The Beer To Choose If You Think You Don't Like Beer

While IPA-loving hipsters may clutch their puka shells at the idea that it's okay not to like extra-hoppy, super-bitter brews; these beer snobs are missing the point. Taste is a very personal thing, and there's no need to force yourself to learn to like a flavor you hate. Not every beer is an all-out assault on the tastebuds, though, as beer expert LJ Whirley points out. Whirley, who is a certified cicerone (beer expert, for us laypersons), serves as associate director of culinary arts for Indianapolis' Newfields Art Museum. Her pick for the best non-beer-tasting beer is a Belgian style called lambic.

One well-known producer of lambic beers widely available in the U.S. is a brewery called Lindeman's, and Whirley describes its framboise (raspberry) lambic as "a gorgeous fruited beer, low ABV, that is sweet but not too sweet." She also feels it goes nicely with brie cheese if you're interested in a food pairing. Lambics are available in other fruit flavors as well, including apple, blackcurrant, cherry, and peach.

Belgian beers aren't the only ones flavored with fruit. Gose is a tart, slightly salty German beer style perfect for hops haters and it often comes in fruity varieties like peach or lime. Some hefeweizens, too, can be flavored with fruits such as apricot, grapefruit, and orange; while even unflavored hefeweizens will often have banana and citrus notes. Beer haters might want to steer clear of fruit-flavored stouts and IPAs, though, as well as those tempting-sounding (but actually very beery-tasting) pastry stouts and milkshake IPAs.

Another option for the borderline beer drinker is a borderline beer, meaning one that comes with a mix-in. A canned michelada may taste more like a fizzy, spicy tomato juice than a beer, while a shandy will taste of lemonade and a radler of grapefruit juice. You can make your own radlers, shandies, and micheladas at home using the lightest of lagers. Yes, now's the perfect time to break out that domestic macrobrew. A beer that doesn't taste like beer is exactly what you're going for, after all.