Favorite Beer Styles Discussion

[Bryan.]

What's your favorite beer style and why? Do you prefer the hoppy bitterness of IPAs, the rich flavors of stouts, or the refreshing tartness of sours? Share your top styles and any standout beers you've enjoyed recently!

 

[.John.]

I'm a big fan of craft beer. IPAs are my top choice for their bold hop flavors, but I also enjoy stouts for their rich, roasted taste. Every style has its own unique appeal, and I love discovering new brews and flavors!

 

[Sadfield]

Anything that isn't de rigueur with the rush it out, from grain to Instagram, selection of the craft beer industry, that jumped the shark years ago. So, anything other than, aroma only IPAs, fruit smoothy kettle sours and diabetes stouts.

Beers are like people, I shy away from the showy extroverts, being much happier in the company of the understated ones, with depth and character.

 

[Galena]

I am not a fan of craft beers, by which I mean overly hopped, weird fruit flavours that cost upwards of £8 a can.
I am bored of IPA, IPA, IPA, IPA which is all some seem to brew.

So being the bore that I am I like traditional styles like bitter, mild, stout, brown ale etc, a good amber ale (whatever that is). That doesn't mean that brewers cannot be creative and there is lots of varieties within those 'styles. Thatt having been said I am not religious when it comes to a 'style' I don't care if it breaks the 'rules'.
I find I am leaning more towards a good malt character in a beer these days.

 

[emmever]

I changed my favourite beer style several times, over the years...

I was born in 1985 in Italy, if I look back to the year 2000 most of the italian pubs just offered industrial lagers. So, as many Italian kids of that time I trsusted the equation beer = industrial lagers.

Then a bavarian pub opened near my home and I discovered a new world. In that period weizen and dunkel weizen were my favourite styles...

Then I had a stout period (also because of a vacation in Ireland).

In the recent years, due to the diffusion of craft beers also in Italy, I started enjoying IPAs (if some of you guys pass from Italy, remeber to ask for an eepa to get an IPA ).
Now I am getting tired of IPAs and I am probably shifting towards bitters...

 

[MrJay83]

I love IPAs and they're my usual go to but I'm pretty seasonal as well. Can't beat a pint of stout in the winter or a cider on a hot summer's day. Variety is the spice of life.... except sours. I just can't stand them

 

[An Ankoù]

A good, bitter and hoppy best bitter is my favourite. After 50 years of brewing I still haven't hit that nail on the head, but I've made some cracking beers in the attempt.
I think a best bitter has to come from the cask and it simply can't be done from the bottle, but I keep on trying.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I tend to drink more English ales, mostly bitters/pale ales. Where they are available I prefer cask ales.

My preference is pretty much any cask ale that’s fresh and well kept rather than a particular beer.

 

[Druss]

I was a big fan of lagers in my youth, specifically of the eastern European variety, not swill like Carling, Fosters etc.

But nowadays I'm more of an IPA or the more 'traditional' ales kinda guy.
Generally speaking I tend to gravitate toward the stuff that's barely changed in centuries.

'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' tends to be a sound adage when it comes to beer recipes.

 

[marshbrewer]

I like more traditional styles, preferably cask but decent keg can be OK.

Not a fan of beers iverly heavily hopped with US / New World hops, or hazy things, or many sour things, or things that taste of cakes or pudding.

Love a nice mild.

 

[MickDundee]

I’ll go against the grain in this thread and say NEIPA. I don’t get it when people claim it “doesn’t taste like beer”, because it tastes like beer. It’s incredibly hop forward but it does have a backbone there.

I’m also a big fan of a Helles, a nice easy drinking tasty lager.

Belgian witbier is my other favourite. They are quite difficult to get hold of around here apart from Hoegaarden in the supermarket, or Bruxelles Blanche from my local bottle shop (Morrisons stocked it for a while too). I like the balance between the malt, wheat, yeast and spices, and the fact it’s another one that’s quite easy to drink.

 

[An Ankoù]

I was a big fan of lagers in my youth, specifically of the eastern European variety, not swill like Carling, Fosters etc.

But nowadays I'm more of an IPA or the more 'traditional' ales kinda guy.
Generally speaking I tend to gravitate toward the stuff that's barely changed in centuries.

'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' tends to be a sound adage when it comes to beer recipes.

Still enjoy a Heineken and lime when it;s blisteringly hot. It has to be Rose's though, which is not to be had in these parts so I have to have it smuggled in.
Now that is definitely the sign of a deprived youth!

Edit:
Or "depraved" some might say.

 

[GhostDoggyWoofWoof]

Oude Geueze for me, love the dry partners and the complexity of the older beers. Can't beat a Hefe Weiss on a hot or snow day and partial to a raspberry wit.

 

[Kit-brewer]

I have a strong distaste for anything that is citrusy!
I tend to avoid most IPAs, especially the modern ones.
I do like a good traditional amber bitter. Stouts, with their chocolaty tastes and oatiness.
ATM I am really enjoying weissbeer. I have always loved a good Belgian beer.
Mass produced lagers (carling type )...I avoid as well. What is their point??

 

[An Ankoù]

Not a fan of beers iverly heavily hopped with US / New World hops, or hazy things, or many sour things, or things that taste of cakes or pudding.

Me too. Somebody proudly gave me a bottle of pastry stout (WTF!!!). It went straight down the sink.

Love a nice mild.

Now you're talking. Delicious and weak enough to be able to down a few. A reckon a good mild is the pinnacle of brewing. In fact I'm going to put one in the fridge now, for Ron. (or maybe three).

Oude Geueze for me, love the dry partners and the complexity of the older beers. Can't beat a Hefe Weiss on a hot or snow day and partial to a raspberry wit.

I thought it was a thread about beer?

Mass produced lagers (carling type )...I avoid as well. What is their point??

Well that;s an easy one. It;s mass produced out of standardised ingedients It costs pennies to brew and it's sold for a relative fortune. It makes a very pretty packet for the owners and shareholders who are laughing alll the way to the bank.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I like most styles apart from penny pinching mass produced pap. the cheapest beverage you can have should be water because no extra ingredients required? But brewers please don't try to get to that level of costs it's going to end up like er , well water there are a lot of meh modern ipa's and fruited beers that have had one hop or raspberry waved somewhere near them and then sold like they are the badgers nadgers.

 

[obscure]

I’m a strong proponent of every style suiting a different time and place. For example I’m not normally a fan of macro larger but while I was in Costa Rica a few years back found that their was nothing better than laying back in a swimming pool witha cool bottle of Imperial (the domestic macro larger there).

In a pub most of the time I want lowish ABV cask ale and some good conversation, in Brussels it has to be a nice Abbey Ale, on the Eurostar to Paris well the Kronenbourg was surprising good, in Greece well it’s going to be Amstel out of the distinctive brown bottle or Mythos.

At home it depends on the season in Summer I tend towards hoppy IPA’s, or larger. As it gets colder I switch to bitter with a few Imperial Stouts or Barley Wines thrown in.

 

[YeastFace]

Most lager, Helles probably favourite style. Bitter West Coast IPA. British Blondes/Goldens. Strong Bitters. Traditional Stout (although I do like a pastry one every now and then).

Less favourite are Hazy IPAs (just too ubiquitous) and sours (refreshing, but heartburn) but I'll still drink them.

Every style has a time and place, and it's more about where and who you're drinking with, than the contents of my glass. Madri can get ****** though.

 

[Tanglefoot]

I brew what I like to drink - English/American pales, IPAs, Amber ales and ESBs, Steam beers, Cali Commons, pseudo pils and genuine lagers.
If I'm buying I look for proper cask ale in the pub or Belgian, German and Czech beers from the supermarket.

 

[obscure]

Every style has a time and place, and it's more about where and who you're drinking with, than the contents of my glass. Madri can get ****** though.

If Madri would just sell itself as a macro larger I wouldn’t mind it, seriously I’ve drunk John Smiths and Coors Light even but it’s the attempt to pass it off as an artisan beer with a long history and not something created by some marketing team in London that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.