I’m in college, and I drink what pretty much everyone in this thread would call swill - Budweiser, Bud Light or Natural Light. Southpaw Light when I am in TN visiting friends. I go to keg parties still, so whatev. I’ll drink Pabst when I am broke.
I bought a six pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale last semester because I wanted to try something new and I heard a lot of people say it’s good. I couldn’t even get through a bottle. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a beer connoisseur, and that’s okay with me. I still do want to go to Cicero’s in St. Louis sometime and sit down and just try a ton of stuff (well not all in one night, after awhile everything will taste good!). Their beer menu is huge. My friend tried Delerium Temens there once - the bottle is a trip with the pink elephants and it wasn’t bad. I mean I’ll try anything, so maybe I’ll find some new stuff I like.
You are still in College, taste change, when I was your age, I was in the Navy in San Diego and my favorite beers were Michelob Dark and Labatt’s Blue. I have not drank a Michelob Dark in 15 years and I only drink a Blue occasionally. Your interest in trying other beers means you might end up a beer connoisseur.
College guys: If you go to the fancy pub and start drinking things like Delerium Tremens, Kwak, Piraat, Samichlaus, etc, make sure to first think of what you usually drink (3-4 percent yellow lager) and look at the label in front of you carefully so that your friends don’t have to carry you home strapped to a plank after you think you can drink 4 of them and suddenly realize that you’re paralyzed.
Oh, and just a shout out for the very bestest beer in the world, Westvleteren 12. Just to torture all of you because, in all likelihood, you can’t have it, so there.
Neither can I, now. Damn.
I was going to mention the same thing as psycat90: you might be a supertaster.
I’m no beer expert, but Bass is worth a try, as others have said. Drink part of it cold (as usually served in the USA), and let the rest warm up a bit (as tomndebb said) and try it again. If you can find them, ditto John Courage or Watneys.
Also maybe Dos Equis.
Try in the summer, when the weather is hot and you’re thirsty.
But if beer/ale doesn’t appeal to you, no biggie. It’s just a matter of taste.
Add another tick mark to ‘acquired taste’. My first beer was a Budweiser when I was ~ 14. Over the years, I’ve consumed a fair amount of beer, and in retrospect, I wouldn’t touch some of those brands now to wash a smelly dog-the dog deserves better. Having patronized a little joint with a continuous rotation of really good beers on tap, including two casks/firkins on hand pumps, I’m something of a beer snob, now. IPAs, lambics, some barleywines, bitey hoppy stuff is my preferred fare. If you don’t like beer, no hurt, no foul-we won’t let the choice stuff go to waste.
My very first beer was a Coors Banquet, washing down a Gay 90’s Ort’s Special pizza with friends. Since then I have imbibed an ocean of suds, and my palate has gotten much more discriminatory. 20 years of homebrew judging hasn’t hurt, either. I’ll still drink St. Pauli Girl or some other mass-produced German lager on a hot summer day, but I will actively seek out new brews when travelling. That way lies Adventure.
Story for the beer snobs: One night, when it was my turn to supply the beers for our brewclub’s blind tasting, I brought: Mickey’s Big Mouth, St. Ides, Olde English 800, and Schlitz Malt Liquor. The club tasted all of them blind, and they all got pretty good rankings. Some even commented that these were the best home-brewed lagers I had ever produced. Then I brought in the bottles.
I had to skip the next two meetings. Seems snobs really hold a grudge when their preconceptions are skewered.
I poured the rest of the beer down the toilet, of course. No way am I drinking that shit!
Me = chick that can hold her beer. If I were to go to a bar and taste stuff, I would be sipping it, deciding if I like the taste. I am not a chugger, especially when the crap is $6 a bottle or however much that Delerium Tremens my friend got was. And I wouldn’t try and drink a lot, because like I said, intoxication changes taste - even Pabst starts to not taste bad after a few! I am definitely aware beer like that is often more potent. Aforementioned friend likes to try new stuff often, and I’m usually around. I didn’t did the chocolate stout too much though, but she loves it. I don’t know what kind it is though.
My very first beer was Anchor Steam, and I liked it. I got totally wasted too, since I had no tolerance. After that I switched to cheap wine for a while and developed a tolerance for less decent beers, since they were all I could afford. Now my fortunes have improved, and I’m back to drinking decent beer. You don’t have to aquire a taste, of course, but a lot of social situations will involve beer, and once you have got a taste for it, it’s the best thing for quenching your thirst after a long, tiring day. If you try swigging wine or mixed drinks in the same fashion, you’ll not only be a barbarian, you’ll be unconscious.
Dang, it would seem I’m late to the party. Don’t know how I missed this thread before.
Anyway, I’d say from reading your description of your tastes, Freudian_Slip, that it’s entirely likely you will never like beer. I have a couple friends with tastes similar to yours that just don’t care for its hoppy, malty goodness. That said, I would recommend you try to find some Belhaven Scottish Ale. It has a rich, nutty flavor and very mild hops. I’ve had decent luck offering it to folks who are not big fans of beer in the past.
I’ve always liked beer, from the time I could bum sips of whatever my dad was drinking. I can see how it would be an acquired taste, though. As for how that’s a good thing, I think a decent analogy would be something like some of the more esoteric jazz. It’s certainly not everybody’s bag, and I don’t know anyone who liked it right off the bat, but folks who have learned to appreciate it really seem to like it.
