Suggestions on Ale styles i may like

[Romex2121]

Im new to Ales and home brewing so im not sure what styles may be to my liking , so far im liking the American Wheats with
Bell's Orberon style being my favorite , ive also tryed an American Pale Ale (DME) kit that wasn't to bad ,,
I do not like the heavy hopped IPA beers
(to me) their to strong and bitter..
I guess im looking for a clean , crisp style with a nice balance of flavor from the grains & hops something thats refreshing and not to heavy also has an ABV of around 5.0% to 5.8% , im not really set up to do Lagers YET so im looking mainly for Ale suggestions...
what styles of ales would you suggest for AG brewing ? Blondes ? Wheats ? Pale Ales , Etc etc

 

[MaxStout]

Perhaps a Kolsch? Nice malt backbone, light on hops. If you like wheats, try a hefeweizen. A great summertime beer.

Or try a SMaSH (single malt and single hop) brew. Find a base malt you like, and pair it with one variety of hop.

 

[brewbama]

Blonde Ale, Amer Wheat, British Golden Ale, Amer Amber Ale, Irish Red Ale, Amer Brown Ale, Scottish Export 80/-, Milk Stout, Oatmeal Stout, etc, etc.

 

[riceral]

California Common, Kentucky Common

 

[RPh_Guy]

Cream ale
Belgian blonde
Belgian dubbel
Hefeweizen
American wheat
Kölsch
Irish red
Lager - vienna
Lager - helles / maibock
Seasonal - Fall/Winter spiced ales
Sour beer of any kind

 

[kevin58]

The best thing you can do (aside from letting total strangers on an internet forum tell you what you like) is to try everything you can find. There are a couple of well stocked beer and wine stores within reasonable driving distance from me and I have a rule never to leave without something I've never tried before. I've encountered some clunkers and I've found some pleasant surprises. You've already discovered for yourself one or two that you like... make those a couple of times and in the interim try new things.

 

[RPh_Guy]

^ that's good advice except it's maybe better to hit some local breweries and get some flights (bring a DD).

Beer is better fresh, and you'll support independent breweries.

It's actually really hard to find most styles of beer since the craft industry is focused on churning out hop bomb after hop bomb, dessert stouts, and fruit bombs or other stuff with weird adjuncts.

 

[Romex2121]

The best thing you can do (aside from letting total strangers on an internet forum tell you what you like) is to try everything you can find. There are a couple of well stocked beer and wine stores within reasonable driving distance from me and I have a rule never to leave without something I've never tried before. I've encountered some clunkers and I've found some pleasant surprises. You've already discovered for yourself one or two that you like... make those a couple of times and in the interim try new things.

Thats pretty much what ive been doing but living in a small NM town theres not a lot of verity as far as craft type beers , i do like Orberon but Bells only allows 24 cases per season for the whole town although i did talk one store into holding 2 cases for me whitch should be in this Tuesday , mainly its a handfull IPA,s , Samuel Adams Summer Wheat , Blue Moon and Shock Top thats about it besides the big name Lagers..
Im not looking for someone to tell me what i like just looking for styles that may be better suited to my taste ....
The one thing i dont want to do is make something and wait all that time and it taste like chewing on pine needles

 

[RPh_Guy]

I don't like pine or strong bitterness (among other things) in my beers either. I largely focus on sour beer styles, and some of my brews have no hops at all.

Any of the styles we listed are a good starting point for non-hoppy styles.

We can definitely help guide your recipes too if you need any assistance! Cheers

 

[kh54s10]

It sounds like you need to stay with pale ales, cream ales and the such. Brew those, try some darker and hoppier beers. I bet your tastes will change over time. When I started I was a drinker of commercial light lagers... I started with an Irish Red ale, a bit darker for me and I liked it. My next couple were also light beers, I worked my way into darker beers and hoppier beers. I have a wide range for tastes and will try almost anything, food or drink and like most of what I try.

 

[mongoose33]

Lots of great suggestions above. You can get a hoppy beer that is not overly bitter. I don't care for the very bitter IPA bombs myself--can't hardly taste anything after drinking them. But you can get beers--and brew them!--that focus on hop flavor and aroma, and scale way back on the bitterness. Sierra Nevada's "Hazy Little Thing" is an example of that. I made a clone of that, and it's nice.

As far as what to brew...it looks like you're doing extract? That will limit you a bit, but you still can do some interesting things there.

@MaxStout made a good suggestion if you're doing all-grain, a SMASH using only a single malt and a single hop. I do one every now and then with Maris Otter malt and Styrian Celeia hops. If I told you it was a lager you might not be able to tell the difference, yet it's an ale.

A SMASH is a great way to see not only how the malt presents itself but also the hops. You can also play with mash temp if doing all-grain, tilting the mash temps higher to produce a fuller-tasting beer or using lower mash temps to make the beer finish drier and crisper.

You seem interested in trying to bring certain flavors out, and that's a good approach to have at this point in your brewing career, IMO. That's what's nice about a SMASH--you can add a new ingredient and be sure what flavor changes it accounts for.

I'd suggest leaning toward simpler recipes as it'll be easier to see what the different ingredients do. Too many ingredients and you end up with a muddled mess.

Whatever you do, enjoy the process and the journey. This should be fun, both the enjoyment of the beer but also the experimentation and creativity. Work on getting the process down. Almost any recipe can be effectively brewed if you have your process down; no recipe will rescue a bad process.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Miraculix]

Cream ale and the lower hopped American ales and English bitters will be your friends.

Btw. You don't have to buy yourself lagering equipment, just use mangrove Jack California lager at room temperature. Works like a charm and you have not to lager it afterwards, although it actually is a lager yeast.

 

[eric19312]

how about belgian wit beer? Blue moon is surely available and with any luck you can probably find Hoegaarden. Looks like it is distributed in New Mexico, maybe just not your small town.

Witbier falls in your ABV range, is low hopped and includes some spicy notes that might have some similarities to Oberon. I think they are pretty forgiving on temperature, most belgian yeasts are. Lack of clarity is expected and there will be some cool ingredients in most kits (coriander, orange peel maybe some camomile...). Also a good quick turn around beer and refreshing in the summer heat.