[case thrower]

And one forum to rule them all.

Ah, the PRECIOUS forum. 

[dmtaylor]

Ahem... Thank you, Keith, for finally doing something.

We now return to our regularly scheduled rambling and tangents, but with zero bickering. 

[majorvices]

Just now seeing this. I addressed this here:

Folks, this has to stop. This has gone from a forum where everyone comes in to share brewing knowledge and experience to a place were 1 out of every 10 posts is hijacked and subjectively over ruled based on 1 or 2 people's text book readings. No one's experience matters any longer. You can have a gold medal winning beer at the World Beer Cup but is will be flawed because 1 or 2 folks on this forum has determined that, based on what they have read, you didn't brew it right. It is utterly ridiculous.

If your gig is LODO brewing, that is great! Keep doing it and keep preaching it brother's and sisters! But stop coming onto this forum and telling everyone else is f'ing doing it wrong. Disagree, but stop doing it by screaming "WRONG" and then discrediting based on some arcane science that no one but you has uncovered in some brewing science book no one has read. If you have such knowledge, please bring it out and discuss it. But acting as if YOU personally are the sole arbiter of brewing knowledge will not be tolerated any longer. Period. And YOU know who I am talking about.

This is a forum for ALL levels of brewing. From the very first pitch of yeast to understanding water chemistry to complex microbiology. What has happened is this: A new person posts a question. Answers are given. Then one or two people come in with some seriously challenging and arcane (and frankly, ancient) challenges to simple answers to simple questions that, in the end, make this brewing thing seem so much freaking harder that it really is. And, while I really am digging the science aspect, it is UNWELCOMING. Brewing homebrewed beer can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. There are people making good beer with store bought extract and the yeast under the lid. Period. There are people making all grain beers out of 2000 dollar machines that is CRAP. Period. It doesn't freaking matter if you disagree with their methods of brewing or not. If the beer is good it is GOOD. If it isn't, find a nice damn way of telling them.

The goal of this forum is for people to come here to learn how to brew great beer. It is why I am a moderator here. It is why I contribute here. It isn't something I have to do. It is something I want to do. I want to see this forum succeed. I want to welcome new people here. I freaking want CHALLENGES! The more science the better! In spite of the fact that I am a brewmaster at a brewery distributed state wide, I am seriously challenged when it comes to much of the brewing science discussed here. I don't understand much of it, yet manage to churn out award winning beers anyway.

Like all crafts, what makes this fascination great is that no matter what your skill level and no matter what your brewing knowledge, there is always room for improvement and learning. I love it! But we also have to keep room for the new folks coming it. And this constant bickering is ridiculous.

I personally won't tolerate it any more. I have been a mod here since this forum started. I am also fine being removed from that post if necessary. There are hard and fast rules about being a member here. And, while no rules have been broken necessarily, I am moved to action by my personal belief that we are starting to have serious divisive disagreements that are not only detrimental to the forum society, but are also becoming extremely unwelcome to the newcomer.

Seriously, it stops now. Sharing knowledge is completely encouraged. Being a Nazi is not.

I have been a mod since this forum started. I have addressed the admin and other mods. This will either stop or I will leave here.