Just trying to continue learning! And I like the definition and will keep it in mind as I also continue my sampling.

As honest as possible, be it from a positive or negative reaction? While of course *trying* to keep in mind to be constructive.

Is it at all possible to be completely objective, without even the slightest bit of subjective?

You’re not going to let me off easy, are you Steve?

I don’t want to put words in Stephen B or Garrett’s mouths, but when I see the word (I don’t use as much as I should) I think of a beer that has a beginning, middle and an end but all those parts are integrated.

A couple of examples in your neighborhood would be Capital Dark and Goose Island IPA. In fact, most Capital and Goose beers but those two beers stand out for me.

Not every beer has to have structure for me to like it. Marin’s Star Brew, for instance, is a roller coaster ride. One I quite enjoy.

Since I’ve never been known NOT to…I applaud this direction.

Cheers!

Even at RealBeer.com there have been some comments about All About Beer being a “shill” for the industry.

I’ll only address Beer Talk here, since I participate in that. The theory is that we are starting with top-flight beers, not covering a spectrum as they do at beer rating sites. I don’t select the beers, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time defending the selections.

But for those making analogies to wine, Parker and the Wine Spectator simply don’t bother to publish scores low-rated wines. You don’t know if they tried them or not. Of course I just typed the word “scores” and I’m not a fan of assigning numbers to beers.

Anyway, in that very long thread at Beer Advocate provoked by Lew’s post I’ve seen several comments that there are never bad reviews in Beer Talk.

I wrote this about a beer in January: “The beer I received began with only muted hops to balance a nose of fruit and honey butter. It’s slick on the palate, with caramel/butterscotch dominating.”

OK, it could have written “hints of diacetyl in the aroma, more in the flavor.” But that’s mostly useful if you are a beer judge or homebrewer. Instead, you know what I tasted, and can make your own decision.

At least if you think I have a clue.

I’d look at that description and think “not a beer for me,” but I also know a lot of people like diacetyl. So should I be give the beer thumbs up or thumbs down? This goes to Alan’s discussion. (And what others have chimed in with.)

What you want to do is find writers (critics or not) who provide information useful to you. I get positively giddy when Mr. Beaumont or Garrett Oliver talks about structure, because that makes sense to me. Sometimes they’ll list a variety of flavors I don’t quite get, but structure I understand.

Over the years, partly due to demand from readers and partly because the beer market is a much more complex animal than it was sixteen years ago, I’ve modified my stand to include more editorializing. But at the heart of my work, I believe that principle still stands.

I’ve made friends and I’ve made enemies; I’ve had people offer me kegs in gratitude (never accepted) and I’ve been threatened with lawsuits (never acted upon); I’ve given good reviews to beers brewed by bastards and bad reviews to ones crafted by genuinely passionate, good-hearted people; I’ve written glowingly about beers sampled when my personal world was in shambles and been highly critical of others I’ve tasted when on top of the world. In short, while no one can claim absolute objectivity, I’ve always tried to get as close as possible.

I wonder if I actually “recommend” at all. I sometimes finish with a statement like “go buy this” but usually my tasting notes is about recording my own effort to describe the experience of tasting in words, a mug’s game if ever there was giving the dual skills of paying attention to the sensations and translating that to text. There is the third skill of being aware that the taste element sensations can be reorganized in the mind and more that one set of descriptors be produced for the same taste elements.

That all being the case, I think my real recommendation is that not only do we each have to make up our own mind but making the effort to do this level of analysis of taste for each of own own pleasure is itself worthwhile for any beer fan. Beer is worth paying attention to in that way.