Let’s not forget about diacetyls. Maybe that falls under “funkiness”? I’ve never been able to describe the flavor correctly. I call it sour feet. Some people say rancid butter, but I don’t think that does it justice.
Just to be clear to the beer newbies, there are good diacetyls and BAD diacetyls. If there are high levels of diacetyls in a beer, well I hope you like the taste of feet.
All these posts and nobody brings up Keystone Light? It’s not the choice of 18-year-old sorority girls around the country for nothing. It’s practically Beer 101.
As one who used to hate beer, and have since converted a friend or two, I can’t recommend **Fat Tire **enough.
Grab a case, have one a day, you’ll (hopefully) grow to like it soon. After that, I’d recommend giving Blue Moon a shot.
It’s frequently skunked. There’s nothing wrong with your taste. 
That is a relief, although I fear I have tried it frequently enough that the odds are rather against me.
Have you tried it on tap? It’s honestly no where near my favorite, but it’s better tasting than the putrid hot mess that’s in those green bottles. My father-in-law buys the bottles and can’t figure out why he’s the only one who ever drinks it. We finally said, “Don’t you think that tastes kinda funky?” and he goes, “Yes…?”
Go get a Genessee beer. It’s quite tasty, cheap so you don’t pay a fortune, and a very friendly beer for non beer drinkers.
I guess I’ll give it a try the next time I see it on tap.
And if I still don’t like it, I’ll make sure to go to the Czech Republic and try it directly from the brewery.
However, if I still don’t like it then, I probably never will. 
After not having Genny Cream Ale for around 25 years or so, I had a case given to me. Wasn’t bad at all!!
Other exceptional ciders to try: Crispin (not sure where it’s brewed) and Magner’s (Ireland).
Butter or butterscotch tend to be the usual descriptors. Not sure about sour feet, but I guess I’ve never had anything with really terrible diacetyl aroma or flavor (it can also be caused by a pedioccocus bacteria contamination.)
Lots of people have recommended Hefeweizens, which are wheat beers. They’re a good choice in and of themselves, because they’re normally not very hoppy and sometimes almost sweet. They’re usually what I serve to people who don’t normally drink beer. However, if you want to make them even more palatable to the non-beer-drinker, add a wedge of citrus. Lime is maybe the most common, but lemon and orange are also very acceptable.
Butterscotch is supposed to be an “ok” flavor. I don’t like it.
Butter is flat out bad no matter what. Soapy is another way I’ve described the flavor. Soapy rancid butter with a side of feet?
We went to a beer fest and I tried some seasonal beer from a small brewery, and it was so bad with diacetyls I had to spit it out. The fact that they were selling the stuff in stores horrified me. Maybe they were ditching their bad product at the beer fest, I don’t know. I’m having a flavor flashback right now… ew.
I’ve brewed my share of rejects, but I don’t pawn them off on unsuspecting beer lovers. That’s just cruel.
I had a Three Floyds Scottish Ale that was loaded with diacetyls. It was way too buttery to even choke down, and it was one of my very few drain pours.
Sissy beer drinker here. Try Newcastle Brown Ale. Per Wikipedia, introduced in 1927 by Newcastle Breweries and now produced by Heineken Int’l. and still brewed in England.
I LIKE IT. 
What kind of a restaurant isn’t prepared to pour a screwdriver, or a tequila sunrise?
Probably one of those places that thinks pouring water into a glass that consists of a cone on a stem makes it a martini.
There is an outfit up in Sonoma County (heart of wine country) called Ace Cider Co., that makes several ciders that are all quite excellent, but to me their standout is Ace Perry, which is made with pears, as opposed to apples.
It is truly a perfect summertime drink, and at 5% alcohol, not too overpowering, so you can enjoy several over the course of a warm summer evening.
Try it sometime, and I am betting that you will agree that there is at least one American cider that is world-class quality.
I can say with some authority, that PU doesn’t travel well at all. Having had it in Prague, Vienna, Budapest, London and Dallas, it gets less malty and more sharply bitter the further you get from the Czech Republic.
The genuine article is a marvelously balanced beer, but the older it gets (I’m guessing it’s age that does it), the more sharply bitter it seems to get
I agree with the people who suggest going to a local beer pub and trying flights of beers.
I’d also do one other thing- I’d see about going through the BJCP style guidelines- and trying a beer or two in each style if you can. There are huge differences between styles- a Dunkel is worlds apart from a Wit, which is an entirely different animal than an Imperial IPA.
Since the style guidelines are intended as judging standards for homebrewing competitions, they give you an idea as to the alcohol level, intended flavors, and bitterness levels, so if you know that say… an American Pale Ale is supposed to be about 30-45 IBU (hop bitterness) and "Refreshing and hoppy, yet with sufficient supporting malt. ", you can compare that with what you taste when you have a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and realize that’s what they’re talking about and what 30-45 IBU is like. Do enough of that, and you’ll have an idea of the taste just from the style guidelines.
They have Ace cider around where I’m at. They’re worth a shot to see if it’s something you like, but their perry is not made from pears (although you did say “with pears” so maybe you know this.) The base is still Ace cider from apples, and some pear essence is added at the end.
I absolutely agree. That’s one beer that really does not travel well at all. I was always a little dubious about claims that certain beers taste very different at their source, but PU is almost a different beer over there vs. what it is here.
