Current Events > How the FUCK do I get into craft beer?????

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never been of huge fan of beer but that's because I've only ever been exposed to piss water brands like Heineken, coors light etc

im more of a whiskey/brandy guy

how the fuck do I get into craft beer

1) Buy craft beer

2) Drink craft beer

Or if you were being literal, you could just break into a brewery and get inside a brewing tank.

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You don't. You either like the taste of piss or don't

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Buy 12 40 ozs

Then forget about it

Step 1 go to liquor store.
Step 2 go to wall of beers.
Step 3 Try new beer.
Step 4 be pissed you didnt get something better.

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Nothing to it but to do it.

Your first few batches will suck but it'll do the trick.

It's like riding a skateboard once you find a recipe that does it for you.

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Go to a store with a wide beer selection. Pick something out that interests you. Then drink it.

Some stores will let you "build your own 6 pack" where they have a 6 pack box and you throw individual beers in there that catches your eye. See if any stores around you have something like that. Its a good way to try a variety of stuff without having to buy a bunch of it, and youre more able to find stuff you like
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Try representative beers of different styles and figure out which of those styles you like in general. Then look for different beers of that style and figure out what ones you like best.

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You might like barrel aged beers. Dragon's Milk is a popular BBA Imperial Stout you can find all over the US. Firestone Walker makes a lot of really good BBAs and they're similarly ubiquitous.

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Wait are you trying to brew your own or you you trying to find like a "fancy" beer

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Wii_Shaker posted...

Nothing to it but to do it.

Your first few batches will suck but it'll do the trick.

It's like riding a skateboard once you find a recipe that does it for you.

Or this ^

Tbh, its better to go out to a bar and just try a bunch.. I find I dont end up just drinking to the point I dont remember nada

I like that Allagash stuff though.. or Belgians they call em

ZeroX91 posted...

Wait are you trying to brew your own or you you trying to find like a "fancy" beer

neither, I'm just trying to see if a type of beer exists that i enjoy

1. buy a belgian style ale
2. ???
3. enjoy

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Reis posted...

neither, I'm just trying to see if a type of beer exists that i enjoy

Thing is, it's difficult to make any recommendation unless you kind of have an idea of what you're looking for to begin with. So you obviously don't like piss-looking/tasting mass produced macro lagers.

Start with a basic ale. I believe Sierra Nevada's pale ale was the first "good beer" I ever had and I expanded from there. Try that, or Newcastle Brown Ale is a good option too.

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go with lagers first, darker the better because they're the most lightly hopped. IPAs and the economics behind cheap, easy bittering agents have completely fucked commercial beers in the flavor department because e v e r y t h i n g uses hops, and it's grassy and disgusting.

dark lagers are usually malty and sort of nutty. i used to hate beer, but i love lagers and a good stout. ales, especially pale and india pale, can fuck off. beer used to be bittered with things like gruit, which was a blend of herbs carefully picked to accentuate and balance the kind of beer it was for. keep in mind, this was hundreds of years ago when every beer was craft, lol

anyway yeah fuck hops.

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Go to a local brewery and get a flight.

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A few reputable bars near Atlanta when I lived there would give you free taster shots of beers, sometimes they had a few hundred on tap. Just go sample a bunch at a time, see what in your area does this.

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The best thing to do would be to go to a restaurant or bar that offers "flights": basically a varietal selection of beer in shot glasses. You could get a good spectrum: a lager, an IPA or two, a sour, an amber, a porter, a stout, or so on, and see what you like.
Of course, we live in the time of Corona(virus), so that may not be possible/advisable.

As others have said, go to a liquor store that sells singles, and buy a selection of different varieties. That can get expensive though, especially as you get towards the darker end of the spectrum(generally speaking, the darker a beer is, the longer it took to brew it, so stouts can get really pricey). If you get six, I would suggest trying to cover as much of the spectrum as you can(unless you have a hunch as to what you may prefer): light to dark. A good place will have people who know about beer and can recommend you some.

feel free to add me on Untappd (billcom6)

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viewmaster_pi posted...

go with lagers first, darker the better because they're the most lightly hopped. IPAs and the economics behind cheap, easy bittering agents have completely fucked commercial beers in the flavor department because e v e r y t h i n g uses hops, and it's grassy and disgusting.

dark lagers are usually malty and sort of nutty. i used to hate beer, but i love lagers and a good stout. ales, especially pale and india pale, can fuck off. beer used to be bittered with things like gruit, which was a blend of herbs carefully picked to accentuate and balance the kind of beer it was for. keep in mind, this was hundreds of years ago when every beer was craft, lol

anyway yeah fuck hops.

I second the "Fuck IPAs" motion. They are bitter as hell. Even the fruitier ones that are supposed to not be as bitter are still bitter. There are very very few that I actually like, but when you pay eight bucks for a beer you pretty much have to choke it down no matter how long it takes.

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Go to Beer Advocate, look at the list of top beers, realize it's all people jerking off Imperial XXXX, ignore them, try random shit and remember when you like something.

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No no no no, the beer goes into you lol. No wonder it's not working out.

Try a couple beers of each type, like ipa, wheat ale, stouts, porters, etc and see which style you like the best then try more of whatever kind you pick. Then try out whichever types you liked second best, third, etc

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My favorite kind of beer is an Imperial Stout. It's a little more alcoholic than a lot of beers, and they tend to be more expensive, but I fucking love them. I've had nearly 250 beers in the past year and half, an nearly my entire top 10 is Imperial Stouts. If you like coffee and chocolate, you should give one a try. Some are more bitter than others, but it's an acquired taste and once you acquire it you may not drink any other kind of beer.

1. Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout
2. Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout
3. Founders CBS
4. New Holland Brewing Dragon's Milk Reserve: Maple Oak
5. Founders KBS
6. Founders Curmudgeon's Better Half
7. Founders Underground Mountain Brown
8. New Holland Brewing Dragon's Milk
9. Founders KBS Espresso
10. Stone Brewing Mikhail

As for IPAs, they grow on you. Start with a New England IPA, they are a lot less bitter. I started out hating all IPAs, but once you drink enough of them, they start tasting pretty good. Quickly skimming my list, my highest rated IPA is Smuttynose Brewing Finest Kind IPA. I may have missed one or two on my list. They aren't may favorite kind of beer, I don't think I have any in my top 30.

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Protip: a shitty beer can be made ambiguously tolerable by adding cinnamon.

billcom6 posted...

Go to a local brewery and get a flight.

This! Usually you can pick from their selection and the bartenders usually can help with recs

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I've honestly had better experiences exploring the world of foreign beers than I have with any US-brewed craft beer

admittedly a huge part of that is just that I can't stand IPAs

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Gamerguymass posted...

I second the "Fuck IPAs" motion. They are bitter as hell. Even the fruitier ones that are supposed to not be as bitter are still bitter. There are very very few that I actually like, but when you pay eight bucks for a beer you pretty much have to choke it down no matter how long it takes.

I love IPAs, but they're an acquired taste. It's also a lot easier to hide bad quality behind a lot of the flavors you can use.

Pilsners are a great starting point. You can learn a lot about a brewery through their pilsner.

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Drink a milkstout, ipa, or wheat .

Try hard cider, or Mikes Hard Lemonade. Tastes much better than beer.

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lots of good advice in this topic bros, I appreciate it

will check out ales & lagers since I prefer dark liquor

Try Bavarian Wheat Beer

Very soft, full mouthfeel and flavourful. Notes of Banana, cloves, grass in general while some may be more malty.
Try Weihenstephaner HefeWeizen which is the gold standard for me. Also good is Maisels, Schofferhofer, Augustiner, Schneider weisse

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Try Lagunitas IPA

It was the first beer I liked, followed by Guinness
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Kraft should make a craft beer

Would be nuts

Go someplace where you can make your own 6 pack and just pick out different kinds of beers to see which ones you like.

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The flights idea is probably the best, it really is a shame things are closed down

WaterLink posted...

Go to a store with a wide beer selection. Pick something out that interests you. Then drink it.

Some stores will let you "build your own 6 pack" where they have a 6 pack box and you throw individual beers in there that catches your eye. See if any stores around you have something like that. Its a good way to try a variety of stuff without having to buy a bunch of it, and youre more able to find stuff you like

I'll add to this.

Ask the people that work there, usually places that specialize in or have a wide variety of beers make an effort to educate their employees and many of those employees also like to drink. Getting opinions and a little information can go along way.

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Ser_Jaker posted...

Try Bavarian Wheat Beer

L0Z posted...

Drink a milkstout, ipa, or wheat .

isn't wheat light tho?

to clarify, I abhor light liquor so I don't see why it would change for beers

My favorite is White Claw, you should try that, so good.

Reis posted...

isn't wheat light tho?

to clarify, I abhor light liquor so I don't see why it would change for beers

I find Wheat quite full, cloudy and heavy.
There are dark wheat beers too. Usually under Doppelbocks

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You know, it occurred to me we should offer suggestions on what breweries to look out for. The brewers I personally trust most are...
Stone
Dogfish Head
Left Hand
New Holland
Thimble Island(you probably won't find them unless you're relatively near Branford CT though lol).

I've had enough different kinds of beer by them to be confident that everything they make is bound to be good(at worst), even if it doesn't fit my taste buds.

Stone
Dogfish Head

stone's RIS is fucking great. and i have a soft spot for dogfish head's palo santo marron.

2. Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout

i haven't had their vanilla, so this is still my #1. it's damn good.
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Founders is my favorite brewery, I don't think they have a bad beer.

New Holland is great as well, though I only know that from the various Dragon's Milks they sell.

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i've never seen their cbs but i try to get their kbs once a year.
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ZeroX91 posted...

Step 1 go to liquor store.
Step 2 go to wall of beers.
Step 3 Try new beer.
Step 4 be pissed you didnt get something better.

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The CBS is like the KBS, but instead of being aged in normal bourbon barrels, they are aged in bourbon barrels that were also used for aging maple syrup. I go back and forth on which one I prefer, right now it's CBS.

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Wheats are the only craft beers I find to be consistently above average, everything else is normally horrible
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LeperMessiahXX posted...

Founders is my favorite brewery, I don't think they have a bad beer.

They sold, btw.

edit: also, theyre not making cbs anymore

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edit: also, theyre not making cbs anymore

shit balls.

it's kinda warm out for stouts anyway. i guess.
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