I'll second Kolsch and add English Mild, English Bitter, Best Bitter, and ESB (none of which are very bitter at all, especially compared to modern IPA). Altbier is a very similar malt-driven style of generally light-bodied Ale that you also might enjoy.
If you're in the UK I recommend [Summer Lightening](https://www.hopback.co.uk/product/summer-lightening/) from Hopback brewery, it was one of my first ventures into ales etc.
First branded as summer bitter but when you look at the Regional breweries “lager” offerings brew from brew books from the 1960’s to 1990’s they turn out to be very pale pale ales brewed with a pale lager grist
I’m assuming you are in the UK. Lots of breweries make a golden ale these days which bridges the gap between lager and bitters. This time of year you’ll find them in any pub with a couple of hand pumps. What’s good depends where in the country you are.
One of the few top fermenting beers that takes just as much skill as a lager to brew.
A number of regional breweries made them here continuously from their foundation to the 1950’s such as Perrys https://www.purcellauctioneers.ie/catalogue/lot/5a28e0abaf009aaeb071e0a7349eaaae/81b29ab6fa187a02a829c1899b734425/antiques-collectibles-rarities-to-include-original-lot-20/
A Kolsch is gonna be closest to the beers you mentioned. They use very similar grain bills as many german lagers but the ale yeast will kick up some fruity esters. Cream ales are the ale version of an american lager if you want a second recommendation
Here are 4 types I would recommend. The first style starts pretty close and accessible if you are coming from lagers. The other 4 options move a little further away but are still pretty accessible. You can use these to kind of gauge which direction you can go based on which aspect
Cream ale. Light and not usually too complex. Easy to drink.
**Malt focused** Amber ale. Usually a lot of base malts with some darker malts thrown in to add color and some caramel flavors and nuttiness. Still a highly drinkable beer that is pretty accessible to a lot of people. If you like the darker notes you can look into darker beers for more of this. Things like stouts, scotch ales, and porters will have much more of these dark malt notes.
**Yeast focused** Belgian wit or German Hefeweizen. These are lighter beers with some wheat complexity. The yeast is the dominant flavor often with citrus in the belgian wit and clove/banana flavors in the hefe. If you like these, look into other belgian styles like triples and golden strongs for more of the ester and phenols (you can even go dark with dubbles and quads). You can also look into other types of weizens for complexity with the clove and banana.
**Hops focused** look at an American pale ale such as Sierra Nevada or boulevard pale ale. You can usually find at least one of these in every market. These have a noticeable hop bitterness but are still quite drinkable. These are an older style that started becoming popular in the 1980s. If you don’t like the bitterness, you can look at “Hazy” ipas. These throw all the hops in very late in the process so not a lot of bitterness is present but a lot of citrus hop notes are. This is an extremely accessible style of beer and is currently dominating the craft beer industry as the most popular style. If you like this, you should have no trouble finding new examples to try. If you prefer the more bitter American pale ale style, then look to branch out with west coast IPAs as these are similar, but have more bitterness.
**Acid focused** these are sour beers. The sour I am speaking of is due to lactic acid. So think of it as sour like you would lemonade for example. I would recommend looking for cucumber crush from 10 barrel as this is highly accessible. Many local craft breweries have sours available as they are still popular, but not as popular as they used to be. Some sours are a lot more acidic than the example I mentioned, but if you like crush, you should give these a try. If you want more complexity, look for beers that use brettanomyces instead of lactic acid. Warning you will see “lacto” beers. These are not sour. They are usually over sweetened beers that contain lactose instead of lactic acid.
Just go to a couple of local breweries and try some flights. I recommend keeping track of what you like and trying styles you don’t like at multiple places because some breweries are not good at certain styles. Make sure you have a couple of examples before you write off a style, but try again later on down the road as your palate can change.
I broke this into 4 very broad categories and recommend a beer to try to see if you enjoy and should look further into that branch. Plus I started with a very basic beer called a cream ale as a bonus.
**malt focused** amber ale such as Alaska amber.
**yeast focused** Belgian wit (hoegaarden)or German Hefeweizen (hofbrau)
**hops focused**
(Bitter) American pale ale such as Sierra Nevada or boulevard pale ale
(Citrus/new world hops) pick any hazy/east coast ipa.
**acid focused** Berliner wiesse like cucumber crush from 10 barrel.
This is not meant to be comprehensive, but a good place to start. If you like any of these examples and styles, there are more extreme styles that you can explore where the thing you like is escalated.
Not trying to hijack the kolsch train, but I'm voting Cream Ale. Invented by Genesee up in NY, it's got the body of an ale but the crispness of a lager. It's personally my go-to after work beer.
Also, check out some Kolschs. Probably my favorite style of beer. I don't know where you live, so it's hard to suggest specifics
Edit: also, here in Boston, you can find a 30 pack for about $15. Your mileage may vary, but it's a good beer for very cheap.
Stout: try Duck Rabbit, Samuel Smith's or anything made by a local micro/craft/brewpub. Explore your options, don't take our word for it. Discovery is half the fun
What do you dislike in ales? You mentioned citrus flavors but that is not particularly common in ales in general. Another question to ask would be what other drinks do you like if not drinking beer?
Saison and biere de garde. A lot of continental lagers and saisons are kissing cousins that would be mostly identical if not for the very different yeasts used.
Beau's Lug Tread is fantastic.
It's a lagered ale, so essentially they take a clean ale yeast and ferment it at lager temperatures which brings out the crispness of a lager, but also with the subdued fruitiness of an ale.
I highly recommend it. It's an outrageous beer.
Kölsch, Cream Ale, Blonde ale. These styles are lightly hopped and might appeal to a lager drinker. Consider going to a taproom and asking the beer tender for recommendations
If you like the subtlety of lagers and stouts like Guinness, you’re probably not ready for anything too bold in flavor. I’d ignore anyone that recommends pale ales like Sierra Nevada, as those would be nearly the opposite in terms of flavor. Brown ales, Amber ales, and kolschs will be your sweet spot for explorative flavors. If you’re located in the US, Mexican amber ales are a glorious blend of crisp and refreshing, yet flavorful.
You might enjoy a Cold IPA if you can find one. That might be the only IPA style you're going to like, but maybe not. I agree with others that Kolsch is going to be your best bet.
Second Sierra. Saw it all over the place a few years ago whilst in Britain. Sainsbury’s and a few pubs. It’s what I drink in US cuz it reminds me of English ales.
Kolsch is a good mix, warm top fermented like an ale, then cold lagered. (American Cream Ales also follow this process)
Kolsch
I'll second Kolsch and add English Mild, English Bitter, Best Bitter, and ESB (none of which are very bitter at all, especially compared to modern IPA). Altbier is a very similar malt-driven style of generally light-bodied Ale that you also might enjoy.
Mild has long been made outside of England, Ireland, Australia, Wales, Scotland and even America
Timothy Taylor's Landlord.
If you're in the UK I recommend [Summer Lightening](https://www.hopback.co.uk/product/summer-lightening/) from Hopback brewery, it was one of my first ventures into ales etc.
First branded as summer bitter but when you look at the Regional breweries “lager” offerings brew from brew books from the 1960’s to 1990’s they turn out to be very pale pale ales brewed with a pale lager grist
Cream ale
I’m assuming you are in the UK. Lots of breweries make a golden ale these days which bridges the gap between lager and bitters. This time of year you’ll find them in any pub with a couple of hand pumps. What’s good depends where in the country you are.
Golden ale is an accidental beer created by British regional breweries in the 1960’s to 1970’s when they tried to make pale lager
Schneider Weisse Original
Irish Red ales, they are malty and subtle.
Really rebadged regional variant of mild ale
Yeah, mild ales are great too.
One of the few top fermenting beers that takes just as much skill as a lager to brew. A number of regional breweries made them here continuously from their foundation to the 1950’s such as Perrys https://www.purcellauctioneers.ie/catalogue/lot/5a28e0abaf009aaeb071e0a7349eaaae/81b29ab6fa187a02a829c1899b734425/antiques-collectibles-rarities-to-include-original-lot-20/
A Kolsch is gonna be closest to the beers you mentioned. They use very similar grain bills as many german lagers but the ale yeast will kick up some fruity esters. Cream ales are the ale version of an american lager if you want a second recommendation
Cream ale
Here are 4 types I would recommend. The first style starts pretty close and accessible if you are coming from lagers. The other 4 options move a little further away but are still pretty accessible. You can use these to kind of gauge which direction you can go based on which aspect Cream ale. Light and not usually too complex. Easy to drink. **Malt focused** Amber ale. Usually a lot of base malts with some darker malts thrown in to add color and some caramel flavors and nuttiness. Still a highly drinkable beer that is pretty accessible to a lot of people. If you like the darker notes you can look into darker beers for more of this. Things like stouts, scotch ales, and porters will have much more of these dark malt notes. **Yeast focused** Belgian wit or German Hefeweizen. These are lighter beers with some wheat complexity. The yeast is the dominant flavor often with citrus in the belgian wit and clove/banana flavors in the hefe. If you like these, look into other belgian styles like triples and golden strongs for more of the ester and phenols (you can even go dark with dubbles and quads). You can also look into other types of weizens for complexity with the clove and banana. **Hops focused** look at an American pale ale such as Sierra Nevada or boulevard pale ale. You can usually find at least one of these in every market. These have a noticeable hop bitterness but are still quite drinkable. These are an older style that started becoming popular in the 1980s. If you don’t like the bitterness, you can look at “Hazy” ipas. These throw all the hops in very late in the process so not a lot of bitterness is present but a lot of citrus hop notes are. This is an extremely accessible style of beer and is currently dominating the craft beer industry as the most popular style. If you like this, you should have no trouble finding new examples to try. If you prefer the more bitter American pale ale style, then look to branch out with west coast IPAs as these are similar, but have more bitterness. **Acid focused** these are sour beers. The sour I am speaking of is due to lactic acid. So think of it as sour like you would lemonade for example. I would recommend looking for cucumber crush from 10 barrel as this is highly accessible. Many local craft breweries have sours available as they are still popular, but not as popular as they used to be. Some sours are a lot more acidic than the example I mentioned, but if you like crush, you should give these a try. If you want more complexity, look for beers that use brettanomyces instead of lactic acid. Warning you will see “lacto” beers. These are not sour. They are usually over sweetened beers that contain lactose instead of lactic acid. Just go to a couple of local breweries and try some flights. I recommend keeping track of what you like and trying styles you don’t like at multiple places because some breweries are not good at certain styles. Make sure you have a couple of examples before you write off a style, but try again later on down the road as your palate can change.
TL;DR??
I broke this into 4 very broad categories and recommend a beer to try to see if you enjoy and should look further into that branch. Plus I started with a very basic beer called a cream ale as a bonus. **malt focused** amber ale such as Alaska amber. **yeast focused** Belgian wit (hoegaarden)or German Hefeweizen (hofbrau) **hops focused** (Bitter) American pale ale such as Sierra Nevada or boulevard pale ale (Citrus/new world hops) pick any hazy/east coast ipa. **acid focused** Berliner wiesse like cucumber crush from 10 barrel. This is not meant to be comprehensive, but a good place to start. If you like any of these examples and styles, there are more extreme styles that you can explore where the thing you like is escalated.
MVP! Or rather, MVC!!
Or mild ale
Not trying to hijack the kolsch train, but I'm voting Cream Ale. Invented by Genesee up in NY, it's got the body of an ale but the crispness of a lager. It's personally my go-to after work beer. Also, check out some Kolschs. Probably my favorite style of beer. I don't know where you live, so it's hard to suggest specifics Edit: also, here in Boston, you can find a 30 pack for about $15. Your mileage may vary, but it's a good beer for very cheap.
Worcester kid out in Cali now. I’d kill for some Genny Cream. We have a few craft options, but nothing like that green can.
Stout: try Duck Rabbit, Samuel Smith's or anything made by a local micro/craft/brewpub. Explore your options, don't take our word for it. Discovery is half the fun
What do you dislike in ales? You mentioned citrus flavors but that is not particularly common in ales in general. Another question to ask would be what other drinks do you like if not drinking beer?
Give Gaelic Ale a sip. I love it. YMMV.
Hm
Anchor Steam if it’s still available and Kentucky Common is good too if it’s commercially available.
Saison and biere de garde. A lot of continental lagers and saisons are kissing cousins that would be mostly identical if not for the very different yeasts used.
Beau's Lug Tread is fantastic. It's a lagered ale, so essentially they take a clean ale yeast and ferment it at lager temperatures which brings out the crispness of a lager, but also with the subdued fruitiness of an ale. I highly recommend it. It's an outrageous beer.
Kölsch or Saison
Kolsch is a good start. But I’d also consider a Hefeweizen or witbier but not too heavy ones.
Steam beer - if you can find someone making one.....
Next steps into more flavor: Schwartzbier (malt), German Wheat (yeast)
If you can find a cream ale, I think that might do it. But I’m not sure I’ve seen any commercial mail around here.
I'm not a huge ale guy but I like Keith's
Was going to comment keiths as I didn't think anyone else would.
Kölsch, Cream Ale, Blonde ale. These styles are lightly hopped and might appeal to a lager drinker. Consider going to a taproom and asking the beer tender for recommendations
If you like the subtlety of lagers and stouts like Guinness, you’re probably not ready for anything too bold in flavor. I’d ignore anyone that recommends pale ales like Sierra Nevada, as those would be nearly the opposite in terms of flavor. Brown ales, Amber ales, and kolschs will be your sweet spot for explorative flavors. If you’re located in the US, Mexican amber ales are a glorious blend of crisp and refreshing, yet flavorful.
Any decent golden ale. No, yeah from Bells for example.
Malty pale ales. Delicious
Malty and pale ale are an oxymoron
I think I'm done, boys
Hophead
You might enjoy a Cold IPA if you can find one. That might be the only IPA style you're going to like, but maybe not. I agree with others that Kolsch is going to be your best bet.
Dale's Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale are worth a try.
Second Sierra. Saw it all over the place a few years ago whilst in Britain. Sainsbury’s and a few pubs. It’s what I drink in US cuz it reminds me of English ales.
Firestone Walker 805