Beer Critique

[Pumpy]

Styles of beer are very personal and may appeal to one person but not the next

How do you explain to your peers if you like thier beer

Be honest

Pumpy

 

[Ross]

Pumpy,

If a beers well made I can appreciate it, even if it's not a style i particularly like - smoked beers for instance are generally not to my taste, but i still appreciated a good one like Batz's xmas case bottle. So there is no risk of offence in being honest. If the beers badly made/infected then that's a different question to the one asked, but probably fits the answers provided better - in which case i try to be honest, but there have been occaisions where the host wasn't looking for critique, therefore the beer's been discreetly poured away or the glass misplaced

cheers Ross

 

[Linz]

and bring your own next time I allow you to drop round!!!!!


And this is posted under "bulk buys", or should it be "bulk bye's"?? :huh:

 

[Doc]

And this is posted under "bulk buys", or should it be "bulk bye's"?? :huh:

[post="115079"][/post]​

Moved.

Doc

 

[Jye]

I tell the person at the risk of offending them

Everyone wants to make a great beer, so there is no point in telling them some BS... but it needs to be constructive criticism. On the other hand if it is a great beer tell them... and then steal their recipe... cheers Ross

Jye
:beer:

 

[andrewl]

I'm in the same boat as you jye... Constructive criticism is okay as you are trying to better the product... once that is done make sure you have the recipe.

 

[Weizguy]

I will "sandwich" my feedback, as suggested at our first BJCP learning session.

Tell the person what you like about the beer, then something that needs improvement, and then something else to put a positive note on the feedback.

It does pay to compare to style, but only if they were brewing to a style, or might appreciate the style comparison to their beer. This is especially good if they are presenting a beer that falls close to a known style, but their style knowledge is limited, and they are offering the beer as another style.

Be honest, and in any case, if you can suggest a way to improve the beer, always do that!

Cheers, Seth

 

[peas_and_corn]

If my beer is crap, then I expect people to tell me so.

However, whenever I critique a friends' beer, I don't put it in a negative way. There's the obvious choice between 'this straw flavour is pretty bad' and 'maybe next time a little more malt would be better' is important.

BTW, I have had friends tell me they think my beer is crap (the crap batches anyway), and I have agreed with them at times.

 

[vlbaby]

I'm still very reluctant to give a beer to anyone to try unless I think its real bloody good. I'm fairly certain that if i dont think the beer is up to scratch, then neither will anyone else. I'm probably my own worst critic.

I dont mind so much giving a beer to fellow brewer, as it will usually leads to constructive comments. However a non brewer will tend to just give you comments on a bad brew like, "its crap" ( or at least you can tell thats what their thinking ) but have absolutely no reason why they think this. That sort of critism doesnt help at all.

On the other hand, its a great feeling when you give someone a beer they like and come back for seconds.

VL.

 

[warrenlw63]

I tell the person at the risk of offending them

[post="115089"][/post]​

Yep,

There's no real harm in this. Always try and be constructive with what you offer though and have good ideas to remedy the fault, also stipulate what you enjoyed about the beer.

Also bear in mind it's far easier to judge another's than to be judged yourself.

Would you take offence well yourself in a smilar situation? :unsure:

Let's face it we all make ordinary beers once in a while. If you don't let me know what you're doing. I'll certainly take it on board. :lol:

Warren -

 

[BeerIsGood]

Tell them it's good and drink it. Anything is good, relative to feremented camel urine and coconut milk (that brings back memories). Then, offer them one of yours:

If yours is better and they notice, and they ask how to improve theirs, give them advice. If yours is better and they don't notice, let them be happy with what they have achieved -- if they tried to "improve" they wouldn't notice the difference, and would be wasting their effort.

If yours is better, and they think that their's is better: there's no accounting for taste. You drink yours, and they drink theirs and talk about the beauty of beer paradoxes.

 

[Stagger]

I had one time at band camp:


At one of our meetings I had a new member come and give me a try of a stout he had made, and it was crap, it was a really badly made kit stout. I was very tactful and could see he was very proud of his achievements so all I could say is that I am not a big fan of kits but glad that he really enjoy it.

Some time later one of better brewers in the club brought out one of his award winning stouts, I got the new member one and explained that it had come first in the comps and told him who it was from and it was a great example of a all grain dry stout.

He took a sip and screwed up his noise and told me that it was not as good as his kit stout and tipped it down the sink, I could not believe it, it was one of the best stouts I have tried. I just told him that if he like his own then good luck to him and hoped he enjoyed his time in the club.


Stagger

 

[tonydav]

nothing wrong with saying you don't like it, but I think you have to be able to back it up with why and what you think could be done to improve it.

I find when people try my brews I point out the faults anyway ... "left this one in primary too long and now it tastes a bit weird"

Ditto.

I think it all depends on who's drinking your beer and similarly whose beer you're drinking. If they think it's great and I think it's crap (infected or similar) I might comment that it has a bit of off taste but there's really not much point in pushing it if they like it. Eventually their tastes will change anyway .

 

[evanmit]

that is a good point tony...at the end of the day if people like it then it doesn't matter whats happened to it. A friends cider is awful and must have been infected in the fermenter, but chill it right down to just off of freezing and its actually pretty nice!

 

[mike_hillyer]

that is a good point tony...at the end of the day if people like it then it doesn't matter whats happened to it. A friends cider is awful and must have been infected in the fermenter, but chill it right down to just off of freezing and its actually pretty nice!

Coming from the Great State: I call this the Emu Export Principle.

 

[jimmy01]

Not many of my friends brew so I don't get to taste much of other's brews. Which is a shame cos it makes it hard to know if I am doing well or not.

On the other hand it is great when visitors (particularly ones who "hate" home brew) ask for a second or third stubbbie, in preference to a commercial.

I rarely let my dad taste my home brew. He will virtually only drink XXXX Bitter. His idea of an international premium beer is Crown Lager. I must have got my taste for real beer from my mother's side!

cheers

 

[glennheinzel]

I've just been looking through various links and found this old topic...

I think that we have to manage our own expectations on the level of feedback that we expect to receive.

Generally speaking, non homebrewing friends (and some homebrewers) aren't capable of providing constructive feedback because they don't know how to assess a beer.

Therefore a taste of your brew will generally yield a response such as "I like it" or "I don't like it".

If a "judge" tasted your beer, then of course you would expect constructive criticism and not the negative feedback received.