Styles you could recognize by taste

[Ó Flannagáin]

I know I missed some styles, but they are just the first that popped in my brain and kind of broad categories.

I realized that there are a few styles I really don't know how to recognize, gives me something to work on

How about you?

 

[DeathBrewer]

the only ones i didn't pick are american wheat and scottish ale. american wheats seem so diverse and sometimes hoppy that i get confused. and scottish ales i've only had a few. they always seem to have a sharp alcoholic bite, right? i may be wrong here.

The rest, however, i can usually pick up. I may not be a pro brewer at this point, but i think i've earned teh status of professional drinker!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Scottish Ale and ESB would probably elude me. I've got everything else pretty wired, though. The subtle differences between a good porter and fully carbonated stout might catch me a bit off guard as well.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Scottish Ale and ESB would probably elude me. I've got everything else pretty wired, though. The subtle differences between a good porter and fully carbonated stout might catch me a bit off guard as well.

I"m the exact same way, and I'll agree with the American wheat too.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Esb, harder to pick out for me. Scotch ale and belgians share some estery charectorisics but I could probably tell the diff.

The rest are easy.

(and to hell with spell check.)

 

[Brewtopia]

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I think I could pick them all out pretty easily. If you want to line them up, I'm ready and willing to put that to the test.

 

[McKBrew]

I'm definately not that good yet.

Hefe's are fairly easy I think.
The typical American wheat, I could do.
IPA's shouldn't be a problem, althought some of the less hoppy IPA's are more like an average pale ale.

I could probably figure out if something was a porter or stout, but not which one for sure. And I should have checked APA.

The only way to get better is to drink more beer.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

A year ago, I would have said that I could not tell the difference between a Hefe and an American Wheat. Now, I can totally tell the difference... and I owe it all to HomeBrewing.... I love it! I was a food snob before, now I'm a food and beer snob!

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

A year ago, I would have said that I could not tell the difference between a Hefe and an American Wheat. Now, I can totally tell the difference... and I owe it all to HomeBrewing.... I love it! I was a food snob before, now I'm a food and beer snob!

A year ago I would be able to tell if a beer was porter/stout or something else LOL. Thanks to homebrewing I'm well on my way to know all of these. I still can't tell an American Wheat, probably because I haven't had any in SOOOOOO long, but I could pick a German hefe out no problem.

 

[DeathBrewer]

i have done a lot of drinking over the last few years makes me quite the expert...and quite a snob

 

[the_bird]

If you gave me the list of the styles and a ten-pack sampler, I could probably figure them all out. If you simply handed me a glass and asked what it was, I might not get the ESB, and there is some overlap between porters and stouts so I might get those mixed up depending on the beer.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

If you gave me the list of the styles and a ten-pack sampler, I could probably figure them all out. If you simply handed me a glass and asked what it was, I might not get the ESB, and there is some overlap between porters and stouts so I might get those mixed up depending on the beer.

I'm actually gonna try that before I leave Germany, I have saved 1 of every batch I've made, I'm gonna get my wife to pour them all into samples and label and see if I can pick out which is which!

 

[zoebisch01]

Scottish Ale and ESB would probably elude me. I've got everything else pretty wired, though. The subtle differences between a good porter and fully carbonated stout might catch me a bit off guard as well.

I am roughly in the same place. To add to the confusion, the lines are blurry between a Stout and a Porter...some seem to fit the opposite of their own labels better, imo. I have never had an ESB, shocking I know .

The last one kind of bugs me because Belgian beers are so diverse that it is impossible to lump them into one category....however....I can tell you when sugar has been used in a brew, nearly always because of the body, and since many of the beers from Belgium use good percentages of invert sugar that is a good indicator when you drink it.

 

[Wolf]

Scotch Ales are easy, just look for the smokey/peaty taste.
I didn't check ESB, Barley Wine (I've only had one), or American Wheat. The rest I think I can pick out most times, though as others have said the Porter/Stout difference is sometimes hard to detect.

 

[the_bird]

Scotch Ales are easy, just look for the smokey/peaty taste.

Technically, Scotch Ales are not supposed to have peat malt or smoked malt. It's a bastardization of the style that has caused this to be the case.

 

[delboy]

I didn't realise ESB was a style, over here its just a beer made by fullers.

 

[zoebisch01]

Technically, Scotch Ales are not supposed to have peat malt or smoked malt. It's a bastardization of the style that has caused this to be the case.

Hey that's interesting. I have never tried them because of that reason, I really really really don't care for peat anthing. What commercial examples are good then? I'd try it, armed with this new knowledge

 

[the_bird]

I don't know all that many commercial examples, unfortunately. It isn't a style I have explored all that heavily. What I know about them mostly comes from an episode of the Jamil show from last October, might be worth listening to if you want to explore the style in more detail.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/jamil.php

 

[delboy]

Scotch ales should be very malty with very little hopping.
Those thrifty scots didn't like to pay for the english hops (hops don't grow as well in scotland as southern england).

 

[the_bird]

There were tax issues at work, as well; hops were taxed relatively higher than malt, IIRC.

 

[david_42]

American wheats are easy, they're the ones with fruit flavors & the pink umbrellas.

 

[Buford]

I didn't realise ESB was a style, over here its just a beer made by fullers.

It is considered a style, but in Britain the ESB name is a trademark so no other brewers can use it.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

American wheats are easy, they're the ones with fruit flavors & the pink umbrellas.

BWAHAAHHAHahahahah, feckin hilarious.

 

[zoebisch01]

American wheats are easy, they're the ones with fruit flavors & the pink umbrellas.

Hehe. Speaking of which I had the Lancaster Strawberry Wheat last night. I was pleasantly surpised. Clean and only a faint hint of Strawberry, which was refreshing.

 

[Wolf]

Technically, Scotch Ales are not supposed to have peat malt or smoked malt. It's a bastardization of the style that has caused this to be the case.

Thats interesting, all the ones I've tried have had that distinctive smokiness. But most of them were from US breweries...the one that wasn't was......i don't remember. It'll come to me.

(Edit: It was Bellhaven's Wee Heavy)

 

[jarrid]

hmm. barring some overlaps between different styles and the fact that that i haven't tried them all (or was too drunk to remember), I would say that I could pin down Red Ale, Nut Brown Ale, Stout, and most Hefeweizens and IPA's.