree or don't, but there's not much to go on from there. And I think when you don't consider a beer's balance in its respective style, you run into the issue people have been talking about which is, how do you determine balance in a beer whose style is inherently unbalanced? If you don't discuss in this way I mentioned, I think malt and hop bombs immediately are struck from the list, which takes the fun out of it a little.

Just my two cents.