I love beer. I mean, not surprising since I’m a college student and all, but since I got the hankering to take a shot at homebrewing and loved it I’ve become quite analytical about beer. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good Coors Lite, but now a good 18months into homebrewing I’ve learned quite a few things the average beer enthusiast might not know.
I’ll detail some of the finer facets of my homebrewing strategy in another post, but what I really want to get to is different flavored beers.
I’ve tried Abita’s chocolate stout (highly reccomend it!) which was the first “flavored beer” I had ever tried. Since, I’ve tried a Cherry Stout (which was ok), a peppermint christmas beer (very good), a cinnamon winter lager (also very good), and most recently on my holiday trip I tried a pecan beer (which was very well-made, smooth, and delicious), and an oatmeal stout (which was pretty good, but kind of roughly made).
When I say well-made or roughly-made I mean the overall smoothness or the beer itself, the amount of carbonation (sometimes very hard to achieve as a homebrewer sometimes), any sediment in the beer, and the level of alcohol content. That last one may seem like a stupid point of comparison, but as I can attest, it’s easy to let the alcohol content get away from you and go pretty high for a beer. And also, when you sit down to drink a beer, you expect a certain amount of alcohol, it’s best not to be surprised, especially if you have to drive somewhere afterwards.
Of course taste is a factor, but also kind of subjective depending on each person’s taste in beer styles (see the Bar Arguments page for more on that). Basically, if there’s good carbonation, a smooth texture, no to little sediment and a normal amount of alcohol, you can call it a well-made beer… the taste is up to you to decide.
