Discover Better Beer:

If you're fairly new to beer - and by that I mean new to a variety of beer styles beyond the typical American light lager like Budweiser, Miller or Coors - you may be best served by sampling some of the more palate-friendly and approachable beer styles offered by a myriad of craft beer brewers right here in the U.S. You'll find amber ales, brown ales, American pale ales, Wheat ales and a few all-malt lagers that will provide enough of a contrast in flavor profiles for you to be able to determine what qualities you like best in a beer. By sampling some of these diverse beer styles, you'll be able to gauge your affinity for malty beers versus hoppy beers, for instance, as well as ascertaining whether you like a beer with a light, thin mouth feel or one that is a little more robust and substantial. Generally, most of us fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, choosing a well-balanced beer as our eventual favorite. The whole idea is to narrow down the characteristics that individually and collectively define what you like about beer. Hitting that balance of flavor elements that really excites you is at the heart of finding your favorite beer style(s) and often the easiest way to begin to explore the wonderful and flavorful world of craft beer.

 

In all honesty, if you've only imbibed in the light lagers to this point, your palate is going to need some time to adjust to the more pronounced and varied flavors and aromas that many craft brewed beers possess. This period of adaptation is seldom instantaneous. I like to think of it like looking around a room with the lights very dim; you'll see some of the objects in the room but you'll miss many of the nuances and details that a fully lit room will reveal. Turn the lights on and you'll likely squint at first until your eyes adjust to the light, but once they do you'll be able to see the room in vivid detail. The analogy, of course, being that craft beer can make your taste buds "squint" a little too, at first, until you adjust to the bolder, fuller flavors. In order to survey as many styles as you can, or at least enough to get an idea of what beers at each end of the spectrum are all about, you'll likely go through a few you just don't enjoy. That's okay. You don't have to like every style to appreciate craft beer thoroughly. Besides, you may revisit the style again at a later time and rethink your original assessment. Tastes change and evolve over time, and it's always a good idea to try a style you once disliked again to see if your palate has changed. I suggest making a note or two about the beer and the beer style, so you can remember the characteristics you did or didn't like about the beer. Sometimes a beer you once hated can become a favorite. The beer hasn't changed, you have.

Broadening your horizons when it comes to beer is a worthy endeavor. Not only do you get to try new flavors and styles, but the discovery itself is the real reward. When you drink beer for the enjoyment of the beer itself, and not for its inebriating effects, you really begin to care about what you're drinking. All of a sudden, the aromas, flavors, body and appearance of the beer make a difference to you. You can begin to define what you really like because you're paying much closer attention to what you're drinking ... maybe for the first time. Finding a "favorite" beer is a wholly subjective affair - don't be influenced by fads, ads, or college undergrads when it comes to finding your go-to beers. More times than not, the popular beers tend to be the boring beers. These are the beers that rely on multi-million dollar ad campaigns to sell more image than substance. Think about the typical beers your college buddies swilled down in copious amounts - these beers are designed to easy-drinking, alcohol-delivery systems. Flavor and aroma are secondary qualities, often lacking severely in both. Put simply, if you approach a beer as a means to an end (intoxication), you might as well stick with the cheap, light lagers you've always known. They'll deliver the alcohol to your system without having to be concerned with trivialities like flavor.

If you yearn for something more, however, start to experiment with some craft beers in the categories I suggest above. These are, for the most part, styles that are not entirely dissimilar to the lagers you know, they just tend to have a fuller, more complex flavor profile. The use of better ingredients makes it easier to identify the constituent elements of a good beer like hops, malted grains and yeast. After you've samples some of these styles, you can begin to take on some of the more intensely flavorful beer styles like porters, stouts, Scotch ales and bocks. From there, you may discover the world of barley wines, Imperial ales and lagers, or the vast and varied styles of strong ales produced in Belgium and elsewhere. There is no hard fast rule to sampling craft beers, and you're perfectly free to go about it however you will, but starting with the lighter, easier-drinking styles is generally preferred. Just remember, the pleasure is in the journey, not the destination.

 

Finally, I'd encourage you to keep a notebook of every beer you sample. Note the over all impression the beer gives you, what flavor elements you can easily identify, what the beer smells like and how it looks. This information is extremely valuable for the sake of reference down the road. There is no way you'll remember every individual beer, or even every individual style beyond a few. Keeping notes is the best way to catalog your journey and it gives you a subjective roadmap of places you've been in the beer world, and a better idea of where you want to go from there. Don't worry about writing a technical review of each beer, just record your thoughts and be honest and objective. The notebook is a tool - let it work for you, not you for it. Again, you can revisit your tasting notes months or years later and you'll often be amazed how your palate has changed over time.

Before you know it, you'll be drinking better beer and you'll have a pretty good idea of the general style characteristics you like and those you don't. You may even become the envy of your cheap beer-drinking friends when they see the fun you're having with craft beer. Inevitably they'll begin to wonder what it is that you know that they don't know. This is the real thrill - you, the learner, get to become the teacher. Use your newfound beer knowledge to open up the world of better beer to others. The greatest enjoyment, of course, is being able to enjoy some of the world's greatest beers for yourself. Following closely behind, however, is being able to see others discover better beer for the first time. Once you make the decision to step away from the mass-produced, homogeneous lager, you (and your beer) will never be the same.

 

2008 beerphilosopher.com