Expanding My Palate

Unibroue, about anything.

 

+1 for Youngs Double Chocolate Stout. It's so easy drinking that it's almost funny.
And welcome to craft beer! I'm relatively new too. I think you'll find that your palate will change quite rapidly. I've been drinking craft beer for less than a year now. When I started, I thought Blue Moon was a hugh quality, full flavored beer haha. Now I thoroughly enjoy imperial ipa's and stouts, as well as many others. Good luck! Once you find a dark beer you like I think you'll be quite happy!

 

You might want to look to Belgian beers (many good ones have been listed so far). Also, if you like the German style you might want to look at Dunkelweizens.

I think many people that are new to beer shy away from the darker stuff at first, not all of course (there seems to be a similar trend in wine, whites are often times more approachable than many reds). Give it time, keep an open mind and you will naturally want to expand on your experiences. Drink what you like for a while, you will eventually get into a comfort zone and want to look for something your palate is not used to or familiar with.

 

Buy singles. Try everything.

 

Left Hand Milk Stout
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

 

Just keep on trying different styles until you find something you enjoy. I keep going back and forth between IPA' s, porters, & stouts. the more you try the more you' 'll find your palate.

 

The best thing that sped up the process for me when I first started was going to places that let me "build a 6 pack," that is, piece together your own sixer from the beers they had. It pushed me along at a breakneck pace and gave me a good idea of what I liked pretty quickly, in addition to helping my palate evolve.

 

Fullers Porter would work.

 

I would suggest try, try, try, sample, sample, sample, repeat. At first you may not love it, but you will get accustomed to the flavor and begin to truly enjoy them. When I first started my craft journey I didn't like the hoppy flavor of IPA's (believe it or not, I didn't like my first SNPA!) and now it's my favorite style. I will say that it took me the longest to get accustomed to the darker beers.

PS - make sure you're drinking them under the right circumstances. A dark roasty beer is delicious on a cold winter night, not so much on a hot summer day.

 

When I first started drinking craft beer I really loved brown ales (still do). Goose Island Brown Ale (Hex Nut Brown Ale back in the late 90's) was my favorite. Not too overwhelming on the palate, lower ABV and pretty easy to drink. After a while, you'll crave something a little stronger. Being from Indiana, you should be able to buy GI in every liquor store you come across.

 

Southern Tier 2XStout
St. Peter's Cream Stout
Tilburg's Dutch Brown Ale (on the fruity side of things)
Smuttynose Baltic Porter
Xingu black lager
Zywiec Porter

All would be good choices except maybe Tilburg's, but I always have to mention it as I feel it's underappreciated. Some people will tell you Guinness, and it is pretty innocuous stuff (both extra stout and draught), but they were horrible introductions for me. Thing is, there's so little going on in Guinness aside from the roast, that you'll be overwhelmed, or at least I was. These days I'll put it back like water, but the trick here is not to find the least flavorful brew of the style, but rather a beer with enough complexity that it draws your focus away from the attribute you find hard to get in to. This is why I was drinking Titan IPA, Burton Baton and Hop Stoopid well before I could drink a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale back when I hated hops.

 

Try a brew from one of these styles which while can vary between themselves, usually are not as roasty and sometimes a little sweeter:

Milk/Sweet Stout
Schwarzbier
Belgian Dark Ale

 

I'm going to back a lot of what these guys are throwing down and say go with some of the more base stuff like the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Founders Porter, maybe stuff in the brown area like Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale and Bells Best Brown Ale, and I think I'd grab some Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout and I'd even say Troegs' Dead Reckoning Porter. Also, Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron; I think if you want to give your taste buds a whirl with something that's got some bold, darker flavors, give that a shot.

 

Bust the IPA cherry (if you haven't already) and keep pounding that hop hole. I didn't like hoppy beers at first, but after making myself drink them for awhile, I became addicted. IPAs are the first style that sinks its teeth into you like a pitbull and doesn't let go. Hurts at first but eventually it feels right.