Not just new to brewing; new to beer

[BetterSense]

I'm a multihobbyist. I also approach things with extreme nerdiness, so please bear with me.

Hobby-of-the-year is beer and brewing. I already brewed two batches of beer. So now I'm past the challenge of "making a consumable fermented beverage" and it's becoming clear that in order for my brewing to have some direction, I need to have better goals.

I've come to realize that I'm not really into beer to start with. I always drank wine. People on here talk a lot about IPAs and pilsners and stouts and so on, but I have no idea what those beers taste like. People also talk about hoppiness and bitterness and body and so on and I'm similarly lost because I have only drank 1 type of beer, which is my own homebrew, which is probably really bad.

How do you find guidance in beer tasting? Do they have beer tastings the way they have wine tastings? I used to go to a wine store and they would recommend wines for me to taste, and I can go to the tobacconist and he will heartily recommend different cigars for me to try, but I have never seen a beer store where I can go and find someone to basically teach me about beer. There are some bars around here that have dozens of beers on tap, but it's kind of overwhelming. Maybe I just need to get busy tasting all that beer, but I would rather taste a few strongly representative examples of each beer style so that I can get it in my head. Does that make sense?

 

[kapbrew13]

When I started, I would buy any micro brew that I could find. If I liked it I would read reviews and see if I could get the beer characteristics the review was talking about. An ipa isn't the same. Each brew is a bit different. I say start drinking and see what you like. You may find out you do like a type of beer you've never tried before.

 

[SD-SLIM]

I'm a multihobbyist. I also approach things with extreme nerdiness, so please bear with me.

Hobby-of-the-year is beer and brewing. I already brewed two batches of beer. So now I'm past the challenge of "making a consumable fermented beverage" and it's becoming clear that in order for my brewing to have some direction, I need to have better goals.

I've come to realize that I'm not really into beer to start with. I always drank wine. People on here talk a lot about IPAs and pilsners and stouts and so on, but I have no idea what those beers taste like. People also talk about hoppiness and bitterness and body and so on and I'm similarly lost because I have only drank 1 type of beer, which is my own homebrew, which is probably really bad.

How do you find guidance in beer tasting? Do they have beer tastings the way they have wine tastings? I used to go to a wine store and they would recommend wines for me to taste, and I can go to the tobacconist and he will heartily recommend different cigars for me to try, but I have never seen a beer store where I can go and find someone to basically teach me about beer. There are some bars around here that have dozens of beers on tap, but it's kind of overwhelming. Maybe I just need to get busy tasting all that beer, but I would rather taste a few strongly representative examples of each beer style so that I can get it in my head. Does that make sense?

I would recommend going on American Hombrewing Association website, they have a lot of information about beer, beer tastings and pairings. Additionally you may consider Beer Advocates website, they have reviews of various commercial beers and they use a rating system similar to wines.

 

[jonmohno]

Yes with all the beer styles i bet you would think its way more than wine, get drinking. I would start by looking and trying every beer on the face of the earth.Well thats just me, but, dont single out what you dont like by trying a style from a certain brand and not liking that style, i had the toughest time trying to like an amber or porter until i found some by trying differnt craft breweries. Try some belgians, dogfish, bells,stone,rogue,smoked beers,oaked beers, pumpkin beers, ease into some ipa's,hefeweizens,rye beers holy crap are they good get some founders ryepa.People that havent really tried beer are really missing out.
i actually tried my first rauchbeer(smoked-beer) for the first time and it was a great experience,in most situations there is going to be a beer you never tried, its an adventure.
Welcome to beer nerdiness, all of us pretty much breathe it on this website those that say they dont are in denial.

 

[FireBrew63]

Most bars/pubs I go to will give you a small sampler jig to try or have a sampling platter of 4 or 5 small jigs for the price of a pint. This is a good way of finding out what you like.

 

[codyjp]

I love this. What made you want to home brew then?

Regardless, I'd visit one of those bars with lots on tap, sit at the bar and confess your sins. If the bartender is worth their salt they will help you discover all sorts of things.

Also a few places like Cost Plus World Market will sell single 12oz bottles. A local wine/beer shop does it too so it makes it easy to taste all sorts of things.

Best of luck, your in for a treat!

 

[regulark]

Here we don't have a large selection of beer (largely government owned) so I just pretty much started left to right at the liquor store, didn't take very long.

Buy a beer, try it. Look it up on websites, research its style and similar beers, and so on.

If you have any specific questions I'm sure one of us would be more than happy to answer it.

 

[weirdboy]

If you already enjoy and know a bit about wine, why don't you try making some of that?

Not that I am recommending you avoid beer, but I am just curious as it would seem to be a more natural fit for your tastes.

 

[BetterSense]

What made you want to home brew then?

I've recently become fascinated by crafts that are superficially scientifically simple, but in practice are actually extremely complicated, and governed by principles that are driven by human desires and tastes, which cannot be accounted for scientifically. I'm also very interested in human perception and the relationship between Man's logical faculty and his animal senses. I'm very interested in technical issues of music and imaging, and also dance, and now beer.

Imagine beer brewing a thousand years in the future in some futuristic Star Trek world. Will humans know more about brewing? Maybe. Will they know why we brew in the first place, or be able to explain why beer tastes good? No.

Also, it's fun.

 

[jonmohno]

I think the first time you try a Dogfish 60 min ipa, you may feel ashamed as if you had just sinned.Yes its like that.

 

[weirdboy]

I think the first time you try a Dogfish 60 min ipa, you may feel ashamed as if you had just sinned.Yes its like that.

Personally I disagree with this statement. It is one of my least favorite commercial IPAs. In fact, I have half a 6-pack in my fridge that I am having trouble finishing. I managed to finish one more tonight but it's been tough going. Just not a fan of that beer.

 

[SD-SLIM]

Personally I disagree with this statement. It is one of my least favorite commercial IPAs. In fact, I have half a 6-pack in my fridge that I am having trouble finishing. I managed to finish one more tonight but it's been tough going. Just not a fan of that beer.

I agree...I feel like Dogfish is the Kiss of beer, yes they have a couple of good beers...but in general they are just great marketers!

 

[phenry]

The best way to figure out what beers you like is to go out and buy some. Just like wine (well, for me at least), it can be an acquired taste. First IPA that I ever had I thought was pretty harsh and was probably going to be my last (didn't help that it was longhammer).

Just find some of the raved about clone recipes on here, try the beer, and if you like it, you can try to duplicate it to get a better sense of what's going on in a recipe and how it will taste.

 

[jonmohno]

Hmm. its been a while for me but since their popularity -dogfish i havnt been able to even get any in very long time, dont tell me they skimmped out on theyre quality.Seems to me they were a great even beer long before they made it to tv, and before people started deciding they were sellout or whatever people think. Plus ive never even liked Kiss.Hardly comparable to me.Everbody has there own interpetation i guess. Ive only tried a couple of the ir beers and have liked them.Not everybody puts out the greatest beers ever, well maybe rogue or stone but even they have a few not so good, it really only matters to the op, and not what anybody else thinks.

 

[Beezy]

Wow what am I reading here? I have not had many IPAs better than 60 minute. To each their own I guess. Seems fashionable to hate on DFH tho. I think it's dumb.

Anyway... This is kinda funny to me. I drank crap macro for a long ass time and found imports and then craft and on to more extreme stuff. I found my passion with beer after years and years. About 15 years of legal drinking and now I want to make my own for a lot of various reasons. To do this just to do it seems like an exercise in futility. You need to go out and figure out if you even like beer and then come back or not. You like wine, make wine! I don't get it.

 

[BetterSense]

I do have a world market just down the road. They have tons of beer. Any recommendations to get a sense of the different beer styles?

 

[weirdboy]

Wow what am I reading here? I have not had many IPAs better than 60 minute. To each their own I guess. Seems fashionable to hate on DFH tho. I think it's dumb.

I'm not trying to be fashionable or hate on DFH, just expressing my opinion on their IPA. I'm just not a fan of that beer. I just don't enjoy drinking it at all, whereas there are many other IPAs that I really do enjoy drinking. e.g. Ballast Point Sculpin, Bell's Two-Hearted, Bear Republic Racer 5, etc. It really felt like a chore to finish the one I poured myself tonight, and I still have 2-3 left in my fridge. You are welcome to them if you're in the area.

 

[JRL]

I think going to a local pub or brewery is a great way to sample across the board. They usually have a sampler that will take you from lighter to darker. All sorts of flavors and styles.

If you went to a local market or liquor store and can mix and match a six or twelve pack to that. Get a pilsner, amber, red, wheat, porter, IPA, wit, lager. The possibilities are endless.

If you have a local brew club see if they will let you attend for a day, I am sure someone with the desire to tech a fellow brewer will let you sample other stuff.

Cheers and happy brewing.

 

[Beezy]

I'm not trying to be fashionable or hate on DFH, just expressing my opinion on their IPA. I'm just not a fan of that beer. I just don't enjoy drinking it at all, whereas there are many other IPAs that I really do enjoy drinking. e.g. Ballast Point Sculpin, Bell's Two-Hearted, Bear Republic Racer 5, etc. It really felt like a chore to finish the one I poured myself tonight, and I still have 2-3 left in my fridge. You are welcome to them if you're in the area.

I'll be right over. Hey everyone tastes things differently. 60 is what I want to taste when I drink IPA. The other ones you mentioned are good as well. I don't like everything DFH makes to be fair but they tend to get highly hopped beers right in my estimation. Sorry for the hijack, carry on.

 

[BulldogBrewer]

Find some micro's that offer samplers. This is a great way to identify multiple styles, especially if you can get to several (or at least more than one) micro and compare.

 

[eulipion2]

I do have a world market just down the road. They have tons of beer. Any recommendations to get a sense of the different beer styles?

Look for style descriptors. A lot of people hate the idea of brewing 'to style' but it's really the best way to get a grasp on the breadth and depth of the brewers art.

Most people start their beer journeys with cheap 'macro lagers': Bud, Miller, Coors, Natural Light, etc. For those people, good step-up beers would be Blond, Amber, and maybe even Pale Ale. If you like coffee/roasted flavors, go for a stout, perhaps a coffee or chocolate stout. Since you're coming from wine, I'd be tempted to have you start in with the sour beers, which can have vinous qualities, especially in aged versions - Geueze, Lambic, Berliner Weisse, etc., and fruit beers like Purple Haze (raspberry), Harpoon Raspberry UFO, or even Blue Moon (orange peel and coriander). There are fruit-flavored lambics - Framboise, Kriek, Pomme, Cassis, Peche, etc.

Make your own mix pack, as you're tasting them take notes and compare them to what other people have written on sites like BeerAdvocate or RateBeer. See if you're tasting what they're tasting. Many of the ratings will be broken down into Appearance, Aroma, Taste (Flavor), Mouthfeel, and Overall Impression.

Also, get involved with your local homebrew club. Meet some people to help you on your brewing journey and introduce you to good beer.

Good Luck!

 

[Revvy]

Drink, drink, drink,

Besides the other great advice, find a store that allows for doing mixed sixers of micro brew, it's a good way to try different styles and it's often a couple bucks or more cheaper than buying an entire sixer of one micro...for example I can get a six pack of bell's two hearted for about 12 bucks...but at the same beer store they have a cooler for 9.99 mix and match....and you never know what they will stick in there...so if I'm not in the mood for something in particular or feel like expanding my horizons and not risking an entire six of something I might not like.

So far I've only had a couple bottles of something that I could say I wouldn't have again.

But I've also discovered a bunch of new breweries that I might not have if their beer was in the 12-15 dollar a six.

And I've also gotten turned on by a few beers in styles I never thought I'd try...Like Vienna Lagers....I've never been a fan of the fizzy yellow type of lagers, but damn those brown, malty Vienna ones are fantastic.

If you have a Trader Joe's in your town they usually allow for mixed sixer filling as well. And those are 5.99, and the majority of the "TJ's" labeled beers are brewed by Gordon Biersch.


Usually if it is a beer I have never tried or even a new style then i will sit down with the beer and google and do some reading on the beer or the style.

Usually beer advocate will have the beer reviewed, and also a lot of the micro breweries have info on their website, sometimes the actual recipe or at least ingredient info.

Another good resource is the BJCP style guide, it gives a lot of info on the beer, the history of it, the numbers range for OG, FG, IBU's, etc. As well as a list of commercial representations of the beers. BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines - Index

Then if I am planning to brew something, I usually google to see if there are any clone recipes for the beer online.

Sometimes I will do a themed sixer, like all IPAs or Ambers or stouts, and get six different beers of the same style. It is a good way to see how different breweries tackle the same style...then if I mamnage to find info on the online, or even clone recipes I can see what ingredients are similar between recipes, and what is it that gives a certain version something special...i did that with vienna lagers, and learned a lot about the style,

 

[bluemoose]

Check with your LHBS. Mine has a beer tasting every Wednesday. They go through the different beers and talk about taste, texture, etc. It can help you place a flavor that you are tasting but can't identify or describe.

 

[krebs119]

When I first started getting into craft beer, i would pick up a 12 pack of mixed beers from a brewery. Sam Adams runs this year round. If I'm not mistaken, their current summer pack has a good example of a Saison, Kolsch, Summer Ale, IPA, Light Beer, and their typical Lager. All are decent examples of the styles, and you should be able to find this just about anywhere.

Other companies offer mixed packs like this too, which really helped me broaden my beer spectrum. It worked well for me too - I like to drink by the season and most of these companies come out with a new mixer ever few months.

For me when I started in the North East, I drank a lot of Sam Adams, Saranac, Ithaca, Southern Tier, Magic Hat, and a few other mixers. I don't know if you can get all of them down there, but most of the beers in there are fantastic, and I'm still drinking them now, 10 years later...

 

[KevinM]

World market Cost Plus, and Trader joes are both great places to get a variety of singles.
Brewpubs, and even pubs are great for samplers. Even if they don't have it on the menu, you can usually get a tasting round of 5 or so beers for the price of a single glass.

Here's the hard part. There's lots about what is "similar to the style" yet, every beer is different. Not just Ales vs lagers. Or porters vs stouts vs etc... But that you might have a full selection of 8 different stouts. They will all taste different, have different front flavors, after taste. etc. Same thing as wine. When you taste 5 different pinot noirs, are they all exactly the same? No.

Keep notes. Eventually, you may find some baseline of your own tastes. Like that you like light lagers the most, or that you like reds the most. Branch from what you like, but try things you don't like and keep trying. Just because you don't like one belgian lambic, doesn't mean you might not like someone's elses belgian lambic.

Oh.. and if you're gluten free... just keep in mind you're screwed about doing any of the above mentioned things.

 

[WhiskeyR]

Since you're in Texas, you probably have a Kroger near you. For $8.99 you can create your own six pack of six different beers. This is a good way to taste some different styles.

Also since you're in Texas, you could start with some Texas beers.

Rahr & Sons (Fort Worth, available at Kroger) makes a very nice Hefeweizen and a good Blonde.

Saint Arnold Brewing Co. (Houston) makes a good IPA called Elissa and an excellent Amber Ale (Saint Arnold Amber). You can sample these at their brewery tours daily too.

Those would be some good styles to start with.

 

[BetterSense]

Well I've been busy drinking beer. I started buying single bottles from World Market. It's expensive but their 6-pack carriers are the best.

For my own reference and amusement of all I will post my beer tasting impressions.

I got 7 different IPAs and tried them. One of them was a total fake, meaning it tasted like a pale ale, the rest were variously good. I liked the Sam Adams latitude 48 IPA and some others. The Great Divide Titan IPA was kind of two dimensional--just bitter and sweet with no complexity. The hophead imperial IPA I got was pretty good.

I got a couple beers that tasted like crap (my friend says it was DMS)--Big Sky Brewery Seasonal Ale with honey and spices, and some other different brand I forgot. I wonder if rather than DMS it's some strange hop flavor I don't like. To me it tastes like hints of Campbell's vegetable soup.

Shiner Bock is Ok, I like the black lager better, and I tasted one--maybe it was Kosmos something or other--that was really good.

Sam Adams summer ale is good. The Boston Ale didn't do much for me but I thought the Boston Lager had a nice hop taste.

My Edwort's Haus Pale ale is super duper good. Probably my favorite beer so far.

Sierra Nevada Pale ale was kind of meh. It's very clear, and clean tasting, but I like my Edwort's ale better.

Sierra Nevada Porter and Stout were tasty, but they had a lot of hop taste. I don't remember conspicuous hop taste being a feature of the porter/stout style. It was good anyway.

My Centennial blond is decent.

I just tasted Fat Tire New Belgium Amber Ale and it has a completely different malt taste than any beer I've had so far. I don't know how to describe it except that it tastes the way that crushed barley smells. What is this taste? Is it a characteristic of this style or this particular beer?

 

[Erroneous]

I believe that taste is just what you get with a good and fresh paler beer with light hops. But idk what their amber tastes like.

I know there isn't a total wine near you but when I started getting into craft beer I went to their beer classes. $15 would get you a 2 hour class with 13 beers to try and normally some history behind them. Maybe there's another place near you that does something similar.

 

[BetterSense]

I'm drinking Moose Drool now and it has the same similar 'grainy' taste to it that the Fat Tire amber did, only much more muted. It's completely distinct from the other malty flavors I've tasted in the pale ales and IPAs I've been drinking. I would really like to know where it's coming from or what causes it.

 

[Gameface]

If you're going to taste a bunch of different types of beer in one sitting I highly recommend sampling the lighter and especially less hopped ones early and work towards the IPAs and Imperial Stouts later in the tasting session.