KC-Dave wrote:Just finished listening to the show again. My comments were off base.
Dr Scott, I take it back. You were much more tolerant now that I'm sober. I was on the chat and I remember people trashing Brian.
That same night I also seem to remember my girlfriend telling me that I should not sleep on the kitchen floor and that I should get my drunken ass to bed.
Thanks KC, you dodged a bullet on that one.
Let me rant a tad on my views about brewing to style or style guidelines for that matter.
Rant meter now turned to "Eleven"
Classic styles have emerged because those beer types work. Albeit through a monetary route, but shit beer doesn't sell (yeah , yeah I know Bud sells a lot of beer. But for what it is, it's brewed very well. Flawless and flavorless. If it was called something else other that beer, it might be considered the best available thing of that type) Oops, tangent, sorry!
Brewing to style has it's place. Style guidelines are great if you're trying to better your brewing techniques. Recipes alone do not make a great beer. It's the brewer's skills and his/her understanding of the brewing process. Brewing to style tests you as a brewer. How close you came to that style, how many off flavors, etc. can all be judged against a given set of norms (the brewing style guidelines). If you just throw together a recipe w/o any guide and little experience to guide you, you may get lucky and brew a nice beer. But, generally it is a hit or miss proposition if you don't know how to get from point "A" to point "B"
That being said, I usually
don't brew to style (anymore). My Hefe usually has an OG of 1.1062 and subdued ester profile, it is definitely a German Hefe but it's out of style, But that's how I like it. My stout is really not in any style (somewhere between and oatmeal and a sweet stout but strong like an RI) , but it's a really nice beer. One of my next beers is going to be a 1.090 pilsner. I have the experience w/ regular gravity pilsners so this "(Way)out of style beer won't be such a shot in the dark.
So I advocate brewing to style as a learning tool, (or if you're a competition junky). Brian Hunt had a good point about not brewing to style. His personality is just such that he likes to create unrest. He'd make the perfect anarchist. I think he really enjoys rubbing people the wrong way. But it made us all think about things a little differently didn't it? There wouldn't be any Dbl IPA (or even APA for that matter), if every one brewed within confines of the BJCP guides.
So don't brand me as one of those guys that think, "you've got to brew to style or it's shit"
Bad beer is bad beer. Usually because of off flavors (faults), poor recipe design, poor malt/hop balance or poor control over the brewing process. Not because it doesn't fit into the guidelines.
Rant over
Zombie Bump
