Who's up for Strong, Sweet Beers?

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Clint Yeastwood

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Is there any support here for strong, sweet beers?

My feeling is that usually, bitterness needs to be balanced with sweetness. Not always, because there are bitter beers that taste great without any sweetness to speak of, but more often than not. I also think a strong beer with a lot of alcohol burn benefits from sweetness.

I don't like beers that are gratuitously or clumsily sweet, and I don't like beers that don't have enough bitterness to taste like beer. I have only tried one milk stout, and I couldn't believe anyone would buy a second one. I had a Hazy Little Thing, and I thought it was okay served cold on a really hot day, but just okay. I thought it crossed the line into soft drink territory, as if it were made for people who loved Mountain Dew but weren't really beer lovers. I've never found myself at the grocery, thinking, "I should get more Hazy Little Thing."

Maybe it would be a great choice for grilling in July.

I took my stout recipe and jacked up the gravity to see if it would make a good imperial stout, and while I consider it a good beer, it's too sweet for me, and it's not balanced enough, so I'm changing the recipe. On the other hand, I make a couple of strong ales that are definitely sweet, and I love them. The one I'm drinking right now took about a pound of Special B, which is a crystal, and it's still great.

Are there any sweet, strong, like 8%+, factory beers that get a lot of respect here? Beers that make one pint a legitimate session?
 
Danish beers often are what you are describing. Also traditional kveiks can be rather sweet with higher abv and lower ibus.

I like both!
 
I love sweet tasting beers. Most of what I make is decidedly sweet tasting, with more or less bitterness and/or roast to compliment, depending on style. But when the ABV goes up, the attenuation has to go up with it, or I lose interest. I can't stand a heavy, sweet, boozy beer.
 
I love sweet tasting beers. Most of what I make is decidedly sweet tasting, with more or less bitterness and/or roast to compliment, depending on style. But when the ABV goes up, the attenuation has to go up with it, or I lose interest. I can't stand a heavy, sweet, boozy beer.
So I brew with sugar a lot, basically.
 
I love sweet beers. For specifically "strong, sweet beers," my favorite tend to be imperial dessert stouts / pastry stouts. Usually around 10% ABV with some theme after a dessert such as tiramisu or brownies or chocolate cake or smores or whatever. Those do tend to be pretty strong generally. I think they go excellent slowly sipped while eating high-quality dark chocolate. They aren't always strong, of course, nor do they need to be, but it can help. They generally have a nice balance of bitterness and sweetness, which is why I think they so common are chocolate-themed. For beers I've brewed, they've also usually been stouts and sometimes have used lactose.
 
Wow. I think I'm in the wrong thread. "strong" for me is more than about 5.3%.

My brain doesn't automatically recognize an 8% beverage as beer.

But good for you guys. Carry on....
If we're talking personal taste, I mainly brew between 3.5% and 5.5% ABV, only occasionally going up to 6% (my most recent beers were 5.9% and 4.1%, though the 5.9% was only intended to be 5.5% but it attenuated more than expected), because I don't need gallons of a super strong beer and I'd rather have, say, a bunch of a sessionable 4.1% beer.

That said, the most common alcohol strength in the world for beers are in between 5% and 6% ABV. I typically consider "strong" to start somewhere around 7.5% or 8%, but that's also subjective. If I'm out at a brewery, though, I generally want to try as many beers as possible, so I'll actively avoid anything at that strength. I mainly just drink them at home when I want a slow sipper.

In the old days, I'd go through some triple IPAs, Russian Imperial Stouts, and barleywines, but not so much nowadays.
 
I don't have any references for commercial beers, but I do enjoy Barleywines and Imperial Blondes/DIPAs that go from 1.085/95 to 1.015 or so.

Miss me with that sweet ****.
 
Biere de Garde is what you are looking for! Perhaps the ambree color range because it is the sweetest. It is strong, 6-9% ABV, and it is balanced way toward the malt. It is supposed to finish somewhat dry, but that is in context with the overall maltiness. Delicious!
 
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