Best Lessons You Have Learned From BA

Always take a picture of your beer.

I thought it was preposterous before I joined this site, but I probably take a picture 75% of the time now.

 

I've learned a lot here. Why just this month I've learned which imperial stouts are most crushable, which IPAs are only good for five days after bottling, and which words I can put in reviews to cheese-off some BAs.

 

Just because you learned it here does not mean it's not preposterous!

 

To not believe ratings when buying a beer.

 

Tickers will drink crappy beer just to tick. friends don't let friends be tickers

 

My friends and family, even the craft drinkers, have given me the dog sideways look when I took pictures of every beer. The other day, my wife explained to a bartender "he always posts pictures of his beers". The bartender thought nothing of it, probably sees it often.

 

Guess it makes me a ticker, but I will drink a crappy beer if no good ones are available to get me a new state, style, or country.

 

Don't worry about it. Back in the day I got "that look" just for drinking fine imported beers that were darker and more expensive than what every one else drank.

 

An outlaw drinker! You need the 1%'er patch etched onto a glass!

As for things that I have learned from BA,

- Learn about styles that you are not familiar with. It's easy to get caught in a rut with a particular style (like myself and IPAs) but simply reading up on a few styles you aren't overly acquainted with can get your mouth watering for a change of pace.

- Giving is quite often better than receiving. Since I don't do a lot of social drinking, I have found that sharing local stuff is quite fun. Reading about a geographically removed BA's reaction to a local beer is very satisfying.

- Reserve judgment. When I first joined it was easy to get caught up in the rampant snobbery that was all too often found here at the time. You mention even in passing that you enjoyed a beer that was fairly easy to find - not even a macro, but say SN or God forbid, Sam Adams and you would get eviscerated for being such a pedestrian drinker. Thankfully the "drink what you enjoy" crowd triumphed over the snob crowd.

I'm sure I've learned a lot more (recipes, great music, great books, etc.,.) but those are the most beer and site relevant things I can think of.

 

Drink less, Drink quality, not every craft beer or beers from certain breweries are necessarily good do to hype. That one alone is very important. Some of the hype beers I purchase , I sit there and look at it wondering, what were they smoking before they drank this mess? Be wary of ratings, when I browse ratings I trust only the most consistent Ba's and the Brotha and Sistas of WBAYDN thread. I learned more about styles of beer.

 

Really it was nice of that fellow who started that thread to make it convenient to find out the words and phrases folks hate so I could start to use them as frequently as possible.

 

Things I've learned from here:

--No matter how good of a beer I've tried, there's always something better. (Never stop trying new beer)

--No matter how much I think I know about a beer, everyone's tastes are different. (Never stop meeting new people)

--No matter how much I learn, I'll never catch up to @jesskidden (Never stop learning new things)

 

I've learned a lot since I joined BA at 15. Like, which 'craft' breweries are actually BMC and where the bottling dates are on Lagunitas bottles (still not completely sure on that actually).

But the reason BA is a huge resource to me is the Homebrewing forum. When I joined to ask questions about my brewing I had read Charlie Papazian's book, The Joy of Homebrewing, but I hadn't even scratched the surface of what was possible in brewing. You guys gave me advice, solid recipes, and turned me into a half-decent homebrewer. By the time I got formal brewing training in college, I was already a veteran because I spent so much time on BA. It's still the best resource when I'm brewing.

More recently, the beer releases info has been crucial in me finding interesting new beers especially in the Pacific Forum. I wouldn't have heard of 1/10th of these awesome LA and SoCal breweries in my backyard without all of your incessant naggings.

Also, it was nice to learn there are still offshoots of the internet that speak in complete sentences with proper punctuation. Capital letters start off sentences and periods end them. I almost forgot.

 

Nah, not an outlaw. Just a self-deprecating drinker; either that or a tasteless drinker. Readers can decide.

 

Yep. Some decided long ago. :-)

 

when I try a new beer I check BA first- if there are 10+ reviews, I know that the consensus is usually pretty accurate on the quality of the beer. Not that I always agree with how others rate beers, but it's a great tool and starting point! With all of the options these days you gotta narrow it down somehow.

 

Well said! Sure I dont' get many east coast beers in CO, but damn we have an enormous selection! Why chase the hype elsewhere when we have some greats available!

 

cool story bro

Haha, just kidding, my gramma is dead but here on BA grammar is still fairly alive and mostly kicking. Nice assortment of things for which you are thankful, and may I say I wish I would have thought to put those same ones into my post, as they are true also for me.

 

U r rite, or so the kids text, I still compose actual letters with a fountain pen.

 

Keep notes on bottleshops, brews and pubs, especially beer that's tap only. You never know when you can help someone with a recommendation, ND the notes come in handy when you can't trust your memory. Also, if you need a recommendation, the folks here are more than happy to be helpful.