I can't help it, I'm a beer snob. Anyone else have this problem?

[True Blue Door]

It started innocently enough - trying a nice craft beer here and there - but I could still easily hang with tap stuff, Guinness etc.

But then I ran into a brew so damn good it ruined me. I just can't drink normal beer now. It tastes like piss now. So now I'm doomed to only being able to stomach beer that costs twice as much as normal beer.

Anyone else have this particular First World Problem?

[cyberswede]

1. Yes. I can't drink yellow beer.

What is the "brew so good it ruined" you? Must know!

[True Blue Door]

3. Stone IPA.

Other Stone flavors were gateway beers though. "Arrogant Bastard Ale" was the first. And Ruination IPA is a hop-gasm. Stay away from Levitation Ale though - it's piss, and I don't know why they bother with it.

But if you can't drink pales, Arrogant Bastard is pretty dark, and they make a Smoked Porter. Not as good as the IPAs in my view, but way better than anything you can get from a tap.

[Initech]

22. I like to think of Arrogant Bastard as a "gateway beer".

[True Blue Door]

30. Gateway to bankruptcy, anyway.

Seriously, you can't drink anything else after Stone.

[Initech]

31. True that!

I've been to the Stone Brewery in Escondido a few times - really awesome place.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Not me. I don't even especially like beer, except maybe if it's a very hot day

and the beer is very cold and it's not Bud Light or Miller Light. The only beer I've ever really liked was something called Kwak that I had during a pub-crawl in Amsterdam. Otherwise most beer tastes to me like I imagine goat pee tastes. I tend to be a bit of a coffee snob, though.

[True Blue Door]

5. My Y chromosome is from the Black Forest, so there's probably some deep physical reason

why beer - good beer, anyway - has always tasted right.

But I agree about Bud and Miller - I wouldn't drink that shit even in high school. I always liked Newcastle in my youth: Always tasted like a very clever balance between light and dark. But I can't drink that anymore either - it tastes Minor League now.

On the subject of coffee, isn't it ironic that the best coffee cultures are in warm climates? You'd think cold places would appreciate it more, but the cafe culture is Italy, France, Latin America.

[liberal N proud]

4. Yes it happens, you taste real beer and you can no longer tolerate the Budweisers of the world

Mass production beer is horrible.
But to take that one step further, I don't like the taste of green bottle beer.

[True Blue Door]

6. Do green bottles get skunked easier?

Only green bottle beer I ever liked - as a teenager - was Heineken. But it was always very acidic. Sometimes unpleasantly.

[liberal N proud]

7. That is my opinion

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. yes - it's chemistry. not only green ones - called being Lightstruck

Lightstruck beer
Lightstruck, or "skunked" or "skunky", beer has been exposed to ultraviolet and visible light. The light causes riboflavin to react with and break down isohumulones, a molecule that contributes to the bitterness of the beer and is derived from the hops. The resulting molecule, 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol, is very similar chemically and in odour to the musk-borne mercaptans that are a skunk's natural defences.

In some cases, such as Miller High Life, a hop extract that does not have isohumulones is used to bitter the beer so it cannot be "lightstruck". A dark brown glass bottle gives some protection to the beer, but green and clear glass bottles offer virtually no protection at all

There are also other solutions available to prevent beer bottled in clear and green glass from becoming skunked or light-struck, such as taller walls on 6-pack carriers which is common with craft beers, and highlighted in Samuel Adams marketing.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. guilty. If can read through it, it is too light!

Right now, anticipating my first taste of Alesmith Speedway Stout!

[hunter]

10. Beer is like cameras.

It's nice to have an expensive camera, but the best camera is always the one you have with you.

Even the sketchiest quick marts around here sell Lagunitas IPA or Negra Modelo.

I'll even drink a PBR or tall can of malt liquor if I happen to be hanging out with those sorts of crowds.

But I haven't done the beach bum Budweiser & Clamato Chelada Picante for breakfast... yet.

[nomorenomore08]

12. I'm rather particular about my cheap beers/malt liquors.

Budweiser, Miller High Life? Fine. Bud Light, Miller Lite, anything Coors? Hell no.

Mickey's, Steel Reserve, Olde English? Can't stomach them. King Cobra, Colt 45? I'll drink 'em.

[bikebloke]

11. Scotch Ale

Now I can't drink anything else. And it has to be real scotch ale rather than just printing the name on the label. For years, I drank McEwen's Scotch Ale. Then they stopped importing it. It took a while, But I finally found something comparable - Old Chubb Scotch Ale. I avoided it for a while because it comes in tinnies. When they stop importing it from Colorado, I'll probably give up on beer.

[Ptah]

13. Did you mean to post this here?:

Post your useless facts here!!

[Scuba]

14. Sure. That's why I'm shortly headed to ...

http://centralwaters.com/

[LWolf]

15. Yes.

I don't like IPAs. I'll drink porter, stout, or a good brown ale. I don't drink beer often because of the calorie load, but I've got this in the refrigerator right now:



Some of the best I can't get unless I travel to the brewery itself; whenever I'm in the region, I'll stop in for one of my favorites:



I'm also fond of this one:

[True Blue Door]

21. I love dark ales, but the flesh is weak - it causes more acid than pales.

[Initech]

32. Oskar Blues = one of the best breweries in the country.

Every single beer they make is amazing, and they're always one of the most consistent.

[LWolf]

42. Yes. nt

[ProdigalJunkMail]

16. oh, i could drink any ole swill until i met my wife

and she introduced me to good beer... total beer snob now. i can tolerate Guinness or Murphy's if the good stuff ain't around...

sP

[Kali]

17. when I am buying for myself I am

but if it is hot and the cowboys only brought coors light, hell yes I will have a couple.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

29. This is me, too. After working out in the sun all day, free cold beer tastes mighty fine. Cheers!

[Kali]

33. yep

hey check out this barley wine I tried in New Mexico last month.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

41. I love the creativity of the naming and the artistry that goes into the labels.

Half the fun for me

[DFW]

18. With me it's worse (or better, depending on how you look at it)

I hate the taste of ALL beer. Never touch the stuff (and I now live in Germany--disgraceful, ain't it).

[Aristus]

19. 'Beer snobbery' isn't a problem; it's a blessing.

I don't consider an appreciation for well-crafted beer to be snobbery. Just good taste. (Literally).

Beer is considered a working-class beverage. Made by and for working people. Brewers are craftsmen (and women), who take pride in fashioning a well-made, delicious product. Appreciating and enjoying that product isn't snobbery.

If people want a mass-produced beer, just to have something to guzzle in large amounts, without regard to taste, aroma, consistency, color, mouth-feel, etc., that's fine. Let them have the Colt 45's and the Stroh's.

I prefer high-quality instead. Plus, if I can support a gifted local brewer over a profit-mad, corner-cutting mass-consumption brewing company, so much the better.

[Major Nikon]

20. Fuck that shit

Pabst Blue Ribbon!

[kwassa]

37. No. Fuck THAT shit.

PBR, indeed.

[Xipe Totec]

23. Valar Morghulis - for the true beer snob

When confronted with the most feared saying in High Valyrian, take a sip and choose your words wisely.



http://www.ommegang.com/got/valar_morghulis.php

[Raine1967]

25. I'll be back up there to visit the brewery on Friday!

It's such a wonderful place to visit.

and their beer? DEVINE!!! ALL of it.

[Xipe Totec]

26. I've been a fan since they opened

Mind you I lived in the Boston area for the last 15 years and was surrounded by craft breweries. CBC and Meadhall were regular lunch spots.

But there's something about Ommegang that's just very fine.

I've hauled bottles of Three Philosophers on my backpack, all the way to Lake in the Clouds on Mt Washington. Anybody who's a hiker will appreciate what it means to carry an extra 6 lbs of load up a 6,000 ft peak. Just for the pleasure of celebrating with a fine brew.

[OriginalGeek]

44. I've only had Three Philosophers from Ommegang

but that was delicious. A while back a local gastro pub advertised a Game of Thrones beer night and was serving the first one on tap - They were sold out within an hour or two of opening the taps. Long before I was able to get there.

The night wasn;t ruined though though - they had about 50 other craft beers on tap so I had some unknown number of those.

Wife drove home that night.

[Raine1967]

24. Hi, I'm Raine, and I am a beer snob.

I blame it on my husband. HE's a home brewer and an AHA beer judge. --- He's brewing a Roggenbier as we speak.

[EaterOfCabbage]

27. don't actually like beer lol

controversial one but i don't actually like beer lol

[Xipe Totec]

35. Do you like Wine?

Try this beer:



My cousin who hates beer fell in love with this one.

It is a Flanders red ale-style beer produced by Brouwerij Verhaeghe in Vichte, Belgium. After a primary and secondary fermentation, this ale is matured in oak barrels for 18 months. The final product is a blend of a younger 8-month-old beer with an 18-month-old beer. The name of the beer is meant to honour Duchess Mary of Burgundy, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, born in Brussels in 1457, who died in a horse riding accident. Like all Flemish red ales, Duchesse de Bourgogne has a characteristically sour, fruity flavour similar to that of lambic beers.

[Throd]

48. That is probably my favorite beer of all time.

It isn't the type of beer that you want to drink a lot of, but if I can only have one beer, it will be the Duchesse.

[T_i_B]

53. I love Flanders Red style beers

Wild Beer Co "Modus Operandi" is a big personal favourite.

Wild Beer Co being one of the most exciting breweries in the UK.

[fizzgig]

28. i almost exclusively drink wheats from the breweries here in town

but i'm not too proud for cheap beer, either. i'm perfectly happy with a pbr or high life when i'm at the dive.

[NutmegYankee]

34. Oh yeah. I love micro-brews and brew my own as well.

Your traditional domestics* taste like crap compared to micro-brews.

If you like a WICKED GOOD double IPA -

Try this stuff:


http://www.newenglandbrewing.com/brews.php

There's a few nano-brews (growler fill only) that I like to stop at as well.


*Interesting to note, but the big domestics are all foreign owned. When you choose to drink craft beer and micro-brews, you're choosing American beer.

[Xipe Totec]

36. For every beer you don't like, there's one you might like.

The varieties of beer are enormous.

[kwassa]

38. are you drunk? you posted it sideways ....

[Xipe Totec]

39. Maybe.

[kwassa]

40. I pass by a Dogfish Head pub on the way to work everyday ...

I do not stop.

Though I think about it.

60, 90, or 120?

[NightWatcher]

43. I can appreciate a nice craft brew special IPA...and still drink PBR

[Tace]

45. I've Probably Drunk A Million Gallons Of Beer...

...but I've become concerned about the estrogen in hops. I'm generally drinking wine, instead, lately. btw, we've got the best freaking beer in the universe here in Vermont. Wish you were here. --Tace.

[PasadenaTrudy]

46. Schraderbrau!

For when you want to break bad....

[ScreamingMeemie]

47. Nope. Daughter of a man who worked 30 years in the brewing industry. It all tastes the same.

Like crap, and it's "emperor's new clothes syndrome" to pay eleventy billion dollars for something that tastes exactly the same —except more bitter or with fruit added (!)— than plain old Old Milwaukee.

[bigwillq]

59. Gasp!

Beer is delicious!

[ScreamingMeemie]

60. MrG thought so too.

[bigwillq]

61. I'll pour a little out

next time I have one.

[ScreamingMeemie]

62. .

[Throd]

49. Nope. I'll drink warm Steel Reserve 211.

[ashling]

50. I'm not a snob

I'm just better than you.

[Trajan]

51. As a rule, I hate beer ...

But, when I moved to Portland "Beervana" Oregon, I discovered the amazing beauty and taste of craft brewed ales, and now I can actually tolerate drinking a beer now and then ...

I hated Budweiser from day one, and learned to dislike all the standard brews from the standard multi-national corporations ... If I didn't have local microbrews to drink, I wouldn't even bother drinking any beer ...

Did I mention that, as a rule, I dislike beer? ...

[Populist_Prole]

52. Kinda

My taste in beer, when it comes to types and sub-types, is pretty broad.

I just can't stand the watery tasteless light / "Lite" beer so many people around me seem to love so much. They'll have nothing but it, and so, if I'm offered a beer by one of them I know its gonna suck.

[T_i_B]

54. UK beer snob and CAMRA member reporting for duty

I live in a part of the UK that's renowned for great beer and great pubs. In fact it's only a short distance for me to get to the Kelham Island area of Sheffield, still the best pub crawl in the UK and the place to find the strangest of all the beer geeks......."tickers".

Favourite UK breweries include Bristol Beer Factory, Hawkshead, Saltaire, Marble, Darkstar and Siren Craft.

Favourite UK beer is currently Oakham Citra, which is fabulously flavoursome and yet still the sort of beer you can have pint after pint of.

[WinkyDink]

55. And the awesome beer would be...? I draw the line at "Lite." Prefer Belgian.

[ProfessorGAC]

56. Yes. Guilty As Charged

I'm very committed to it as well.

I've been to a friend's house and he offered a beer and i'll say no because i know he won't have what i'll drink.

However, if i leave something over there, it will be gone the next time i go over. So, the snobery only works in one direction.

[chrisa]

57. Surly IPA, The Alchemist, Russian River Brewing Co. - God's tears

[Generic Brad]

58. More Michelob Ultra Lite For Me

I don't drink beer often, but when I do it's that crap. Low alcohol content and low calorie. That's all I can handle as I continue aging.