Beer That Tastes Like Beer?

I think that phrase is used by people who don't realize that beer has many different characteristics, from Bavarian Helles to Imperial Stout.

To me, those who say they're looking for a "beer that tastes like beer" are stuck on the typical AAL and think anything more is getting too high-brow for them.

 

I understand the concept of a "good drinking beer*," there are many that fit the bill. Then there are sipping beers, and contemplating beers, chugging beers -- eh, it's beer, beer.

Maybe we need to set sub-styles to the recognized styles.

What was Piels like, @jesskidden ?

 

I think one of the main characteristics you are looking for is perceivable hops/bitterness. Basically what AALs became all about.
Prime example:

 

By then, pretty insipid (i.e., interchangeable with most other discount brands) - can't quite find the actual year of that commercial but the Piel's beers (Piel's Light and Piel's Real Draft) were either, or about to become, F. & M. Schaefer's discount brand (to which people ask, "Lowly Schaefer had a discount brand?" "Yeah, two, actually - Gunther Beer was the other.")

Sad, because Piel Bros. was once a NYC brewery noted for it's all-malt authentic German style beers. Even after Repeal, they had an upscale line that included their "Pielsner" (brewed with rice and Saazer hops), Kapunizer, Munchener and Dortmunder - along with their cheaper Piels Light and Piels Dark. The generation that followed let the brewery go to hell except for the money they could get out of it. Sold out in the '60s to what became the Associated Brewing Co. (Jacob Schmidt, Drewry's, Sterling, Pfeiffer, Mickey's Malt Liquor).

 

When I think of beer that tastes like beer I think of a brown ale for some reason.

 

Founders Solid Gold tastes like beer, and appeals to casual and craft beer drinkers. Hundreds of years of smooth, crisp lagers has defined beer for almost everyone - except for you guys.

 

So does Hacker-Pschorr Weizen and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout -- so, what are you saying?

 

Thanks for answering the question.

Beer that tastes like beer to me is reflected through German lagers. Pilsner, helles, and especially marzen and festbier fit the bill for me. IPA in every style and configuration tastes like hops. Pastry beers taste like pastries. Stouts remind me of coffee and chocolate. This isnt to say that I do not enjoy those styles, they adorn my WBAYDN posts way more often than marzen or pils. Bit when I think of beer that tastes like beer, its gonna be German and yellow to dark gold in color.

 

I think of beer that doesn't tastes like a fruit salad - mangos, melons etc. CBC Flower Child IPA, Founders Centennial IPA, SN 40th anniversary are examples. Not bashing NEIPAs since I drink them as well.

 

For me, it'd be the Maerzen and the American Pale Ale. And the English pale, and maybe the dark mild. Oh, and the Belgian saison. When I think of "beer," I think of something that goes with food. To me, all of these are good table beers. (AAL's need not apply. I'd rather drink water with my bratwurst.)

 

For many (most?) beer consumers a beer that tastes like beer means an AAL beer.

Permit me to suggest in today's craft beer scene where this is tons of hype concerning beer styles like Pastry Stouts, Milkshake beers, NEIPA, etc. that a beer that is brewed using barley malt, water, yeast, and hops that don't provide tastes of fruit juice might be considered a beer that tastes like beer?

Cheers!

 

Yes! Had a Bud or something mango and tasted like syrupy soda. Love mangos . . . not in beer.

 

I believe that it depends on the style and ,to a lesser extent, brand of beer you drank during your "formative" years.
When I think of various styles I can picture certain brands, but "beer" tastes like Miller High Life.

 

I'd say the best known examples off "beer that tastes like beer" would be some of your archetyes of style: SNPA, Heady Topper, Two-Hearted, Old Rasputin, Beamish, Aventinus, HOTD Adam, Stone RIS, etc.

I actually use that phrase all the time, and am about as far from an AAL drinker as you could get.

The use of the phrase comes from modern beers that are intentionally brewed to mask the characteristics of their so-called style. I'm talking about kool-aid flavor kettle sours, vanilla and fruit "IPA"s with no trace of hoppiness, "dessert-inspired" pie-filling triple sours (whatever the hell a triple sour even is supposed to be), and imperial stouts that taste like fudge brownies. It is used to intentionally disparage modern add-junk beers.