Expanding my beer knowledge

[celticdevildog]

I've been homebrewing only since May of this year so my 'knowledge' of beer is very little. I used to stick to my 'safe' beers. The ones that I knew I would like. These mainly fell in the category of Newcastle, Harp or Killians. I would usually order "anything brown or dark" when I had a drink.

Well, that's all about to change. I've scoured the web and found a few lists of "must try beers" and compiled it to come up with 153 different beers to try! So, I figure I can call this research on what new styles I might want to try and brew and also help to expand my knowledge of what beer is, and how different styles should taste.

It helps that the Sprout's grocery store seems to have a nice variety of what they call craft beer available.

In the spirit of my new adventure into beer I bought two beers from the list today: Ommegang's Abby Ale and Rogue's Dead Guy Ale.

I'm looking forward to my research and seeing what I can learn from drinking some of the fine craft beer out there.

 

[BryceL]

I'd suggest looking up and printing yourself a copy of the BJCP Style Guidelines. It lists and describes all the different beer styles aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, vital stats, and commercial examples of the style. You could read through these as you are tasting different beers to help you understand the different styles.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Agreed. Check out the BJCP style guidelines (they're online). Each style has a list of good commercial examples of the style.

Then get out there and drink some beer. It is really eye-opening. I became a fan of lambics and sours by doing this. So many beers, so few weekends.

EDIT: And I'll add, even try the beer styles that you *think* you won't like. Even if you've had a lot of commercial and craft brews, you may realize that you have been drinking bad representatives of the style. Keep your mind open.

 

[celticdevildog]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm all about trying to expand my pallet and see if I can start to taste some of the more subtle things about beer.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I'm new-ish to homebrewing too (been brewing for a year after a 15+ year hiatus).

Really, hit the BJCP website and poll the folks here for good examples of each style, and then go find a good beer store and explore. I found that where I used to just drink beer, now I *taste* beer. Homebrewing, even on a small scale, really gives you an appreciation for the craft; you really begin to taste the malt, yeast, and hops and learn how they dance. My appreciation of beer has changed dramatically since I started brewing again.

My homebrew is often good, sometimes bad, rarely excellent. Exploring the styles really helps your aim when you brew.

 

[celticdevildog]

Just downloaded the BJCP app for my iphone. There is a lot of great information in it. I'll have to add this to my reading list and remember to pull it out when I'm trying a beer and see how much of the "style" I can taste in beers.

 

[Fancy_Pants]

Be sure to try a couple from each variety and really give them a chance. I know a lot of people don't much care for strongly hopped ipa's but range of flavor profiles in that category alone are mind blowing. Two years ago I disregarded hoppy beers as tasting like earwax, these days I get excited when I see a new double ipa.

 

[celticdevildog]

There are at least 874 unique beers mentioned in the BJCP not including the mead and cider sections. At this rate I could have a unique beer a day and go almost three years before I had to. " look" for award winning beers.

This should be a fun, rewarding and taste bud opening experience.

2 down, 872 left to go. This is one research project I'm actually excited about as an adult.