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LeeMajors posted:Yeah, she sounds like someone that got supremely addicted to IPAs, and then tried to introduce an exclusive pisswater drinker to it and failed miserably--then thought it would be a great idea for an article. In the Pacific Northwest, it sometimes seems like all you can find are IPA's. Maybe the reason I liked the article is because I really don't like the style personally. 
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| # ? May 18, 2013 17:44 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 17:29 |
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RagingBoner posted:In the Pacific Northwest, it sometimes seems like all you can find are IPA's. Maybe the reason I liked the article is because I really don't like the style personally. That's fine, but most western breweries seem to be at least kind of balanced from my perspective. Maybe I just don't notice bc I love IPA. What styles do you like? Belgian etc.? Lagers? English ales?
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| # ? May 18, 2013 17:46 |
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I like that the photo is of that notorious abuser of hops, Cantillion  Thought it was kind of a lame and pointless article, no offense to RagingBoner. If your buddy doesn't like hops, buy him a milk stout or a bock or a Belgian dubbel or something. And just because the guy is a homebrewer doesn't mean he has good taste in beer--hell I just publicly admitted to not hating Pumpkinhead. Maybe his homebrews are all PBR clones. Craft beer is growing at a break-neck pace and actually making a small but measurable dent in Bud/Miller/Coors consumption. The numbers don't seem to bear out her conclusion that craft brewers are doing it wrong.To be fair I'm sure some of it is regional, and the west coast is known for hops ("Hop Coast"  ). Every brewery here in CO of course has an IPA, but it's rarely the flagship. Odell sells much more 90 Shilling than IPA, New Belgium of course leads with Fat Tire, Great Divide is probably best known for Yeti, etc. I certainly don't feel like I'm bombarded by hops at every turn.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 18:34 |
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LeeMajors posted:That's fine, but most western breweries seem to be at least kind of balanced from my perspective. Maybe I just don't notice bc I love IPA. I like a little bit of everything, but my favorites are lambics and ciders. I like sours too, especially Oud Bruin styles. Basically I like expensive, weird poo poo. Edit: My favorite beer ever is New Belgium's Le Terroir, which is a dry-hopped sour. There is almost no bitterness to it though, which makes it a very unique beer. RagingBoner fucked around with this message at May 18, 2013 around 18:56 |
| # ? May 18, 2013 18:50 |
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According to a blog article I found on Beervana, as of 2011 the top selling craft beers were: Sierra Nevada Pale Sam Adams Boston Lager New Belgium Fat Tire Shiner Bock Widmer Hefeweizen Sierra Nevada Torpedo Sam Adams Light Redhook IPA Kona Longboard Lager Deschutes Mirror Pond 6 out of 10 have (for the sake of argument) no hop presence, and out of the 4 pale ales on the list I'd only consider Torpedo to be "hoppy". And even then Torpedo is well balanced and more focused on have a good malt backbone, in my opinion. I know this isn't exactly what the blog article was talking about, but if I were to use my local brewery and brewpubs as an example, there's only 3 Pale Ales between all 4 of them ... out of a combined 20+ beers.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 18:50 |
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RagingBoner posted:Good recent article on Slate about hop-saturation of the craft brew scene. The dumbest thing about the article is that the beer that brought on this ill-informed rant, the Hopworks Velvet ESB, is actually on the lower end of the hoppiness scale for an ESB (30 IBU) according to the BJCP. I've had it and there is the nice floral hop presence that you would expect for the style with plenty of malty sweetness to balance it. "My friend drank a style of beer he doesn't like, so beers are too hoppy." That basically sums up the article.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 19:34 |
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RagingBoner posted:Good recent article on Slate about hop-saturation of the craft brew scene. This article is such trashy click-bait that its making me actually angry. "You should feel bad for liking what you like so much, because not everyone likes it" isn't a particularly inspired argument about anything, really.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 16:26 |
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Wish I would have brewed a sour in preparation of the Summer months. I'll have to do better next year. Edit: I'm glad I stirred up a hornet's nest with that article! I guess in retrospect it wasn't a good article, and my dislike of hop-bombs clouded my judgement. To reiterate the second point from my post, I think if fruit ales and ciders were more accessible, people would embrace the craft brew scene even more (because of their sweetness). RagingBoner fucked around with this message at May 19, 2013 around 16:43 |
| # ? May 19, 2013 16:33 |
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Angry Grimace posted:This article is such trashy click-bait that its making me actually angry. "You should feel bad for liking what you like so much, because not everyone likes it" isn't a particularly inspired argument about anything, really. Everything has to be all EXTREME!!1!!111!!! to be any good these days. If it's not 100+IBU or 10+%ABV, it's just swill, in some people's estimation. gently caress that, drink what you like. I think we as homebrewers have a pretty good place to stand to help people believe that there is no shame in drinking whatever it is they enjoy. Yes, I include megabrau lagers in there - although it's not my preference, if that's what makes people happy, they should do that - and maybe try something new once in a while just for the heck of it. There is no One True Beer.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 16:51 |
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Jo3sh posted:Everything has to be all EXTREME!!1!!111!!! to be any good these days. If it's not 100+IBU or 10+%ABV, it's just swill, in some people's estimation. gently caress that, drink what you like. I think we as homebrewers have a pretty good place to stand to help people believe that there is no shame in drinking whatever it is they enjoy. Yes, I include megabrau lagers in there - although it's not my preference, if that's what makes people happy, they should do that - and maybe try something new once in a while just for the heck of it. I never really understood the hate towards people for living some types of beers, was in CAMRA clique for a while (still a CAMRA member but don't really go to meetings or anything anymore) and they got mad at people who would have a lager once in a while etc. They have a place and are doing good but also doing some bad. There job is to keep real ale alive (cask) but they have this kind of smug better then you idea about if you drink anything keg. I drink cask a lot of the time just because its what most pubs in my area serve, however I enjoy a keg lager or ale quite abit too. Also going to make a keezer at home soon!  Long story short: Enjoy what you like and don't get all smug towards people who don't like what you like. I find its like my ideas on music, if you enjoy it more power to you but don't stomp on people who don't.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 17:00 |
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Jo3sh posted:Everything has to be all EXTREME!!1!!111!!! to be any good these days. If it's not 100+IBU or 10+%ABV, it's just swill, in some people's estimation. gently caress that, drink what you like. I think we as homebrewers have a pretty good place to stand to help people believe that there is no shame in drinking whatever it is they enjoy. Yes, I include megabrau lagers in there - although it's not my preference, if that's what makes people happy, they should do that - and maybe try something new once in a while just for the heck of it. That really is the meat of the issue. Lots of people won't bother to try new things, be it a beer they've never heard of, or sushi, or travelling, or tons of other things. That's just the way it is, change can be kinda threatening for even the most open minded of us. So instead of ridiculing or cajoling people into branching out, it might be more expedient to just talk about your own experience in branching out. "My name is RagingBoner. My first beer ever was a Natural Ice. I thought Budweiser was fancy beer. Then I somehow got hold of a Fat Tire, and my mind was opened." It's all about finding a style you like by venturing outside of your comfort zone. Maybe the article is trying to say the extremely hoppy beers coming out have the possibility of turning away potential craft-brew converts? A silly point, really, because what Natty Ice drinker is going to stand in line for 8 hours to get a pint of Pliny the Elder? Again, I don't care for most IPA's, but I think the best question raised in the article is how to get more people attracted to craft beers. It's not ExXxTREME styles that turn people away, but more likely it is beer snobs who use terms like "watered down horse piss." How many times have you been turned off by wine snobs and sommeliers who scoff at your food pairings or your enjoyment of "kool-aid" wine? The article raises a good question, but inadvertently gives a bad answer and a good example of how not to act.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 17:16 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 17:29 |
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I moved from my tiny NYC apartment into a house on Long Island and started up the  again! I started shopping at Austin Homebrew lately, buying two cheap better bottle and two ingredient kits. I grabbed their 'Budget Pale Ale' kit which I didn't realize was a partial mash kit, which I wasn't equipped to brew with. I found a LHBS around here and bought a strainer and muslin bag large enough for 4.5lb of grains. I used to brew AG until I moved a couple years ago and ditched all my equipment so I wasn't too terrified of getting the temps right but I was still nervous enough to not drink while brewing yesterday, which proved to be a smart decision. The directions for the kit called for 2gal of water at 160, then mash in and hold it at 155F for 45min. While bringing the water up to temp I grabbed my digital thermometer which decided to stop working (it looked like the watch battery inside blew a seal). All I had was the brewmometer on my kettle (but I need at least 3.5-4gal for water to reach the probe), a small dial thermometer, and a digital IR thermometer. So I got the water to 160, dropped the bag of grains in and since my kettle is pretty wide the water didn't cover the grains all the way. I added another 2gal of water to cover the grains and to reach the temp probe. I had to turn the burner on for a few minutes to help keeps the temp up since it began dropping. As I approached the 45min mark I realized I didn't have any way to heat up the 2gal of sparge water so I heated the kettle to 170 and put the grains in the strainer over the kettle and poured cold water over it to rinse them and squeezed the poo poo out of them. The rest of the boil went fine, I figured my efficiency was going to be absolute poo poo so I added 3.5oz of DME at the beginning to help add a few points back. My immersion chiller that I bought from morebeer seriously sucks compared to the one I made myself years ago; this loving thing blew a secured hose off the second time I used it which caused hose water to spray over everything I had out (laptop, speakers, and an unknown quantity into my brew kettle) before I was able to turn the spigot off. The drat thing has some weird yellow tape inside, kinda like the plastic strap that you find on boxes, and it slows down the flow rate to the point that the pressure on the hose going into the chiller feels like it's going to burst. In the end, with the help of 1qt of top off water, I was dead on for volume and OG! Austin sent some mauribrew dry yeast, which I've never heard of, but showed signs of fermentation after 7 hours without a starter. I tasted the NB Deadringer kit last night for the first time since brewing it last weekend and it's phenomenal! I'm going to transfer it to secondary this afternoon and throw dryhop it for a couple days (I'm thinking no more than 4 days even though the instructions say 7 days), and probably get a starter going too for a Belgian quad I'm brewing next weekend.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 17:16 |
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