I’m pretty much in the same boat. I don’t care for the taste of beer, and even a small glass is tough to get down - and, once it’s down there, it doesn’t really feel like it wants to stay there.
No, I’m not talking about getting puking drunk, I’m saying when drinking even a tiny cupful (like two or three ounces) of beer, the last swallow just feels like it wants to come right back on up.
I was in Salt Lake City a year or so ago, and had a pint (3/4 of a pint? I don’t know beer glasses very well) of Polygamy Porter*. That actually tasted OK and felt like it wanted to stay in place - although, like the OP, I doubt I will have another.
Motto: Why stop at just one? Take some home to the wives!
Most chocolate stouts don’t have any chocolate in them. None, not a drop. It just tastes similar because the malt is roasted in a right way. Nevertheless, Young’s is one which I believe does use real chocolate.
This. My husband and I gave some serious consideration to using it as a substitute for champagne at our wedding reception. I’m not much of a beer drinker, either.
I never cared much for beer either until my late 20’s, when I was introduced to the Dark Side.
I somehow made it through Germany in the Army in '86-'88 without getting exposed to decent dark beers; everyone seemed to like pilsners and such.
Went back again in '95 and fell in love with Dunkels and Bocks, Ales, Porters and Stouts.
I can drink lighter beers, especially in the blistering hot summer time, but after the first cool spell, it’s back to progressively darker, roasted malty beers.
I didn’t even see this post. If you look at my post, you’ll see I said “so fruit flavored (lambics) it’s like drinking jello” This was the beer I was talking about. Whenever I see someone looking at it in my store, this is the comparison I use…it’s like drinking Jello, it’s the beer for people that don’t like beer. I’m sure the only reason it’s called beer is that it’s made the same way, but to me, it tastes about as much like beer as Smirnoff Ice does (not that it tastes like Smirnoff Ice at all).
You’ve beat me, that’s for sure. But I think I’ve put even less effort at taste-testing than you have. I tried a couple of different brews when my friends took me bar-hopping during my then-fiancee’s bachelorette party (we were living together, I got booted out for the night). I don’t even remember what I tried, just that I took a sip or two & was :p. 21 then, 41 now–I’m pretty sure I haven’t tasted any beers in the twenty years between.
One of my friends is a beer connoisseur, and keeps threatening to expose me to some fine examples, but nothing’s come of that yet …
This is not the way good lambics taste. I’m not even sur that Lindemens can properly be called a Lambic (I mean beyond not being brewed in Brussels.). Lindemens is quite a bit sweeter than the other lambics I have had. They probably sweeten with aspartame or something like that.
More than likely, you have not had a Lambic beer other than Lindemens. Samuel Adams occasionally puts out a cranberry lambic every winter. Lambic beers are notably sour and are in my opinion, the moldy cheese of beer. Some like it, some don’t. It does not taste like an ale or a lager.
Sam Adams cranberry lambic is terrible. Tastes nothing like a lambic to me. No funk, no sourness, no nothing. And I’m a fan of Sam Adams brews in general.
Lindemann’s Framboise is a perfectly reasonable and authentic fruit lambic. It may run a little sweet, but I have no idea why you would think it’s not a proper lambic or that it’s sweetened with aspartame. I do think, as far as fruit lambics go, Cantillon or 3 Fonteinen are better breweries, but Lindemann’s is perfectly fine.
Lambics are the sourdough of beers. What chiefly defines a lambic is the wild fermentation process. (There are other things, but this is the big one.) The mixture of wild yeasts that ferment a lambic have weird, funky and sour flavors, as you rightly noted. If you taste a Lindemann’s Framboise, you will taste that sour and funk underneath the fruit. Believe me, it’s there. It’s just balanced aggressively with raspberry for that sweet-and-sour taste.
But, for those who want a taste of straight-up sour and funk, go for the gueuze (an unflavored mix of old and young lambics). The two breweries mentioned above are good, as is Hannsens (their oude gueuze is especially funky.)
In the Winter Sam Adams boxes, it looks like they replaced it with a Chocolate Bock. The cashier expressed his approval that the cranberry was gone. I think the label says it’s an ale, which is weird because bocks are lagers…
Since it’s the only beer I’ve tasted (I took a sip before cooking with it), I can’t tell you anything more about it as regards how it compares to other things.
This may be a function of labeling laws. I’m not sure if things have changed recently, but a few years back, the labeling law in California stated that any beer with an alcohol content greater than 4% (or possibly 5%, I can’t recall) had to be labeled as “Malt Liquor” or “Ale”, not “Beer”. Since “Malt Liquor” has certain unfavorable connotations, you would sometimes see lager beers labeled as “ales” to comply with the law.
And Kriek, cherry flavored. And Cassis (black currant). And Pomme (apple).
Plus they have a bunch of non fruit-flavored ones as well, the most common of which is the Gueuze Cuvee Renee and the Faro (a sweetened, unflavored lambic). I highly recommend the Cuvee Renee for those who want to try an unflavored lambic.
Hey, I’m a beer philistine, I’m well aware. One of my SO’s friends got me to try it and I’ve been hooked since. By “hooked” I mean every month or two I break down and buy a bottle ;).
I have the same problem. Not to the same extent though; I can drink several beers but if I want to have a “big night” I only have a couple of beers before moving on to less filling things such as Beam and Coke.
Since lambics are aged for such a long time I expect that most fermentable sugars are gone. Sweetening with artificial sweeteners was what at least one book on brewing these types of beers suggested.
As I said, adding more raspberries will only make your beer sweet if you kill off the fermenting yeast first. Since lambic is one of the oldest beer styles, I expect that pasteurization was not part of the original process. What really defines a lambic is the bacteria that produce lactic acid. It is the only beer style I know of where one deliberately contaminates the wort with bacteria.
Beer is an acquired taste. I only like it very cold on a really hot day. With wings. I like that it gives me a mild buzz vs. vodka which hits me like a ton of bricks.
And don’t give me any of those beers that are so thick they look like motor oil. I like my beer as close to water as possible.
Berliner Weiss beers are sour and infected with lactobaccilus. Gose (another German style, although quite difficult to find) is, too. And, of course, you have your Flemish sour ales. Also, Guinness is/was made with a bit of its beer soured being added back in. (I’ve always heard it was mixed with a bit–maybe 3%–of sour mash, but now googling it, I’m getting conflicting reports whether it is or isn’t.) There is also America’s other indigenous beer style (the first being California Common, aka steam beer), Kentucky Common, which is made with lactobaccilus-infected mash.
Plus there’s all the beers soured with brett, but that’s a type of yeast, not bacteria.
Well, looks like I have to eat crow on this one. Looking online, there do seem to be a lot of accusations and compelling evidence that says Lindemann’s uses Ace K in some of their fruit lambics. I’ll be damned.
