Page 3 of 6

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 1:18 pm
by Nanohedron
oleorezinator wrote:What do you beer drinkers from across the pond think of this stuff?
I like some hoppiness, but there's a line past which bitterness takes all the pleasure out of it.

My real pet peeve, though, is the designer ales of the past few years. There's been a fashion for overwrought floridity and perfume. Blech. Totally put me off new-style American ales. I hope brewers - and consumers - have matured in their tastes and realized that just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 2:30 pm
by Dan A.
Nanohedron wrote:My real pet peeve, though, is the designer ales of the past few years. There's been a fashion for overwrought floridity and perfume.
Not quite sure what you're getting at here. What I don't get is the fruit-infused beer. I can see some of them working, and lime and lemon slices have been used to garnish beer glasses for some time...but a watermelon-infused beer? Granted, people have different tastes, but I can't see that one working...especially if it came out of a can.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:25 pm
by Nanohedron
Dan A. wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:My real pet peeve, though, is the designer ales of the past few years. There's been a fashion for overwrought floridity and perfume.
Not quite sure what you're getting at here.
I'm talking about flavor and aroma. Or are you saying you haven't encountered micro-brew ales with flavor profiles you would call overdone? If so, maybe it's just me. Of course I understand that ales by their nature are going to be richer-flavored than lagers, and I've liked them, but I've also had a few that were so assertive, it was like drinking liquified flowers. Big, honking flowers. The word "bouquet" would have double meaning. I find super-floral ales more cloying than refreshing, and that just doesn't work for me.
Dan A. wrote:What I don't get is the fruit-infused beer. I can see some of them working, and lime and lemon slices have been used to garnish beer glasses for some time...but a watermelon-infused beer? Granted, people have different tastes, but I can't see that one working...especially if it came out of a can.
At the end of the day all I want is only the pristine four: water, malt, yeast, and hops. Nothing more, and from there let the artistry fall where it may. Whether it's ale or beer, I guess my tastes run more toward the elegance of unburdened simplicity and understatement. Shandy's got tradition behind it, but all the same I'd rather not, thanks.

Tried lambics, but couldn't acquire a taste for them.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 6:48 pm
by Dan A.
Nanohedron wrote:Are you saying you haven't encountered micro-brew ales with flavor profiles you would call overdone? If so, maybe it's just me.
Not really. But, as I've said before, I gravitate largely toward stouts these days. It's entirely possible that I'm working with too small a sample, so it may not be just you.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 6:58 pm
by Nanohedron
These were invariably darkish ales, but definitely not stouts. I always liked stouts and porters.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:38 pm
by chas
Dan A. wrote:What I don't get is the fruit-infused beer. I can see some of them working, and lime and lemon slices have been used to garnish beer glasses for some time...but a watermelon-infused beer? Granted, people have different tastes, but I can't see that one working...especially if it came out of a can.
Watermelon is definitely a stretch, but other fruits have been in beers for centuries. Kriek, framboise, and peche (cherry, raspberry, and peach) are common in Belgian beers. Orange peel in witbiers. Pumpkin ale is mature. Wassails have often had some kind of berry -- elderberry, blackberry, etc.

So while you may not like fruit in beers, it's nothing new.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:04 pm
by Dan A.
chas wrote:So while you may not like fruit in beers, it's nothing new.
I will try a fruit-infused beer from time to time, and I also enjoy sours from time to time, too. And sometimes I will add lemon or lime juice to beer on my own. It's not that I dislike fruit-infused beers (despite what the tone of my post might have lead anyone to infer), but that I usually prefer beer without such accompaniment.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:20 am
by Tor
Nanohedron wrote: At the end of the day all I want is only the pristine four: water, malt, yeast, and hops.
This. +1 Yes. Those who came up with the 'purity law' knew what they were doing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:21 am
by AaronFW
In my uneducated opinion, I suspect that with the rise of the Craft Breweries in the US in the last few years there has also been a rise of new Beer-Drinkers (possibly of the same generation as the brewers). Yet Breweries have a need to stand out among all the other breweries, especially to young people like me and my wife. Thus we end up trying a lot of the Beers that feature citra-hops as well as various fruits and spices. My wife has been enjoying a local Pale Ale Wheat Ale (JAFB Summer Slingshot) that (she claims) has similar taste to grapefruit.

Our Pub also frequently has Ales with watermelon or are coffee infused. Again, I think they are shooting for a market like my wife and I who are young and think “Sure, why not?” We’ve missed the pure stuff of Europe and Germany, and I’m not sure if we’d even like it. (It is like of like the discussion of lemonade in the thread titled “Cocktails”, where lemonade in the US is very different than the UK; and likewise, the response of being served something other than what you are used to can be surprising.) That being said, I will definitely try some of the beers Dan and others have suggested.

I think at this point I just drink for the fun, to avoid drinking water, and to experience the clever concoctions people think up. (I find brewing itself to be a fascinating practice that each culture has and develops in ways that makes sense to them.)

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:40 am
by Dan A.
Tor wrote:Those who came up with the 'purity law' knew what they were doing.
While I do enjoy a beer that is brewed in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot, I don't think a bourbon-barrel stout would be able to fly that banner.
AaronFW wrote:In my uneducated opinion, I suspect that with the rise of the Craft Breweries in the US in the last few years there has also been a rise of new Beer-Drinkers (possibly of the same generation as the brewers). Yet Breweries have a need to stand out among all the other breweries, especially to young people like me and my wife.
This is, at the very least, a sound theory. The proprietors of craft breweries have to do something to stand out in that very large sea. Sometimes, if one is in BevMo! or a similar store, even interesting labels or packaging will do that trick.

Craft brews are sometimes not widely available, so if you have a hard time finding a suggested beer, you can always seek out one in that style.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:03 am
by Innocent Bystander
I echo Nanohedron's sentiment about over-hoppiness.

In fact, since I learned that mugwort was used to flavour beer before hops were introduced to the UK ("Hops, Reformation, baize and beer, came into England all in a year.") I've wondered what that would taste like. If anyone hears of a mugwort beer, please let me know.

I'll iterate that sentiment on over tannin-ing. I tried a beer called "Oak King" some years back. Never again!

I've come to enjoy an IPA. Pretty well any IPA. Badger brewery do a "Poacher's Choice" which has a fruitiness that I enjoy (although granted, not everyone would). Anything by Hobgoblin gets a look in. Boddingtons is the local Manchester brewery, which does an innocuous lagery type fluid. I drink it if there is nothing else. The real local brew in Oldham, UK, is J.W.Lees. It is dire. I had occasion to take a urine sample from the dog to the vet, and I did wonder if they passed it on to J.W.Lees after testing.
But the ale on the shelf which is first choice is Doom Bar.

My wife would like me to mention "Old Tom". Do not order a pint of Old Tom. Order a half. You will still be able to stand up afterwards.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:32 am
by Tunborough
AaronFW wrote:In my uneducated opinion, I suspect that with the rise of the Craft Breweries in the US in the last few years there has also been a rise of new Beer-Drinkers (possibly of the same generation as the brewers).
Innocent Bystander wrote:Badger brewery do a "Poacher's Choice" which has a fruitiness that I enjoy (although granted, not everyone would).
I would be almost a generation before many of the new brewmasters, though not all of them. My interest in beer started with British cask-conditioned ales in 1984, of which Badger Beer particularly appealed to me.

I like to know that the hops are there, and I like to know that they are hops--that they add flavour and aroma, not just bitterness. I'm always willing to try an ale that's been dry-hopped. I once sampled a graduation brew from students of the Olds College brewmaster program; it was exquisitely, rapturously hoppy, to a level that would probably make it economically impractical for any for-profit brewery.

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:37 am
by AaronFW
Innocent Bystander wrote: But the ale on the shelf which is first choice is Doom Bar.
What about Doom Bar makes it your first choice?

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:41 am
by AaronFW
Nanohedron wrote:
oleorezinator wrote:What do you beer drinkers from across the pond think of this stuff?
I like some hoppiness, but there's a line past which bitterness takes all the pleasure out of it.
Nano, I'm slightly confused; I thought oleorezinator was in the US. So does that mean you are originally from the other side of the pond?

Re: Of Beers

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 12:24 pm
by Nanohedron
AaronFW wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:
oleorezinator wrote:What do you beer drinkers from across the pond think of this stuff?
I like some hoppiness, but there's a line past which bitterness takes all the pleasure out of it.
Nano, I'm slightly confused; I thought oleorezinator was in the US. So does that mean you are originally from the other side of the pond?
Nope. US Upper Midwest, born and bred. I always thought oleorezinator was from across the Pond from me. But I never did really know for sure, now that you mention it.