A beer style that introduced you to craft beer, and now you can't stand?

[FVillatoro]

Hello mates, I just want to share something that happened to me as I entered the world of brewing and expanding my beer palate.

I, as well as a large majority, was introduced to craft beer with IPAs from Stone Brewing Co. The first time I had an IPA I was just amazed by the taste of hops and alcohol and that started me on an hoppy-bomb craze. IPAs made room for double IPAs and even tripple IPAs and the higher the IBUs printed on the bottle the better.

Tasting other beer style came to me as completely "bland and not hoppy enough" and I completely bypassed them. My palate had shifted to just looking for hops that everything else just simply tasted either like nothing or too sweet.

This went on for probably a solid 3 years of just "hop head" mentality until one day I realized that there's seriously a ton of other beer styles and that I was limiting myself to just one style and IBUs. So that lead me into trying out English brown ales, oatmeal stouts, and so on. I began tasting so many other complexities like toffee, bready notes, fruity notes, raisin... before I knew it, I realized that I had completely re-introduced myself to the craft beer world.

Now I enjoy porters, stouts, kolsch, and even lagers. Funny thing is that when I have an IPA I can no longer stand the hop-forward super dryness that I once loved, in fact.... I think that I no longer enjoy hop forward beers as I once did. I can't even remember the last time I bought an IPA.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar experience?

Thanks for reading!:rockin:

 

[drainbamage]

Amber ales...well, most of them at least. Back then, they had just enough flavor to be accessible. Now most of them seem bland and generic.

 

[olotti]

I used to love Sam Adams Oktoberfest and winter now I can't drink em, way to malt forward for my taste now.

 

[max384]

Wheat beers. When I was stationed in Germany with the army I started drinking dunkelweizens. I fact, that's all that I ever drank over there. When I started brewing, that was one of the first styles I made. However, I've just really lost the taste for wheat beers, and really almost never brew/drink them now.

 

[carloscede2]

I used to love lagers, they were my thing. I started brewing with the coopers kit called european lager. My favourite beer was heinneken. After 5 batches (its been 9 months since I started brewing) and trying different beers every weekend (over a hundred Id say) Heinneken tastes like water now! Canadian molson, budweiser, coors light and corona taste so watery to me now, I can drink them, but they have a mild ass flavour that I cant stand anymore. Now I just drink pale ales (really loving sierra nevada and st ambroise) stouts, bocks etc. Im not a fan of IPAs except for goose island, the rest are a bit too hoppy for me.

 

[FVillatoro]

I used to love Sam Adams Oktoberfest and winter now I can't drink em, way to malt forward for my taste now.

I agree. This year I actually tasted some salt in them that even my light-lager tasting uncle pointed out to me.

 

[LostBoyScout]

Amber ales and cream ales. Bleh. Used to drink them 15 years ago though

 

[jekeane]

most ipa's. I still enjoy a good one when it comes along, fresh jai Lai comes to mind, but for the most part I don't touch them.

 

[ruascott]

Pumpkin beer

Not that they got me into craft beer, but years ago I loved them and they weren't all that common in stores.

Now they swamp the floors every fall, and I don't really like drinking any of them.


I used to not like high IBU IPAs, stuck to pale ales under 50IBU. Now I'm more into hops than ever, and pales are rather boring to me. Still don't like really bitter beers, but rather IIPAs with good balance.

 

[max384]

Blech. I've always hated pumpkin beer. By far my least favorite "style" of beer.

 

[TurnipGreen]

I used to really like IPAs. And I still do, but a lot of them have gone over board. I'm much more apt to order an APA or pale ale. Over the past two years or so I've really been into the lagers. But maybe that's just because all the breweries have a pile of ales but only some have lagers.

 

[jonny24]

Not so much a style but a particular beer. When I started branching out one of the beers I quite liked was Shocktop. One day my bro's girlfriend tried and said it tasted like hot dogs. I took another sip, and could see what she meant, the spices or whatever were slightly reminiscent of hot dogs. Every time I've tried to drink it since that's all I can taste now.

 

[b-boy]

Lagers in general don't appeal to me any more. I will still enjoy a Vienna Lager or a Steam beer occasionally, but the aftertaste of a lager bothers me. I get a hint of sulphur when I drink them. I've only made one batch, and I have no desire to do another one.

The worst thing I can imagine drinking now is an IPL. I don't get hoppy lagers at all.

 

[cegan09]

Sam Adams got me into beer, now I'll almost never buy any of their stuff. I honestly hated beer when I started drinking. Hated all of it. When I started to like it I was drinking Sam, and went out of my way to try a lot of them. So I can honestly say that brand got me exploring beer. Now anytime I try any of their stuff I have the same "meh" reaction to it. It's not bad, but it's nothing special. Not really a style, but that's how I got into beer.

 

[gometz]

Blech. I've always hated pumpkin beer. By far my least favorite "style" of beer.

Agreed. Every damned year there's a rush to get the new special pumpkin beer. People search out the last bottle. I'd gladly toss each one of those in the trash.

For me I think it would be most "basic" craft beers. Shiner and Fireman's 4 both taste bland and boring to me, back in my "youth" I thought they were the shiznit. I remember talking to a teach in high school telling him how I liked Shiner Bock because it was an awesome dark beer.
Woe is me...

 

[Ariza-Poet]

Wheat beers.

Blue Moon was one of the first beers that blew my mind. From there I discovered hefeweizens and went nuts.
Then I went head first into craft. my progression was ambers, browns, porters, Stouts
Then BA stouts and I went crazy tasting as many as I could.

However, now some 10 years later I'm coming back around to hefeweizens and other wheat beers. Thanks in large part to a local brewery Pueblo Vida in Tucson, AZ
that does an amazing hefe. This put me back onto that.
Then I started brewing and it opened me back to lighter styles that I've ignored for several years.

 

[Rhetorik]

None. I've experienced the opposite effect - I like MORE beers now. For example, I used to not like sours... now I do. I still love IPAs, APAs, ESBs, stouts, ambers, brown ales...

That being said, there are still a number of beers I didn't like before that I still don't like now (smoke beers, pretty much anything german, etc).

 

[Jesterdeal]

Raging ***** for me. I can't really do "Belgian IPAs" anymore.

 

[dsaavedra]

Not so much a style but a particular beer. When I started branching out one of the beers I quite liked was Shocktop. One day my bro's girlfriend tried and said it tasted like hot dogs. I took another sip, and could see what she meant, the spices or whatever were slightly reminiscent of hot dogs. Every time I've tried to drink it since that's all I can taste now.

Shocktop was my "intro craft beer" as well. Used to love them. Now I've pretty much lost my taste for wheat beers. I still have one once in a while, mainly for nostalgia's sake, and they aren't too bad. Can't say I've ever had one that tasted like hot dogs though haha

 

[gometz]

Raging ***** for me. I can't really do "Belgian IPAs" anymore.

I still like one here or there, but they are flavor bombs. Lately I have gotten into more delicate and simpler flavors. Really hoping my Czech Pilsner comes out authentic.

 

[skiumah]

New Glarus Spotted Cow

 

[mrdauber64]

Fruit and spice beer. When I first started drinking I would drink Berry Weiss by Leinenkugal and any pumpkin beer I could find. I recently tried a Berry Weiss and OMG, it was horrible! I've found that if I brew a spice or pumpkin beer I never touch them and they sit until either I dump them or I can sucker a person to take them. For pumpkin beers I drink two a season and that's it.

I do still like a good Summer Shandy on a hot day, or a wheat beer with a lemon, so fruit in beer isn't always bad!

 

[slym2none]

Hefes.

I used to love them, right after I got into better beers. I would get a Franziskahner every weekend. Now... I just can't drink any of them anymore. The clove/banana thing is just weird to my tastebuds.

 

[specharka]

Stouts in a big way.

I was into big stouts when I started brewing -- Breakfast Stout and Old Rasputin were some of my go to favorites. After a few years I stopped enjoying them as much...the last stout I drank was from Tree House, and honestly not that great. I still love malt bombs, but I just can't drink them as often. I am making a RIS, but honestly that's mostly for Christmas gifts.

 

[erick0619]

For me it was Sierra Nevada torpedo. I remember taking my first sip and almost spitting it out. I was really confused as to why my buddy would serve me something so bitter and gross. Aaaaaand then I fell in love with the beer and it's one of my favorites now.

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Alaskan Amber was the first beer I had as an adult that I on balance actually liked.

It's...not something I drink much of these days.

 

[Braufessor]

Hefeweizen..... Originally liked them quite a bit when I first started sampling a wider array of beers. Now, I would struggle to choke one down - just can't stand the banana/clove kind of thing.

 

[RunDadRun]

Easy....Fat Tire. Used to travel out of state for it, still have a sanke keg from new Belgium acting as a table and went crazy when it finally made it to Illinois.

Now I bet it's been 5 years since I had one.

 

[wallybangbang]

For me it was Sierra Nevada torpedo. I remember taking my first sip and almost spitting it out. I was really confused as to why my buddy would serve me something so bitter and gross. Aaaaaand then I fell in love with the beer and it's one of my favorites now.

Torpedo and the OG Pale Ale are two beers I dont think I will ever get sick off. There are at least a couple in my fridge at any given time. I buy the cans and have made them my fishing beers, especially on party boats where they discourage bottles. I remember drinking my first SN Pale on the boundry waters of Minnesota on a trip when I was 17, given to me by my cool aunt. I have been hooked ever since.

 

[wallybangbang]

I would say large Belgian beers. Delirium and Chimay are two of my favorites and these got me into homebrewing, with cost effectiveness being a huge push. 30 bucks or so for 5 gallons vs 10-15 dollars a bottle is huge. I think I just brewed too many, and then drank too many, and then passed out in a 10% beer coma too many times. Homebrewing opened me up to so many other styles I started to leave those high alcohol beers behind. Don't get me wrong, I have a few aging in the closet for special occasions, but I try and only brew 3 or so a year and not go crazy like I used to.

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

Amber ales...well, most of them at least. Back then, they had just enough flavor to be accessible. Now most of them seem bland and generic.

Same here. They were a gateway beer style for me at first, but I quickly found other styles I liked more.

More recently, I've been trying ambers and similar styles trying to give them another chance as I develop my palate a bit more.

 

[Wiscohio_brewer]

Spotted Cow. First time I drank it, I thought it was delicious, now I only drink it when I'm at a Milwaukee dive bar and the only other beer is Miller Lite.

 

[pat10323]

Spotted Cow. First time I drank it, I thought it was delicious, now I only drink it when I'm at a Milwaukee dive bar and the only other beer is Miller Lite.

So are there a lot of Wisconsin ppl who are sick of spotted cow?...I love it but I also live in Illinois so it's a treat every couple months when I get a 12er

 

[masskrug]

Easy....Fat Tire.

+1 to this.

 

[Peruvian802]

I was lucky enough to live in Seattle starting in 1991. Mirror Pond and Bridgeport from Portland as well as the old Red Hook, Maritime, and Grants brewery beers were all readily available. Life was good.

 

[mesooohoppy]

Probably blue moon

 

[howamidriving]

IPA's and pales. I remember having my mind blown by SNPA and then going on an IPA craze for a while. For whatever reason I pretty much never drank hop forward beers for a good 5 years not long after that. I am starting to get back into hoppy stuff now though.

 

[MaxStout]

Long before the craft beer boom all we had as an alternative to BMC was import beer. I drank a lot of Heineken, Beck's, Moose Head, etc., in the '70s and '80s. Once in a great while I'll still order one in a restaurant (if that's the best they have), and be reminded how "meh" they are. Those beers served a purpose 30 or 40 years ago, and got me on the path to seek out better beer. But today there are hundreds of beers I'd rather drink.

 

[chickypad]

Pete's Wicked Ale for me - right around the time I graduated college in 1990. The company that bought it in 1998 killed it though, changed Pete's recipe, so maybe that doesn't count. I don't think it's made anymore.