Topic suggestion

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:08 am

Tony and I were discussing the next tech meeting and we though it would be good to do a home brew tasting. It could be a "bring out your dead", or similar. The idea would be to get feedback for beers you need a little help with. Maybe a beer that's not quite what you were going for, or a beer that has a flaw you can't identify.

The meeting has the dual purpose of getting feedback, but also helping develop palettes and evaluation skills.

Just throwing this out as an idea for the next meeting.

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:34 am

How about making this a regular offering at the tech meetings? Seems to fall in line with a "technical" discussion. If someone has a beer they'd like to have critiqued, they could bring it up before the meeting itself to make sure there would be anyone interested and/or available to sample it and give honest feedback.

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:15 pm

hoboscratch wrote:How about making this a regular offering at the tech meetings? Seems to fall in line with a "technical" discussion. If someone has a beer they'd like to have critiqued, they could bring it up before the meeting itself to make sure there would be anyone interested and/or available to sample it and give honest feedback.

I think this should be avaliable at any meeting. I personally welcome this from anyone. There is homebrew edicate involved though. If you like your beer and wish to share it offer it in the form of "Hey, would you like to try my beer. I think it turned out ok."
If you would like your beer evaluated say something like " Hey, I made this beer. What do you think about it?"
Try to let people know you want your beer scrutinized. I think most of the group that knows beer will be kind and try to help with anything they can. Don't be offended with comments like " A little light on body. What temp did you mash at?" or " It's on the sweet side. How low did it finish?"
The most important thing is to "Bring Your Homebrew". I've never meet a beer I haven't drank!

Cheers!

tony b · Post by **tony b** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:47 am

Thanks Tom for refreshing us on this touchy subject. Those of us at NHC this summer saw a great demo on the right way/wrong way to do this. It was enlightening, as most of us haven't give it any thought and can unintentionally hurt someone's feelings.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:10 am

Maybe we could make every third meeting of this topic.

The problem with making this available at every meeting is mainly time. I like to keep the tech meetings on the short side as this is another week night event and I don't want the wifes and girlfriends to start getting upset with the beer club (Especially mine!). Most of the meetings are fairly time packed. We start at about 8:30 PM on the topic and finish around 11 or 12 as is. Last meeting hosted by Lee was a great meeting except, however ran until 12:30am, if we start having 6 beers to try to discuss flaws on and attention spans shorten, this could go even further into the night or morning.

I will try to make this a regular function of the tech meeting from now on. If you feel we are starting to go to long without. Please just send me an IM and I will make sure to work it into the schedule.

Jeremy

JimF · Post by **JimF** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:16 am

I agree, we could spend many hours discussing what is wrong with my beers alone.
On Jan 31, 2011 9:10 AM, "BrewHound" <brew-techmeet@crbeernuts.org (brew-techmeet@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:> Maybe we could make every third meeting of this topic.

The problem with making this available at every meeting is mainly time. I like to keep the tech meetings on the short side as this is another week night event and I don't want the wifes and girlfriends to start getting upset with the beer club (Especially mine!). Most of the meetings are fairly time packed. We start at about 8:30 PM on the topic and finish around 11 or 12 as is. Last meeting hosted by Lee was a great meeting except, however ran until 12:30am, if we start having 6 beers to try to discuss flaws on and attention spans shorten, this could go even further into the night or morning.

I will try to make this a regular function of the tech meeting from now on. If you feel we are starting to go to long without. Please just send me an IM and I will make sure to work it into the schedule.

Jeremy

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JimF · Post by **JimF** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:16 am

I agree, we could spend many hours discussing what is wrong with my beers alone.
On Jan 31, 2011 9:10 AM, "BrewHound" <brew-techmeet@crbeernuts.org (brew-techmeet@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:> Maybe we could make every third meeting of this topic.

The problem with making this available at every meeting is mainly time. I like to keep the tech meetings on the short side as this is another week night event and I don't want the wifes and girlfriends to start getting upset with the beer club (Especially mine!). Most of the meetings are fairly time packed. We start at about 8:30 PM on the topic and finish around 11 or 12 as is. Last meeting hosted by Lee was a great meeting except, however ran until 12:30am, if we start having 6 beers to try to discuss flaws on and attention spans shorten, this could go even further into the night or morning.

I will try to make this a regular function of the tech meeting from now on. If you feel we are starting to go to long without. Please just send me an IM and I will make sure to work it into the schedule.

Jeremy

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

JimF · Post by **JimF** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:16 am

I agree, we could spend many hours discussing what is wrong with my beers alone.
On Jan 31, 2011 9:10 AM, "BrewHound" <brew-techmeet@crbeernuts.org (brew-techmeet@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:> Maybe we could make every third meeting of this topic.

The problem with making this available at every meeting is mainly time. I like to keep the tech meetings on the short side as this is another week night event and I don't want the wifes and girlfriends to start getting upset with the beer club (Especially mine!). Most of the meetings are fairly time packed. We start at about 8:30 PM on the topic and finish around 11 or 12 as is. Last meeting hosted by Lee was a great meeting except, however ran until 12:30am, if we start having 6 beers to try to discuss flaws on and attention spans shorten, this could go even further into the night or morning.

I will try to make this a regular function of the tech meeting from now on. If you feel we are starting to go to long without. Please just send me an IM and I will make sure to work it into the schedule.

Jeremy

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:21 am

BrewHound wrote:Maybe we could make every third meeting of this topic.

The problem with making this available at every meeting is mainly time. I like to keep the tech meetings on the short side as this is another week night event and I don't want the wifes and girlfriends to start getting upset with the beer club (Especially mine!). Most of the meetings are fairly time packed. We start at about 8:30 PM on the topic and finish around 11 or 12 as is. Last meeting hosted by Lee was a great meeting except, however ran until 12:30am, if we start having 6 beers to try to discuss flaws on and attention spans shorten, this could go even further into the night or morning.

I will try to make this a regular function of the tech meeting from now on. If you feel we are starting to go to long without. Please just send me an IM and I will make sure to work it into the schedule.

Jeremy

I meant this should be avaliable at our normal monthly meeting, not the tech meeting.

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:29 pm

I think reminding people that feedback is available at the main meeting is OK too, however there are a few downsides from my experience:

1. People are socializing and having fun and I feel rude interrupting conversations to get thoughtful feedback. I know I shouldn't feel that way but it's there. It's probably more intimidating to new members.

2. Lots of very hoppy or big beers are served right away so pallets get quickly blown.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:16 pm

Randy, the next tech meeting will be on this topic. already posted in a thread about it if you have not seen it.

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:42 pm

One thing that worked well for me several years ago at club meetings was when I had beers I wanted evaluated I would do more than just bring them to the meeting. First, I would make sure to get there right on time (I know, doesn't happen any more). Second, I would make sure to have people try the beer right away as the crowd started small. In the best situations, I may even bring a commercial example for comparison. I would babysit the beer and make sure to go pour it for the individual and let them know I am looking for some honest feedback. You can also announce at the meeting portion that you have a beer you want evaluated, but by that time, like Randy mentioned, palates may be fried.

Maybe you could arrange in advance at least with a few club members you know that you want them to evaluate a beer for you at the next meeting or just post in the meeting announcement. Push it along by bringing some score sheets too. Then others check out the process and may follow the example.

I have found some of the best evaluations to be by sending in beer to larger competitions where you have a larger gathering of good judges. This does cost money, but if you want to really get some great feedback on a particular beer, throw them in regional and national comps. I have done this with a few beers even if I know they may not be worthy of winning anything.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:34 pm

A note on this, one thing that I had never thought of that I recently heard and thought was a fantastic idea, is to take the beer and cut it with distilled water (like a 50/50 mix). This reduces all the different stuff going on in the beer and allows one to detect minute tastes that are often hidden behind large malt or hop bills. This obviously would not work well for say a 3.1% ABV pale ale as there would not be much left after cutting 50% with distilled water, but for larger more complex beers, I think this is one hell of a good idea that would help greatly in decerning tastes.