Beer That Doesn't Taste Like Beer

As I've stated in the past, at some point a beer stops being a beer and becomes a flavored malt beverage. Where that point is a a matter of opinion. My point is not far beyond a coffee Stout. A beer should not taste like a soda fountain drink for a child.

 

my useless take: Beer is made from water, grain, yeast, and hops. These "beer that doesn't taste like beer" posts often refer to beer loaded with something other than the above four ingredients. I had a stout not long ago that was brewed with whole pecan pies. That beer tasted more like pecan pie than anything resembling beer.

 

This is where I've always landed. Sure a german chocolate cake themed stout might be tasty but tbh i'd rather just eat a german chocolate cake.

 

Did you get this in Iowa?

 

Perhaps somewhere close to Waukee!

 

I guess a Reinheitsgebot-conforming pilsner is low hanging fruit at one end of the spectrum. And - on the face of it at least - a stout made with whole pecan pies is getting close to as low hanging-fruity as you can get when it comes to telling other people what does/doesn't constitute beer, at the other. The problem is the stuff in the middle. Does Perennial Sump taste like beer? Does Cantillon Fou Foune taste like beer? Does KBS taste like beer? I would say they all do, but someone can easily take the opposite side of that argument.

Even when you are dabbling firmly in pastry territory - it often comes down to ingredient selection (in terms of the quality of the additions themselves as well as how they are chosen [or often times not] to complement each other) and execution. e.g. talking about two local breweries - Finback and Other Half. Finback made a stout last year called Absorb (the pink labelled one; they made two variants). It was a stout with coffee, marshmallow, graham cracker, banana and chocolate. Sounds gross. It was probably the best stout I had last year - very well balanced/integrated (relatively speaking of course). If Other Half made a stout with the same ingredient list I would almost certainly stay away from it, as it would likely be a sweet mess.

And my last point - NEIPAs specifically get called out a lot by the more reactionary types. I agree there can be too many taking up shelf/tap space, and I agree the ones at the lactose/fruit puree end of the spectrum can be too much (for me personally). But the ones on the "purer" end of the scale - thinking like the HF Double Citras of the world - I would say they do much more of a service to "beer that tastes like beer" than many of the WCIPAs that were doing the rounds when we hit peak WC(D)IPA times 10 years ago or so. Yet many of the people complaining about NEIPAs hark back to that golden age. I think it all comes down to a combo of how open-minded someone is vs their proclivity to be reactionary about things, as well as when they got into the game. Horses for courses and all that.

 

Last night I had a beer that tasted like iced tea! Was weird and I barely got thru it.

It was a cucumber lime pale ale. It had no head and very few bubbles. Seriously resembled a strong brewed ice tea (no ice of course)!

I also got their Girl Scout Cookie brew. (Can’t remember what style). It was dark amber, had a 3/4” head that laced down the cup (served in plastic ). The brew was modeled after the Samoa gsc. Tasted mostly of coconut and slight chocolate too. I liked that beer and it tasted (to me, haha) like beer!
Oh yea. I was at Bad Jimmy’s Brewing Co. in Ballard WA. some interesting brews there. Excellent food at Hooligans next door.

Cheers!

 

There's something in this that says a lot about the sad, current state of beer in the US.

Well, does "style" really matter if it is brewed to taste like Girl Scout Samoas® ?

"Well, traditionally a Girl Scout cookie beer was top-fermented, yet aged cold...but some innovative brewers today are using bottom-fermenting lager yeast. Coconut flakes are usually used, never coconut-flavor extract!"

 

Oh, that sad current state of beer I mentioned hasn't "ruined it" for me, no more than watching "light beer" go from a minor novelty product - diet beer - to over 50% of the US beer market. "Sad" doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the other stuff in-between the two extremes.

 

Back in the day, when AALs were pretty much all there was, I drank mostly Coors Light, because it was thin & fizzy and "didn't taste much like beer."

Jump forward and I tried a Shmaltz Brewery Pastrami Pils, and it tasted, well, like a pastrami sandwich. Mustard, maybe caraway, who knows what else. It sure as heck "didn't taste much like beer" - It was one of the few beers I couldn't finish. Next time I'll have a pastrami sandwich with a pilsner on the side, please.

 

Sure, the cake would be great but for me it is the factor of amazement that a brewer can approximate certain food flavors in a totally different format. I totally agree that some beers taste like other foods. I might or might not like them but kudos to the creativity and technical skills of the brewer.

 

I think it is excellent that we see all sorts of creative takes on what is "beer" even if I am not a fan of lots of them. It is the idea that people can conceive of the creation and then bring it to reality that is intriguing. There is a continuum of flavors ranging from the barest hint or overtone of say, chocolate, to something that people say tastes"... just like a Hershey bar" So at what point is the beer no longer a beer and now basically a liquid Hershey bar? At what point is the brewer moving from paying "appropriate" or "acceptable" adherence to beer brewing tradition and into the realm where they are dissed as "not brewing beer"?

 

I saw this beer on the shelf yesterday. Why you would want to buy a beer that tastes like soda? They even have a Cherry Beer for Pizza. The concept is confusing as it replicates soda, but its called BEER for pizza, and regular old beer and pizza is a classic combo.

Off Color Beer For Pizza

TASTING NOTES
Inspired by pizza and pop parties, Beer for Pizza features sweet crystal malts, Belgian dark candi syrup, and vanilla balanced with acidity from lime juice and citric acid. The flavor addition is inspired by the secret “Seven X” blend of citrus, cinnamon, and nutmeg for a juicy, yet spicy/sweet botanical kick. Kola provides a slight caffeine boost while a crisp carbonation enhances the mouthfeel.

Secret Ingredients: Dark Candi Syrup, Kola Nut, Lime Juice, Vanilla, Lemon Zest, Orange Zest, Orange Blossom, Cinnamon, Coriander, Nutmeg, Citric Acid

https://www.offcolorbrewing.com/beer-for-pizza-2/

 

I want to be able to say I drank a beer if given a drink and not knowing what it is. If I think I just had a mixed drink and you say it’s a beer then I don’t want another, I’ll just have the mixed drink. I had a French toast bastard on tap in February 20 and it tasted like it’s name but not beer one bit. It was a struggle to drink the 8oz pour. A pour of whiskey would have been a better choice.

Hops and malt and grain should be tasted somewhere in beer for the most part.

When folks tell me they don’t like beer and they tried many it’s almost always variations of AAL they have had.


I use the phrase it does not taste like beer a lot. I know what I mean.

Enjoy

 

Am I impressed if a brewer can coax the character of (for example) German chocolate cake from a beer utilizing traditional ingredients and limited/no adjuncts? Yes.

Am I impressed if they do it by literally throwing chocolate cake in the beer, or brewing with such a heavy hand that the beer is a cloying chocolatey sugar bomb with no 'beer' characteristics? No, I am not.

Therein lies the line for me.

 

Well, I think this thread just demonstrated the reason why there are so many variations in available "beer". It is because there are so many opinions about what is worth/not worth drinking. Whatever is unpopular will disappear. Whatever is popular, whether it be fermented yak whizz added to malt+ water, or beer brewed with chunks of chocolate cake will be made until the market is no more. If I can find the perfect beer to complement the perfect desert or BE the perfect desert after a perfect meal I don't give a rat's pattootie how it was made or whether anyone else considers it to be "beer". I have spent enough time with wine snobs to know that definitions and conformance to someone else's view of what is "right" are over-rated.

 

To echo the sentiments of many previous posters, I have a hard time considering some of the smoothie/slushee sours "beer." I still purchase them on occasion and I enjoy them most of the time. To me when you brew a beer and then add lots of fruit puree to it on the cold side there is a strong argument to be made that what you now have is a malt beverage or a beer cocktail. Ultimately it doesn't really matter - because terminology has long since lost meaning in the beer world. If you cut your lager or wheat beer with lemonade you no longer have beer...you have a radler, that's how I feel about some of the styles discussed in the thread. I also personally have no interest in gatekeeping, but I do have some concerns that a bit of the skill & integrity associated with more traditional brewing is becoming a lost art. Also I'm probably just too old to get it

 

for those with some extra time to read a lengthy article and who wish to get philosophical about this topic, post-mordernity, and if the question of 'beer that tastes like beer' even matters, this is a great article from the always great good beer hunting:

https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blo...perreality-and-simulacra-in-contemporary-beer

 

Like many, my personal buying preferences are hitting pastry/smoothie fatigue, they are often just turning me off by description only.

However the "beer should be beer, lager for life" crowd are becoming far more obnoxious with their gatekeeping/purity. At least the pastryboi crowd bros are not nearly as condescending when I drink "regular" beer.