tatsebud changes

[hopjack13]

i was never really one for barleywines, they always seemed a little sweet to me. then one day i had a 120, didn't like it, or is it i didn't understand it? so i tried another, still no change. but i keep hearing people say how good it was so i tried another and another and another in order to better understand this monster. well i STILL don't understand it and it's not that i haven't tried! i did learn one thing though and that is that it's not a session beer :p rather a sipping beer (they should have their own catagory...sipping beers) but after that around nov. i opened my 2000 knumbskull and wow, i think the 120 did something to my tastebuds cuz i can fully understand barleywines now! and fully appreciate them as well, now i wish i had bought more of the old gaurdian! now why is that.........do you suppose? this ever happen to anyone else?

[Tweek]

absolutely. I find my taste buds have progressed dramatically in the last few years or so. I also find that they revolve a bit what is my favorite on month I may not care for a year later.

[threecb]

I think that tastes change/evolve/devolve/revolve all the time. With the tremendous variety out there, it's hard to put yourself into one category. Lately I've been drinking more porters and stouts and really acquiring a love for them. I'm a hophead by nature, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a robust porter or subtle lager...

As for barleywines, I find that there's a great variety among them, sometimes they're like a slightly maltier, bigger IPA, sometimes they are a sweet malt explosion on the tongue. And aging (your's was a 2000 vintage) can greatly change the character of a bigger beer.

I bought a "vertical" 4 pack (2000-2003 Vintages) of Heavyweight Brewing's Old Salty Barleywine and am waiting to get together with a buddy of mine to do the tasting...should be fun!

[threecb]

Oh yeah, and I'm one of those minority that didn't think the 120 was all that great...I thought it was cloyingly sweet.

[S.F.B.]

In regards to the tastebuds thing, they are always changing. When I started brewing I was a porter and stout whore. Now, I enjoy a wide range of styles. I have been leaning toward the heavy, malty, high alcahol brews lately.

I have tried the 120 minute ipa once. I found it to be a good, real good brew. You definitely have to be in the mood for it though. I found it to be sweet and, for lack of a better term, port like.

[hopjack13]

where do you people get your tastebuds from to be able to understand the 120??? i'll just have to keep trying i guess....actually orval is another i don't completely understand..., perhaps i should give up on the 120 and start there?

[newportstorm]

I know exactly where you are coming from. When I first "discovered" better beer, I didn't take a liking to barleywines. English IPAs, Porters, a Belgian-style or two was my limit. But my palate evolved, slowly but surely, to the point where I enjoy a wide range of styles - including many "hard to love" ones like Rauchbier, Gueuze and Schwarzbier. Just because you didn't enjoy the 120 Minute, don't discount your closet-love for barleywines (120 isn't a favorite of mine either).

Keep drinking, exploring, learning. Cheers!

[S.F.B.]

I don't know if understand is a term I would use. When I taste a new beer I forget the style and try to judge it on its own without a preconceived idea or expectation.

120 is not, IMO, IPA. I would put it in the barley wine category.

[studentofbeer]

i think i took to barleywines pretty quickly, which is maybe odd, but there are other styles that i havent acquired a good taste for yet. and maybe there is a difference between liking a brew and understanding it? I admit to enjoying the 120 minute but im not sure i would say i necessarilly "got" it all.

i have a harder time really loving things like doppelbocks, hefeweizens and even many porters, and it took me quite a long time to appreciate most trappist and abbey-style ales. For whatever reason my pallate seemed born ready for english ales, west coast hoppy pales and IPAs, stouts and imperial IPAs, stouts and barleywines, but needed a lot of training to get into Belgian ales, and still need a lot of work in terms of German offerings.

I doubt anyone loves every beer and beer style the first time they try it, but im dedicated to every once in a while trying some thing i may not otherwise just to try stretch the limit. it's worked for me on belgian ales even though i have a ways to go. its fun to circle back around and see if something you didnt like once somehow became better. My next project of this sort will be doppelbocks I think, as its around the season and its been a while since ive had one.

[hopjack13]

Originally posted by newportstorm
I enjoy a wide range of styles - including many "hard to love" ones like Rauchbier, Gueuze and Schwarzbier.

hard to love? hard to find! where going to have to set up trade here my brotha! i'll pm you!

don't discount your closet-love for barleywines (120 isn't a favorite of mine either
closet-love??? lmao
actually i have a closet love for triples! especially trappist! but they use spices and other things... i think , and i normally prefer the basic four. so i don't talk to much about it , kinda hypocritical. so i try to keep it on the d.l. :rolleyes: or in the "closet"

[steveh]

Originally posted by newportstorm
I enjoy a wide range of styles - including many "hard to love" ones like Rauchbier, Gueuze and Schwarzbier.

I understand the difficulty in getting used to Rauch and Gueuze, but what's "hard to love" about Schwarzbier? Are we back to that fear of the dark again?

I find a fresh Schwarz to be quite smooth and flavorful, no flavors really out of the ordinary for a beer.

S.

[hopjack13]

hey thats what they coulda made the governator a Schwarz-n-bier-er :D

[skahtboi]

Originally posted by steveh
IAre we back to that fear of the dark again?

I find a fresh Schwarz to be quite smooth and flavorful, no flavors really out of the ordinary for a beer.

S.

Once you've had black, you won't ever go back! :D

[sundontlie]

hhhmmmm, tastbuds changing, yes! First, is there such a thing as a "malt-head?" We hear so much about hopheads these days but noone ever talks about malt.. Beer is so strange, its like I can drink a certain beer a hundred times, observing it, thinking about it, enjoying it, and then one day - bingo! it all comes together for me and I can truely understand it and love it. I'm the type of person who finds something they like and then gobbles it up, and only it, and at such a frantic pace that it completely consumes me, and I have no time or room in my life for anything else. I can remember the day about 4 years ago when I sat down with a few friends and sampled Murphy's, Beamish and Guinness draught cans at the same time to see if we could tell the differance and we decided they were all pretty much the same... What was our problem? Not that its a great feat or anything, but I can now easily blindly distinguish all three in a taste test, no questions asked. I guess I just wasn't ready to understand them yet. And then fairly recently I've been on a seemingly life-long quest to find every alt beer I can get my hands on, no matter how far I have to drive and how much I have to pay. Why can't I just enjoy one of the many other fine types of beer out there? I guess I would be a malt-head - I have always loved bocks, doublebocks, eisbocks, alts, porters, stouts.. anything malty... why am I afraid of hops? I've tried everything at some point along the trip, but why can't I enjoy an Imperial IPA? I think it's all that pre-concieved notion that you've had those one, two, or three of the type and didn't like them at the time, so now aren't willing to try others that you might love. I guess its just the right beer at the right time, for the right person, and the willingness to be ready to take on a new taste... and to be prepared to not like it the first many times... I mean as a kid who liked coffee?

[hopjack13]

i did! my mother used to give me coffe to calm me down.
i've heard of them but never actually seen an altbier what are they? lagers?

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by steveh
I understand the difficulty in getting used to Rauch and Gueuze, but what's "hard to love" about Schwarzbier? Are we back to that fear of the dark again?

I find a fresh Schwarz to be quite smooth and flavorful, no flavors really out of the ordinary for a beer.

S.

Steveh is right on this. However, I love all three styles. My constantly changing top 5 almost always include a Rauch or Gueuze. The schwartzbiers I have had were pleasant and easy to drink.

[BluesHarp]

A natural progression...I went from IPA to Say..Bigfoot Barleywine (more of a supercharged IPA), then to the big boys.

Hopjack...you might try the Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine; still somewhat sweet, but very nicely balanced.

If you really want to give the tastebuds a workout, I still recommend the New Holland "Dragon's Milk" Strong Ale...Steveh will back me on this one...some wild stuff going on there; or DFH World Wide Stout...definately the port wine of beers, but VERY sweet.

[hopjack13]

Originally posted by BluesHarp
Hopjack...you might try the Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine; still somewhat sweet, but very nicely balanced.

If you really want to give the tastebuds a workout, I still recommend the New Holland "Dragon's Milk" old ale...Steveh will back me on this one...some wild stuff going on there; or DFH World Wide Stout...definately the port wine of beers, but VERY sweet.
i have had and loved the world wide, gunna go look for some now.
but the oldschool barley wine and the dragons milk im going to have to locate and trade for. but i'll deffinately put them on the to do list!

[studentofbeer]

mmm dragon's milk-- i agree a very subtle and captivating beer. i recently found a four-pack and enjoyed every last drop. 10% abv but the smoothest milk/sweet stout i've ever tasted.

[chazwicke]

I've got to get some of this Dragons Milk!