I’m looking for beers that are sweet, flavorful, and/or not bitter. I mean flavorful as in fruity, caramel tasting, coffee tasting, cinnamon tasting, or chocolate tasting.
My favorite lately is Leffe.
It’s a little bit toffee-sweet and a little bit spicy (but not too much of either), and smooth with great carbonation.
Pyramid makes a great Apricot Ale. Might be hard to find away from the West Coast, though.
I am a fan of Schlafly No. 15 out of St. Louis.
From the site:
Think apple pie with a hint of banana.
It is very refreshing, but I haven’t been able to find it outside of Missouri. I don’t know what I’m going to do after my daughter graduates from Mizzou in May.
This is easy to find if you haven’t tried it already - Bell’s Oberon Ale
I don’t drink much that the OP likes. The hoppier the better, mostly I go from one IPA to another.
For anyone else who’s interested though, these are some greats beers with some bitter bite that I’ve had lately.
Michigan Brewing High Seas India Pale Ale is great. Although I’ve been disappointed in other Michigan Brewing Company selections.
Go to Starbucks. What you are describing isn’t beer. Either man-up and drink Guinness, or stick to soda-pop.
I’d recommend a Wit (aka White or Wheat). Usually they have a touch of citrus flavor, orange or lemon, with a hint of coriander in the better ones… Mmmm.
Light, slightly sweet, refreshing
Dammit, as soon as this stomach flu stuff goes away I’m going to sample every wheat beer I can find.
This is one of those posts where a clue about your location would be hugely helpful.
See, a lot of good beers are microbrews IMO, which means they’re rarely found outside the brewery’s home base. I could count on my hand the number of US-based microbrews I’m able to find here in Canada, and I’m sure the same is true of Canadian microbrews in the US. Hell, selection from state to state or province to province varies dramatically.
As far as awesome Ontario/Quebec beers that are dark, smooth and not too bitter go, here’s my $0.02:
Maudite (Unibroue): very smooth (bonus: comes in 750ml bottles)
McAuslan’s Oatmeal Stout: nice burnt-caramel notes
Mill St Coffee Porter: has some nice hints of dark coffee (obviously)
Orange Peel Ale (Great Lakes Brewery): surprisingly refreshing, not too heavy on the orange
Try a Belgian Lambic. Especially Lindemans Lambic Framboise. Sweet and very tasty. Packs a punch too.
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Moved.
IMHO > CS
The serious beer folks in Cafe Society will help you out!
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Dag it, I forgot that Schlafly has a tasty Coffee Stout, too. I just drank my last one until March.
Bah! Guinness is swill. Any self-respecting microbrewery will make a stout that puts Guinness to shame.
My local favorite is Highland Black Mocha Stout. Especially when it’s on tap, it’s an incredibly roasty beer. No added superfluous ingredients (things like Chocolate Stouts with added chocolates taste repulsive to me), just water and malted barley and yeast and hops, but it’s got lovely chocolate and coffee overtones. Just wonderful.
Suggestion: if you recommend a beer, check www.beeradvocate.com for a link to the beer. The site is wonderful for recommendations!
Daniel
That’s the one I would suggest if you want fruity. That beer doesn’t resemble beer at all. I like to tell people it tastes like Jello, and it does. It tastes exactly like Jello.
Coffee tasting I would suggest some sort of Mocha Porter or even Founders Breakfest Stout. It’s a double chocolate oatmeal coffee stout and I thought it tasted like a cup of coffee.
Also, what’s your location, there are some Wisconsin beers you might like as well. For example, Furthermore’s Fallen Apple tastes like (and is) beer and apple juice mixed together.
One more off the top of my head, Goose Island 312 Wheat. It’s a wheat beer (duh) but it had a fruity/citrusy background taste to it (that I personally didn’t care for).
Good choice, but I would recommend (for the OP) either La Fin du Monde or Don de Dieu from the same brewery. Maudite is a bit more robust, IMO.
Saw this last night: http://climate.weather.com/articles/organicbeer092501.html?page=1
Q
For sweet and fruity try wheat beers. Although not my favorite, a raspberry wheat can be very nice on a nice hot sunny day. If its in your area, I like Sunshine Wheat by New Belgium.
For nice chocolate and caramel taste I would try browns. They have a little bitter aftertaste to them, but give a nice flavorful sweet initial impact. The standard here is probably New Castle, and should be pretty widely available.
Porters and stouts tend to have lots of flavor to them (chocolate, coffee, vanilla, oatmeal, exc.). They are very different from most other styles of beers, which may be a good thing for you. They range from low to medium bitterness. When I have these, I drink exclusively from local microbreweries, so no real recommendations (although as Left Hand of Dorkness suggested, there are much better stouts out there then Guiness).
Seconded. The Trader Joe’s variety is of similar quality.
Pete’s Wicked Strawberry Blonde is my favorite of the “fruity” beers. A nice strawberry flavor, but not sweet.
If you’re east of the Mississippi, try Yuengling (if you’re west, forget it; I’ve tried.) I had it when I was back home for the holidays and was immediately blown away by how . . . (I’m searching for a word here) . . . delicious it was. It tasted like something even a lot of non beer-lovers could love.