Disclaimber: My assiness might come out in this blog posting but so be it.

This past weekend I was hanging out with Randy, aka the brewer and owner of Three Palms Brewing, the newest brewery to come to the Tampa area.  I was helping him out with a little painting in hopes of getting his brewery up and running soon so that all of Tampa can taste his beer.  I met Randy via Twitter when he had a blowout homebrew event at the brewery.  Beer for the Daddy wrote about the event on his blog.

He was letting me sample some of his beers, a red ipa and a saison.  As we got to drinking, he asked me what I thought of his beers.  I always get a little squeamish when someone asks me about beer, especially their beer, because tastes and palates differ from person.  What tastes good to someone, tastes like doo doo to the next person.  And with food and drink, people’s palates are evolving and maturing.  What might taste good now, might taste bland or bad a few years from now.

Its for these very reasons why I get frustrated at drinkers who label a beer good or bad.  I don’t mind a beer description as much, but even that differs from one person to the next.  I would almost rather a beer stand on its own merits.  As you can tell, I lean towards a postmodern approach to beer tasting.

Furthermore brewers should brew the beer they enjoy.  What’s easier to sell?  A beer that you enjoy or beer that you’ve brewed for others?

What did I say to Randy when he asked me about his saison and red ipa?  I told him that I’m not a good person to ask about saisons because I really don’t lean towards that genre of beer.  But I’m a hop head and his red ipa was spot on.  BUT, it was spot on for ME not YOU.  The only way for you to know if you like will be to try it for yourself.  I want the beer to stand on it own merits and not on my description.

Sam Caglione, owner of Dogfish Head, commented on this very topic at BeerAdvocate.com.  Here’s the link for his full comment. But here’s a snippet from his comments:  “We all have different palettes which is why it’s a great thing that there are so many different beers….Knowing each of your palettes is unique you will probably prefer one over the other. That doesn’t mean the one you didn’t prefer sucked. And the breweries you don’t prefer but are growing don’t suck either. Respect Beer.”

So, get out there and try beer.  Don’t listen to some goobers description on the internet.  And most of all, go check out Three Palms Brewing.  He needs ya’ll to buy t-shirts.  Heck, he even has a kickstarter for his brewery.

Three Palms Brewing

1509 Hobbs Street, Tampa, FL 33619