Let’s assume your hatred for beer has zero to do with the beverage itself and everything to do with the fact that you haven’t found the right style. Let’s also assume the first beer to hit your lips was a mass-produced pale lager. Like me.
My first-ever beer was a lukewarm can of a fizzy, lightly boozy lager. I don’t recall relishing in drinking it. But, I eventually saw the light, and understood there was more to beer than that poor example of the greater beer form. So I stretched out to learn about flavor profiles, sampling beer after beer. Brightly hopped, mouth-puckering sour, even the bold and belly-warming. I wanted to go out of my comfort zone, and in doing so found each new beer to be a revelation, realizing the only way to break from beer tradition is to just get in there and give everything a whirl.
So should you need a crash course in exploring beer’s nooks and crannies, consider these styles are your gateway into a world of treasures untold. Or you’ll just really get into beer.
Witbiers and Wheat Ales
Cloudy wheat beers might be the ideal gateway beer for non-beer drinkers. They’re multifaceted, fabulously fragrant, and don’t skimp on taste. They’re also generally light on hops, relying on orange peel and coriander for flavor. And the grain bill provides a smooth, moderately sweet profile that’s hardly bitter, making this style the perfect starting point from which a newbie can move to more hearty, complex brews.
Give one a try: Maine’s Allagash Brewing Company White: a sepia-tinted witbier that’s a potpourri of coriander, orange peel and lemon zest which in my glass disappears alarmingly fast. Also: Harpoon Brewery UFO Hefeweizen: a smooth, moderately sweet unfiltered wheat beer that’s got a light lemony profile, creating a refresher you could glug by the gallon.
Bocks and Doppelbocks
Lagers get a bad rap for being light, bitter, and boring. These are the “beery” qualities referenced by haters. To those types I offer this suggestion: go bock. Malty and robust as lagers go, these tend to be low on bitterness. Fun fact: bock in German means “ram” or “billy goat”. And then there’s the Doppelbock. Massively rich. Uber malty. And usually hovers around 7-10% ABV. So they hit your liver like a charging ram. Probably explains the name.
Give one a try: Samuel Adams Double Bock: plenty of chewy, candy-shop sweetness from the large quantity of barley malt used in brewing. Also: Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s Smuttynose Brewing Company S’muttonator, packed with caramelized sugars, molasses and a very subtle bitterness.
Berliner-Weisse
Some folks compare the Berlin-born Weisse to champagne. I am not one of those folks. I’d say it’s closer to a spritzy, unsweetened lemonade. These tend to pour cloudy and massively sour and are often surprisingly refreshing. And, it’s one of the lowest alcohol beers. Traditionally, a wheat ale is combined with warm-fermenting yeast and Lactobacillus bacteria to impart an acidic tart flavor. You can already find several area breweries crafting their interpretation of the classic tart, quenching ales.
Give one a try: White Birch Brewing Berliner Weisse: full of sour power for a pleasing citric tartness (think: the love child of champagne and lemonade). Also: Night Shift Brewing’s Somer Weisse, which smells like a box of Lemon Heads, and tastes of lemongrass and ginger. Expect a spicy finish.
Fruit Beers
Probably a more obvious choice for beer drinkers still wet behind the exploratory ears. These are usually a wheat ale with a juice-heavy fruit added (see: raspberry). Some fruity brews out there have blemished the style by tasting like soda pop that’s been filtered through a wet sock. Those with more subtle and balanced fruitiness are the more compelling ones. Aromatic, flavorful, and best of all, easy for green drinkers to take down.
Give one a try: Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat Ale: light body with tart raspberry, apple, and wheat flavors. And Wachusett Brewing Company’s Blueberry Ale: an easily found and easy-in fruit beer balanced by wheat and grain that smells as and tastes about as blueberry as you’d want a beer to get.
