It has been interesting to read about favorite/least favorite styles. Reading them got me thinking about styles I used to either not care for or really detest that I now enjoy or even in some cases dare I say it, LOVE! Beers I dislike are becoming less and less...
Fruit beer is often maligned and I too was a fruit hater but I have had some brews that changed my mind. I do still avoid fruit beers mostly as there are MANY awful fruit beers out there. Berkshire Brewing Company (Mass.) makes a delicious Raspberry barley wine. I love barley wines and I was really hesitant to try this. I avoided it for a long time until the package store had only one left... I figured what the hell and tried it. It was an epiphany! Really refreshing and yet definitely a beer. I regretted not getting more as it was a seasonal. I have had a couple of other fruit beers that were quite good as well since. I believe they had raspberry as well...
Another was Belgian tripels, golden strongs, saisons... Anything Belgian that was light in complexion I did not like. I could not even tell one from the other, they all seemed the same. Belgian dubbels, and dark strongs I LOVED, just nothing pale. I cannot explain why exactly. I think it was the paler belgians seemed more phenolic? The darker ones have more of the rummy, fruity dark caramel flavors in addition to the phenols.
Not sure what happened, it was not any particular beer but suddenly I had a craving for the paler variations and particularly that same spicy phenol character. I really enjoy them now. I even have begun trying my hand at brewing them. Can't wait to brew up some saison...
On the other hand some beers I used to love have slipped from the top in terms of favor. I used to really love hop bombs of all types. Could drink them all the time any time. Now, I have to be in the mood for one. They do not always taste as good to me. My tastebuds have definitely changed I believe. Malty beers seem to now be the standard all around anytime flavor for me these days.
What have been your changes of heart in terms of beer style or changes in taste?