Okay, I know this is like asking you to pick your favorite child, but…
What are your favorite styles of beer? Always a fan of Scotch/English ales m’self, with and without hops, usually medium-bodied/colored. Just recently became a devotee of Belgians, especially Dubbels and Goldens.
Here here on the goldens. My favorite style is a fairly conservatively noble hopped blend between an American Ale style grist used with a Belgian Golden Ale yeast. As far as my (allbeit unrefined) palette is concerned… awesomazingness.
I always seem to return to a medium bodied, medium hopped Amber Ale, BUT I also look forward to a good hoppy IPA.
I’m going to be boring and say Porters and stouts. Especially a well aged RIS.
I am going to agree with mainemike - medium hopped, full bodied, amber ale. Likewise, big fan of a nice, rich, brown ale.
I’ve become very fond of Scottish ales (the lower gravity versions). I’m seriously looking forward to my 80/-, which I hope to bottle next week.
But really, I love variety. There’s no style that I could drink exclusively for more than a week or two without craving something else.
I cant beleive im the first one to chime in with blast you in the face with hops IPA, IIPA, heck even an APA can be heavy handed with hops and delicious.
Ages ago, in another homebrewer incarnation, I entered four beers into a local competition. I had a Porter, a Stout, another I forget, and a plain-Jane, vanilla as they come, brown ale. Guess who took 2nd place? Guess which beer won it for me? I love exploring the lengths and depths of variability, but it seems middle of the road is widely popular with most folks. It certainly gives one a relatively blank palette with which to work.
Scottish and Scotch ales are my new standby, I’m brewing a German Altbier right now (slightly modified recipe), and I have an English Strong Ale waiting in the wings.
That said, I absolutely love spicing things up with a face-numbing quantity of hops. i just tasted an IPA that almost made me cry. It was in a Great Divide sample pack, and to tell the truth, it may have been the English Style (like an ESB) instead of the IPA, I was drinking them kind of rapidly. I enjoy that, but I can’t drink every beer with that hoppiness, or I get numb to it, and it loses it’s charm.
Im mostly a hop head of the red and pale variety. I have tried and tried to like, and figure out belgians but I just cant do it. Every once in a while I get one and I stay positive about it but it just doesnt do anything for me. I appreciate them but I guess theyre just not for me. I always thought it was more of an aquired taste like some cheeses that I never used to like but do now. Damn Belgians.
I tend to drink with the season, but if someone had a gun to my head, I would be the boring guy who says he likes a nicely hopped American pale ale. I would love to be able to reproduce Great Lakes Burning River–which is not available in my market.
Having said that, I brewed a single hop American wheat a few months ago that was so awesome it inspired me to brew another wheat today, but with a different hop variety. I normally find American wheats too bland. The solution: brew your own and hop it like a pale ale.
Nothing boring about Porter or Stouts. I love them year round, and RIS
are great as the weather starts to get cooler.
I’m definitely in the minority here - I like German lagers. Not that I don’t brew a variety, because I do, but for my palette a clean, refreshing Helles or Pils hits the mark for me and the group that gather with me regularly. Having said that, I look forward to doing some session able English Milds to have a set of quick turn ales for the football season!
Low abv session beers are what i’m loving right now.
IPA’s anytime, but my tastes are seasonal…I like a good ESB in the fall, a Porter in the Winter and a Hefeweizen in the summer…I know i left out spring…I drink A LOT of IPA’s during that time of year haha!
American Cream Ale, and Kolsch in the summer.
Germans lagers for me also - Helles, Dunkel, Oktoberfest style, and Schwarzbier. I also like black IPA, oatmeal stout, and coffee stout.
No narrowing here. So many recipes, so little time.
If I had to limit myself I’d stick with british ales.
