Beer That Tastes Like Beer?

To me straight forward Pilsner and Lagers are the beers I think of as beer tasting beer. You can throw in Ballantine Ale too.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with that - Ballantine Ale does taste like "beer".

I wish Pabst would sell the brand to someone who'd brew it to taste like Ballantine Ale again.

 

Whenever I open a smoke beer my wife exclaims: “Are you drinking one of those bacon beers again?”



Isn’t ‘beer that tastes like beer’ most often used by those who favour AALs and Macro Euro lagers to make a soft derogatory comment about craft beer?

 

No it's used by craft beer drinkers. I would say at least 90% of craft beer is "beer that tastes like beer". The rest are malt beverages with so much added flavor that they don't.

 

Careful, there's a contingent who will jump all over you for that...

 

ISO.
Also ISO pork roll.

 

But the point is that "beer that tastes like beer" sounds very one-dimensional, of which beer is not*. And @Coronaeus is right, there are a lot of non-craft beer drinkers who make fun of complex beers by saying they only want beer-flavored beer.

When you guys called me out before I second-guessed myself for my comments, but others have heard it too -- based on subsequent replies.

*@slangtruth -- and I'm not talking about "flavored" beers.

 

Not in my case. I just try to stay away from beers that say "brewed with xxx" where the xs are replaced by anything (except maybe coffee because I love coffee). C'mon, rose hips? Hot peppers?

 

Back when I used to sneak them from my Dads stash I thought they tasted like rust.

 

Pliny

 

Like "Christmas trees" is what I used to hear (well, unless it was lightstruck and then it was "skunky", of course).

 

I don't quite see it that way. It is a phrase that can also be used by a craft beer fan who dislikes all the adjuncts added to beers to make them "hipper."

I like a wide variety of beer but there are times when I am just looking for something simple without all the bells and whistles.

 

While I can understand, even agree with, that perspective, it's just not been my experience.

In bars, in liquor stores, with co-workers I've always encountered BMC drinkers who turn their noses up at craft beer (of all sorts), often telling me they like "beer flavored beer." If you continue reading the thread from my previous post you quoted, you'll see others who have encountered the same.

Maybe the current wave of "additive" beer has spawned a sub-culture of beer prejudice, but it's been around since better beer started encroaching on the swill.

 

This mirrors my experience. The subgroup of craft beer people who don’t like the current trends in craft beer are simply borrowing the old refrain from the macro lager lovers who have been using it since before I first brought a six pack of Guinness to a Grey Cup party in the late eighties and heard it from my friends.

I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now. I mean Cantillon Kriek tastes like beer, but an Other Half fruity sour doesn’t? Colour me confused!

 

I like a lot of different beer styles, but my favourites are stous and porters... The kind that taste like stouts and porters, not the kind that taste like chocolate milk, coffee, or pastries.

That being said, when I hear the phase "beer that tastes like beer," I immediately think of a lager. Not a crappy macro lager, but a good quality lager. PU, Oktoberfests, Vienna lagers, etc.

 

When I use this description I mean beer that tastes like the craft beers that were popular when I started drinking in 2005-2006. Craft beer then was about hops and obtaining maximum flavor through malt and hops not adjuncts. I think about Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Hop Devil, Two Hearted, and Old Rasputin for example. To me that is beer, not the current market full of fruit salad hazy IPAs and pastry stouts.

 

I do feel like it is fair to say that a beer doesn't taste like beer when the producer specifically states that they are seeking a taste outside of beer. If your label says you brewed this stout with the ingredients of a macaroon for the express intent of making it taste like a macaroon then if you succeed haven't you made a beer.that tastes, not like beer, but like a macaroon?

 

I always think of Hamms and High Life when I hear taste like beer. Most non beer drinkers say they don’t like beer and if you prove they have only had AAL.

Fruited beer, pastry stout, NEIPA, sours are all not what I think of as taste like beer.

Enjoy

 

A couple years ago I had a beer that really tasted like beer. It was a very tasty imperial pilsner, but I can't recall what beer it was. I'll have to go back in my notes to see if I can find any info.