Are Brewers "cheating" by just dumping lactic acid in?

Originally posted by MacBoost
Do you feel like a brewer is "cheating" if they simply dump lactic acid into the beer instead of producing lactic acid by way of bacteria?

Originally posted by EithCubes
Questions for those who like pickles:

Do you refuse to buy pickles from the store, or think commercial pickle producers are cheating by just dumping in vinegar?

The pickle thing has some limitations with regards to comparison here. In a number of cultures pickles have been traditionally produced via a vinegar soak, most of the pickled vegetables we eat are indicative of European traditions, which by in large were brined and fermented products.
But it’s disingenuous to say that traditional pickling does not involve vinegar soaking.

Vinegar-infusion has become tradition in places where it wasn’t original (and due respect to those areas, but their traditions aren’t applicable to the particular argument I’m about to make). I’d wager a large percentage of Americans, in particular, have never tasted a lacto-fermented cucumber and just don’t know what they’re missing -- their mental picture is a glass jar of Vlasic on a store shelf and not a covered vat in the corner deli or grandpa’s basement.

I more or less agree with you, Sam. Taking the long way produces a superior product on a number of fronts, process does matter, and most consumers don’t stop to consider the difference, even if they’re aware of it.

That’s not to say that vinegar-only pickles or lactic-spiked beers are unambiguously bad or even neutral; we can have both. For sour beers, some consumers might just want to reach for something cheap and tart (or occasionally puckering) for a quench or to feed their acid fix, and others will pay more for fireside depth and complexity.

To the OP’s point, I’d only consider non-biological souring to be "cheating" if the deviation from tradition is concealed, i.e., don’t bring a beer from grain to glass in two months and call it Lambic or Flemish Red ("Sour Ale", or better yet, "Soured Ale" would be fine). Use of acid for aesthetic purposes is in itself entirely acceptable (just my opinion), and for the purpose of pH adjustment is and has long been widely-accepted in the industry.