In many ways, Twitter is like a big family argument. Everyone is talking and no-one’s listening, and everyone seems to care a lot more than you thought they did.

Emotions run high for no apparent reason as you go round-and-round in circles, until finally it dawns on everyone that you were all making the same point anyway, and now the turkey’s burnt.

Ok, so that might have been more about me than Twitter. But it’s no wonder that many brewers and companies are shy about responding to criticism on social media. Sometimes it just feels like you are fanning the flames by trying to explain that the beer was supposed to be cloudy, because that’s what a hefeweiss is.

Lord knows it’s frustrating to watch people with little clue about brewing tear apart your beer, but this is the reason why brewers must respond – not why they shouldn’t.

Education is the most important way to grow the volume of good beer. If people don’t know about it, or mistrust it, they won’t try it. Giving drinkers the knowledge will allow them to understand beer better and make better choices.

We all know that the first time you drink a lambic, your face will look like a squeezed sponge, so don’t respond with silence or anger when someone tries your gose and says they’d rather drink petrol.

As people who have gone through that beer journey, we know they’ll be gleefully forcing sour beer on their friends within the year. And when they are, they’ll be telling all their friends how your brewery explained what they had wrong. This transparency and approachability is part of who we are in the craft beer world.

So where misinformation surfaces, we need to put it right. You wouldn’t ignore it if someone said it to you in person, and it’s even more vital to make sure you respond online, where thousands of people could witness your stony silence. It’s even more imperative to respond if someone makes a fair criticism, because then silence can look like arrogance.

So, if we definitely should respond to online criticism; the real question is how we go about it and avoid “burning the turkey”. My golden rule, which sounds simple but is broken time-and time again by unthinking loudmouths, is: if you wouldn’t say the words, don’t write them either.

I’ve seen people and companies accused of things that could quite easily be taken to court for libel, and there is just no need for it. People respond to a human touch, so you need to sound like you have one, even if you mashed in at 5.45am that morning and just spilt caustic on your hand.

Aside from sounding like a normal human, it’s also important to be timely. If you’ve taken the trouble to set up a Facebook page, Twitter account or Youtube channel, you are saying “I’m here, talk to me!”. So, if someone has to wait two hours for a response, that’s going to irk them.

They can see you’re there, they know you get the notification, so why aren’t you responding? There’s little I hate more than those shotgun approaches to social media, where a company responds to 10 replies in a batch, retweets five compliments in a row and then goes offline for another few days. No-one benefits from this approach, least of all the brand.

The final rule to bear in mind when responding to criticism, or indeed any online conversation, is to stick to the facts. In trying to avoid the merry-go-round of arguing about craft beer, the truth is your biggest asset. The customer is, in fact, usually wrong and it’s your job to explain that as carefully as possible.

Traditionally there is a little diacetyl in a Bohemian Pilsner, that brett pale ale is designed to smell a bit like Cornwall, keg beer does not have to be pasteurized, and actually Brewdog bashing is significantly more irritating than its marketing strategy. See? Facts. You can’t argue with them.

And arguing is the last thing we want to do. Should breweries respond to criticism? A thousand times yes. Does that mean they can argue with customers or other breweries? A million times no.

We may be small and independent, headed by whippersnappers in beards and check shirts, but we are also brand owners and we represent a business and the people who work for it. When I see brewers falling out on twitter it undermines everything. Our individuality and differences are what keep us together as craft brewers.

So when you’re criticized fairly, an explanation of what went wrong with an apology can turn a negative into a positive. When you’re unfairly criticized, teaching the accuser something is the only way forward for everyone.

Now to explain that to the bloggers…