Home brew VS...

[krazy kat]

I'm wanting to brew my own beer and have never drank ales or any other beer besides Bud and things like that.I went out and got myself some Samuel Adams the seasonal brews so could try different kinds of brews.Is that the way home brews taste?I'm really don't like Samuel Adams!

[ben the brewman]

home brew can taste like anything you want it to. you can make light american lagers or what ever you want. a blond ale or a cream ale would be a good start for you if your a bud fan. i dont like sam adams either so im going to say that is not what home brew tastes like.

[krazy kat]

The Octoberfest is okay.The brown ale really caught me off guard tho..

[Tankard]

Sam Adams is going to taste more like home brew than the beers you have listed in your profile (Bud light, Heineken, Icehouse, etc). The creator of Sam Adams actually started off as a homebrewer in the early 80's. Which seasonal beers did you try?

You should know that it is very difficult to clone a beer like Bud Light and Heineken. Lagers are generally harder to make than ales, since they require a lot more temperature control, but with a beer like Bud Light, the taste is so light that any mistake you make will be clearly evident in the final product.

Just keep trying different kinds of beer until you find a style you really like. Once you do, find a clone kit for that beer and brew that. That's how I got started.

[Lerxst]

Homebrewing and beer is the same thing as cooking and food. Just like with cooking you can make whatever kind of food you want to eat......You can make and/or drink whatever type of beer you want.

[Tankard]

I hope that krazy kat can develop a taste for ales, though. Trying to clone macro lagers would be an ordeal. Plus, considering how cheap it is to buy in the grocery store, the cost/benefit of homebrewing would be limited to simply the experience of brewing.

[krazy kat]

I hope that krazy kat can develop a taste for ales, though. Trying to clone macro lagers would be an ordeal. Plus, considering how cheap it is to buy in the grocery store, the cost/benefit of homebrewing would be limited to simply the experience of brewing.

I'm not going to give up on the home brew seen just from one taste test.I'm sure there is something I will like.There are still some that I was told to try that I would like test out.I don't have any plans to reproduce the lagers I'm used to drinking,that's why I wanted to try to home brew so I could try different types of beers.

[christo]

Just keep trying different types of beer until you find something you like. When you go the bar/pub, try a pint of something that you haven't had before. It's just a pint.

In terms of "easing into" craft beers, or at least non-macro-lagers, maybe go the hefeweizen (Paulaner) or American Wheat (Bells Oberon, Harpoon UFO) route. Even try a Blue Moon wit (which is made by Coors). These are light-styled beers with some residual sweetness - and pretty darn easy to brew as extract beers.

[botb78]

one of our local stores has single bottles so you can make your own six packs. i've tried a lot of different styles that way, and it's helped narrow down what i'd like to brew in the future.

[BlindLemonLars]

I agree with those suggesting a blonde or cream ale. Keep the starting gravity moderately low, choose a clean yeast such as US-05 and do what you can to ferment it at a low temperature.

I expect that once you start brewing, you'll find yourself learning more and more about different styles of beer and your tastes will expand greatly.

[Steve Urquell]

Here's a little reading on styles.I gave a friend interested in homebrewing,homework in the form of drinking one of each of the different styles to find out what kind of beers he liked.Botb78 does exactly what I do--go to the liquor store and make a mixed sixer of all different styles.You'll probably taste one you've never had before and be shocked at how much you like it-I did when I first tried an IPA(goose island)
This is courtesy of "The beer church"

Styles of Lager
It's pretty straightforward with lagers. A few basic styles, a little wiggle room for creativity, but mostly it's about the quality of the ingredients.

Pilsner
The original Pilsner was brewed in Pilzen, Czechoslovakia. The same brewery still exists and produces Pilsner Urquell. Many beer enthusiasts, including myself, consider Urquell to be the only true Pilsner. Everything else is a copy. The use of Czechoslovakian hops, along with the special brewing practices employed to deal with the abnormally pure and soft water, are what set the original Pilsner apart. Many breweries all over the world try to duplicate this original formula, with varying degrees of success. A Pilsner has a very light character, is delicately hopped, with a bitterness that is not aggressive, but gently lingering.

Oktoberfest (Octoberfest)
Very closely related to Maerzen and Vienna Lagers. A German classic. Octoberfests express themselves with a malty sweetness. Octoberfests and Maerzens are seasonally produced versions of Vienna Lager. Rich, copper colored, malty in aroma, sharp but not lingering hop bitterness.

Bock
Bocks are dark lagers, usually of significantly high alcohol content (over 6%). They are generally brewed seasonally. The only real difference between a "Christmas Bock" and "Spring Bock" is the time of year they are produced, and when they are intended to be consumed. American Bock is a different deal altogether. They can be light or dark, and are generally lower in alcohol content. Dopple Bock is a stronger version of Bock.

Australian Lager
Not much different than American / Canadian pilsner. (Note: pilsner with a little "p" when mentioned along side "American"). They are made with Australian hops and malts, but other than that they are very similar to big production American beers. It is a misnomer that they are higher in alcohol content. They just come in a bigger can.

American Lager, Canadian Lager
I classify Canadian beers along with American beers, not because I want to upset Canadians, but because it's realistic. They claim to be Pilsners, but are really just extremely light lagers that are produced on a massive scale.

American Steam Beer
Steam beer is generally considered to be an exclusive to the Anchor Brewing Company of San Francisco. It has gained considerable notoriety. It is a style of Lager that is brewed at Ale-type temperatures. I guess you could consider it the opposite of Alt Bier, which is an Ale brewed at Lager-type temperatures. It is an interesting approach, but ultimately produces a light lager type beer.




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Styles of Ale
There's a lot of room for variation between the basic styles of ale. The Great American Beer Festival recognizes dozens of different ale styles when giving out awards. Rather than go into details about styles of ale that you will quite likely never come across, we provide a list of the basic, traditional styles of ale below.

Bitter
Bitter is a very generic term use to describe a wide variety of ales. In general, it refers to a light bodied, basic style of English ale, usually not very potent in terms of alcohol content. Often referred to as Session Beer. Session? I once heard it described this way: "People can sit around and drink it all night, discussing the important matters of the day, without wandering too far off the original subject." Bitters can be lightly or highly hopped.

ESB (Extra Special Bitter)
Like the name might suggest in relation to the above description of Bitter, an E.S.B. is significantly higher in alcohol content than a bitter. Perhaps a bit richer body, or a redder color.

Amber
Loosely, a variation of the good old bitter. Usually made a bit stronger and "redder" by the addition of Amber Malts. Once again, these are generic terms and the name that a brewery decides to attach to their beer is not so much a matter of fact as as it is a matter of opinion.

Pale Ale
A variety of English ale that tends to be significantly hoppier, and higher in alcohol content. Golden in color compared to ambers and bitters.

India Pale Ale (IPA)
During colonial times, brewers began to produce a style of pale ale that featured a higher hop content. The intention was that the high hop content would help the beer survive the long trip to India, where many homesick, thirsty English soldiers were stationed. This style of beer quickly became popular at home. Whether or not IPAs actually ever made it to India is a matter of debate.

Brown Ale
Brown ales are sweeter and fuller in body than any of the ales described above. Some are lighter, and have a nutty and sweet character, while others are more hearty and robust.

Stout
Stouts are black ales which utilize roasted barley for their sharp character and dark color. They are produced in varying degrees of alcohol content, sweetness and hoppiness. Guinness is surprisingly low in alcohol content, very high in malt content, and low in hop content. Other stouts are very high in alcohol content and hop content. The rich character of roasted barley is the common thread.

Porter
Porters are dark, and generally not too high in alcohol content. They differ from stouts in that their dark character does not come from roasted barley, but rather from other dark malts. To describe Porters in more detail would be inviting criticism and argument. What is produced today and called "Porter" is not necessarily consistent with the traditional definition of Porter.

Barley Wine
Very strong, often hoppy and fruity ales which are generally designed to age for a long time and are brewed for special occasions. Barley wine is a name applied to a wide variety of very strong ales (8 - 12 percent alcohol).

Wheat Beer
A wheat beer is exactly what it sounds like: a beer brewed with a portion of malted wheat in the mash. There are basically two types of wheat beers you will run into: Hefeweizen (light, unfiltered wheat beer), and Dunkelweizen (dark, unfiltered wheat beer). Both of those styles are lagers, however wheat ale (light and dark) is certainly a possibility, though uncommon.

Alt Beir
Alt is a German style of ale, untypically top fermented at cold "lager type" temperatures, and aged for a short period of time. In German, alt means old. This is the way Germans made beer before the discovery of bottom fermenting lager yeasts. They are usually well balanced (malty and hoppy).

Kolsch
Like Alt Beir, Kolsch is top-fermented. it is a full beer, light in color, pleasantly bitter and slightly hoppy. Like Champaign, it is (in theory) supposed to come from one particular region in Germany (Cologne) to actually be called Kolsch.

[iron_city_ap]

Definately keep branching out and trying different things. If you can find a place that sells more types of beers than you can find at Wal Mart, you are better off. Ask the people working at the store about different types of beer and how they taste. Go to a microbrewery, if you can find one and check out what they have ('its research, not drinking, honey' - me to my wife) and what you like.

Around this time of year you can sometimes find differnet variety packs available. I'm in the process of my first batch, and kept buying 12 packs of Michelob craft beers (I like the bottle shape, and they are pry tops, and brown glass). They have a variety of beers in them (A Porter, a Bavarian wheat, a Rye pale ale (similar to an IPA), and Pale Ale). My point is that by doing this, I'm getting 4 different types of beer to try while adding bottles use later. You aren't going to like everything you try, but don't give up. You may not like one brand of Wheat but may like another company's style. Try to find the basics of what you like about a certain type of beer, and then worry about the specifics of it (a little too bitter, a little too thick, etc...)

[GrantH]

Where do you live, and is there any local breweries in your region? I love trying different small town breweries different choices. Luckily down here we have 2 amazing ones. Abita and Lazy Magnolia. We are spoiled.

If you can get your hands on it and want something different but good (I love "summer wheat" beer, so I reccomend "Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat". It's not such a dark beer which I bet is why you didn't enjoy the sam adams right away.

I don't know a lot about beer but I love the Leinenkugel, Abita Purple Haze, and Lazy Magnolia's Indian Summer. These of which may be a bit easier to mimic than the college beers.

[shrekfx]

good stuff steve, i even learned some stuff..

This what i did to get my fience liking ales, she was a bud light person.. I had her start drinking other types of american lagers to get use to diff tastes.. Then had her try killians and she loved that.. Then when to mich amber bock, from there just started to expand to different stuff.. Like blue moon was a good one to do. Now she can drink most types of beers. She still has a problem with Guinness, dont know why. But for the most part, she'll drink what ever I drink and I try diff types of beer all the time.. It takes time to get use to the diff types of tastes in a beer.. But it is worth it, there is so much history behind the beers and great to learn..

Like I just learned that Killians was made by Coors. I knew blue moon line was.. and there were a bunch others that I didnt know about, but cant think of the names.