Beer Tasting

My beer tasting page, where I collect information about various beers I've tried.

My ratings system is my standard 4 star version.

Beer is broadly divided into lagers and ales; agers are "bottom fermented" or "cold fermented" while ales are "top fermented" or "warm fermented". Ales are a much older style while lagers are a relatively recent invention.

While I find that broad distinction academically interesting, I find it's not useful for guidance on whether I will like a particular beer. Much more useful is the colour (blond, amber, red, etc.) indicating how the malt is toasted, and hop content, indicating how bitter the end product will be. This informs how I categorize the beers I've tried.

Blonde lagers, pilsners, ales, etc.

Another name for this category might be "summer beers" or "thirst quenching" beers. These are supposed to be light tasting, blonde, easy to drink beers. The hoppy flavour is meant to be fairly muted but some of the ales do have a more pronounced bitterness to them. Nonetheless, the hops are not meant to be the main attraction.

Best rated (best first)

Worst rated (worst first)

Pale ales, English Bitter, etc.

The hops tends to be a bit more pronounced in this category, and so these tend to be more bitter. These tend to be golden, amber or light brown in colour in colour.

Best rated

Worst rated

IPAs, APAs, etc.

These tend to be hoppy and bitter. Sometimes citrusy. Though technically pale ales, it's worth putting these in their own category since they tend to be much more assertive with the hops (sometimes bitter, sometimes floral, sometimes citrusy).

You sometimes get the occasional lager in here, like if someone made an IPL. It's in this category, rather than pale ale or blonde because it's a more accurate assessment of its flavour profile.

Best rated

Worst rated

Stouts, Porters, Dark Lagers

I don't like stouts or porters all that much, but I've tried a handful.

Best rated

Worst rated:

Red ales

Somewhere south of an amber ale, this is bright red, and often comes from Ireland. Tends to be toasty.

Best rated

Worst rated

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