I’ve always liked beers emphasizing the flavors of roasted malt and yeast, so today’s craft brewing fixation on hops doesn’t work for me. I mean, why should one brewing company have 6 different IPA’s? But here are two types that I’ve really liked and found unusual:
Dark beer recipes that taste a bit like wine. One example of this is Moretti’s La Rossa, from Italy. But I’ve tasted similar stuff from the USA. Pyramid brewing had something called “Ancient Ale” or “1000 year ale” which was winey. These are often fermented in old red wine barrels, as another type I like, Saison, sometimes is. Now, I’m not a wine drinker, but wine-tasting beer is right up my alley.
So, question: What do you call such an ale? Wine-tasting dark beer? There’s got to be a name for this type of beer…
Wisconsin’s beers just keep getting better and better. I got a bunch from New Glarus brewing earlier this summer, including a Belgian (cherry) red ale that was an impulse buy. I think it was this: https://newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/beers/OurBeers/Beer/wisconsin-belgian-red OMG it had a super-intense cherry taste. Couldn’t believe it. Had to sip it. It was so potent I thought surely it would hurt me. But it did not make me feel sick at all.
I don’t know about most unusual ever but recently I bought a Flying Dog brewery seasonal summer 12-pack and one of beers in it was “Dead Rise,” brewed with Old Bay crab seasoning. It was primarily a wheat “summer ale,” but with a subtle but noticeable flavor of Old Bay. Actually not bad. I’d buy it again.
Mine is not sooo exotic, but for me who gets his beer in Germany where historically pushing the boundaries of what you can call “beer” is frowned upon, the most unusual was EKU 28, “one of the strongest beers in the world” as advertised. It had that mystique already 33 years ago when I was 18 and it was first served to me. Of course we all thought it had 28 % alcohol, but in fact (like I just learned on the website) it’s a “mere” 11 %. Never drank it again, because it tasted sweeter than a German malt beer, not refreshing at all and more like a fruit liquor.
Egyptian Stella. Not to be confused in any way with Stella Artois. This stuff usually had unidentified floaters in it and tasted like what I would imagine panther piss to taste like.
I’ve had this, and liked it. I also love Belgian beers - all styles - lambics, sours, dubbels, trippels, etc. I’ve also had American beer made with hemp and African beer made with sorghum, and those were OK too. I’ve had a veritable multitude of fruit beers that ranged from ‘mighty good’ (typically Belgian) to ‘once was enough’ (a banana-flavored one). There seems to be agreement in this thread that chili-flavored beer is just wrong. I concur.
Anchor Steam spruce beer. It was bottled nightmare. Tasted like Lestoil® mop-water smells. Half a bottle made me sick and left me viciously hungover for two solid days. Apparently, spruce beer was a thing back when scurvy was a widespread concern. Happily, times change.
If you find yourself in Reno during the summer, Great Basin Brewing makes a Kolsch-style Cerveza Chilebeso that I really enjoy. People either love it or hate it, though - there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground.
Goose Island teamed up with beer historian Ron Pattinson to brew a real traditional Porter from 1840: Obadiah Poundage. Fascinating video here. And a news article here.
Long story short, they
used a recipe from 1840 brewing logs
Went to seed bank, and literally regrew an effectively “extinct” barley that was prevalent back in the day
maltsters made firewood from the traditional wood and then roasted over open coals in a historic recreation
Had help from an English master brewer who has been brewing English beers for 50 years or so
more that I’ve forgotten
Now that’s a beer to brag about! Sadly I’ve never met anyone who’s even tried one, much less had a taste myself.
I’m not into German Chocolate Cake or any of those dessert beers beyond a very occasional novelty test. I also generally dislike the taste of American hops, so the IPA craze has passed me by.
I try local beers whenever I travel. Asia tends to be light German lagers. Although when I visited the Sapporo Brewery, I tried “On The Rocks”. IIRC, it was around 6% ABV and brewed as a summer beer enjoyed poured over a glass full of ice. Aim was after it had been poured warm on ice, ice melted, temperature dropped, and voila a tasty beer (versus something watered down). I never saw it anywhere else after that one time brewery visit.
I had a beer called Kopikat, which—not so unusually—was a coffee-infused stout, but where the coffee was Kopi Luwak—i. e. the stuff that’s been excreted by a civet cat. It wasn’t shit. (This was before I knew how the cats are usually treated in the production of the coffee.)
I also had a Schorschbock (from Schorschbräu), who pride themselves in making the strongest beers in the world (record is currently 57%, I think, achieved by fractional freezing). The one I had ‘only’ had 20%, but it really didn’t have much in common with beer—little to no carbonation, thick, sickly sweet.
I usually like strong beers, but too far beyond 10% just isn’t really right anymore.
Strongest has been BrewDog Tactical Nuclear Penguin at %32. It’s ice distilled and tastes like beer brandy.
A subtle chilli beer is Bingham’s Hot Dog Chilli Stout, you get a bit of heat after the swallow. They also do Ginger Doodle Stout with a nice ginger heat, and Peppercorn Porter.
Several different breweries do beers with elderflowers. I’ve lots of beers with different fruits including peach, cherry, raspberry, lemon, raisin, banana and probably others I’m forgetting. Fraoch Heather Ale is a gruit from Williams Brothers that uses heather instead of hops. There are a few others that include nettles or thistles along with hops.
Barrel aging seems to be on-trend right now, a favourite is Ola Dubh from Harviestone.
I like the German rauchbiers, it’s like beer and bacon!
Sours are also very trendy right now, but my favourite is one that’s been around forever, Rodenbach Grand Cru.
I recently hit 3100 unique beers on Untappd so there are probably some oddballs that I’ve forgotten about.
