The Beer Clinic

One of my favorite beer blogs is Billy Broas's BillyBrew.com.  His blog is interesting and informative.  He updates it regularly, so you can almost always see a link to his blog up high on the "Blogs I Read" section to the right of my blog  (FaceBook readers will not know what that means unless you go to http://blog.ericshepard.com).

He was the one who alerted me to 5280's Colorado's Best Beers Six Pack.  I have purchased the six pack, but have not had any of the beers from it yet.

Shrek and I might have to give the 5280 6 pack a try next week.

His most recent post (as I write this, anyway) is Improve Your Homebrew with The Beer Clinic.  You can (and should) read the post and/or watch the video interview he included with Marty Nachel of The Beer Clinic, but just as a quick summary, Marty has started a service to help home-brewers by allowing them to send him beer.

Hmmm... let me say that again.  You can send Marty your beer.

Yes, as I typed it, I said to myself, "This guy is an evil genius.  He is starting a business where you pay him so that you can send him beer!"  You may ask, "now why would I want to send this guy my beer?"  Well, the reason is pretty simple.  He will objectively evaluate your beer and give you feedback on how to improve the beer.  Again, you can read Billy's post or go straight to Marty's site if you need a better explanation than that.

I personally think this is an awesome idea.  Forget about the evil genius aspect of the business.  There is a lot of value in getting your beer objectively evaluated.  Personally, I love the beer that I brew, but I am certainly not the most objective person when it comes to my own creations.  How could I be?  Even if I could be completely objective, I'm not really enough of an experienced beer taster to really focus in on various aspects of flavor, aroma, and all the other details that go into beer evaluation.

And, I do share my beer with quite a few people, but none of my friends, family, or co-workers are beer judges.  Most of them are either non-beer drinkers or BMC drinkers.  Even from my craft-beer-drinking acquaintances, the most "objective feedback" I ever get is "I don't like this beer as much as that other one." 

Anyway, at some point, I may give Marty a try.  Thanks, Billy, for blogging about the service.