Brian Hunt

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

The idea that beer is the seed of civilization isn't particularly new, nor is it Brian Hunt's idea. i first read about it in a Micheal Jackson book. And it makes a certain amount of sense. Grapes grow wild, and nomadic people could make some sort of wine. In fact, Native Americans occasionally made a honey wine. Grain, on the other hand, requires a stationary population. I tell people that wine isn't a civilized beverage; beer is.

[Field]

haven't finished the podcast... don't really care to. Even if he is just stirring the pot, I didn't like how he seemed to intentionally sabotage Justin's effort for a semi-coherent interview. Also, how he treated the brewcasters in general. Aside from all the other issues I had with his takes, I can respect his opinions, but I thought he was a bit of a bag to the brewcasters, and that's uncalled for IMO.

There are years and years of killer sunday sessions. I opted to skip forward to the Stan episode. Now we are talkin' beer!

I've got the same viewpoint as you

the constant 'I need a beer, I need a beer' was annoying and childish, get your own fucking beer, your mom doesn't work there, hell Justin's mom does work there and she's not bringing him beer

his opinions are his, I don't have a problem with whatever he wants to think, no matter how incorrect it may be, and it's not the opinions that made me dislike the episode

I don't agree with Mufasa's anti-extract stance, I don't agree with the Dan's 'yaayy reinheitsgebot' stance, I don't agree with the New Belgium guy's anti-style stance, but none of them made me want to skip the shows they're on, I wanted to listen to them in part because they disagree with me on those things

[Field]

I also believe that it's good practice to make stuff with what you have locally (i.e. water, etc) and that brewers in Colorado should make fucking gorgeous pilsners (oh wait.... we actually do). But like many people have stated, because we have access to a lot of kickass ingredients, that shouldn't limit what we make. We should make what we want - because we can. I grow cascades in my backyard and they find their way into many of my beers. Because they fucking taste and smell wonderful.

I do take exception to his statement that BJCP people are shackled by styles (I'm a National by the way, and while I think that styles are indeed important, people shouldn't get bent out of shape over them).

to say nothing of the extreme contradiction between: "you should only brew what your local ingredients lend themselves to" and "styles are limiting"

sticking with local ingredients is far more stifling than a style guideline could ever be (not that the style guidelines are in any way an attempt to limit creativity, they're an attempt to document what brewers have actually come up with)

to be a true "localvore Nazi" unless you're letting local microflora ferment your beer, it's not "local" anyways