Palate Development... ?

it's not "real beer drinking" til you're drinking 6 dipa's a day













JK!!

 

Don't know why but there was a time when I had to nurse a Two Hearted Ale and that's pretty much a sessionable beer for me now. Something like Founders All Day IPA is for women and children.

 

Your palate will continue to develop over time, and not just with Beer. I remember a time when I didn't like foods like olives and mushrooms. Now, I can't seem to get enough of them. I remember having my first 90 Minute IPA and I remember thinking all I could taste was bitterness. I tried it again a year later, after i've gotten more and more into IPA's and could finally pick out the different flavors of it. What a change! I could finally appreciate hops and how they could balance out a beer. It took me a bit to get used to stouts/porters and the like. I love IPA's, DIPA's, Barleywines, Impy Stouts, anything with a lot of flavor. Depending on the time of year, pale ales and wheat beers bore me. However, on a hot summer day, a pale ale is what I'll go for.

 

All palates are diffirent. Mine developes in phases. Unlinke you, as soon as I found good beer I went straight for the hops. I drank all the IPA's and DIPA's I could find for a couple years untill I eventually got sick of them. When I finally weaned myslef off IPAs I was able to pick out flavors in styles like pilsners, kolsch, and hefeweizen that I really enjoyed. When I was hooked on IPAs all these beers seemed bland and I didn't think they had enough flavor. I am not a huge american wheat fan either way so you could have just grown away from those. But another possibility is that you are drinking so much hoppy beer, that currently when you try something not as hoppy it automatically is lackluster. IE you like the hop flavor so much that is all you want to taste. In my expirience this goes away over time.

If your palate is like mine you will find flavors or aspects of many different styles that you will eventually crave. I drink lots of IPAs, IIPAs, Pales Ales. I also drink lots of Kolsch, Pilsner, and Hefe, in the summer. I still drink BMC and think it will always have its place. I like stouts, Imperial stouts, and a few of the Belgian styles allthough I havn't gotten into all of them yet. I have grown to apreciate many lagers. I love Octoberfest/ Marzens and pumpkin beers. There are still a few styles I haven't gotten into but I'm sure as soon as I get a little bored those will be the styles I will try.

 

I know my palate has changed a lot since I first started drinking real beers. Can't really say why for certain, but I think its because I like to try "new" stuff. Sours used to be were I drew the line, but now I love them and can't get enough!

 

If your "appreciation" for bigger styles (like DIPAs) has led to your inability to appreciate subtler styles (like wheat beers), then it sounds like you have pounded your palate into submission rather than developed it.

 

Don't let the dbags drive you away, it's about trying some beers & having a good time. If you try and rush it, you're gonna hav a bad time. Post a list of your favorite beers, and we'll throw some suggestions out there. I'm sippin' on an 1809 Berliner Weiss right now. Really tasty tart wheat. We have similar roots, I used to drink a lot of Boulevard wheat & pale, now I'm into anything wild, sour, barrel aged (French oak please!), & apa's. Your palate development will come with a few years of branching out. Get out there! & if you're in KC, hit me up for some suggestions.

 

I don't think that's necessarily true, any style, including like wheat beers can just get old after awhile. I used to be all about allagash white and other wits and, in addition to developing a taste for hoppier beers, I just got kind of bored by the same banana/clove flavors. After awhile I'm getting back into wheat beers again (especially with Dancing Man again this year). I think palate tends to fluctuate in some pretty distinctive phases when the novelty of certain flavor profiles starts to wear off.

 

This is my experience exactly. I get hooked on a style, it gets old, then I get hooked on another. In my experience so far any style that I do learn to love, I eventually come back to and even crave in certain situations, even if I get sick of it for a while. Then many times I will have a repeat phase where that style becomes my favorite again. Right now I am back to being hooked on IPA's. I think this time it started because I began homebrewing and wanted to be able to distinguish between hop varieties and find out which are my favorites. I started revisiting many IPAs and researching and paying attention to their hop varieties.

 

for me it was just the distinct bitterness of it. I was just talking to a friend about this recently. I used to hate all things bitter (i.e., many beers, coffee, etc.), but as soon as I started becoming accustomed to beet with more hops I noticed myself enjoying more bitter things across the board. I now prefer DIPAs to just about anything (besides a good belgian), and black is the only way I drink my coffee. I'm not sure what brought it to this point, but I see the same trend you have experienced.

 

Perhaps with the extremes that some things have gone to in the current U.S. craft beer boom, such "fatigue" is more common than when I went through phases of exploration. Honestly the discovery of a "new" style never soured (!) me on any beers I had appreciated prior. Still, all things considered, these days I can see where you're coming from here....

 

Here is what I tell my friends that think something like SN pale ale is bitter (I know right lol). Beer itself is an acquired taste, then we'll say "full flavored beers" are another acquired taste, and finally IPA's are an even further acquired taste. You just kinda have to build up to it, I remember a year or so ago I couldn't stand IPA's at all, I fucking hated them. Then I got a 90 min and the hop presence is fairly tamed in that beer and I liked that so I kept getting them and move up to more bitter beers and so on, now I can't get enough of them.

 

I wrote the thread "Are you hooked on IPA's" because I had your experience. Once I tasted that massive amount of HOP flavor there was no going back. I like other beers but always seem to go back to the very hoppy IPAs. If not an IPA then something else very strong. It's hard for me to even go back to a pale ale as it just doesn't have that KICK! I love hopbliss! Your palate is doing you well!

 

Time + experience are important factorsbut generally lager - apa - ipa - stout - sour - quad, then any all of the above

 

In my experience, it's not just about learning to like bitterness. Before I got into craft beer, I'd take a sip of anything that wasn't a pale lager and just taste bitterness. After a few months of easing into bigger styles like IPAs and stouts, i realized the depth of flavor these styles offer. My theory is that your palate acclimates to the bitterness which then enables you to taste the pine and grapefruit in an ipa or the dark fruit and chocolate in a stout.

 

When you get tired of the hop bombs, you will probably move on to the expensive world of sour lambics & barrel aged wild ales. I miss the days where Cantillon, De Cam, DF & La Folie would sit on the shelf & collect dust while everyone was riding the dipa wave a few years back.

 

Everone's palates develop in different ways for different reasons and there are many variables which can alter the way you taste things as well. Smoking, medications, age, and your overall health can affect your sense of taste and smell. It sounds to me like you just started exploring different styles and really began to appreciate the subtle and not so subtle nuances that hops lend to beer. Keep trying new things and, to piggy back on what some others said, don't let anyone tell you what's "cool" to drink and what's not. In the same way people are particular about what foods they like, everyone doesn't like every beer. I'm in the same boat as some of the others; I prefer different styles at different times of year. You (almost) can't get me near an Imperial Stout during the summer, but I like to curl up with a movie and a glass of Yeti or Ten Fidy during winter