American pilsners are the worst. A genuine Czech pils, like Pilsner Urquell or the real Budweiser (from the town the crap beer stole its name from) are slightly better, but still not good.
About the only thing I’d take a Pilsner over is a heles, but maybe not even then.
Edit: that said @scharmers I wonder if there isn’t a bit of ‘game theory’ going on. If I know I like IPAs and almost no one else does, but I also like the other styles that I know will be popular, wouldn’t it make sense to take one of those first? Now I wouldn’t be the jerk who drinks like 5 of them, then hoards the IPAs, but I’d probably try one to start.
Though for a lager or pils, no way. I’d start, and stay with, IPA.
Pilsners and Lagers are perfect “physical effort” beers. Go digging around in the garden for a while or putting up some sheetrock or whatever it’s not exactly a rich, dark beer you’re looking for afterwards. :)
That’s definitely a flavor within the hop spectrum. Some of the hombrewers here may have seen one of these:
Note that two of the flavors match a little of what you’re describing:
Green
Vegetal
Green is expanded in some of these to mean: grassy.
There’s even a handy calculator set up by a great minded person to help brewers aim their hop tastes in certain directions on the final brew: http://scottjanish.com/hop-oils-calulator/
I think maybe you’re sensitive to that flavor @scharmers, which might be why you get that front and center when you try an IPA. And since a lot of the other styles typically don’t shoot for dry hopping or late addition hopping (whirlpool, etc) then you don’t really get anything from those but bitterness, and probably more balanced at that since IPAs are really the style where over bittering is a huge thing. And if so, who cares, there are still thousands of beers out there to try. Everyone is a winner.
By the way, I added this on the tap last night at the house. I know it’s past Stone’s “Enjoy By” date, but it’s still fresh (enough) and I got an amazing deal on it from a friend.
I do think though that there are so many different versions of IPA’s out there now that you almost have to define what type of IPA you are talking about. Some are much more hoppy than others, some are citrus, some are pine, there are black IPA’s…and on and on.
I do get why some people don’t care for them. I have found I need to pay attention to the alcohol content when having more than one.
This thread made me give Köstritzer a try, which i had always ignored on the basis that it’s available everywhere and advertised on TV. I have to say i’m very pleasantly surprised.
So I tried the Spencer Trappist ale and it was nasty. Like a bad IPA nice mixed with barley water. I couldn’t even drink it, had to throw it.
The Von Trapp dunkel was much more pleasant, like a lighter Porter to taste. It didn’t blow me away but was pleasant enough. I would recommend fans of the darker beers to try it. There are probably better Dunkels out there.
It was a gift from this friend of mine named Ben, and it was really, really good. I’ve kept the bottle around, and when the cable guy came over to troubleshoot our modem problems, he saw it and asked if I like it. Dude was really into craft beers and once the modem problem was handled, we talked a bit about it.
I went and made a $20 mistake at Total Wine today based on various recommendations, both directly to me, and to people who seemed to have similar tastes/preferences to me.
Got Weihenstaphaner’s Hefe Weissbier, Founders’ Dirty Bastard, Trappiste’s Rochefort 8, Left Hand’s Milk Stout Nitro, Ayinger’s Celebrator, and Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale. Missed several others I’d have liked to have tried, but I was moving through the aisle quickly so my gf, waiting in the car and very confused why I was wasting money and time on a drink I hate, didn’t get even more annoyed with me ;-)
I strongly suspect that I dislike the entire genre of beverages named beer, but so long as friends keep suggesting new ones, I’ll keep subjecting myself to the experience!
Dude if that is a $20 mistake, I would make that mistake ALL DAY LONG.
You have some very different beers there. Start with something after dinner. Clean your palette with some water. Get whichever one you try out of the fridge and let it sit for a good 10 minutes on the counter or table.
Here’s a guide for the best temp, but really, just don’t drink them cold and straight from the fridge. You’ll miss so many of those flavor nuances that they will probably just plain suck. For bigger beers I’ll just pour them in a glass and go do my thing for a while, then go back to it and smell, then drink them slowly. The tastes even change while you drink them, as the flavors highlight more as a beer warms up.
35–40°F (2–4°C): Mass market light lagers
40–45°F (4–7°C): Czech and German Pilsners, Munich Helles, wheat beers, and Kölsch
45–50°F (7–10°C): IPAs, American pale ales, porters, and most stouts
50–55°F (10–13°C): Belgian ales, sour ales, Bocks, English bitters and milds, Scottish ales
55–60°F (13–16°C): Barleywines, imperial stouts, Belgian strong ales, and Doppelbocks
You don’t really have to remember this so much as the one easy rule:
The lighter the beer or alcohol, the colder you probably should drink it.
I genuinely appreciate the advice and the encouragement, y’all. I’ll hopefully be giving one of them a shot tonight at our weekly game night with some friends, one of whom is a part time brewer, sorta. So here’s to hoping :-)
