Expanding my beer palate
I came pretty late to the beer-drinking party (senior year of college). I’ve always favored sweet over bitter and have not been a fan of tea, coffee, beer, etc. Because of this, I’ve historically not been fond of anything dark and basically stuck with American lagers.
For the last few years, I have mainly gravitated toward the pedestrian beers: Bud Light, Corona, Michelob Ultra and the like. About a year ago I was introduced to Shock Top (called Spring Heat – Spiced Wheat at the time), which is a Belgian Ale. Since then I’ve also come to find out Blue Moon (which I also enjoy) is very similar.
With this new found desire to expand the palate, I headed off to Lukas Liquor at the corner of Manchester and Clarkson road to “build my own six pack” (for $8.99, if you’re interested). Having never been there, I was quite impressed with the scale of the store. If you are a beer or wine connoisseur, I recommend you check it out.
Here’s what I ended up walking out with (with tasting results thus-far):
- New Belgium Sunshine Wheat – Thumbs Up!
- Boulevard Pale Ale – Meh…
- Schlafly Hefeweizen – Thumbs Up!
- Shock Top (Belgian Ale) – Thumbs Up!
- Leinenkugel Honey Weiss – Would drink it if given to me, but most likely wouldn’t ask for it.
- Czechvar (Wikipedia article describing the relationship with AB) – Not Yet Tasted
So far the experiment has been a success, with a .800 batting average after trying 5 of the 6 beers. I have high hopes for the last one, so I feel like I’ll end up in good shape.
I should also note that a couple of catalysts for this experiment was the InBev/AB merger (acquisition) and going to the Schlafly Bottleworks a few weeks ago. It’s given me a desire to support the local/little guy a bit more these days.
Given the list above, what beers would you recommend to further expand the Danker beer portfolio?
Tags: beer