Rare styles that deserve more hype

With all the brewery trends these days, which styles do you wish you saw more of? For me, Weizenbocks, eisbocks and foreign stouts. All pretty solid when done right.

I don’t particularly lack Weizenbock or Eisbock (I’m in the Top20 raters of both these styles), but I agree they are great.
Here’s mine:

  • Proper Grodzisku/Gose/Lichtenhainer. Not those 6% fruit beer juices that are en vogue these days.

  • Gotlandsdricka. Jopen’s Many-Faced Got and NĂ€rke’s Tanngnjost & Tanngrisnir prove that this style is far from boring.

  • Ice Cider/Ice Perry. Because when done right, they are among the best drinks known to humanity.

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Probably some of this will be regional I guess - don’t find many of those German styles in the U.S. or Canada. On the other hand, Ice Ciders back home are easy to come by


  • Weizenbock
  • Apfelwein (≠ Cider)
  • Berliner Weisse (the traditional ones, not fruited and below 4%)
  • LĂŒttje Lage (low alcohol dark beer - would like to see more breweries making that)
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hellyeah! Schneeeule is the only producer I know that currently hits them off consistently.

True, but on the other hand: we only have 373 Ice Ciders/Ice Perrys in the database, but 1813 Weizenbocks. Eisbocks, at 375, are more or less on Ice Cider level.

Definitely grodziskie, but I guess there’s only so many breweries that you can put in one village.

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Traditional British styles like Bitter and Mild are getting rare these days too.

<*))))))><

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I feel a lot of breweries in the US are making non-fruited Berliners and Goses
 not sure if they are super traditional, but these styles have really exploded in some regions. Obviously, there are more than enough of the tooty frooty versions as well.

I would personally like to see more mild ales, bitters, and other British styles in the U.S. the hefeweizen has also become very uncool in my part of the country.

Eisbocks, weizenbocks, and various other traditional European styles would also be a welcome respite from the seas of haze. I had a Gotlandsdricka from Jester King recently but my guess is that it is far from the real thing. I also would not mind seeing more dunkels. Sahti is also painfully underdone in the US.

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That is a good point, I absolutely adore a good weizenbock, but it seems many of the new breed of brewers chase after what gets the most online attention, such as adjunct stouts, hazy IPAs, desert / fruit sours etc
 weizenbock doesn’t seem as cool, and certainly won’t sell as well.

Had a mango sour Eisbock the other day which was decent.

The emerging new trend in the UK seems to be ‘wild’ ciders blurring the flavour boundary between cider and wild beer / sour / lambic. Once Upon A Tree, Olivers, Pilton, Hogans and Little Pomona seem to have new releases out in this area.

This exactly, especially the gotlandsdricka.

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Agreed with Mild. Its either amazing or completely dull and few US breweries ever really try to make this style.

I like the idea of krystalweizen a lot but rarely get to drink any.

Smoked lagers need more love.

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absolutely!

hellno.

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Rather than proper Eisbocks, I’d like a few more Eis-something else; I got some good ones that didn’t start as Bocks, rather they started as other styles, but I liked the concentration.

Ice Ciders, no matter how much I like them (and I can feel the difference between a good one and a not so good one), they tend to be more monodimensional than beer; in other words, apart from ticking impulse, I can happily live with something like Neige Reserve, and I wouldn’t need another brand.

@Koelschtrinker, can you describe apfelwein and how it’s not cider?

As for me, I just need to have more world class Pilsners, because those are hard to come by.

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True. I just haven’t found an Ice Cider that’s available to me that makes me happy yet. BrĂ€nnlands is close but still not really available because I have to trade for it.

It is definitely Cider in our classification, as in “fermented apple juice.” But give Öppewoi to any person who is not familiar with it and they’ll say: “It’s nice, but it doesn’t taste like Cider.” Generally speaking, Apfelwein is much lighter than French or English examples, very dry, with not a lot of “juicy” flavours, and properly sour, even more so than many Sidra Naturals.

Have a good mate who lives near Frankfurt so would love to see Apfelwein as a style. Should get some next month as my parents are on a river cruise.

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This. Primary the non to very low carbonisation and the dryness. I think this is useful:

It’s a problem when RBs compare Apfelwein with the Ciders they had.

I’d love to see more Weizenbocks in New Zealand. More doppelbocks too.

Sidra Natural is fairly similar to Apfelwein, though.

Most German styles, but I would particularly like to see more Kellerbier or Helles. Had a big Oktoberfest kick last year and would like to see more of those too.

I’m glad I can read most of that :slight_smile:
I regret I didn’t pick up more German when I had a chance


So, there’s nothing different about ingredients or process, just the final product is different, right?
I would argue that there are major flavour difference also between sidra natural, french cider, and the generally bad ciders in north america.

I didn’t like the few apfelwein I had mainly because, together with the dryness and acidity, there was a quite strong acetic note.
I find that (good) French ciders tend to have more funkiness and complexity, and sidra natural has more body than apfelwein and no acetic acid.

I have 2 bottles of 10yo sidra natural and I will open them after the summer, for science :wink: