Should brewers read BeerAdvocate reviews?

Exactly. And as some have implied some reviews will be constructive and some will not. I have some brewer friends who take the reviews very close to their hearts. The criticism that you don't hear about is the worst though. One of my brewer friends had a customer threatening him over private twitter messages because he REALLY didn't like his beer. Some people are a little unstable I guess. That's a whole different thing though.

Back to the point, the reviews should certainly help the brewer if they are in the process of tweaking a new recipe or doing what TG is with it's Xhops, for instance. It's always good to get more opinions and to see what people are saying behind your back. Then you know it's honest feedback - or close to.

 

Could you explain for us the difference between "Artist" and "Craftsman" and then provide a reason why the beers we talk about are called "Craft beer" and not "Art beer?" That would be helpful.

 

I read the reviews on here and just like reviews for electronic devices, refrigerators, etc. you have to be smart enough to figure out who is making a review based on some knowledge base as opposed to those reviews from people who are clueless. I'm not a fan of sours (yet) but if I gave a sour some crappy score and commented on how bad it sucked my "review" has no value to anyone.

To answer the question: Yes. They should read them. I would.

I did get a personal "Helllloooo" from Greg Koch when I commented that Stone is getting gimmicky.

 

I have a brewer friend who told me he doesn't believe in the general masses reviewing others' beers. I don't know if he still feels this way because I haven't seen him in years but at the time he didn't like the idea of random people critiquing someone else's hard work. A sort of "what gives them the right?" kind of thing. Of course, homebrew competitions are a different story because the judges are trained professionals (or at least should be). He told me this before I started reviewing beers and now I have over 800 reviews under my belt so I obviously don't agree with him. However, just to be clear, I review beers for my own personal references, I could care less whether they're posted on the internet. BA just provides me with an easy template and a database to save my reviews. So, to answer the OP, I think brewers should read some reviews of their beers but not take them too seriously.

 

Maybe this will suite your fancy. Art - The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.
Craft - An activity involving skill in making things by hand. At the end of the day, "Craft Beer" has a better ring to it than Art Beer. So you're taking it as that brewers don't express some application of skill or imagination?

 

Not at all. Quite the contrary as a matter of fact. But then so do craftsmen. Which is why historially it has been hard to draw a firm line between art and craft regardless of which area of activity in which somene is a craftsman. But apparently you are of the opinion that Craftsmen don't express any creative skill or imagination.

 

Sadly mistaken. I'm saying they both are molded together. An artist has a passion, a craftsman has a passion. The argument started with an elitist view of an artist doesn't care what others think of their own work. That is all.

 

This is going nowhere fast. Some brewers do, some don't. Some brewers care, some don't. The End! NEXT!

 

Elitist? I will put it this way, many Homebrewers make beer for themselves and don't care what people think. Some of those are darned good artists, with no constraints.

Pros? They care if the beer is selling, number 1. Everything else is secondary if they can keep the doors open. If they want an opinion they seek out other pros, or someone they respect with a known good palate. If they want more there are then the GABF and WBC. The ones I know often get frustrated that the English style pale ale is called watery online, or that their lager is inferior online because it is a lager.

We will not agree on this. Next time is see my pro friends I will make sure to call them artists. The reaction will be fun to see.