Beer "Whats your Taste"

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by Talon

Del's Narragansett lemon shandy.

I had an Del's Narragansett Lemon Shandy beer, years ago, when.i visited friends who lived out on the east coast. It was an very hot afternoon.... and I liked this beer.

[girl_dee]

[imperfect_cupcake]

Because of my IBS I can't drink ales or bitters anymore and I never could stand hoppy. I loved the local craft beer in the 90s but when I came back 5 years ago, the craft beer had gone all hoppy. Every single one of them that wasn't a stout.
I had been drinking very lovely beer in the UK and in the Netherlands - bitter and ale from the UK and lager from Germany and Belgium - all very good and a *variety* of kinds of flavours not just kick you in the face with shoes made hops.



Granville Island Lager is a local lager that I like.
Crisp malty, with a hint of grassy herbal hop aromas. A *hint*- just enough to make it refreshing but not enough to make it even slightly bitter or jumpy. It's incredibly smooth. It goes incredibly well with delicate food like halibut because nothing is punching the shit out of your pallet - but it still has a full, firm body to be able to cleanse the pallet between bites of fish and seafood, so you can taste your salad or sesame roast potatoes with miso gravy.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by imperfect_cupcake

Because of my IBS I can't drink ales or bitters anymore and I never could stand hoppy. I loved the local craft beer in the 90s but when I came back 5 years ago, the craft beer had gone all hoppy. Every single one of them that wasn't a stout.
I had been drinking very lovely beer in the UK and in the Netherlands - bitter and ale from the UK and lager from Germany and Belgium - all very good and a *variety* of kinds of flavours not just kick you in the face with shoes made hops.



Granville Island Lager is a local lager that I like.
Crisp malty, with a hint of grassy herbal hop aromas. A *hint*- just enough to make it refreshing but not enough to make it even slightly bitter or jumpy. It's incredibly smooth. It goes incredibly well with delicate food like halibut because nothing is punching the shit out of your pallet - but it still has a full, firm body to be able to cleanse the pallet between bites of fish and seafood, so you can taste your salad or sesame roast potatoes with miso gravy.

HB, what do you mean when you say "bitters"? I see that you don't like "hoppy" beers (which translates that you wouldn't like IPAs), but hoppier the beer, the more bitter it is. So, I am confused.

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No doubt I have written in this thread before....but... my favorites are Stout, Imperial Russian Stouts to be exact. I like ones that have a chocolate, roasty overlay to it. I also love imperial IPAs. It is the high alcohol content beers I tend to like...not because they are high alcohol content, but because it is the high alcohol content beers that are the most robust. I am seeing more Black IPAs/Black Ales too. I am liking the taste of those, I am finding. They have the roasty tasted of the stouts I like, with some hoppiness on top. So, somewhat of a stout/IPA, which works for me. What I like about them is they have the robust taste that I appreciate in a higher alcohol content stout (8.0%+), but hang out in the 6.0% family, which suits my head a bit better. I'm ok with some Red ales, which I will reach for if I am finding that the IPAs avaiable have too much of a grapefruit taste to them.

I don't like milk stouts, and I really dislike low alcohol content stouts as they taste exactly what I would picture a higher alcohol content stout halfed with water would taste like (Guinness, for example..I have no idea why people like these except for maybe the frothy head, which I can appreciate). I don't like Tripels. I don't like wheat beers, and I don't like Belgium/whites at all. None of those flavored beers either. HATE them. They remind me of people who get "coffee" which is nothing more than flavored syrup, whipped cream, and whatever else they put in those drinks. Not real coffee.

I love draft beer much, much more than I like a bottle, which means going out to pubs, so my pocket book get hits quite a bit. I have thought about getting one of those kegerators, but they are expensive. I am also concerned I will drink more since I will have draft beer easily avaialable to me. Beer from cans definitely taste better than bottles, but the craft brewers who put their beer in cans, which although is increasing, is still much lower than bottles.

[Martina]

You asked HB, but bitter ale is British ale that is slightly hoppier than pale ale, but nothing like the double and triple IPAs now popular in America.

How do you all like sour beers? I tried them first at Russian River some years ago. I like them.

Re Guinness, I agree that it lacks complexity and has no finish at all. But you can drink more of it than those chocolatey stouts.

[Martina]

I have to add that I am not too fussy about style, meaning I will drink pretty much anything as long as it's well made. I also like a flavored beer at times. There's a cherry porter made by Short's in Northern Michigan that is beautiful. The cherries are local. So good. I only had it once. Mmm. Also a good Weiss beer is fine by me. Basically, as long as it's well made, I am for it. And it doesn't have to be complex or surprising. You can tell a good clean beer that is carefully made.

I agree re Belgian whites. The soda pop of beer. There are good ones, but Blue Moon, Shock Top, and Fat Tire . . . ah no.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Martina

I have to add that I am not too fussy about style, meaning I will drink pretty much anything as long as it's well made. I also like a flavored beer at times. There's a cherry porter made by Short's in Northern Michigan that is beautiful. The cherries are local. So good. I only had it once. Mmm. Also a good Weiss beer is fine by me. Basically, as long as it's well made, I am for it. And it doesn't have to be complex or surprising. You can tell a good clean beer that is carefully made.

I agree re Belgian whites. The soda pop of beer. There are good ones, but Blue Moon, Shock Top, and Fat Tire . . . ah no.

Since it is a porter, I would try it. I can see that combination not tasting like a "flavored" beer. It would just seems it would be different than a raspberry or a pumpkin. It sounds like this would be a natural flavor, too.

Agree that you can tell a quality beer, clean and well made. That does make a huge difference.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Martina

You asked HB, but bitter ale is British ale that is slightly hoppier than pale ale, but nothing like the double and triple IPAs now popular in America.

How do you all like sour beers? I tried them first at Russian River some years ago. I like them.

Re Guinness, I agree that it lacks complexity and has no finish at all. But you can drink more of it than those chocolatey stouts.

Thanks for responding since our beloved HB pops in and out off the site. You said the British Ale is not as hoppy as the double and tripels, but what about the regular IPA?

You know, I don't think I have had a sour yet, but I have been meaning to. I wouldn't want to buy a six pack and my regular bar hasn't had any on tap yet (even though they have 37 taps and switch them out frequently). I suppose since they are called "sours", I picture them to taste like Mike's Hard lemonade or something...which I am sure is not the case!

And true that with Guiness being lighter one could drink more of them. But, I feel just a lacking when I drink them. I might even choose a Coors Light over it if I had no other choice. Which sounds crazy, I know! It just tastes like I'm drinking 2/3 water and 1/3 beer. Tasteless. The aftertaste is water. It might just be my palate.

[imperfect_cupcake]

HB, what do you mean when you say "bitters"? I see that you don't like "hoppy" beers (which translates that you wouldn't like IPAs), but hoppier the beer, the more bitter it is. So, I am confused.

They are called "bitters" because compared to ales there, they are bitter.

Not compared to IPA. I don't find them anywhere close to as bitter as IPA. They are ales, not pale beers, so it's called so in comparison to that. but a clear tawny brown you can see through, very nutty, malty, warm. The "bitter" in it is a compliment to the ale, not a lead, like an IPA.

They are called "old men's beer" or "traditional ale" they aren't stout-y pitch black which are coffee, chocolate, molasses.

They are more a clear, light-to-dark amber brown beer, and the oness I went for were "dark fruit" (like when you make overly ripe fruit into something else), pepper and caramel. They were more "spice edge bitter" than "hop edge bitter."

That said - I also always chose the *lower* of the bitter end of the traditional ales - the double malts. Ones made with pale malt and crystal malt, for example, if I could. There were further end bitter ones but to me it tasted like someone was trying to leech the moisture out of my pallet. Traditional ale bitters are *DRY* and bitter if you go for that far end.

That said, I can't drink dry wine, or dry vermouth either. Nor can I even eat a brussel sprout because of the type of bitterness.

I can do lemon! but to me that's a different bitter - that's a sweet-sharp-bitter. Not a dry acrid bitter that tastes like something is seriously wrong with what I'm eating.

Apparently this is a genetic thing.

All the more dry wine, dry martinis, and IPA for everyone else.