Style focus: diverse or narrow?

Likewise, I make sure I always have different styles around. I don't track styles, but I do track inventory numbers and such on my notes app, probably gonna upgrade to a spreadsheet at some point. But yeah, if I'm beer shopping I'll check before I leave if I've grabbed a decent enough variety of styles, I don't understand people who stick to one or a few styles, but people like what they like

 

Count me ‘in’ as a person who prefers diversity of beer styles.

Perhaps this is best characterized by the homebrewed beers I have on hand:

Belgian Pale Ale (clone of Orval)

Quad

Saison

Harvest Ale (Wet Hopped APA)

Oatmeal Stout

Smokey Brown Ale

Dubbel

DIPA (my version of Pliny the Elder)

Altbier

Tmavý Ležák (Czech Dark Lager)

Cheers to diversity!

 

I drink many styles usually dependent on season or mood. I have preferences (dark sours, brett, BA stouts, Belgian yeast etc etc etc) but I also love a nice helles or gose on a hot summer day. The only thing I say no to are hop forward IPAs.

My cellar probably has half a dozen styles but is mostly (80%) BA stouts.

 

While there are styles I like more than others, I'm down for any style. Where I get lost is the additions. There's enough options out now that I don't have to drink stuff I don't like (Coffee, pumpkin, and pickles) in my beer just to get the ticks. I end up drinking a lot of IPAs because so many of them are produced, and there's almost always a new to tick.

But yeah, there's always a variety in my cold spaces.

 

Funny, I was just looking at my reviews by style, and noticed NE IPA (my #3 most-rated style) is actually catching up with American IPA, my #2 most-rated style. My #4 most-rated style is Imperial IPA, putting three of my four top-rated styles somewhere in the IPA family.

I don't think this tells the whole story, since these are new beer reviews, and vintages are not eligible for BA stats. This dilutes the amount of 'new' stouts, farmhouses, lagers, etc. I can review (most of our local lagers don't get produced in 'variant' formats, hence only one BA entry), but it does illustrate some of my beer habit consumptions.

 

I'm a fan of broad style definitions. I cringe every time anyone mentions "Italian Pilsner" and things get even worse when people start talking about how Heady Topper might be considered a "West Coast IPA" these days.

I appreciate the way the Belgians have kept things broad and simple. The Germans and Czechs have gotten a little more granular, but they're still reasonable, too. There's no harm in describing your beer without making everything a new style.

 

In the past I often said there were only a couple styles of beer I, flat out, didn't like.

These days, with all of the "innovation" in brewing going on, there are probably more I'd pass on -- but more sub-sets to standard "styles" than anything well-established.

So yeah, when I'm in the mood for an IPA, or an Imperial Stout -- maybe a Wit or Saison, I'm not one to hesitate.

Favorites, yes. But I still like a lot of different styles.

 

I prefer a variety of styles. I probably only have 8-10 at the house now, but only about 35 total. I would say I’m any given year I buy about 30ish different styles. According to this site, I’ve rated 76 different styles.

 

I’m very into German styles. It’s practically all I drink within german styles range everything from Helles to dopplebock. When I get in the mood for hoppy stuff I’ll stick with a couple different favorite pale ales but don’t venture further. If I see English stuff I definitely buy it no matter what because it’s rare around these parts and I believe no matter the situation I can find excellent “normal” porters when I want dark.

 

Within the NA "style" there are many styles, and I try them all, enjoying most. Looks though when having a lager it feels like coming home.

 

Earlier today @Arminius757 posted in a thread:

“Honestly, IPA's are all starting to taste the same to me. With so many places using Citra or Mosaic in their beers, it tends to drown out a lot of complementary hops. Everything becomes the same "hop juice". Descriptions are all the same too: "tropical, mango, guava, passionfruit..." blah blah blah... At this point, you could probably give me a glass of juice with a shot of vodka and I wouldn't know the difference!”

I must confess that as regards Juicy/Hazy IPAs I feel pretty much the same as detailed above. I have been mostly purchasing West Coast style IPAs lately since there seems to be some diversity of flavor profiles for those sorts of beers.

Cheers!

 

While I'll admit to a certain fondness for big imperial stouts (including "pastry stouts") and palate-scorching IPA's, I've been a style ticker from Day One. I'd really like to see some English milds in this neck of the woods, though. And maybe some grisettes and a cask ale or two.

 

I enjoy many different styles of beer. However, if they were all outlawed tomorrow except for NEIPA's, I'd be fine. 98% of the time, the answer to what do I want is, I want an IPA. (The other 2% of the time it's an oatmeal stout).

I'm the reason your beer store shelves look the way they do.

 

The first step to solving a problem is acceptance...

I get it, IPA sells. In the end, commercial breweries need to make money.

 

Lucky for me I like hops! Not just bittering ones...

 

For me I don't have a particular style that I favor because I like variety. Part of this may be attributed to a ticker mentality and trying to get to poo-bah status, but I've always liked to try something new.
Weather does have an influence on me on what I choose so by season my focus does tend to narrow at that time. During the hot summer months I don't crave having a high ABV BBA stout while during colder winter months I do tend to seek those out. Hotter months I lean towards pilsners, lambics, lower ABV IPAs.

 

I drink and enjoy many styles, on vacation this last weekend and I've enjoyed a bitter, a kolsch, a helles (well I drank it, it wasn't the best example of the style), a pilsner, an amber ale, an oatmeal stout, and several ipas.

Hoppier ales definitely make up the bulk of my drinking though, by volume.

 

Now show Minnesota.