Beer That Doesn't Taste Like Beer

I usually only see this in reference to Pastry Stouts, that taste more like desert than beer, or fruited type beers that resemble smoothies.

Although, the same could be said for many Milk Stouts or Chocolate Stouts

 

One example:

 

There is a whole wide, wild, creative world of beer out there. Who says what beer should taste like to begin with? The process seems a better definition than what a beer might taste like. Brewing remains a adventurous sport. Who would have ever thought way back somebody would think you could boil up some grain, let the liquid technically spoil, then drink refreshing and live? Who had the balls to eat the first anything? The scene is what it is and fortunately nobody is twisting anybody's arm telling them what they should or should not drink accents it should taste like... Oh...wait...there are people doing that? Damn....

 

If all beer tasted like what most people who complain about "beer that doesn't taste like beer" think beer should taste like, there wouldn't be anything but insipid adjunct lagers.

 

I would agree that I see this often but don't mind the sentiment. I think most people are referring to beer taste similar to a German pilsner or lager. So the further fruitier or abstract the beer gets, the less it tastes like "beer".
A pastry stout, NEIPA, and a German lager are all beer, but not even close to similar.
I get the discrepancy, but beer in 2021 cannot be an all-encompassing taste and often doesn't taste like beer as we used to know it. I think most are referring to beer that tastes like a traditional German lager. When I see this type of description I have no quaff and think I understand what they are referring to.

 

I never really understood that sentiment either. Until I had a koolaid beer that tasted literally like grape koolaid. Then I got it. Even most pastry stouts and NEIPAs have some semblance of "beeriness."

 

Here is the test:
If someone states that a specific beer tastes exactly (or literally) like a liquid _____ (fill in the blank with any non-beer ingestible solid substance), they must then reverse the comparison and see if it still makes sense to them. In other words, would that person exclaim, "This blueberry muffin tastes exactly like solid beer!" or "This Almond Joy tastes exactly like solid beer!" when taking a bite of those foods? If they would not, then they know that they have finally had "a beer that does not taste like beer" and can receive their style tick.

 

Yes, a Pilsner tastes more like beer than a fruited sour.

 

I see the same statement about 'not tasting like beer', but I also see some people saying "this beer doesn't taste like your Father's beer." To me that definitely means the macro AALs.

But also to be noted, well crafted AALs and Pilsners don't really taste like macros to me because they typically have much more flavor.

 

I mostly chalk to this up to old man grumbling, but lately I've changed my tune--or perhaps I've finally succumbed to the old man grumbling. These heavily fruited smoothie sours bear no resemblance to beer whatsoever. Same with a lot of the pastry milkshake stuff. Sure, they might taste good--in that they taste exactly like fruit, candy, cake, etc.--but I am literally hard pressed to call some these beers "beer" recently.

 

This. Beer is extremely diverse and flavorings are welcome. But some of the newer crazy fruit beers literally do not taste like beer whatsoever.

 

Bingo.

When a beer is literally brewed to taste like kool-aid, strawberry cheesecake, or fudge brownies, then calling it 'beer that doesn't taste like beer' is entirely accurate. Pejorative, sure; but also accurate. A 'beeriness' would very likely be considered a flaw by some of their most ardent fans.

 

This nails it. Sure there's lots of gatekeeping going on when people say a beer doesn't taste like beer. But when both brewers and consumers are explicitly celebrating the fact that a beer tastes exactly like some other food or beverage, then I think we have to take them at their word. Non-beer flavored beer is a thing now. We just have to accept it and move on

 

There are people at either end of the spectrum, but for many of us (myself included) when I see these type of comments, it feels a lot like the “anyone that drives slower than me is an idiot / anyone that drives faster than me is a maniac” dynamic.

 

When I hear beer that tastes like beer it always sounds to me like someone reaching back to their roots to the day when AALs ruled the world, and they still do no doubt. But perhaps was the only option depending on where you lived and when that was.

I love Lindemann Framboise, I have a hard time equating that to a traditional lager.

 

I don't know, during the era many are discussing, I also heard a lot of people saying that American light lagers and the even lighter "Light Beers" tasted like "water" or "beer flavored water" or "air" (< my ol' man's favorite putdown of tasteless things), etc. I mean, they called Coors "Colorado Kool-Aid" and it wasn't because it was sugar-sweet and artificially fruit-flavored...

To illustrate a point I was going to make in a post, I once did a forum search for the phrases "tastes like" and "tastes just like" --- it was so depressing, I probably didn't even finish composing my post...

If you want to drink something that "taste just like" something else, why not just eat or drink that thing?

OTOH, I always found it amusing when someone posts a "Ewww...." kind of response in a thread about a flavored-beer. "No, no" replies the OP, "you hardly even notice the _____".

THEN WHY THE !@#$ EVEN PUT IT IN THE KETTLE!

 

A lot of the adjuncts they put in stouts are lost on me. Maple Syrup in CBS not that I noticed. The only beers I ever had where the adjuncts were unmissable were with the Junie Stouts, and they were insanely good, caramel floaties in the glass , fudge, coconut , hell you could see them, I was licking the glass.