Lost Tastes

I haven't been drinking for close to a decade, but I have sampled quite a few brews.

It's on the reverse side, but I get really excited when I find a new English Dark Mild and English Barleywine on the shelves or on tap. Both are styles that just don't get made often, and while I've pretty much always enjoyed barleywines, I used to really detest milds. A new brewery just opened up around here, which is not uncommon right now, but this one I made a point to visit within their opening week since they had an English Dark Mild on tap. In fact, I'll probably be visiting that beer for New Beer Sunday this week.

 

Belgian styles, specifically quads and dubbels. They were one of my first experiences with "beer with flavor," which I discovered on a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands back in 2006 and I absolutely adored them. Now, I'm just not a big fan of the yeast character in most of those beers.

 

"Traditional" IPAs. I still drink them, but with far less enthusiasm than I used to. I think my palate got burned out.

 

British bitters.

I loved them when I was in college. I honestly can't remember the last time I had one. Maybe it's for lack of trying? Maybe my tastes have changed? Not quite sure.

 

When my wife (then girlfriend who's 1.5 years older than me) turned 21 we started exploring better beer.

I started off with import lagers, beers from Full Sail, Red Hook, Sam Adams, and New Belgium along with others along that line.

Then when I turned 21-22 I started drinking primarily IPAs and other bigger beers. When I was 22-23 my fridge was crammed with nothing but Barleywine, Double IPA, and Imperial Stout.

Fast forward close to 10 years from this point and I don't think I've bought a barleywine in close to 5 years. I think I've bought one Imperial Stout (Great Divide Yeti) when my wife went out of town a year or two ago. And I just don't really drink highly alcoholic IPAs. I find they get really cloying.

I rarely even buy regular IPAs but I'll buy one every few weeks or so.

I also don't buy Belgian styles much at all anymore but that's primarily because I got sick and tired of really lackluster American attempts and I found the imported ones often tasted stale.

 

Don't have 10 years of craft beer in, so I'm still learning... but big resinous dipas got old to me. Ipas in general have become less of my beer diet. The the intensity of the bitterness and how the flavor hangs in my mouth just doesn't appeal to me as it used to. I still enjoy some middle and lower abv ipas, but no more nights of drinking 3 in a row of the style generally.

 

High gravity across the board- Belgian, English, American - double digit abv, pretty much.

 

MANY years ago, as in the early 80's, I drank a ton of Canadian beers such as Molson, Labatt and Moosehead. Today I can't stand them. Granted, back in the early 80's there wasn't much selection at the liquor stores.

 

This is what I was going to say so I'll just quote yours.

 

When I first created my ID on this site I listed Russian Imperial Stouts as my favorite style. About 3-4 years later I changed it to German Pils style beers and it's been there ever since. In my fridge there's almost always at least one of our locally brewed Pils beers (e.g., Victory Prima Pils, Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, Neshaminy Creek Trauger Pils, etc., etc.) and I don't think I've had more than 3-4 RIS during the last year. Similarly when my wife and I go out to dinner (good food, good beer required) I look at almost every other beer on the tap list before even paying any attention to whether or not there's a RIS on the list.

 

This is my answer as well, over a decade ago all I wanted to do was find and try every Trappist and big Belgian beer I could drink. Now I can't remember the last time I had one with the exception of an Orval.

 

Brett beers without acidity. I find that I'm WAY more sensitive to phenolic compounds than I used to be. Still OK with lambics, thank Jeebus.

 

That's another one for me. After brewing a brett saison that fermented too warm and was super phenolic, I find I can taste it in almost every Brett beer I try now. Even highly regarded beers always have a slight band-aid flavor to me.

 

Band-aid, plastic, burnt rubber, medicinal, smoky. None of those do very well with me any more. Most smoked beers (and Scotch, thank God) are still palatable. Most clove-y/spicy beer are also OK. Guess 4VG/4EG are not the compounds that bother me.

 

The VAST majority of spiced beers don't do it for me any more, though they were never really "my thing". The exceptions are Belgian beers, especially Christmas/Noel versions of BSDA/Quads. Those have always made me happy.

 

Ales that profess to have "hints of apricot, mango", etc. These days when I am beer shopping, if I read something like that on the label, I will generally put it back on the shelf and keep browsing. My brain is telling me "hints of rotting fruit".