Need suggestions for next brew. Trying to try something different

I generally stick to lighter beers. Wheats are my favorite.

I do not like really hoppy beers. In particular, I dislike IPA's and strong stouts like guiness.

Can someone suggest a non-wheat beer? I am looking to broaden my appreciation for different types of beer.

Thank you.

 

Biermunchers centennial blonde? Light sightly hoppy.... check his profile and then his friends profiles for recipes. I do that to get ideas sometimes

 

Guinness is not a hoppy or strong beer... but since you don't like it I would also rule out dry stouts as well.

Perhaps you try an American Cream Ale? Or an English Brown? Or English Bitter? Or maybe a Belgian Blond?

 

+1 on the belgiAn blonde. They opened the door for me to move past wheat beers. Try a decent tripel.

 

If you're dead set on staying light in color, try a cream ale or a kolsch - both very clean, refreshing beers that make for good summertime drinking.

If you're interested in delving into something with a little color, consider an English mild or a Scottish 70 shilling - both are easy drinking, very light on bitterness, and can be quite flavorful without carrying any kind of hops presence, since it sounds like hops isn't your thing.

 

+1 on the English Bitter.

Don't worry, they aren't actually bitter. Just a light session beer with good malt flavor.

 

When you say lighter are you referring to lower calorie (in which case, seek out low gravity, it's nearly hand in hand the same thing,) or lighter colored malts, meaning you don't like dark malt beers? I say this because you mentioned one of the misconceptions in the beer world. Guinness is neither strong (it's low ABV) nor heavy (it's not a high calorie beer at all.) It's also not a very hoppy beer in any way.

Some suggestions: English brown ale, English mild ale, any Scottish or Irish ale, Kolsch or Blond Ale, plenty of Lager styles if you have the capability to lager.

 

Another vote for Belgian Blonde. Nice complex flovors without being heavy or hoppy.

I love brown ales, but if you don't like darker beers, don't go this way yet.

I will submit that I never understand why people judge a beer by color. There are dark beers with little flavor, and light beers that explode in your mouth.


Also:

Agree with this 100%.

 

He's probably referring to the roast character in stouts. I'm not always a fan of some dark roast flavors. Keep in mind there a few different kinds of stouts and they are not all roasty in the same way (or to the same degree).

With that in mind, you still have a wide range of styles to go for. American Pale Ales can vary widely in their hop and malt character. Ambers can do the same, although they are definitively darker than APA's. There is also a wide variety of non-roasty malt flavors and you can find them in the lighter beers.

Beers can have bready, biscuit, toasty, caramel, honey and lots of other mild malt flavors.

On the hop side, beers don't have to have prominent bitterness to be called "hoppy." I would consider any beer that has hop bitterness, flavor, or aroma that isn't balanced by malt character to be hoppy. There are lots of different hop flavors and aromas that can improve a beer without making it into an IPA.

An APA that has a lot of hop aroma, but subdued bitterness can be quite refreshing on a hot day.

 

Guys like me have been drinking the beers that you see every day in the store. Bud Light, Corona, Coors Light, etc.

One day, we get the idea to try something new. In my case, guiness. I know lots of you like that stuff, but it isn't for me.

I walked away from the experience remembering dark colored beer = ewwwwy.

I am trying to learn what I like. I even want to try dark colored beers. In my previous post, I mean light (in color) when I said light beer.

 

My favorite beer currently is scottish 80 shilling. It's a mild brown ale, not to malty, not to hoppy and I could drink it all day.

 

I think you should try Left Hand Brewing's nitro stout. That one & there milk stout taste like iced coffee with a bit of chocolate & a wee bit of roastiness on the back. It'll def change your perceptions of dark beers.
That said,You could try making a light pale ale ( see my pics for Cooper's OS lager). It's a light pale ale,since it uses ale yeast. Add 1 ounce of hops at 15 minutes left in the boil,& you'll have a refreshing pale ale that isn't that bittered,with just enough flavor hops for some balance. Or even a saison would suit this notion well.

 

Northern brewer has a nice Lefse Belgian Blonde kit that I made a few months ago as a first brew. Really nice light golden color, not hoppy at all, very pleasant for a session beer.

 

Try to un-train yourself of this notion, posthaste!

The color of a beer tells you one thing, and one thing only: what color the beer is. Yup. That's all.

I've had light colored beers that drink far heavier, or far more bitter, than many darker colored beers, and vice versa. Try not to let one experience with one dark colored beer, um, color your opinion of what all dark colored beers will taste like!

That said - it sounds like the bulk of your drinking preferences have leaned towards the American Light Lager style. Knowing that, I'd say that a Cream Ale would be a really good style to start with - the appearance is going to be VERY familiar to you and, if you can control fermentation temperatures to some degree (keep your fermenter in the low 60's), you should be very pleased with the outcome. It'll be along the lines of what you're accustomed to, but with a little added flavor to go along with things. If your temperatures get a little higher, you might get a little added fruitiness in the flavor, which isn't necessarily unpleasant.

A blonde ale could also work well, for similar reasons and similar caveats. A kolsch is also a good candidate, but can be a more challenging style because it's a much cleaner beer.

I'd still encourage you to try out an English mild or a Scottish 70 at some point. They're a little more amber colored, have very little perceptible bitterness, and typically feature a nice caramelly character to them. They definitely tend to be a little more flavorful than the other styles I suggested.

As for other folks' recommendations about various stouts - I'd say hold off on going there just yet. Get your palette accustomed to beers with a little more flavor, and you may find that your tastes grow in that direction. Or they may not. No need to push just yet.

 

I mentioned LHB's milk/nitro stouts because they do not have the typical stout roasty bitterness at all. Totally different than the usual. I think it makes them more approachable.

 

This beer completely opened the doors to stouts for me.

I still can't do Guinness unless it is floating on top of something else, for whatever reason I love Guinness & Others (I know half of them have their own name so not saying any so I don't get jumped on )

 

Hey, don't sweat it. We all have tastes for beers, and it might just be something you don't like. Homebrewing has a way of helping you appreciate more tastes as you get into it, though, so whenever you can, sample something new.

For what it's worth, the first time I tried, "hoppy," was a Two Hearted Ale that a buddy gave me. I thought it was horrible. Now it's a go-to, and I can't get enough hops in some of my brews. I had no idea what a Wee Heavy was but my first taste of one blew my mind. Ditto for a Russian Imperial Stout.

Have fun, this is a wonderful hobby.

 

Oooh, I've wanted to try that kit. That might have to go on my mid-summers brew list.

 

Former BMC guy here. I hated..hated..hated Pales, IPA's, brown, stouts.
But when I got into brewing, I realized I wasn't going to be making Coors lite, so I spent more time at the brew pubs and sampled the different beers there, went to Total wines and purchased single bottles of different styles to try. All that helped me identify and aquire a taste for the different styles.

Now, it's ALL good. That helped me start to understand the recipes a little better too.

My advice is to go to the pubs or Total wines/ BevMo, Yard house, etc and sample till you know what you like and why. Then brew it.

 

yeah its really nice. Turns out to be quite dry too because of the pound of belgian candy sugar you add. very tasty and im just about out of it

 

Try Honey Basil Ale, right out of BYO, very light and enjoyable during summer.
this is for 10gal cut in halv for 5...

 

How about a California Steam? Lager brewed at ale temps so it is just like any other brew you've done.

 

If you've got the time and patience morebeer has a consecration clone kit

 

I decided on a honey brown ale. It is in the fermenter.

 

Ahh, I see you ventured to the darker side. Good for you!

 

After taking my gravity reading I drank the sample. I wasn't blown away by the taste, but I didnt make "that face" after drinking it either. I am going to reserve judgement until it is finished, bottled, carbonated, and chilled. If it sucks, there are plenty of beer leeches that will drink it.

 

So proud of myself... We have a store called world market that sells beers you wouldnt normally find by the single. I filled a six pack caddy with six "dark" beers determined to retrain myself to have hope for beers that are dark in color. I just finished the second and started the third. I haven't fallen in love with any of them, but I havent made "that face" either.

Moving over to the dark side one brew at a time. Lol

 

I have tried no fewer than 10 new "darker colored" beers in the last wo weeks. I started by saying, they were pretty good and now find myself liking them more and more.

Once you go "dark" you never go back??? Lol

I was particularly found of a devastator ale which I had on tap at a local eatery. I would love to find a clone for that one.

 

I would suggest trying some good English brown ales (southern and norther to get the difference) as well as English mild's... I found Smithwicks Irish Ale to be a good brew, when on nitro.

I'm brewing styles from the British Isles. So, the IPA's I brew are not nearly as bitter as the American IPA's. I think that the English brews are actually better balanced than what you get from American breweries. Even brew pubs tend to be on the IBU bandwagon with things so hoppy it's just nasty (IMO). I have an English brown ale that's a solid balance of hop and malt flavors. It's strong enough to have your respect, and doesn't have too much body (not too little either).

IMO, it's good that you gave the darker brews a try. When done well, they're something else. When not done well... Well, they're just nasty IMO. The local brew pub has more brews that I wouldn't drink (at all) than those I will. It's getting more and more difficult to drink what they make. Almost all of them have far too many IBUs (using the exact same hops for bittering, flavoring and aroma across all recipes) and most often the darker brews include too much black malt (even more bitter)...

 

Without actually looking at the list of beer I have made I'm willing to bet close to half of them have been stouts. I love them and can definitely understand the allure they have.

I started off drinking just to get drunk and most of the time would buy Rolling Rock because I didn't like the more flavorful beers. My how time and open mindedness has changed my palate.