It has been interesting to read about favorite/least favorite styles. Reading them got me thinking about styles I used to either not care for or really detest that I now enjoy or even in some cases dare I say it, LOVE! Beers I dislike are becoming less and less…
Fruit beer is often maligned and I too was a fruit hater but I have had some brews that changed my mind. I do still avoid fruit beers mostly as there are MANY awful fruit beers out there. Berkshire Brewing Company (Mass.) makes a delicious Raspberry barley wine. I love barley wines and I was really hesitant to try this. I avoided it for a long time until the package store had only one left… I figured what the hell and tried it. It was an epiphany! Really refreshing and yet definitely a beer. I regretted not getting more as it was a seasonal. I have had a couple of other fruit beers that were quite good as well since. I believe they had raspberry as well…
Another was Belgian tripels, golden strongs, saisons… Anything Belgian that was light in complexion I did not like. I could not even tell one from the other, they all seemed the same. Belgian dubbels, and dark strongs I LOVED, just nothing pale. I cannot explain why exactly. I think it was the paler belgians seemed more phenolic? The darker ones have more of the rummy, fruity dark caramel flavors in addition to the phenols.
Not sure what happened, it was not any particular beer but suddenly I had a craving for the paler variations and particularly that same spicy phenol character. I really enjoy them now. I even have begun trying my hand at brewing them. Can’t wait to brew up some saison…
On the other hand some beers I used to love have slipped from the top in terms of favor. I used to really love hop bombs of all types. Could drink them all the time any time. Now, I have to be in the mood for one. They do not always taste as good to me. My tastebuds have definitely changed I believe. Malty beers seem to now be the standard all around anytime flavor for me these days.
What have been your changes of heart in terms of beer style or changes in taste?
Hefewiezen here. SWMBO use to love them and I couldn’t stand them, but then one day I found myself craving the banana esters and it has been down hill since then :
Hefeweizens are probably one that I didn’t start out liking till I made a fresh one. I still don’t make them very often but they are very good when very fresh. On the flip side, I started out loving IPAs as you did, but after a while I started realizing that a lot of them are lousy and a few are very good. I still love the very good ones and could drink them every day.
Lagers and pilsners. I used to lump them all in with the mega-brewers fizzy yellow water, but now I realize its not the style, but the brewers and that the mega-brewers brew their fair share of shite ales too.
I think it was having (and brewing) a dunkel and oktoberfest opened my eyes/tastebuds.
I’m openminded enough to at least try a fruit beer if offered, but I have yet to have one I enjoy. However, I really like mixing cider and beer and plan to try Major’s trick of sparging with apple juice sometime in the spring.
The first sip I ever had of Delerium Tremens I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish the bottle, by the time I finished the bottle I was wishing I had a second one.
Sours. The first couple I had, I hated. Funny thing is, they were La Folie and Dutchess de Burgeonne. I can’t get enough now.
Any really big Belgian with banana esters, those have fallen out of favor with me.
I used to hate hoppy beers then I started home brewing…I’ve become quite the hophead and can’t believe I used to hate IPAs! There’s just something about the aroma of hops in the brew pot that turned me…my wife however, cannot stand it when I "smell"the house up with hops
I also didn’t like high alcohol beers before I started home brewing. Now I find low gravity beers to really lack flavor. It’s good because I’m making beer I really like to drink but bad because I can’t drink as many without getting drunk ;D .
-Eric
When I first started home brewing I imagined myself making nothing but hoppy IPA’s. After burning myself (and my friends) out on over hopping everything I’m now finding myself loving the less hopped beers such as Pilsners, Honey Wheats, Heff’s, etc.
IPA After my first batch of beer, I went to he beer sore and got a bunch of different styles I would like to brew next. I poured an IPA, and almost hurled. So, I tried a different one. It sucked too, so I swore never to brew an IPA. A few months later, a had an IPA from Saranc, and fell in love. Today, they do not make a beer to hoppy for me. ;D
