To be more accurate this post should be called 'things I like in beer' but I think 'things I like' sets a more pleasant tone. I admit some of my more recent blog posts have perhaps not taken enough prisoners. So for this entry to the beer adventure I'm keeping things on a more appropriate, positive note.
Since the start of this beer quest/ adventure the world of beer has changed dramatically. Trends in the beer scene have come and gone and for a long time I did consider myself as someone who appreciated all (non macro brewed) beers and beer styles as equals. Though I would argue my own personal preferences have drifted into focus through experience more than they have changed.
After enough years of beer hunting one develops an intuition for choosing beers especially in situations where overwhelming choice is available. Recently, after returning from a visit to Manchester based Track brewing one experience made me realise just how much I am actually biased towards certain types of beers over others.
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| Track Dancing Fire 5.4%. |
Track Dancing Fire 5.4% is the original inspiration for this blog post and quite possibly my beer of 2026 so far. Put simply it's an American Amber that actually tastes like how I remember American amber to taste like over in the States. It's got loads of character. Big toasty caramelised malt, resinous hops and spice. A fantastic beer to pair with burgers or other grilled or BBQ meats.
To me this beer covers a lot of bases regarding what I tend to rate highly. Great composure, character. A bit of a retro feel and it's a tad off the beaten path compared to what's considered on trend. Having old school US hops featured exclusively in a beer is something that makes me smile. It's kind of like the equivalent of when you're at a function and a Slayer track comes on.
A key thing I have found in beer and brewing is the composure of a beer is of fundamental importance. A beer can have loads of ingredients thrown at it, but it won't necessarily equate to composure. Beers that are simple can have great composure and still hold a complex flavour profile to keep them interesting. I can think of many beers that exemplify this beauty in simplicity approach but one I have tried more recently is Devil's Lapstone 4.8% by Durham Brewery.
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| Durham Devil's Lapstone 4.8% |
This is again a beer that goes down the 'a bit retro' rout. Devil's Lapstone is a naturally conditioned Best Bitter that presents itself through very fresh, simple well composed elements. An interplay of fruit and malt. Marmalade, grassy citrus and spice. Like a naked salad in the sense it is very much malt and hops yet it retains length, depth and nuance.
Simplicity and composure in brewing are often associated with traditional brewing practices. A lot of modern beers tend to be brewed to very clean, neutral fermentation profiles to showcase speciality ingredients or certain hop varieties. Along with the marketing hype towards ingredient 'X' or hop variety 'Y' they get a bit predictable.
So in general I take more interest in beers that are less Hollywood and more French Cinema. But that isn't saying that clean, refined fermentation flavour profiles are only for lagers, or are by default make beer less interesting. A beer that demonstrates this very well is an IPA I am very familiar with from work...
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| Rooster's Blame it on the Tetons |
My first impressions of Blame it on the Tetons 6.3% by Rooster's brewery was that it was indeed a very beautiful beer. Very drinkable for it's abv with a very clean hop forward pineapple-tropical character with orange and pine.
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| Oats going into the mash on Tetons brewday. |
Tetons was originally introduced to the Rooster's range as a A mountain IPA. Which to the average lay person means its a hybrid style; all the juicy fresh notes of an East coast style IPA combined with the clean resinous bitter finish of a West coast style IPA. When I was first introduced to the term I remember having no clue what it meant and referred to it as the 'Scafell Pike special'.
In the brew house brewing Tetons is an experience that is in equal parts rewarding as it is challenging. Having over a literal tonne of malt, oats and wheat in the mash plus a big heap of leaf hops in the hop back makes for a challenging runoff and lot of ingredients to dig out afterwards.
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| A thing of beauty; Tetons wort passing from whirlpool to fermenter via the hop back. |
So all in all that pretty much sums up a lot of what I like in beer. I confess it probably reads a bit vague to most people and could probably never be condensed into any sort of formula. But if I had to summarise the entire post into list form it would probably read something a bit like;
-Beers that taste good/well composed.
- Retro beers.
- Beers that are a bit off-trend or alternative.
- Characterful beers.
- Hops.
- Slayer.
As with many things what constitutes as good is by nature subjective to the individual. I have on certain occasions encountered beers that were near undrinkable and loaded with off-flavours. Yet there was still someone else at the beer festival waxing lyrical about it saying it was nectar. Conversely on the various occasions I have been vocal about how great a beer was, often someone else would be denouncing it as rubbish (usually an uneducated pleb). But like I say, it's all very subjective.
