I hate the taste of red wine. Know what I do when I meet oenophiles? I drink a beer, because I like beer. But a non-alcoholic beer, because I'm a recovering alcoholic.
Willing to bet most people who don't like the taste of beer base that opinion on tasting some cheap horse piss lager in their teens. Much like I hated wine until I drank something above $10/bottle.
For me I just don't like the taste of Alcohol. It's a subtle bitterness that ruins the drink for me and it burns in an unpleasant way, like the smell of nail polish.
I've tried various drinks over the years, the front taste might be pleasant, but when I taste the alcohol, bleh. What's sad is that there was a wine or two that had a fantastic front taste that I just wish was alcohol free.
If beer “burns”, you’re doing it wrong. Sure there’s the odd Jamaican Ginger or Cinnamon that might be spicy, but I’ve never had a beer strong enough to get that burning sensation that stronger alcohols can give.
Are you allergic? Did you try a beer so far gone that it’s basically formaldehyde?
You’re of course welcome to chose not to poison yourself with alcohol and I don’t want to push anyone into drinking ….. but if you legit were willing but didn’t like the taste, microbrews have a huge range of tastes and strengths that could appeal to many different people
Its been a while since I had alcohol. The last thing I had was Vokda since my wife is using it to make Mint Extract, and sip was enough to remind me why I don't like the drink.
As for Beer proper. I think it was a fresh bottle of mikes hard lemonade, and what I can recall was overwhelming bitterness mixed with a burning sensation. But that could just be the alcohol drying out my throat.
I also did a rum and coke shot, again bitterness and burning.
Not sure if allergic, but I can see a sensitivity to it. Especially with my strong sense of smell.
I personally see it more like an aversion like how some people avoid carbonated beverages
mikes hard lemonade, and what I can recall was overwhelming bitterness mixed with a burning sensation
Wow, humans sure are different: I find that cloyingly sweet. Then again, I generally go for strong bitter flavors: black coffee, dark chocolate, the bitterest style of beers, the Cabernets of wines
I never realized how little flavor Lite beers have until I accidentally drank a Diet Pepsi that was two years expired. It seriously tasted just like a Bud Lite.
I've tried all kinds and it all tastes like vinegar to me. Beer is all similarly bad to me. So I end up preferring alcohol with as little taste as possible
Except there are wines from certain regions that are inexpensive and absolutely fantastic. It's typically American wine that is really bad if it's at a low price point.
Wouldn’t even say that. Zinfandel is a Californian wine and it doesn’t break the bank, a bottle here being less than 5€.
Although, to be fair, I’m in Europe and they probably don’t import the shit wine from overseas.
Is that a real xkcd? Seems like a rare miss for that guy, since it is an incredibly disingenous claim. A lot of people actually thinks that beer taste pretty great.
IPAs aren't my favorite but I noticed a major improvement when one is poured, rather than drunk straight from the bottle/can. Before I made a point of pouring them, I mostly would get those bitter and funky flavors, but the aeration seems to help a lot.
if I could get Hefeweizen beer without alcohol in it, I would drink it all the fucking time. It's delicious. unfortunately the local stores don't carry Weihenstephaner Hefe Non-Alcoholic and ordering shit online for delivery is too expensive and inconvenient...
I didn't like beer much at all in university but being drunk wasn't bad (which had me resorting to downing vodka that tasted like white-board marker)... it was because I was probably drinking brand name cheap stuff.
Then I had a craft IPA (the Ottawa-area brewery Big Rig) and I loved it, I developed a taste for those limey hops.
I know there are people upset that craft breweries tend to default to an IPA. But to me, having tried a bunch from different places, I can't go too wrong picking a local craft IPA, they range from just okay to very delicious! Whereas I've been more often disappointed by lagers and other beers which to me taste like funny carbonated water in comparison.
I don't like hoppy beer myself, which is the flavour most people associate with "beer", that gross bitter greasy sort of thing.
There are quite a few different kind of hops, though, with different flavours. Some are stronger than others, though the entire class has that base flavour.
Beer is way more than just hops, though. It's a broad category of beverages made from many different malted grains, and can be very different than your standard Budweiser (which some people love!).
Literally the only XKCD that I vehemently disagree with. EVERY BEER DRINKER IS DOING IT BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE COOL AND WE SECRETLY HATE THE TASTE. foh.
Stouts are too bitter for me but that doesn't mean some aren't great. Only had a handful though.
American craft beer is drinkable at a stretch but the taste seems artificially enhanced and is too much. They just don't know how to make beer and are trying to make up for it.
(Real) IPA and pale ales are where it's at. Wide variety, some are good some and amazing most are good. More flavour than lager, not too overpowering like American or stout's.
Copper/amber beer. That can be great too but I prefer IPAs.
Wheat beer is also awesome it's what lagers try to be.
Ciders can be great but I'm not some huge farming bloke so don't tend to drink then too much because you can't get good scrumpy near me.
Fruity ciders are good but only for one or two or you get diabetes.
Pilsners can be okay/good but they need to come from central Europe.
I can get people not liking them and being a baby about the whole situation. But the flavours are so varied you either come from a country that makes shit beer or you haven't tried enough. You're just thick if you can't imagine how anyone could like them. It's like saying every curry in the world is terrible and everyone is just pretending.
Even coming from a country that makes shit need is no excuse. There are countries that make good beer and they send it overseas. And they're are good microbreweries EVERYwhere.
A lot of America hasn’t recovered from Prohibition; they’ve lost the taste for it. During Prohibition, all you’d get is bathtub gin or still hootch, and that’d be mixed and flavored. When the bad times ended, Americans didn’t return to ales in the same way, but Budweiser, with added Rice as a grain mix, was popular because of the smoother taste and in the next few generations it quickly became the leading, and definitive, American beer taste. 1970s-1990s found imports. Craft brew became more popular as people, generally folks who traveled abroad and knew that good ales existed and also didn’t mind paying more for a bottle, started to migrate from imports like Bass and Guinness to local microbrews if they were available (hello Colorado) and slowly it all took a foothold.
I feel that beer & ales can be a generational taste, swinging like fashion (who really drinks Becks now, right?). Maybe a bit like “pizza cognition theory”, where your earliest experiences with a slice define what you think “real” pizza should taste like.
I kinda wanna defend becks but also not because I‘d never buy it, if there’s anything advertised good available but I wouldn’t decline it, if it was the only beer available…
Fascinating. Here in Germany, where Becks is brewed it’s a "they didn’t have an actually good Pils so I brought Becks" kind of beer.
But also, I’m Bavarian, we’re beet elitists anyways…
Personally I have an affinity for bitter foods/drinks so I love IPAs. Usually if someone asks for a beer I just say they probably won't like what I have. I understand that I might be the weird one.
Funny enough I thought the same when I was in college, cheap beer tastes horrible(then I didn't drink much it was only weed). But a good beer in a hot day? Man that is the most refreshing thing in the world. A sensation we have shared with other people for 5000 years or more.
If beer, lager, ale, etc., didn't get you drunk no one would consume it. That's literally the point, he's right it does taste bad. It's the same for sex btw, if it weren't for pleasure, the human race would have died out from how horrible sex would feel.
Which most do because of social interactions and needing / wanting to be sober. Haven't met a person that just has 0% beer, and they open it after a hard days work like some people do with the alcoholic version. The only time I've seen 0% consumed in a large quantity was parties, specifically for drivers.
Nop, I know a few people who on occasion drink 0% beer without social obligations.
And also, I know a lot of people who don’t drink beer to get drunk. Because you don’t get drunk from one beer and oftentimes that’s the amount you drink here, when you’re not partying or trying to get drunk.
But also, I’m German, we actually have really good beer here.
It's not about "getting drunk", it's about the effect alcohol has on your body. It loosens you up, helps lubricate social gatherings. A single beer is enough to do that. Neighbor comes to talk about the mower, you do it over a beer. If you don't want the effect of alcohol, you drink 0%. A lot of people do that instead of going for a soda or whatever, because it's considered to be more socially acceptable that you are drinking "beer".
I‘d disagree on that. Yes, sharing something to drink is a good way to "lubricate social gatherings" but alcohol does not need to be involved. One beer is not enough for that anyways for most people, especially if you take into account the time it takes to take effect anyways. Here in Germany, if you drink one beer you’re also still allowed to drive
And at least in my experience, a cold coke or a hot cup of tea is just as "lubricating“. The alcohol is not necessary. Of course, if you go for a second, third or fourth beer, it becomes a whole different story but with one beer it’s more of a symbolic toast than anything.
Besides, here in Germany, people who drink 0% beer are in some situations (in a joking way) more shunned than people who drink soda and yet both soda and 0% (especially 0% Hefeweizen) are being served and enjoyed.
One beer doesn't do shit for me. I'd have to drink 4 or 5...(because it takes 45min+ for alcohol to do it's thing) and that doesn't always happen. So it's not for the effect at those times, in fact, often I don't want the effect because it will happen after I leave (say a lunch meeting), but I want a beer to wash down what I've had.
Sometimes I just want a nice cold brew on a hot day after working hard. It can satisfy in ways that other drinks can't, not even my favorite gin and tonic or Tom Collins.
You sound like you've never had the incredible experience of the perfect drink pairing with a meal.
The French would like a word with you, they've mastered the "which wine with this dish", and beer can work the same way. I've been to beer pairings that equal wine pairings...and I'm not a big beer drinker.
Mate, there's a place near me that makes non-alcholic IPAs that I love to drink on hot days if I'm not looking to get drunk.
Just cause you don't like bitter flavors doesn't mean others don't.
Some people certainly do drink beer just as a social lubricant or to get sloshed, but for others the taste is the point especially in the craft brew scene.
It's called an "acquired taste" mean something that doesn't taste good on the onset, but you put up through the bad taste to get a positive effect, such as getting a buzz. Remove the buzz, there's no reason to put up with it to acquire the taste. You've already acquired the taste, so after removing the alcohol it's fine. But I guarantee you you wouldn't start drinking if there wasn't a peripheral benefit.
My dude, I'm telling you if the pleasure is removed, think about what your body goes through to have an orgasm. Straining, pulling, heart rate through the roof, breathing gets shallow, lots of stuff you don't want to go through happen, but it feels good so we put up with it. Remove that, and nobody would want to do it
I hate the taste of red wine. Know what I do when I meet oenophiles? I drink a beer, because I like beer. But a non-alcoholic beer, because I'm a recovering alcoholic.
Where do I find me some non-alcoholic room-temperature 190-proof Everclear?
Kitchen tap
I also have everclear on tap.
Modified the water dispenser on the fridge
But beer does taste good...
Can we all just agree that my tastes are correct and every person that disagrees is wrong?
Yes but replace you with me.
Only if you agree that everything I like is good and everything else is trash.
I'm comfortable with that as long as you promise not to clarify.
Willing to bet most people who don't like the taste of beer base that opinion on tasting some cheap horse piss lager in their teens. Much like I hated wine until I drank something above $10/bottle.
For me I just don't like the taste of Alcohol. It's a subtle bitterness that ruins the drink for me and it burns in an unpleasant way, like the smell of nail polish.
I've tried various drinks over the years, the front taste might be pleasant, but when I taste the alcohol, bleh. What's sad is that there was a wine or two that had a fantastic front taste that I just wish was alcohol free.
This is how I feel about it. When I did try alcoholic drinks I just didn't like the taste of alcohol.
If beer “burns”, you’re doing it wrong. Sure there’s the odd Jamaican Ginger or Cinnamon that might be spicy, but I’ve never had a beer strong enough to get that burning sensation that stronger alcohols can give.
Are you allergic? Did you try a beer so far gone that it’s basically formaldehyde?
You’re of course welcome to chose not to poison yourself with alcohol and I don’t want to push anyone into drinking ….. but if you legit were willing but didn’t like the taste, microbrews have a huge range of tastes and strengths that could appeal to many different people
Its been a while since I had alcohol. The last thing I had was Vokda since my wife is using it to make Mint Extract, and sip was enough to remind me why I don't like the drink.
As for Beer proper. I think it was a fresh bottle of mikes hard lemonade, and what I can recall was overwhelming bitterness mixed with a burning sensation. But that could just be the alcohol drying out my throat.
I also did a rum and coke shot, again bitterness and burning.
Not sure if allergic, but I can see a sensitivity to it. Especially with my strong sense of smell.
I personally see it more like an aversion like how some people avoid carbonated beverages
Wow, humans sure are different: I find that cloyingly sweet. Then again, I generally go for strong bitter flavors: black coffee, dark chocolate, the bitterest style of beers, the Cabernets of wines
I never realized how little flavor Lite beers have until I accidentally drank a Diet Pepsi that was two years expired. It seriously tasted just like a Bud Lite.
I've tried all kinds and it all tastes like vinegar to me. Beer is all similarly bad to me. So I end up preferring alcohol with as little taste as possible
When someone says "I don't like the taste of X", 90% of the time they mean "I don't like the taste of bad X".
Except there are wines from certain regions that are inexpensive and absolutely fantastic. It's typically American wine that is really bad if it's at a low price point.
Wouldn’t even say that. Zinfandel is a Californian wine and it doesn’t break the bank, a bottle here being less than 5€. Although, to be fair, I’m in Europe and they probably don’t import the shit wine from overseas.
That's probably true. There definitely are a lot of mediocre zins out there.
What?? I drink non-alcoholic beer, because it tastes great and I dont want to get drunk.
Ik you're lying cuz you said tastes great
Is that a real xkcd? Seems like a rare miss for that guy, since it is an incredibly disingenous claim. A lot of people actually thinks that beer taste pretty great.
Idk you probably didn't notice, but I think this "xkcd" stuff is very often doing jokes ;)
Right. He does jokes. He also puts a ton of meta commentary into his jokes.
Its wild how some people can't comprehend that other people like things they don't
I used to say "it's only the first few hundred that taste bad."
But I love the taste of beer as long as it's not an IPA.
It's so strange that I'm the opposite. IPAs are the only kinds of beer consistently palatable to me.
IPAs aren't my favorite but I noticed a major improvement when one is poured, rather than drunk straight from the bottle/can. Before I made a point of pouring them, I mostly would get those bitter and funky flavors, but the aeration seems to help a lot.
I agree that pouring it into a glass tastes better generally.
All alcohol tastes bad it has poison in it, lol.
You're assuming poison tastes bad. Clearly not an old-school anti-freeze connoisseur.
Don't even get me started on how good lead tastes
if I could get Hefeweizen beer without alcohol in it, I would drink it all the fucking time. It's delicious. unfortunately the local stores don't carry Weihenstephaner Hefe Non-Alcoholic and ordering shit online for delivery is too expensive and inconvenient...
Meanwhile, my Lemmy feed...
I didn't like beer much at all in university but being drunk wasn't bad (which had me resorting to downing vodka that tasted like white-board marker)... it was because I was probably drinking brand name cheap stuff.
Then I had a craft IPA (the Ottawa-area brewery Big Rig) and I loved it, I developed a taste for those limey hops.
I know there are people upset that craft breweries tend to default to an IPA. But to me, having tried a bunch from different places, I can't go too wrong picking a local craft IPA, they range from just okay to very delicious! Whereas I've been more often disappointed by lagers and other beers which to me taste like funny carbonated water in comparison.
Something something acquired taste
I think we should all agree that anything that's considered an "acquired taste" tastes like shit, you just get used to the shit taste eventually
For me it's an ethanol delivery mechanism that tastes better than wine or liquor. Love me a nice fruity wheat beer, or a sour, or a milk stout.
Chocolate oatmeal stout. :9
This is the only beer I really like, but I feel like a fatty fatkins after drinking just one 😟
It's the chocolate and oatmeal part that tastes good.
You're not wrong!
I don't like hoppy beer myself, which is the flavour most people associate with "beer", that gross bitter greasy sort of thing.
There are quite a few different kind of hops, though, with different flavours. Some are stronger than others, though the entire class has that base flavour.
Beer is way more than just hops, though. It's a broad category of beverages made from many different malted grains, and can be very different than your standard Budweiser (which some people love!).
If I can't see light pass through it, I won't like it. Stouts and Porters can fuck all the way off. I don't need an alcohol laced milkshake, tyvm
It's okay to not like things!
But I do love me a nice lactose beer.
Literally the only XKCD that I vehemently disagree with. EVERY BEER DRINKER IS DOING IT BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE COOL AND WE SECRETLY HATE THE TASTE. foh.
I used to think I didn't like beer, but I later realized I just don't like lagers.
Same but for ales. Then I realized I don't like booze so I stopped.
Lagers taste like cold watered down piss to me.
Stouts are too bitter for me but that doesn't mean some aren't great. Only had a handful though.
American craft beer is drinkable at a stretch but the taste seems artificially enhanced and is too much. They just don't know how to make beer and are trying to make up for it.
(Real) IPA and pale ales are where it's at. Wide variety, some are good some and amazing most are good. More flavour than lager, not too overpowering like American or stout's.
Copper/amber beer. That can be great too but I prefer IPAs.
Wheat beer is also awesome it's what lagers try to be.
Ciders can be great but I'm not some huge farming bloke so don't tend to drink then too much because you can't get good scrumpy near me.
Fruity ciders are good but only for one or two or you get diabetes.
Pilsners can be okay/good but they need to come from central Europe.
I can get people not liking them and being a baby about the whole situation. But the flavours are so varied you either come from a country that makes shit beer or you haven't tried enough. You're just thick if you can't imagine how anyone could like them. It's like saying every curry in the world is terrible and everyone is just pretending.
Even coming from a country that makes shit need is no excuse. There are countries that make good beer and they send it overseas. And they're are good microbreweries EVERYwhere.
Guinness is pretty good actually
Same
A lot of America hasn’t recovered from Prohibition; they’ve lost the taste for it. During Prohibition, all you’d get is bathtub gin or still hootch, and that’d be mixed and flavored. When the bad times ended, Americans didn’t return to ales in the same way, but Budweiser, with added Rice as a grain mix, was popular because of the smoother taste and in the next few generations it quickly became the leading, and definitive, American beer taste. 1970s-1990s found imports. Craft brew became more popular as people, generally folks who traveled abroad and knew that good ales existed and also didn’t mind paying more for a bottle, started to migrate from imports like Bass and Guinness to local microbrews if they were available (hello Colorado) and slowly it all took a foothold.
I feel that beer & ales can be a generational taste, swinging like fashion (who really drinks Becks now, right?). Maybe a bit like “pizza cognition theory”, where your earliest experiences with a slice define what you think “real” pizza should taste like.
Edited for grammar. Man, mine sucks now.
I kinda wanna defend becks but also not because I‘d never buy it, if there’s anything advertised good available but I wouldn’t decline it, if it was the only beer available…
Fair enough…I used it as a reference only. Becks was all over the east coast for a lot of the 70s-80s
Fascinating. Here in Germany, where Becks is brewed it’s a "they didn’t have an actually good Pils so I brought Becks" kind of beer. But also, I’m Bavarian, we’re beet elitists anyways…
Same - here next door we do Heineken; it’s the Dutch equivalent of a Coors (what I did back in Colorado)
Yea, only time I remember drinking Heineken was when I was at a class outing to Italy and it was the only beer there. (Although we mostly drank wine)
Especially IPAs, I will never understand how people like that shit. It’s like drinking watered down pine-sol
Personally I have an affinity for bitter foods/drinks so I love IPAs. Usually if someone asks for a beer I just say they probably won't like what I have. I understand that I might be the weird one.
Funny enough I thought the same when I was in college, cheap beer tastes horrible(then I didn't drink much it was only weed). But a good beer in a hot day? Man that is the most refreshing thing in the world. A sensation we have shared with other people for 5000 years or more.
say you have an unrefined palette without saying you have an unrefined palette.
What a remarkably uncool thing to say
Sweet, have an upvote.
ITT: People who drink tons of beer get very defensive about how beer tastes to people who don't like it
If beer, lager, ale, etc., didn't get you drunk no one would consume it. That's literally the point, he's right it does taste bad. It's the same for sex btw, if it weren't for pleasure, the human race would have died out from how horrible sex would feel.
Ah yes right, if it wasn't for the "feeling good" part, sex would really not feel good. Thank you for that insight.
Uh... you're aware that non-alcoholic beer exists, right? This isn't some mythical creation, people already drink it.
Which most do because of social interactions and needing / wanting to be sober. Haven't met a person that just has 0% beer, and they open it after a hard days work like some people do with the alcoholic version. The only time I've seen 0% consumed in a large quantity was parties, specifically for drivers.
Nop, I know a few people who on occasion drink 0% beer without social obligations. And also, I know a lot of people who don’t drink beer to get drunk. Because you don’t get drunk from one beer and oftentimes that’s the amount you drink here, when you’re not partying or trying to get drunk. But also, I’m German, we actually have really good beer here.
It's not about "getting drunk", it's about the effect alcohol has on your body. It loosens you up, helps lubricate social gatherings. A single beer is enough to do that. Neighbor comes to talk about the mower, you do it over a beer. If you don't want the effect of alcohol, you drink 0%. A lot of people do that instead of going for a soda or whatever, because it's considered to be more socially acceptable that you are drinking "beer".
I‘d disagree on that. Yes, sharing something to drink is a good way to "lubricate social gatherings" but alcohol does not need to be involved. One beer is not enough for that anyways for most people, especially if you take into account the time it takes to take effect anyways. Here in Germany, if you drink one beer you’re also still allowed to drive
And at least in my experience, a cold coke or a hot cup of tea is just as "lubricating“. The alcohol is not necessary. Of course, if you go for a second, third or fourth beer, it becomes a whole different story but with one beer it’s more of a symbolic toast than anything.
Besides, here in Germany, people who drink 0% beer are in some situations (in a joking way) more shunned than people who drink soda and yet both soda and 0% (especially 0% Hefeweizen) are being served and enjoyed.
One beer doesn't do shit for me. I'd have to drink 4 or 5...(because it takes 45min+ for alcohol to do it's thing) and that doesn't always happen. So it's not for the effect at those times, in fact, often I don't want the effect because it will happen after I leave (say a lunch meeting), but I want a beer to wash down what I've had.
Sometimes I just want a nice cold brew on a hot day after working hard. It can satisfy in ways that other drinks can't, not even my favorite gin and tonic or Tom Collins.
You sound like you've never had the incredible experience of the perfect drink pairing with a meal.
The French would like a word with you, they've mastered the "which wine with this dish", and beer can work the same way. I've been to beer pairings that equal wine pairings...and I'm not a big beer drinker.
Yes, but not cause of the flavor
Mate, there's a place near me that makes non-alcholic IPAs that I love to drink on hot days if I'm not looking to get drunk.
Just cause you don't like bitter flavors doesn't mean others don't.
Some people certainly do drink beer just as a social lubricant or to get sloshed, but for others the taste is the point especially in the craft brew scene.
It's called an "acquired taste" mean something that doesn't taste good on the onset, but you put up through the bad taste to get a positive effect, such as getting a buzz. Remove the buzz, there's no reason to put up with it to acquire the taste. You've already acquired the taste, so after removing the alcohol it's fine. But I guarantee you you wouldn't start drinking if there wasn't a peripheral benefit.
It isn't an acquired taste though. It's an enjoyment of bitter and botanical flavors same as certain types of teas.
Ummmm, yes it is. Bitterness is an acquired taste
My dude, if sex is so painful you're doing it wrong.
My dude, I'm telling you if the pleasure is removed, think about what your body goes through to have an orgasm. Straining, pulling, heart rate through the roof, breathing gets shallow, lots of stuff you don't want to go through happen, but it feels good so we put up with it. Remove that, and nobody would want to do it