TR Forums

clone wrote:

and the biggest consistently losing beers were any and all wheat beers.

That's interesting because I actually find wheat beers rather palatable. Does your and your friends' taste in beer tend toward the bitter, hoppy end of the spectrum?

MadManOriginal wrote:

Given your sad stories of underage drinking and the never good consequences I'm thinking perhaps you just shouldn't drink at all...if not I won't be surprised when you post another such story but it will begin with 'Last week..'

Considering I come from a family of proud alcoholics, I would say you're probably right. But seriously, I hate the feeling of being drunk and if I drink too much I get terrible abdominal pains, so I don't think I'm in too much danger with a beer or glass of wine. I stopped drinking at 16 and have rarely drunk anything since then. I would have the occasional beer, glass of wine or a scotch/whiskey sour if I was out, but one was enough. Now that I'm getting older, I'm starting to try for a drink a day for health reasons and a bottle of beer or glass of wine does the trick. I just need to find a beer that I can look forward to drinking without dreading the bitterness as I get near the bottom.

Try the Sam Adams Imperial Series, I was sworn against beer until I tried these.

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I don't think anybody mentioned Paulaner wheat (weis or weizen) beers. I think they are great examples of the style and wheat beers are usually low in bitterness but they can be with yeast (hefe) or without (cristal) and that would give them different flavors. Give it a try if you can find. I also second Session Lager.

While we are on the subject of wheat beers, it is also worth mentioning that there are three major types you're likely to encounter, with very different flavor profiles. German-style wheat beers use a special strain of yeast which typically imparts spicy (clove) and/or fruity (banana) flavors. Belgian-style wheat beers (Wit) are normally spiced with coriander and orange peel. American-style wheat beers use a neutral yeast, are usually (but not always) very lightly hopped, and generally unfiltered; so the predominant flavors are typically wheat and yeast. (And just because a wheat beer is made in the US doesn't automatically mean it is American-style; many US micro/craft breweries brew German and/or Belgian-style wheat beers.)

Let me be clear: bitter beers are spectacular.

I'm not much of a beer guy; I go for Bourbon or Scotch most times, or a really clean vodka (note: Grey Goose is NOT a clean vodka!).

However, I can dig a good brew when the mood strikes me. I have no real preference; sometimes I'm in the mood for something light, sometimes for something a little heavier, or sometimes something a little (or a lot!) hoppy.

Avoid Dogfish Head. Their main line tends to veer into the hoppy/bitter territory, especially their 90/120 minute IPAs.

Boddingtons, however, is excellent: Light and sparkly and really crisp, no real lingering aftertaste, and most importantly, not bitter.

The Unibrue (?) line also offers some excellent choices. La Fin du Monde (The End Of The World!) is a sweeter, citrus-y beer, fairly strong in alcohol content but incredibly tasty. It's the only beer I've sampled to some "non-beer" buddies and they actually enjoyed it.

If you want to try something a little fuller bodied, look for Young's Double Chocolate Stout. It's got just a hint of that chocolate flavor, enough to give it some sweet and thickness, but you also get some solid malt and a bit of mineraliness (helps the flavor taste "brighter", I suppose).

SPOOFE wrote:

The Unibrue (?) line also offers some excellent choices. La Fin du Monde (The End Of The World!) is a sweeter, citrus-y beer, fairly strong in alcohol content but incredibly tasty. It's the only beer I've sampled to some "non-beer" buddies and they actually enjoyed it.

I don't think I've ever had anything of theirs (Unibroue) that I didn't like. Most of their beers tend to be in the "Strong Belgian Style" vein, though they have a few oddball ones which defy categorization as well (their Ephemere is sort of a hybrid of beer and hard cider, for example). None of their beers are what I'd call hoppy or bitter, so perhaps this is a brand the OP ought to check out!

One of my top five favorite beers is their Terrible. It's always a hoot to ask people if they want some Terrible beer.

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Drink Jever
I love Franziskaner too.

Picked up a sixer of Sam Adams Summer Ale today. If we're talking vodka, I enjoy Tito's Handmade.

I've found Grey Goose to be a really smooth Vodka meant for those who don't really like Vodka, Belvedere is another, splitting the difference is Silent Sam which has a really strong finish and on the strong end are Stoly special reserve and Iceberg Vodka.

Iceberg is pretty good. Never heard of Silent Sam. Grey Goose, Belvedere, and Stoli are awful. All you need is Tito's, or, if you have a special occasion, Jean Marc XO.

clone wrote:

I've had dogfish head beer bought it for the novelty and soon regretted it, just plain foul & disgusting far worse than the wheat beers we sampled.

Blasphemy!

Well, OK... some of their "one off" beers are a little weird. But their 90 Minute IPA is among my favorites.

Pagey wrote:

Picked up a sixer of Sam Adams Summer Ale today.

I'm not a big fan of the Summer Ale. I think they generally do a better job with lagers; their Oktoberfest and Winter Lager are both decent. The Noble Pils isn't bad either.

Edit: Oops, meant to post some comments on a couple of homebrew competitions on the "what are you drinking" thread and posted them here instead. (Just in case you're wondering why I edited them out.)

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clone wrote:

... Molson M beer that they are pimping with microcarbonation, to me at first it tastes borderline flat but once you get used to it a few simple rules apply and after that it becomes really easy to drink, I'm not sure I'd buy much more of it but it's not half bad despite what purests might say.

Sounds like more or less the same idea as the Guinness nitro pour thing -- lower carbonation, smaller bubbles.

clone wrote:

it's light, it's got almost the same alcohol but without the beer bloat you get when you slam several back, I suspect that ICE cold the beer would be quite refreshing.

Heh... I don't think I've "slammed several back" since my college days. And just one or two of something with a higher ABV (say a nice Belgian Tripel...) will get you the same buzz (also without the bloat)!

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I just came off a three-week trip to Europe and I stopped by the Czech Republic, which is where people supposedly drink the most beer per capita in the world. You could call it beer heaven, too. The neighboring countries I visited, Hungary, the Slovak Republic and Poland, aren't exactly slouches when it comes to beer as well. So many different brews, and all so darned cheap! You could buy them off gasoline stations for less than EUR1.00.

Ehem. Anyway...

I've only started as a beer enthusiast myself but I've been lucky enough to sample quite a few brew styles (no 14% abv India Pale Ales yet though). What I've noticed so far is that the style of the beer doesn't really say much about its bitterness per se. For example, I am a huge fan of dark/dunkel lagers and none of the ones I've tried have ever been bitter; if anything they're some of the smoothest tasting beers around. In contrast it's the light-looking pilseners that have tended to be deceptive in their bitterness.

Non-bitter stuff I'd recommend, in no particular order:
1. Hefeweizens: Of these unfiltered special wheat beers, I've tried Gordon Biersch and Hoegaarden. Both are great, but GB's tastes a little heavier on the tongue.
2. Dark or Dunkel lagers: San Miguel Cerveza Negra (aka "San Miguel Dark Lager"), Kozel Dark, Soproni Fekete Demon, Super Bock Stout - all are pretty good.
3. Pilseners: The granddaddy of this style, Pilsner Urquell, is my favorite. Soproni is a close second. Both are smooth and drinkable. Soproni has just a bit more bitterness but definitely not enough to screw with your palate.
4. "Adjunct lagers": Seriously, if you want a non-bitter beer Corona Extra should be on top of the list. Throw in a lemon slice too.

HTH

EDIT:
5. Have you ever tried any "lemon beers"? Those are definitely NOT bitter, although those also taste closer to Mountain Dew than beer. Want examples? I've tried Super Bock Green and Bazant Radler.

Hmm, a thread that's relevant to my interests. I've found that I'm liking wheat beers, though, so maybe I'll just stick with exploring that genre, as I know I like it.

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Here's my summary of what you need to know...

Hops are the primary component of beer that contribute bitterness. So in your case, stay away from anything considered 'hoppy'. That would include Pale Ales from most American brewers, and any IPAs (India Pale Ale). Some Pale Ales from European brewers might be palatable to you.

Other styles you should search for are European varieties called Bitters (yes I know, sounds scary... they aren't bitter at all by American standards) and Milds. These have low bitterness, a very mild traditional 'beer' flavor, and are low in alcohol. However, as someone who has tried and enjoyed hundreds of different beers, these are some of my favorites, although it seems they fell out of favor before I was born.

You can find tons of other info and feedback on beer-specific websites like BeerAdvocate.com. I haven't been involved in that community for several years, but I would imagine they are still a friendly, helpful group that would be happy to assist you in your journey.

ibu bitterness range: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/01/24 ... ess-range/

hops reference chart: http://brewsupplies.com/hops_reference_chart.htm

explanation of all hops: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/hops

i'm sure there's 100 other hop-relevant links that exist.

thegleek wrote:

ibu bitterness range: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/01/24 ... ess-range/

That's a very nice summary of the bitterness data from the BJCP style guidelines!

I've had some crazy hoppy/high-end IBU beer's lately... Oddly enuff, all of them have been from the stellar Mikkeller brewery:

Mikkeller 1000IBU ( http://mikkeller.dk/index.php?id=10&land=1&news_id=72 )

Mikkeller Beer Hop Breakfast ( http://www.mikkeller.dk/index.php?id=10 ... =74&land=1 )

Mikkeller/Three Floyds Boogoop ( http://99bottles.se/2011/09/10/mikkelle ... s-boogoop/ )

axeman wrote:

Try some sort of Trappist/Belgian Ale. There's much less focus on hops in those styles AFAIK, so they're less bitter. If you don't like those, then, well, you don't like beer at all, and are likely mentally unstable. I drink a ton of unibroue stuff, I think it's fantastic, and it's not expensive like the real "abbey ale" from Belgium. In fact, it's cheaper and better than the mass-market import stuff. I think blanche de chambly is a better "witbier" than hoegaarden, and 1/2 the price, at least here (canada). So if you can find something you like, and find a good non-imported (roughly) equivalent, you're set.

Awww... one of my highlights of going to the US of A last year was tasting some Belgium Trappist beer at a pub in Houston that had like 400 beers on their menu. RIDICULOUS. Was worth the 30 hr flight. Plus someone else bought it for me