Author: Marshall Schott

We’ve all been there– you spend hours designing a recipe, even more time making the wort, pitching your yeast starter, controlling fermentation temps, then packaging and storing it well. You wait an appropriate amount of time anxiously anticipating that first sample, when the time comes the heavens open up, wrap you in a hoppy hug as the angels gloriously sing praises to your brewing prowess. It’s exactly as you imagined, beautifully balanced, no butterscotch or grassy flavors with a gorgeous white cap of foam that never fades. Now, all you can think about is sharing it with others, perhaps even entering it into a competition. And so you do. Samples are poured for your brew club compadres, some of whom are BJCP judges, others who you’ve learned to trust know what the hell they’re talking about. You gaze proudly as they bring small glasses first to their noses then to their lips, sublimating the very real nervousness we all experience in instances like this into phony smiles and awkward glances. Then it happens. First one taster, then another. A small grimace, a look of concern, perhaps even a “hrmph” that sounds 100 decibels louder in your head than it was in reality. The realization hits you like a ton of bricks.

They don’t love it.

This is an unfortunate scenario I imagine every homebrewer can relate to on some level, similar to receiving a competition scoresheet with a score much lower than you expected and comments that don’t jibe with your perception of the beer you entered. It sucks. There’s no getting around the fact that something you created and thought was great wasn’t received well by others. It just sucks. The focus of this article isn’t on how to improve your beer or refine your palate, I’m probably not the best person to dole out that advice, but rather how to make receiving negative feedback suck just a little less.

Tips for Dealing With Critical Feedback

Practice Humility

Did you know that fully half of all the beer you make is going to be below average? This is a statistical absolute. Ponder that for a minute, let it really sink in. Not every batch you brew is going to be your best, it’s not possible. Bearing this in mind, before you enter a beer into a competition or share it with a friend, prior to even making a batch, take a look in the mirror, stare the reflected version of you in the eyes and say aloud:

I am not perfect, at times I suck, and that’s okay. 

That’s right, you suck, so do I, at least sometimes, and that’s perfectly fine. Once we get to a place where we can accept that we are no better than anyone else, and they’re no better than us, we free ourselves from the burden of meeting our own self-ascribed high expectations. If before even milling grain for a batch I spent a few hours designing I tell myself it may not turn out all that good, I’m already mentally preparing myself to cope with negative feedback from others, even if I end up really liking the beer myself. Personally, I believe humility is a character trait many of us could use some work on, present company included, and the only way to integrate it into who I am is through regular practice.

Do not mistake humility for self-deprecating diffidence. There’s little less appealing to me than being around someone lacking totally in self-confidence, that person who, every time they share a beer, is sure to prepare me for disappointment. I’ll admit that in these situations, I usually give in and validate the brewer, even if I actually like their beer. It’s not my place to convince someone their beer is better than they think.

Accept that Preference is Subjective

First, what this doesn’t mean: please do not use the subjectivity of individual preference as an excuse to become defensive and resistant to change– if the majority of people you share your beer with detect diacetyl, it may be worth considering adapting a part of your process. What I’m referring to is the idea that we all experience what we sense just a bit differently. Okay, that seems a bit presumptuous. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that there’s no way to know that my experience of a flavor or aroma exactly matches that of another person’s, all we have are words to describe what we sense, there’s no valid test to prove that experience is shared. Now, I’m certainly no Solipsist, but I fully believe that what I think is good another person may not, and whether there’s genuinely something wrong with the beer or not, preferences bias people. Which is okay, we’re all affected by this stuff, and reminding ourselves of this may help to assuage some of the negative feelings associated with receiving less than stellar reviews of our beer.

Be the First to Notice the Flaws

Making beer requires quite an investment of time, energy, and money. Even if you ferment quick and burst carb in a keg, most beers won’t be ready for at minimum a week, while those who bottle condition are looking at even longer times. During all of this waiting, we’ve expended massive amounts of mental energy talking ourselves out of a million concerns– Is it infected? Did I pitch enough yeast? Was my grain bill complex enough? Is it going to carbonate correctly? Is it… infected?! It’s no wonder by the time the beer is finally ready to consume, we all think it’s second only to our favorite commercial version. As humans, our natural self-preserving tendency is to notice the good in what we do while looking past those things that could use a little help. What I would suggest is, after enjoying that first glorious pint, take a step back, mentally separate yourself from your creation, and remind yourself that your opinion is hugely influenced by your current emotional state. Whenever you’re ready, sit down with another pint of this beer and approach it from the perspective of a snooty judge who gets off on pointing out only what’s wrong. Be very intentional in your observation of even barely noticeable flaws and come up with some good potential reasons for them being present. Now, if you share with a friend and they like it, you’re good to go, you might even point out a few of your concerns; in those cases where someone does notice an issue, even if it’s different than what you noted, you’re well prepared to at least engage in a constructive conversation.

Friend: The beer is pretty good, I like the hop character, but the body really seems to be lacking.

Prepared You: Thanks, I like it too. You know, I agree that the body is a little thinner than it could be, which makes it almost too easy for me to drink, maybe next time I’ll bump the mash temp up a couple degrees. 

Not only does this contribute to one’s sense of humility, but it also allows one to be more comfortably honest when sharing their beer.

Do Not Take Things Personally

I’ve jokingly said in the past that a person’s evaluation of my beer is probably analogous to their evaluation of me as a person. The truth is, I am not my beer, I’m just the person who spent a few hours throwing ingredients together and waiting for it to become beer. If it ends up being flawed in some way and someone is honest enough to point it out, I don’t overlay their evaluation of my beer onto me as a person. How annoying would it be if the people you shared your beer with felt compelled to lie to you because they were afraid of hurting your feelings? As much as I enjoy being around people and trying their beer, I’m most uncomfortable when I feel like I have tiptoe around their emotions. Learning to appreciate the honesty of others rather than taking their opinions as a personal attack will not only make you more pleasant to be around, but could contribute to your becoming a better brewer by integrating their feedback.

There are some people who seem to get off on only pointing out flaws, taking it as a badge of pride, a symbol of their superior beer tasting skills when they pick up an off-flavor that no one else notices.  These are usually very knowledgable people who understand that a common flaw in English beer is diacetyl, Pilsner malt has more DMS precursor than standard 2-row, and acetaldehyde is not pronounced acetyl-aldehyde. They are great to have around when you want to know something and don’t feel like Googling it yourself or you’re in the mood for geeking out on some esoteric brewing method, I choose to accept them for this while ignoring their overly negative and usually inaccurate evaluations of my beer.

You Get What You Give

Kindness begets kindness. Similarly, being a dick to others usually results in others being a dick to you. At some point, society began reinforcing the idea that being mean and demeaning to others is cool, I call this the American Idol effect and it really just makes people come across as insecure buttheads. Honesty does not an asshole require, critical feedback can be provided in a friendly manner. If when you’re critiquing someone’s beer you do it in a considerate manner, chances they’re going to approach evaluations of your beer similarly. One technique that works well for providing constructive criticism is referred to as the compliment sandwich where you provide a compliment followed by the criticism then finish with another compliment. These guys explain it well (do not watch with kids or bosses present):

In those instances where I start to feel offended by someone’s evaluation, I take that as an indicator to check myself, as it almost certainly stems from my own silly issues.

| CONCLUSIONS |

I’m not usually one to give hard advice, but I trust that utilizing the tips discussed here may lead to less hurt feelings and maybe even better beer. One of the more interesting psychologists, a dude I spent maybe too much time studying, Fritz Perls, once alluded to the idea that growth is a function of frustration, without it nothing changes, we stagnate. And so it goes with homebrewing– if I’m incapable of accepting negative feedback and only seek positive validation, my beer won’t develop, it won’t get better.

Plus, it’s just beer.

If you have any other tips for dealing with or doling out constructive criticism that I didn’t mention, I’m sure there’s plenty, please be sure to share it in the comments section below. Cheers!

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