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Table of contents
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No styles? (Spencer W Thomas)
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Subject: No styles?
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From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer at engin.umich.edu>
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A proposal:

We totally ditch style guidelines, or keep only the broadest ones
(light-colored ale, dark-colored ale, sour ale, etc.)

Then we ask the brewer to write a little essay about what they were
trying to accomplish with the brew.  All the "style" bits on the
current score sheet turn into "how closely did the brewer get to what
he/she was intending?"  The technical quality and "drinkability" parts
address whether it's "objectively" a good beer regardless of its
"style."

"This won't work," you say, "people will just write down what the beer
*is* like, instead of what they wanted it to be."  To which I say:
"hah!"  I can't count how many times I've been at a homebrew meeting
and someone came up and said "try this, it's just like SNPA!"  And
it's sweet and bland.  

It would be interesting to run such a competition, just to see how it
worked.  Maybe add an "open" category to an existing competition?

Ok, I've said my piece.  Now you shoot it down!

=Spencer Thomas in Ann Arbor, MI        (spencer at umich.edu)

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