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Watching this feels like a lecture, but in a positive “I’m actually going to do my homework” way.

Balance is to beer what smoothness is to whisky: the non threatening sales pitch.

I live in the Willamette Valley, one of the best beer regions in the world. My town is literally surrounded by hop fields and wineries. I have been home brewing for years. Now that I'm older, I often just crave a well-crafted freshly made local Pilsner.

Great video! I agree entirely with what you're saying - I just wonder if the concept of what is meant by the word balance has been misunderstood. Whenever I describe a beer as balanced, I'm referring to the levels of the predominant flavours both within the beer itself, and within the concept of its style. So, like you said a New England can be balanced in that the sweeter juicy notes, the more complex pithy notes and then some resounding bitterness as a collective, resulting in something that feels like a balanced experience - even if not balanced between the core elements of beer in general.

Basically agree and many of my favourite beers have a clear and pronounced development in their taste and flavour from sip to finish. If the structure and flavours all work together by the end, and I am feeling particularly geeky, I think of this as a denouement. Enjoying the 'structure' as opposed to a particular flavour profile or style means that you can drink and genuinely enjoy a far wider range of beers.

I live in New England and was unaware that people around the world call IPA’s “New England IPAs.” Funny thing is, most people around here dislike them.

I absolutely love this type of video. Jonny is fantastic at describing beer and also at explaining what craft beer is all about. Agree about the term balance. I'd also add that "smooth" is also a similarly unhelpful term. Will there be a CBC cicerone/beer sommelier school?

Professor Jonny smashes it! This is such a thoughtful way of describing the drinking process, appreciate all that you and Bradders do…

I watched this drinking my own version of Timothy Taylor Landlord. As a British pale ale, It has that balance that has become a cliche, as you say Jonny. Very satisfying to drink though. On the other hand I also love beers that are very hop forward and crisp (refreshing) or malt forward (unctuous and indulgent). It just goes to reinforce what a wonderfully complex and diverse drink beer can be.

Great video Jonny. I don't have a particularly refined palette so have never really been able to pin down why I like some beer better than others. I think this really helps. I homebrew as well, so doubly so!

Thanks Jonny, you bring lots of understanding to the complex world of beer! I, for instance, was reluctant to ever try a lager or pilsner again since I found the ales; but have the last months found out that there are lager/pilsner beer that are very refreshing and quite complex tasting.

The Herren pils was my favourite beer we sampled in Bamberg last year. Mahrs across the road was okay too 🤪 Going back to check in October this year.

Enjoying this wonderful lecture with a Kernel Pale (Amarillo CY22). Educational and fascinating as always 🍻

Oh. The malty stout! Love it.

superb video and supject, would watch more of this type, for sure

Thank you! This is a really interesting video.

I've always felt that English "bitters" are a little too sweet and malty and not all that bitter by modern standards. Still quite tasty though. As much as I love NEIPA I also enjoy older style IPAs that have both some up front maltiness and real hop flavor too...that's balance (Racer 5 is a good example). Likewise a nice soft wheat beer with some yeasty spice and a little bright hop bite (let's say Allagash white) has that balance. Or a super clean pilsner with bit of graininess those great German or Czech hops in the finish.

Great episode, it's like my professional cookery apprenticeship all over again! Plenty to think about. Chapeau!

This is spot on, I realised when I talk about balance in beer what I actually mean is drinkability

As a Sussex resident I feel thoroughly spoilt to have Harvey's, Long Man and 360 all nearby with many others not too far away

Out of All the beers 🍻 your tasting! I'm going to Look for the Kernel Stout! 🤔😁✌️😎

Great video!

Would love to see a video where you go through your Top 5 in each style. From Lager to Hazy IPA.

Agree with what you said at first concerning "Ballance". I like my beers "Unballanced" to the dark side! Heavy dark malt, caramel and dark fruit, 4.5% upwards and low carbonation. So you can imagine what my opinion is of Macro Lagers etc......! I I was even put off of many German pilsners and Helles as they had too much 'fizz'. Many of the regional German Pilsners have now become pretty bland. Tried Keesmann beers a few times over the years at the brewery tap, but never the pils. Keesmann used to be no 2 on our pub crawl after the Mahr's Bräu.

have had a few of these beers and i have to say that harveys does a really good range and al their beers are very drinkable. not however my favourite, that is theakstons old peculiar. marvellous beer.

Reminds me of the lager episode you did with notch 4 years ago. Lagers themselves are "balanced" but not really. you have the hoppy pils or the malty Czeck lager. The nuances in the beer with depth of flavor is what makes them so good.

Smashing it with the videos!

Being an italian craft beer lover, I worried hearing the name of Birra Moretti in a craft beer video, but I think you've been fair in your review...

I agree with the idea, structure makes more intuitive sense to me as well, and opens those different interpretations up for positive evaluation whereas balance can feel quite elusive and prescriptive.

Drinking a chubbles Enhanced while watching the craft beer channel. Thats a good time in my book

I think 'drinkability' can be tricky. I was enjoying an Emperor Julius from Treehouse while watching this - and it's just a huge NEIPA. It's an excellent tasting beer - but in a 16 oz format, it gets to be a bit much on the pallet for that last 3-4 oz and tends to burn me out. I've gotten similar with some other NEIPAs that I've really enjoyed. However, something like Heady Topper, while hop loaded, is a lot more 'drinkable' (I think calling Heady 'crushable' is a bit too far). For me, it's that extra level of bitterness that balances it out (as well as the oats present in other NEIPAs) - to me, that's what I think of when I think of a beer's "balance" lending into "drinkability" - both terms being - what I believe to be - a bit wishy-washy and subjective.

Really nice video and makes you think about how often brewers or beer geeks talk about balance, but it doesn’t actually apply to a lot of styles that we love. In my opinion a well made beer is simply a beer devoid of flaws. No infection, oxidation, acetaldehyde, diacetyl, DMS, etc (although some like Urquell break this rule and still work). When a beer achieves this it’s what we would describe as “clean”, no matter the style. From that point you can start critiquing flavors. Luckily brewing has gotten so much better on the whole and if something isn’t well made you have literally thousands of other breweries to pick from.

Love Kernel

Great video! I do agree about structure being crucial in making a ‘better’ beer but how do brewers make structure in their beers? Is it just to do with hop/grain bill or their processes or a bit of both? Love and beer!

I myself can't stomach going from a NEIPA to an Imperial Stout, I have to drink something of similar taste.

Thank you for the alternative 'structured' for balanced. Balanced is such a non-descriptive adjective in beer. Can, in your opinion, a beer be more structured than others within the same style? A gueuze is a quite unstructured style, as they are very sour, but I would say that some have more structure to them than others. Cheers!

Keep these kind of vids coming. Sooo good, Jonny and THEEEEEEEEE BRAAAAAAAAADDDDD!

Balanced .vs. Structure... Doesn't much matter to me as long as it tastes good ;-)

I've been thinking about flavours on the spectrum of bitterness for a while, particularly between beer, some spirits and, kind of obviously, specialty coffee. Can you please point me towards literature/people about this bitterness idea? Have you written about this somewhere? Also, I recently picked up a coffee imperial stout in Sydney made with Anaerobic processed coffee. I don't know if you know what that means, but I love coffee and I'm super excited about this. Would you be interested in doing a video exploring different ways coffee is incorporated into beers? Even if it is just different coffee stouts as the weather gets a bit cooler.

A big reason we taste bitterness more intensely on the swallow is that there are some bitterness receptors on their own right down the back of our tongue. Ostensibly this is adaptive as a kind of last line of defence. If you haven't detected the bitterness on first impression, it will definitely be noticeable later without the competing flavour receptors closer to the outside world.

Sat here with a beer in my hand, sniffing and tasting, the only thing I smell or taste is beer 🍺

Great episode! Off topic a bit...but this episode made me have a thought: Does bottle/canned on date really matter? Can an "older" beer destroy that balance on what a brewer was aiming for with their beer? Assuming it really depends on style? I guess its all objective...but it was a thought...and I was just a bit curious on what your thoughts were around this when it comes to freshness in beers?

Few of my beers are balanced, I like to describe them as either exciting or adventurous.

Interesting video! You know you can use another glass, yes?? It always disturbs me that you don't use a clean glass very often ;) My take on "balance" is a drink in which a) there would have to be enough of those structural elements, but b) they aren't in competition with each other.

This structure idea is certainly more useful than any of the marketing-birthed terms such as “bold” and “crisp,” etc. Yet, I wonder: How evident does that structure have to be for you to consider it objectively good? Music is my field, and while we praise some for their immaculately clear structure (Mozart), we can also recognize that sometimes greatness arises from ambiguity (Stravinsky). I think the same comparison could be made in visual art (Rembrandt vs. Dali). How could this apply to beer?

How much does style guidelines play into this concept? I’d imagine there are bad beers no matter what style it falls under, and there’s fantastic ones even if they’re not under the “correct style”, but how much do you think that “guideline” influences if you think it’s a better beer than another? Always love learning about beer! Cheers!!

What temperature would you recommend to drink the stout at?

Yes this makes sense. I've often thought the best beers have an effective 'point' 'counterpoint', where we as humans like contests or debates or experiences etc that aren't lop sided. The structure / journey analogy might be a type of balance, in that the flavors allow you to notice and appreciate what is there, without one thing being distracting. Not that the beer is in balance with every ingredient available, it's in balance with itself?

Totally agree, I used to say that certain beers are balanced but now I talk about beer in different stages (transition and contrast), kind of like football.

I despise bitterness. It is why I fundamentally dislike almost every beer that I have ever had, and why I can't stand green peppers. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that is bitter and that I actually *do* enjoy is Coffee, but even then I have to have light roasts or I end up pumping it completely full of milk and sugar to mask it. And I think the only thing addictive about that is the caffeine hit it gives me at the start, middle, end of my day.

I think it'd be helpful as opposed to something like Moretti to give an example of a GOOD structured beer, and a GOOD balanced (and therefore unstructured) beer - i.e. are there two very good beers of a similar 'style' which fit these two categories, of a similar style, that are at least macro adjacent, but are structured vs unstructured (thinking Pilsner Urquell or Paulaner as 'at least macro adjacent').

I had a pint of Carlsberg in a curry house a few weeks ago and it genuinely astonished me. I was astonished by how skillfully the brewers managed to remove all traces of aroma, flavour and mouthfeel to leave you with nothing. Absolutely nothing. I can only imagine that people who buy it don't actually like beer, they drink it to get drunk without the bother of having to process inconvenient things such as taste. Probably the worst lager in the world.

Gose, or salted beer, is difficult to calibrate. When my body is low on salt, a gose tastes like ambrosia but, if I have had too many crisps, chips, bread or cured meat and too little water and exercise, the exact same gose can taste salty.

Johnny, you are looking mighty dapper i must say. Loved the vid xx

I’m looking forward to the live taste testing, I’ve never done anything like that before. Will the box tell us which beers to save for the live session? If not how do we find that information? Or do we just need to keep all 10 beers in the fridge for a week?

Mate, where do you get your beers from? I am also based in London so wondering if you go to a local shop or just order online… thanks!

had a can of beak on the beer shelf, thanks to this video, it has gone straight into the fridge for later

As a homebrewer I can say that making pils is one ove the more harder beersstiles to brew. Its unforgiven in tast becouse its a bit tastless every small mistake will be found. You have no yeast no strong hop and only a little malt in a pils.

Just like life. Beer is a journey. Hopefully KZfaq will cut you in on the Coor's & Budwiser commercials.

I agree that most styles lean one way or another balance-wise, but you can still have balance relative to the style. An American Amber, while malt forward, would be grossly unbalanced without enough hops to keep it enjoyable. This is something that brewers can, and do from time to time, mess up. There are plenty of stouts that are "unbalanced" in the traditional sense, and undrinkable. The way you're describing structure/journey definitely sounds akin to what I (and you touched on) would call complexity. I do really value complexity, but the problem with complexity is that it's just as inconsistent as stylistic balance. Some styles will be complex, some won't. This is basically a fact when considering some European beers will use one malt, and two hops, vs American beers that might have 5 and 5. I agree that balance is not always stylistically present, and not the only factor, but neither is complexity. For me, all factors matter at one point or another, and depending on the style, some things will be more important. I wouldn't expect a helles to be extremely balanced or complex, but I do expect it to be clean, refreshing, and have subtle flavors stand out. However, I would expect an ESB to be relatively balanced and certainly somewhat complex. In styles that should be balanced, a lack of that will create something that is potentially unpleasant, and definitely off-style. In a style that should be complex, a simple beer will be very boring for the drinker. These things are true for feel, attenuation, etc etc. I like the question but I do think that certain things are more important than others, style to style, and therefore everything is important at one point or another. If what you actually mean is that a beer should have aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel as the "journey" then we agree and I digress.

How are you getting Bamberger beers in the UK? This is the stuff of dreams.

All these beers are economically out of reach. £52 for a 12 pack of the Beak NE IPA. Nah, I’ll have to go to the supermarket and drink what is on offer!

Everyone steals from the Elements of Music to describe things lol

Can we get any of your glasses anywhere?

beginning middle and end makes me think of typical story structure. I don't think you necessarily need this for a beer, or for a story either. The simplest story structure I have heard of is you think something is going to happen and then something else happens. . . perhaps that is good for beer too.

I have had 1000's of different beers, and really enjoy trying new and inventive stuff, but I hope I never take a journey when drinking beer.

I can't stand the woody tannin aftertaste in British brewed NEIPAs. Sureshot is the worst offender but Polly's and Overtone have it too. I know not everyone tastes the problem though. I wish I could just send them a bottle of lactic acid for their sparge water!

Beak is best,

So I think when lots of people talk about 'balance', they really mean 'complexity'. In other words, lots of different flavours or sensations going on at the same time (but which aren't necessarily in perfect balance).

depressing that in my local moretti is the most characterful beer on tap :(

When people say balance in the context of beer they mean what you call structure, and not the idea of every ingredient having the same amount of prominence in the beer.

Oh no. This is making me thirsty

Balance. You keep using that word I do not think it means what you think it means. I understand balance as being relative to the style you're talking about. Good IPAs aren't unbalanced, they're just hop-forward; that heavily hopped flavour profile is balanced with the right amount of sweetness, etc so that the hoppiness can be enjoyed. Same idea for stouts, etc.

Any brewery that predominantly makes lots of different (but not very different) 6%~ IPAs is crap in my book 😂

Strong disagree regarding structure with regards to Beaks beers, far too sweet.

Of course you are right. It's all about the journey. Have you ever had yourself tested to see if you are a super taster? I think it's like 5% or less of the population can detect tons more subtle flavors and smells.

maybe you should give your plant some beer. it looks like it‘s thirsty 🍺🌱

Why did yo throw beer away? Just use another glass and come back to it....

I would like to ask you then what is the objectively shit beer? I think it is corona. It is marketed as premium lager meant to be drank on a vacation at the beach but it is just as boring the american macro lagers.

Macro pils are cheap

Lol mate you are missing the point entirely with regards to “balance” … balance doesn’t mean 50/50… balance means the perfect amount of hop and malt (yeast as well) FOR THE STYLE. Of course IPAs are going to be hop heavy, but they can be very nicely (and correctly) balanced with malt character. Lol no one is out there trying to perfectly balance the flavor 50/50 in an IPA or a Helles lager. Ffs… your use of “structure” is exactly what beer geeks mean as “balanced”. A perfectly balanced beer is ALWAYS in the context of its style.

"...nearly objectively better..." Oh, so the long way of saying 'subjective' and not what the video title says. Cool, cool. You're using the term 'structure' in a subjective manner, the same way that 'balance' is subjective and highly dependant on depending on style, knowledge, expectations, wants, etc. Every beer has structure. It's your subjectivity that is deciding if the 'structure' is positive or not. Sorry, unlike many others I completely disagree.

you clearly don't understand the concept of balance, but ok!!

Great video!