How important is the "buzz"?

Without the buzz, what else would I blame for my actions?

 

To my way of thinking it's not a valid question. Alcohol is integral to an alcohol based beverage, like beer. There are plenty of beverages that one can drink that do not have alcohol. You don't drink 12 bottles of pop a day, do you? Why not, it tastes good and has no buzz. You know, you don't have to drink to get drunk to enjoy a beer or three.

 

It's why everyone drinks man. But, also because it tastes good. That's number two. Because if that didn't matter, we would be drinking nasty Steel Reserve.

 

I like the taste of coke, but I usually go for beer.
If it was because of the alcohol, why wouldn't I go for a rum and coke instead?
Well, I do sometimes.

 

You can't take my buzz away unless you take all the calories away too -- and lower the price quite a bit while you're at it.

 

The "Buzz" you are denigrating is quite possibly the basis for your being able to post this. Without the enjoyable effects of alcohol there would have been very little, if no reason to go from a hunter-gatherer existance to farming. I always find it amusing to hear from people lamenting the demon alchohol yet praising their forebears. Do you know how much rum was allowed on British sailing vessels? They were pie-eyed almost 24/7. Jonny Apple Seed didn't grow apples for eating you know. Getting drunk is a universal human endeavor. To say otherwise is just plain lying.

 

I wouldn't drink barrel aged beer without the buzz. I really don't like bourbon, rum barrels are okay but still not my favorite. I'm currently drinking just to pass the time until the "red" moon.

 

I like both, flavor and 'buzz' but the alcohol factor definitely affects my consumption. I usually drink on weekends but I do wish there were tasty NA beers. A high ABV bomber usually suits me fine, good flavor, and a mellow 'buzz'.

 

In my personal opinion you aren't respecting beer for what it IS if you don't also appreciate that mellow buzz that is accompanying that delicious liquid sliding across your palate. The key isn't what ABV it is.... its about the pace my friend. higher the ABV slower you should enjoy it, take a sip let it glide back and forth across your palate slowly sensually appreciate every complexity it has to offer. Alcohol is not a bad thing its there as a natural byproduct of that which we are all here to love and appreciate.... BEER that one holy goddess behold her in all her liquid glory!!

 

Agree totally. The best thing about it nowadays is we have a tremendous variety of the most delicious beverages on the planet to help us accomplish it. Both of my "social lubricant" enjoyments taste delicious, but I doubt I would go for them in the same way, or at all, if they didn't provide the wonderful buzz.

 

Wrong. I wish it was possible to make a NA taste as good as a RIS. I'd love to be able to drink RIS all day long for the taste and not get a buzz...or worse. I enjoy beer for the taste and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you personally view it), alcohol can and does contribute to the taste. Oh but if I could do something that tastes as good as Rare, Yeti, Uncle Jacob's, etc that was NA, sign me up.

 

So you are saying you would drink both if there was no alcohol or caffeine? I doubt it, but since I don't know you, I could be wrong. I do know many people who enjoy both, and I know for a fact it isn't true for any one of them, myself included.

 

Are the same people who drink beer "just for the taste" the same ones who buy Playboy "just for the articles"?

 

Without a buzz then we'd all be drinking soda instead. Or worse, wine...

 

Or, to put it another way, if water gave a buzz, and beer didn't, the beer industry would not exist.

 

I don't drink nonalcoholic beer and I don't drink decaf coffee for the same reason.

 

I think the taste experience is MUCH more important to me than the buzz. The way I look at it is this: I don't like vodka - just not my thing, so if vodka were the only thing in existence that could give me the "buzz", I would simply never be getting one. If beer, bourbon, or scotch were around and did not have this effect I would still be drinking it. Don't get me wrong, I certainly have been drunk in my life, I was in the Navy after all, but I simply don't set out to get drunk or buzzed anymore. There will be times it happens, but if that became the express intent of my drinking then I think it would be time to stop for me.

 

For people who say taste is primary - yeah no shit we're on a craft beer site. That's why there's a bottle of vodka in my kitchen that's been sitting there for several years.

But it's asinine to talk about hypotheticals such as "if Heady was NA I would drink it all day". Alcohol is an integral part of beer - so plan accordingly. Like I imagine is the case with most BAs, I enjoy the effects of a couple of beers.

My only "want" in this space would be for bars to have more low ABV options (a la UK). I'm not one to really nurse a drink (same goes for eating food and pretty much everything), so when I am going to a bar with friends, and plan on staying out for a while, it's not ideal when the lowest ABV beer is 6%

 

Love the buzz, but I hate getting drunk, which I haven't been in over 20 years. If there was no buzz I'd drink water, why get fat without a buzz.

 

I know you say "no shit", but I don't think what you are implying is as obvious as you think from the sampling here. People are saying that if all beer tasted the same, they would still be drinking it, or that the "buzz" is indeed their primary motivation. The point of these hypotheticals is just to demonstrate that one may feel that the taste experience is worth having without the mind altering effects.

As for nc41's "why get fat without a buzz", I would say that for the same reason you eat a steak and not carrots all day - the flavor.