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How do you figure out what you like in a beer?

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My roommate and husband said it was a nice beer (which is high compliment from hubby who doesn't much like beer to begin with) but they couldn't pick out the lemon or tea (roommate had a cold so...). And my friend who likes stronger, more bitter beers said that he won't buy the Mill Street sampler pack because he refuses to pay for what he and his friends all call carb'd iced tea.

I think next on the list is a 6-pack of their coffee porter. I've got vanilla ice cream in the freezer and am dying to find out if it makes as good an ice cream float as my taste buds think it will :)
 
That's funny, I pretty much consider it just carb'd spiked ice tea too, nice hint of lemon and the beer is barely noticable, would be totally hidden if it wasn't for it being a wheat beer, as it does have what I call "wheat dryness" or "wheat tannin" going on.

Normally I like big, dark, bitttttttter beers, but that one just does something unique for me!
 
Tonight's homework includes Kronenbourg 1664, "La Première Bière Francaise". I'm finding the more I drink the less I notice any bitterness but that could be 'cause it's on an empty stomach ;D I find the bitterness is noticeable but doesn't last long. Also has wheat malt and they added glucose.
 
<back of hand to forehead> Yeah, it's so rough... ;D

Tonight's selection is Nickel Brook's Breen Apple pilsener from Better Bittsrs Brewing Company in Burlington. Frigging awesome, And no artificial flavours, just apple juice for the apple flavour.

My first sip went like this: <sniff> hey, green apple! <sip> WHOAH, it's a BEER alright! <swallow> and that threat of bitterness is gone already...

Second sip: Aah, there's an up-front sweetness that hits at the same time as the bitterness.

Later thoughts: The apple lingers but the bitterness doesn't.

I think this is one of the best ones I've brought home. Definitely tastes like the sweetest, although the sweetness hits on the back of my tongue, not where I'd expect to feel it.

 
I like it, and my tenant likes it, but my husband took one swig and gave me that "Oh god, I have to put this tongue back in my mouth?!" face along with sound effects...

"So what don't you like about it?"

"I don't like beer, and I don't like sour apples, and you gave me something that tastes like both. Bleahh."

Although it's giving me ideas for something involving beer, apples and cinnamon maybe...

Random thought, wonder if anyone's ever done a vanilla beer before... I'll have to go search that out...
 
Beer

If you are trying to determine what you like in beer I would recommend checking out Beeradvocate.com. They have multiple reviews on just about any beer that you can think of and they are usually in depth. As you have found beer can be as complex as mead or wine. From what I have read you seem to like wheat beers more then other styles. You are correct that most wheat beers are lower in hops. Hops can take some getting used to. They can be bitter but also can be more aeromatic if added later in the boil or dry hopped (put in after the boil during later stages of fermentation). It seems the more hops you have the more tolerance you build up and the more you want. I would recommend you go through the more traditional styles of Europe before jumping into the more extreme US styles. Have you treid a German Hefeweizen? They are a wheat beer but different then some others due to the yeasts. In your area the LCBO has some Schneider from germany that would be a good example. For stronger sweeter example get the Schneider Adventinous (also at the LCBO in south ottawa for a really good price) that is a weizenbock (heavy weizen). They compare those to a Unibroue blanch de chambly. It is a belgian style wheatbeer and will show some differences from the german versions.
 
Thanks brktrt-18 for the info, I'll do more exploring next time I hit the LCBO (after I'm done my current batch of "homework", still a few cans left). I dry-hopped a pumpkin mel second run batch with an aromatic type of hops and it smells really nice but the silly green stuff keeps floating and sinking, floating and sinking so I haven't actually tasted it yet. I will report when I finally do!
 
Today's homework included Waterloo Brewing Company's Radlermass Lemonade Lager.

I don't see ingredients listed so I can't tell you if it's real lemon or what, but it's pretty damn tasty, my husband thought it was OK too. No aftertaste at all, very light flavour.

Says it's known as the cyclist's thirst quencher, the can has the story about the German who had 13000 cyclists to contend with and was running low on beer so he mixed lemon soda with it, named Radlermass, which roughly translates to "cyclist's beer".
 
Rickard's Dark, an English porter style. No ingredients list.

I found it a little on the bitter side, but it didn't last too long, I couldn't pick out the advertised maple syrup in the finish but it was at least sweet enough that I finished the 500 ml can without wishing it were over halfway through. I think I was OK with the strong flavour of the beer, just not the bitterness.
 
First thing about Richards dark, it's a passable bland brown ale. Second off, I seriously want to kick their asses for calling it a porter. Not even kidding, it's not even on the same planet as a porter, they're just a major brewery trying to cash into this whole craft thing and it makes me sad. :(
 
Chevette Girl said:
Today's homework included Waterloo Brewing Company's Radlermass Lemonade Lager.

I don't see ingredients listed so I can't tell you if it's real lemon or what, but it's pretty damn tasty, my husband thought it was OK too. No aftertaste at all, very light flavour.

Says it's known as the cyclist's thirst quencher, the can has the story about the German who had 13000 cyclists to contend with and was running low on beer so he mixed lemon soda with it, named Radlermass, which roughly translates to "cyclist's beer".
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Radlers are widely available in Germany. They usually mix a helles (light colored lager) with either lemonade or Sprite. They are very good while cycling on a hot summer day. In britain it is called a shandy.

With your Rickards Dark is the bitterness you don't like from the roasted malt or the hops? Darker beers can take on a more acidic bitterness, like a coffee bitterness, from the malt or a hops bitterness?
 
Fair enough, AToE, but I think that was the first thing I'd seen anywhere aside from the coffee porter that calls itself a porter, and the Beer Store doesn't show a lot for porter or stout, a lot of the stouts go on about how bitter they are so I don't think I'd get much out of them.

And brktrt, that's a really good question. I don't know enough about hops bitterness versus malt bitterness to tell the difference, but at a guess, this was more like the bitterness I don't entirely like but can tolerate from coffee rather than the cling-to-your-tongue-for-three-minutes-after-swallowing bitterness I've gotten from some of the other beers I've had, like that Tankhouse Ale <involuntary head-shake form the memory of its bitterness>. Does that sound more like a roasted malt bitterness or hops bitterness?

I can see that being great on a hot day after exercising! I'd always thought a Shandy was beer mixed with ginger-ale...
 
Chevette Girl said:
Fair enough, AToE, but I think that was the first thing I'd seen anywhere aside from the coffee porter that calls itself a porter, and the Beer Store doesn't show a lot for porter or stout, a lot of the stouts go on about how bitter they are so I don't think I'd get much out of them.
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Oh I'm just giving Rickards a hard time, not you! ;D
 
Heh, it's good to have someone with some experience bashing what I drink... you know, so I don't think I like a particular style because what I'm drinking calls itself that but everyone who actually knows one beer from another knows it's not a good representative of what it thinks it is...
 
Ha, no problem. Porters have a few different sub-styles, and the Rickards ain't one of em! Porters are basically fuller tasting stouts, sweeter, less "stouty' (I guess I mean less "burnt" tasting). Baltic style porters are my favourite, Okanagan Springs makes a good one, they're higher ABV (like 7-9% usually I think) and even thicker and sweeter.
 
bitterness

I actually had Tankhouse for the first time last weekend (I thought it was pretty good but I love the lingering on your tongue hops). There isn't a roast bitterness in tankhouse so it sounds like you don't like the hop's. The following are a list of styles that are normally more malt forward (as opposed to hops forward).

German:
Hefeweizen (wheat beer with yeast in suspension)
Dunkel (Dark)
Helles (light)
Bock (heavy)
Doublebock (double heavy)

English:
Brown Ale
Porter
Stout (be carefully of american versions as they can have a lot of hops)
Mild

Belgium:
Lambic (useally fruit flavored)
Gueze (champain like)
Dubbel
Quad

Be careful of marketing (ie Rickards porter) and american craft interpretations of a style as they tend to add more hops to a style then traditional used in Europe. I am not totally sure when is available to you.
 
There's a brewery in Quebec called The Three Muskateers (in French though!) that makes a killer dopplebock. It's the only one I've ever had so I can't say how "to-style" it is, but it's a malt-fest, the thickest richest beer I've ever had. They call it liquid bread for a reason!
 
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