Regularly I loathe beer – bitter, nasty, boy-feet tasting stuff. I usually stick to mixed drinks or white wine (red gives me horrible wine flush). But there is one beer that I actually like: Spaten Optimator. Not just because it’s a hell of a lot of fun to say, but because it has more flavor to it than just bitterness, which is my problem with most others. The only problem is that it’s very dark and heavy, so you can nurse one for a long time. The flavor is completely different from, oh, let’s say a Budweiser. It’s rich and kind of nutty – it reminds me of black walnuts, so it’s got a little bit of bitterness, but not a lot. Not really a mowing-the-lawn beer, but it’s great for late fall and winter.
Optimator is my beer of choice 
Nice taste! I know there are higher rated dopplebocks out there, but Optimator holds the key to my palate. It’s a very exciting beer for me, and at $1.99/pint at BevMo has nice value.
Yueng-Ling? You mean Yuengling of Pottsville, PA? Or are you describing some type of Chinese brew I’m not familiar with? Growing up in Pennsylvania, I was very familiar with Yuengling, although my favorite was Iron City.
Well I’ve never encountered great NA beer. Not that I’ve wandered the desert for 40 years looking for it… Of course the beer in Canada is quite different than the beer in California, apparently.
I’ve got to ask though, have you dabbled into European beers? And I don’t mean the bottled stuff, I mean ass-on-a-stool-in-Europe-drinking-draft.
I’m not being a snob, it really is vastly superior beer. Take scotch, for example. I can’t stand the stuff but I don’t choke it down pretending I like it 'cause it’s leet…
LOL
I have no doubt that Optimator on the tap is superior to Optimator in the bottle, but it’s pretty ignorant if you want to think there is no good beer in California!
I am not a beer drinker, but as I want to get into some wine making my mentor wants me to brew a couple batches of beer before venturing into wine or mead. Taking that into consideration I have tried a few different beers this summer, and the one which passed the test for my palate was Sam Addams Summer Ale. Not watery/pissy, not too heavy, very drinkable. I know that it is a seasonal brew, but I recommend it as taste-worthy.
I used to hate beer too, and then a friend of mine took me out and bought me a Franziskaner. God bless him.
If you live in a state with Trader Joe’s, you might want to go have a look-see at their selection. It is very wide, and it’s got a lot of great choices. I especially like the Honey Beer.
ETA: Forgot to mention. TJ’s will let you mix and match your selection. They’ve usually got a whole section full of single bottles of beer that you can make your own six-packs out of. That way, you don’t have to waste money buying a whole six pack of beer you won’t drink more of a swallow of. It’s great to experiment with different flavors.
In my first post I stated that NA beer is garbage. Let me take this moment to add “that I’ve tasted”. My bad.
I don’t know anything about the beer in California. I can only speak of the NA beer avalible in my area and that was what I intended. As for it, it’s crap.
I too do not drink beer. I drink cider. (Known as hard cider in the US). Perry (from pears) is also nice. Start with the more anodyne ciders: Strongbow, Merrydown, Magners.
Doesn’t saying there is no decent beer in North America include California? 
Or any of a number of decent beers available in North America? If you only want to comment on what you know, stick to what you know - don’t make sweeping generalizations of what you do not know.
Switch to margaritas. Or, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, or Rum & Coke, there are a lot of alternatives. I tried to “develop a taste” for beer also, I finally gave up. Nasty nasty stuff. I don’t care for wine either. Both of them have always tasted very bitter to me.
Do you believe that you “have” to develop a taste for beer for some reason?
You are right, see my above edit.
I used to hate beer. In fact I used to hate coffee and wines too, but after drinking a bit of them all I have learned to like some. Oddly enough, I started drinking all three around the same time (when I moved from a community college to a state university). I don’t care much for many domestics, but I will drink them on occasion. My favorites are some of the Belgium Ales (the kind that come with a cork like a champange bottle and are apparently carbonated), and lately I have grown to love Guiness (though I used to hate it). I’m the type that basically tries it all. I go to the grocery store, pick out a beer I have not yet tried, and buy it. I think I have tried about 20-30 different beers in the last 2 years.
Wine is pretty much the same. Everytime me and my SO buy a bottle, we try something different. I think so far my favorite is a Riesling, but I am partial to Cabernet Savignon as well.
I love local breweries as well. Some good brew comes from them. I guess once you get aquired to the taste, and assuming you have adventure when it comes to beverages (such as being a foodie and trying new things on menus instead of getting the same thing all the time), you may be like that with beer too.
My friend on the other hand drinks ONLY Budweiser. Doesn’t like the other stuff, and tries it regularly. I don’t know why he even tries to claim he is a beer drinker. If you are that specific with your beer (ONLY one beer), then say you are a budweiser drinker and avoid confusing other people.
As a note, Budvar is sold as Czechvar here in the States.
As my personal endorsements, before a place right near the office started carrying it, I would make special 40-odd-mile-each-way trips out to Berkeley to buy it whenever I killed a six-pack. I’ll also freely say I prefer it to Tsingtao, which is probably akin to an Irishman saying he prefers something over Guinness. While it probably happens reasonably often, actually admitting it involves swallowing a bit of ethnic pride, so… take that how you will.
It really comes down to how your tongue receptors work. I for example, rarely crave anything sweet, but I love all things bitter or savory.
I admit I disliked beer the first time I tried it at age twelve, but this soon changed.
As others have said, there are many outstanding beers out there now, I would try beers from Germany, Holland, or the Czech Republic. If you can’t find one you like from there, than you just don’t like beer.
Get yourself a bottle of Bishop’s Finger and the world will be a much better place. Of course, you may have to pry it from Silenus’ cold dead fingers first.
Get yourself to Germany my friend.
Beer there is a religion, and a bloody good one at that.
I have been totally shitfaced on German beer and never once had a headache or hangover…not once
Seconding Chowder’s advice, and also, try Belgian beers. I mean the Trappist stuff that’s often chocolate brown (though even the paler stuff is good). I like Leffe and Duvel but there are many more.
eta: oh yeah, Chimay too. :smack:
Listen to this guy. Young’s Double is something anyone should like.
Leinie’s Berry Weiss was the “gateway” beer for me, to transition from grimly gulping down the standard crappy American Light Lagers churned out by the big macrobreweries (the trick with drinking the latter is to get the stuff as cold as possible) to better beers. From there it was Leinie’s Honey Weiss, then JW Dundee’s Honey Brown, and from there I began trying new weiss/wheat beers, and so on. The process took a while too - I found the Berry Weiss was palatable enough to drink one or two at get-togethers, then maybe a year later the Honey Weiss was tasting good and the Berry too sweet, and so on. Once I’d been drinking the Honey Brown for a while, it didn’t take long to start finding other beers that I appreciated. Now I enjoy beer so much that my vacations usually involve at least one tour of a microbrewery in the area, and I’m a (not as frequent as I should be) homebrewer.
The Double Chocolate Stout is a good recommendation, as well.
Otherwise, maybe your tastebuds just don’t like beer. It’s an acquired taste, much like coffee, and you don’t have the luxury with beer of being able to drown coffee in lots of cream and sugar (and other additives) to the point where it tastes like a caffeinated hot cocoa, and then taper off. Frankly, I’ve been drinking coffee semi-regularly for a decade or two and I still like a fair amount of cream and sugar.