Talk to me about beer

Cafe Society
1

I am not much of a beer drinker but have lately been liking it more. However, I am not knowledgeable about what words describe what I like (yeast? Hop? Malt? Huh?), so I’m turning to the almighty SDMB.

I do NOT like anything labeled IPA, too bitter. But I like some things called “Pale Ale” such as Bass. Apparently, the I in IPA makes all the difference? I can tolerate the mainstream big brews like Bud but don’t like them. Better are the few Porters I’ve had (Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes was good). I also like Dos Equis Amber, whatever that is considered. My favorite by far is labeled wheat beer. I’ve had a few Belgian examples, as well as American ones like Goose Island 312, and like these quite a bit.

So if I see a description of a beer on a menu, what would signify that I’d have a good chance of liking it? Suggestions of fairly accessible things to try are also welcome (I’m in Ohio, in a city with plenty of stores with large selections of beers, big name and small)

2

Well, you know you like wheat beers, so that’s a start. Stay away from anything with the word “Imperial” or “India” or “Stone Brewing” on the label.

In very general terms, "Hoppy = “Bitter”, “Malty” = “sweet(er)”, and “yeasty” = “breadlike.”

Dos Equis Amber is a Vienna-style beer, so you will probably like anything described as such. Other styles you might like include Oktoberfest, Märzen, and Dortmunder.

3

Yes, the “I” makes much of the difference.

This is a vast oversimplification, but if you don’t like IPAs, you’re probably disliking the hops. The “I” = India and a feature of these beers is lots of hops.

There’s a wide variety of Pale Ales, though, so it’s quite possible you might like other types of Pale Ales. But if it advertises as “hoppy”, stay away.

As for wheat beers, there’s also a wide variety there, so you may want to try a few different styles. You tend to get citrus-y hints in a lot of wheat beers. If you like these, look for the style (witbier, hefeweizen, weisse, wheat, etc).

4

I’m guessing that you would like the amber ales, a type of pale ale that is not IPA. In North America, American-variety hops are used in varying degrees of bitterness, although very few examples are particularly hoppy.

5

Bass is an English pale ale, and is much different from an American pale, like Sierra Nevada pale ale. Try that and see if you still like in, although the US version is much closer to IPA.

Ambers are good.

6

If you like wheat beer, and you like Porters, then I think you might like dark wheat beers like Aventinus, and especially its Eisbock version. Other wheat beers you might like include Ayinger Brau-Weisse and Ur-Weisse. Ayinger also makes a dopplebock (not a wheat beer) called Celebrator (in the U.S.)

There are plenty of U.S. versions of these beers; the German ones just came to mind and are widely distributed.

7

If you happen to be somewhere that lists IBU for a beer (rare, but it happens), this stands for
International Bitterness Unit, then you definitely want to stay away from the higher end ones, probably 60 or higher (100 is the max, I believe) You are likely going to lie beers with an IBU in the 20-40 range.

8

Try Michelob Amber Bock. Not a true Bock, but a dark Lager. It’s my “Budweiser” (my everyday, knock-em-back-while-watching-TV beer).

Also, if you like Dos Equis Amber, give Negra Modelo a try.

And I had Edmund Fitzgerald a few years back while in Columbus, OH, and like it as well.

9

There’s been a trend, although I think it’s waning, in craft (or micro-) brewing in the last couple of years to make very hoppy beer. I like hops as much as the next person, probably more, but I’m glad the trend is fading.

As a homebrewer, and appreciator of all kinds of beer, it’s interesting to see trends come and go, especially in the fast-growing (read: exploding) craft brewing sector.

In addition to their bitter flavor, hops also have something of a preservative quality; some British brewers added copious amounts of hops to their batches of pale ale for the long voyage to India for troops stationed there, thus the name.

In the wheat beer category, Gray Ghost’s recommendations of Ayinger beers are heartily seconded by me; I think Ayinger is one of the best breweries in the world. The Germans know a thing or two about beer.

In addition, if you don’t like hoppy beers, you might see if you like particularly malty beers (which are heavier in body and somewhat sweeter – but not cloying) like bocks – such as Gray Ghost’s recommendation of Ayinger’s Celebrator doppelbock – it’s simply outstanding.

Along with the recommendation of Märzen (they’re brewed in March for enjoyment in the fall, particularly Oktoberfest) by silenus, Scottish ales are also malty. For particulars, I’ll throw a recommendation for a Colorado brewery that’s making some inroads in other parts of the country: Odell’s 90 Shilling is mighty tasty. Also, Bristol Brewing (in Colorado Springs) makes Laughing Lab (as in Labrador retriever) – if you can find it in your area, get it.

10

Sign up at beeradvocate and lurk in the general forums. Also, read though some style characteristics.

11

As Great Antibob said, India pale ale has lots of hops and more bitter taste. The reason for this, I believe, is that Britain would ship beer with lots of hops to India when it was a British territory. The hops supposedly helped the beer stay fresher during the long journey.

If you like Belgian and USA wheat brew, then try out German beers labeled ‘weiss’ or ‘hefeweisen’ since those are wheat as well.

I personally like the Trappist beers (or are they barley wines?..people have argued with me on that) which are brewed by abbey monks at monasteries in Belgium and, I think, one in The Netherlands. Some of them export and some of them don’t; Rochefort, Chimay, and Westmalle are the ones I can easily find the USA (not available in all areas depending on alcohol laws). Most of the Trappist brews are strong…typically 7% to 11% range alcohol volume. Tasty strong.

12

Individual monastic breweries may put out barley wines, but Trappist beers are not generally considered barley wines. The latter is of English origin, not Belgian or Dutch, for one. Lambics are also fun to try. They’re not ales or lagers, and are usually sediment heavy.

13

I have similar tastes. Check out Bell’s Winter White and then Oberon in the summer. Stone’s Smoked Porter is also a personal fave. Goose Island’s Matilda is very good as is Victory’s Golden Monkey.

14

Lagers are underrated – the bland pilsener style industrial beers have ruined the reputation of lagers, but I have had some mighty fine ones. Negra Modelo is one of my favorite beers, for its nice well-balanced flavor.

15

Prima Pils is an out-of-this-world lager, too. Any Weihenstephaner is great if you can find it too.

16

Dewey, I thought I’d address this part of the OP to help you get a better feel for these terms. I’m bowdlerising the brewing process quite a bit to impart the gist.

Yeast: microscopic fungi that “eat” carbohydrates (in this case, malt) and “expire” alcohol and carbon dioxide. Take a bottle of water, add in malt, then hops, then the yeast … and the yeast makes both the alcohol and (some) carbonation for you. There’s your beer. Yeast itself tastes kind of “bready”.

Malt: germinated grain that is dried out to halt growth. Just throwing ungerminated wheat or barley grains into water gets you nowhere. The grains must be split open and germination must have begun for the yeast to be able to do its stuff.

Malt itself, before use in beer-making, can be modified by roasting – from barely roasted for light-colored beers with little malt flavor, all the way to roasted into “black malt” for porters and stouts which are pretty much malt bombs (yum, I say :smiley: ). Every intermediate roasting level in between is used somewhere, which give the world of beers a pretty wide color gamut.

Hops: technically the flowers of the humble hops plant (a climbing vine), the hops that go into beer look like little green pine cones. Hops are sensitive to the soil conditions they are grown in, and can vary in taste and aroma depending on where they are grown. Generally, hops gives beer some bitterness – sometimes too much, as in the IPAs that you’ve sampled. Some varieties of hops impart more aroma and less taste to beer.

Hops are typically added to wort (= malted water, for our purposes) at a stage before yeast is introduced. I don’t believe hops are necessary to make an alcoholic beverage out of malt, water, & yeast … but without hops, the result won’t be very beer-like.

…

OK, then. Your main flavor vectors are malt & hops. If the malt is practically unroated and sparingly used, and the hops are also skimpy, the result is a typical mass-produced brew (Bud, Coors, Heinken, etc.). If you have a nice dark malt and a middling level of hops, you’ve got a nice dark stout beer (Guiness is popular, but other varieties such as Watney’s Cream Stout blow it out the water). Lightly roasted malt and a generous hand with aromatic hops? There’s your top-shelf lagers such as Pilsner Urquell. Sub out some the barley malt with wheat malt and kick up the aromatics (hops plus items like coriander and orange peel), and you end up with the better wheat beer varieties (weizens, hefeweizens).

And of course, there are many variations on the theme. And I hadn’t even gotten into the difference between ales and lagers, or any of that stuff. But this post should give you a start.

17

HERETIC!!

Actually, the best cream stout is Mackessons.

18

Mackesson’s XXX is definitely one of the “other varieties” of stout that surpass Guiness. Good call … the OP would love some XXX, I’d bet.

19

Bass Ale is considered to be an English Pale Ale. Note that English styles are generally less hoppy and more malty than their American counterparts. And IPAs are more bitter than Pale Ales.

I would highly recommend a lot of German style beers. Munich “helles” lagers are a bit malty, with not a lot of hops. Bocks are darker and have a nice maltiness, while Doppelbocks (double bocks) are more intense on the malt front.

Of course, those beers are hard to find on tap, and may even be difficult to find bottled in some stores. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, is, in my opinion, THE archetypal American porter. If you like that, you will like any “porter” style beer. Stouts, another style of dark beer, tend to have more variance than porters. Some can be porter-like in their intensity and hoppiness. Some can be more malty, and some can be hoppy. Imperial Stouts tend to be both intense and sweet on the malt front and balanced by bracing hops. They are sipping beers, and they can be a wonderful experience, but they may not be your style if you’re looking for something more balanced.

20

Thanks for the tip! I’ll look for that one–I love porters, and so few brewers make them. Great beers for a winter’s evening, by the fire, with a good book and a pipe.