Ales: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Following is a repost of an article from March 2014, I thought I'd open up the series on ales with these musings on dark beer and some of the myths associated with it. I am also including a link to an article about the relative heaviness of dark and light beers
https://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/the-lighter-side-of-dark-debunking-the-myths-surrounding-dark-beer


How often do I hear people say "I don't like dark beer". I used to respond "dark is just a color". While this is technically true and there is nothing about the color of a beer that reliably indicates the flavor, heaviness or hoppiness of a beer, beers that are typically darker colored tend, in general, to taste different than your run of the mill lager.What I generally ask now  is "what kind of dark beer don't you like?"  because there is a wide variety and divergence among the many darker-hued beers. Most people don't really know what dark beers that they don't like.

Most people's first experience of beer is a lager. Budweiser, Miller, Coors and most of the mass produced beers are lagers. Outside of any discussion of what makes a "good" beer, lagers are cold fermented and then "lagered", or aged in a cool place, which results in a cool, crisp taste and a clear, golden color. This is usually the standard against which most people judge other styles of beer. But even among the light-colored beers there is a vast difference in flavor, bitterness (hoppiness),heaviness (original gravity) and alcohol content. Belgians, IPA's, Pale Ales, Witbiers and ESB's all have relatively light coloration, but still might not be palatable to novice lager drinkers.

Most styles that are typically brewed to a golden or amber hue can also be brewed with darker malts that give the beer a brown or chocolate color, but still have the same basic flavor as their lighter cousins. Black lagers have become common in the last few years, as well as black IPA's, both of which could be mistaken for an amber lager or IPA if consumed with eyes shut. Styles such as brown ale or altbier are very light in flavor but are a copper color.

When most people say they don't like dark beer, they, in most cases are referring to Guinness Stout, which for years was the most commonly available of the darker-colored beers. Guinness, like many Irish or English stouts and porters, tend to be fairly bitter and have a distinctive taste quite unlike lagers. However, recently, other varieties of stouts and porters have appeared on the market, notably sweet, or milk, stouts, which are made with lactose, which does not convert to alcohol. These brews tend to be creamier and sweeter than stouts like Guinness. Imperial Stouts are often hoppier and higher in alcohol content.

Belgians are another style where the beers are frequently dark in color. However, a Belgian might be a bright yellow or it might be a deep mahogany with no discernible difference in taste. Bocks, a lager that is richer in taste than a standard lager, can be deep brown, or golden, also with no taste difference than can be noticed.

Keep in mind, that not all beer styles are supposed to all taste the same, no more than a cup of coffee is supposed to taste like a cup of tea or a mug of hot chocolate. But somehow beer drinkers expect that a pale ale is supposed to taste like a lager.

So, when someone says that they don't like "dark beer", what styles have they tried? Are they cutting themselves off from the rich variety of lagers and ales due to something as unimportant as the color? If you've tried an Imperial Stout and didn't like it, fine, that thick bitterness has nothing to do with the smooth whiskey finish of a bourbon oak barrel aged quadruple Belgian.

Don't be afraid of the dark.