Yes. Quit drinking for 2 months and see what happens. Styles of years past became good again. I could drink a delicate Pilsner or lager and enjoy its nuances and flavor whereas years of getting beat over the head with bold flavors had killed the styles for me.
You gotta unHypeBoi unhipsterize and drink a shitload of Deschutes Black Butte and other Porters. Lagers . Arrogant Bastard You spoiled bastard.
I'm with you on this. I enjoy the under 5% British and German style beers much more these days than I do the bigger beers. Some Belgians may be the exception, but I drink those much less now.
My palate has definitely evolved. I used to really like amber ales (the old Fat Tire) and bocks (Shiner Bock when I lived in Texas. Then regular IPAs and milk stouts. Now it has to be Imperial IPAs and BBA stouts for me to be interested. I hate to admit, but I look at the ABV and if it isn’t above 8%, I’m not interested.
I always try to find a new beer. I like what I like and I buy those. Beer should taste like beer, not oreo cookies or kumquats.
A long break, also get into the habit of using a tongue scraper. Toward the tail end of your break, start introducing NA beer into the fold. Once you do a week or two of that, those styles you seem to have lost touch with will come back full force given the material profile improvement. That's not to say NAs are bad, but it's majors vs teeball.
I went 5 months without alcohol back in 2022. When I started drinking again it was really only the quantity that changed, not so much what I drank. I cut my consumption down by close to 75% and except for an occasional special occasion my consumption has stayed down-I drink the same stuff(pretty much anything) but less.
I did dry January this year and nah, not really. Definitely made those first few beers taste phenomenal but my tastes didn't shift at all. I went a month and a half without drinking a couple years ago and the first beer I had after that extended break happened to be a Stella (from a can) and my God that was probably the best tasting Stella I've ever had
The post-Repeal "common wisdom" was that many brewers' beers were sweet (viewed as a negative) because the drinking public had lost their taste for "real beer" after a decade and half or so of drinking soda pop, mixed drinks of dubious hard liquor w/pop and home brew made for the "kick" with lots of sugar and other additions, rather than for the taste. Plus there was a new generation of drinkers who only knew those beverages. AB wasn't the only brewer advertising their beers in that manner. (Plus, countless more that stressed their "Dry" beer). The classic Rheingold Extra Dry theme song underwent numerous changes to its lyrics over the years but the one I remember best (and learned as a pre-teen ) included the lines: "It's refreshing, not sweet, it's the extra dry treat, why not buy Extra Dry Rheingold Beer". (And when I got old enough, I did!)
Depends on what you mean by reset. My taste didn't shift or evolve. I've always enjoyed Stella, it just tasted particularly awesome after not having any beer for a long time. So yeah, after re-reading the OP, I'll echo @TheIPAHunter 's advice. You wanna start liking the stuff you've always enjoyed in the past after getting tired of drinking it all the time? Stop drinking, period. Now it almost seems like a captain obvious kind of thing
It’s like weather in the Midwest: just wait it will change. Getting older changed my tastes and I’m sure they will change again. I drank thousands of ipas, now I won’t touch them. Just enjoy each stage of the beer drinking journey!
I'm the opposite of that, 7.5 down to 4.5 is in my wheelhouse. Some in my family and friends enjoy the >8 ABV, so always have a selection on hand for them. Different strokes that make the beer world so enjoyable.
