This is the last resort when it comes to deciphering what might be in a beer. Essentially, you are trusting the extended beer world to guess better than you can about what might be in that beer. Now trust us, there are plenty of other souls out there who have wondered what is in that craft brew you are sipping on, so get your shovel out and start digging through the forums. These forums are also great places to have conversations about beer and associated topics with like-minded people, so enjoy!
A couple of pointers to consider when you are surfing the forums.
1) Best place to start is the recipe section, scroll through some of the subject headings.
2) Brewers will come up with witty names that sound similar to the beers actual name, so just searching a beer's name can have mixed results.
3) Just because someone published their own recipe of a beer type of that you're looking for doesn't make it correct, but it will usually be similar in flavor.
4) Googling a recipe might have mixed results. However, if you use key words like beer style, beer name, and even the actual brewing company in your search you should come close to what you're looking for.
5) Look at recipes for beers of the same style, they will give you a hint as to what ingredients are commonly used.
6) Finally, if you can't find the information that you need, sign up to become a member of the board and post your question, you are sure to get a response.
Here are some good places to search:
- A very active forum with thousands of members.
- Another great forum with active members. Start in the Beer Recipe Exchange section.
- Tons of clone recipes.
- A great place to talk anything beer as well as an active section on homebrewing and beer recipes.
- A smaller site, but they do have a decent amount of recipes.