Trying new beers

If that works for you that is great.

Me personally, well my tastes get bored with 6 pack of a same beer over course of a week. I need to change beer styles nearly every day or 2 max.

 

I literally only buy beers that I've never had. I think something is wrong with me, I cannot bring myself to buy things I've had before because there is always a new offering by a brewery I love or there is a new version of a style I crave. I will make some exceptions for my favorites but for the most part I'm drinking 5-6 new beers a week.

 

I used to buy a lot of mixed-6 beers so that I could try as many new ones as possible, but I mostly buy 6-packs of new beers nowadays. Occasionally I'll but a 6-pack of something that I've had in the past if it was something that I really liked.

 

I'm a ticker but I also drink my regular favourites in equal measures.

 

I myself buy at least a mix a six per week of beers I haven't tried, along with beer I'm familiar with.

 

Unless it's very good (4.25 or higher) I dont want more than one every few days or even weeks

 

Everyone is different. I review a TON of beers, but I feel like I can appreciate things for what they are even though I try so much.

 

I think there are advantages to buying a whole sixer of a new beer over having one individual bottle and moving on. BY having multiples of it, you get to try it in different moods and situations which I think allows for a more well-rounded experience with the beer and a more accurate rating. If you only have one, you may not get to fully experience everything that beer has to offer.

 

Mix-a-six is my ultimate ADD cure. If I lived in a state that did not allow the sale of singles, I'd freak.

 

I usually try a few new beers per week. Sometimes multiple new beers in a day

 

Depends on why I'm buying the beer to begin with. I go with things I know I like for group gatherings but if it's for me I like to try and find new ones for sure but if none really appeal I go to some old ones I enjoy. I suppose this mentality is why I like going to tastings at my local bottle shop.

 

I've found it depends on how the local store sells. I almost exclusively drank new beers when I could buy a single from any pack. Now, because I'm buying whiole packs, not only do I have more of each beer to go through, but I'm more conservative and frugal about what I buy because I don't want to have to drink though/pay for a whole pack of something I don't like

 

Usually a new beer every day for me! Or every other day. Even if it's just one 12 ounce. Mix a 6 packs always at my local stores of new beers are easily available! But I have my regulars I drink also. Kelso industrial ipa. Evil twin Molotov lite. Founders breakfast. Lagunitas ipa, maximus, something wild, Brown shugga, etc....

 

I do like to give a beer a fair shake before I will rate it on BA. So I only rate beers on BA that I try them at home, where I can get a full pour, or two, at the right temperature, in proper glassware, on a clean palate.

As for new verses revisiting, I'm probably about 50/50. I like trying new beers but I equally like revisiting beers.

As for 6 packs, I almost never buy them. I prefer bombers or at most a four packs becuase like a frequent rotation, regardless of new or revisited.

Basically, after one or two I'm done with that beer for a while.

 

I "ticked" 683 new beers this year but it's not like I was necessarily trying to (that's why I put it in quotes). I do like to try new stuff whenever I can, but I checked-in to almost 1200 beers this last year (around 57-58% unique) so it's not like I'm a hardcore ticker. I just live in an area with A LOT of great beer to take advantage of.

My wife and I usually share at least 1 beer a day and I usually have one other on my own. More on the weekends. I don't usually pay attention to whether or not it's a "new" beer or not. I mostly enjoy rotating, seasonal, or one-off beers and around here most of the good ones come in bombers or on tap only (so I'm not drinking 6-12 of the same beer which would bring my unique average down--again, not that I necessarily care about that). I'll get 2-3 bombers of each of these when I can, more if it's really good and it's around long enough. I'll get my favorite rotating beers each and every time they come back around (and there are a lot of great ones).

I'll buy singles of beers I want to try, but I don't do mix-a-sixes very much anymore--you end up with a few random, average beers doing that and there's just too much good beer to bother with that. I also rarely ever buy 4pks or 6pks anymore--most of that stuff is year round and you have to check to make sure it's not old so I just don't bother. Speaking of which, I rarely buy year-round IPAs anymore (with the exception of a small handful of IPAs that I'll grab whenever I stumble upon them--Noble's Big Whig when it's fresh, Pliny, KRBC Just Outstanding, etc.)--there's just too many others constantly coming out that fit into the one-off/rotating/seasonal categories to bother with year-rounds.

Also, I am lucky that I live in an area where there are always beer events to go to--tastings, tap takeovers, bottle shares, etc.--and I like to take advantage of them. That's how I manage to tick off some whales since I don't really trade. It's not rare to add 100 new beers to my "hads" in a month. Stuff I really enjoy, I seek out again to have on my own.

Someone on another thread said it's about quality over quantity, but I feel like I have the best of both worlds here in southern California--in between any "whales" I get to try, I drink mostly very high quality stuff and don't have to bother with average or below average beers very often. This privilege is not lost on me (but I also pay through the nose to live here, so there's that).

 

I only review. I realize now that my 383 this year carries more weight as they are all reviewed.

 

Untappd has made me a slight ticker over the past year. Of the 100+ new beers I've tried in 2014, there might be 10-15 on Untappd that I didn't have time to do a full BA review (and that I might never get to).

But in general, I don't like trying a new beer without:

A. getting to drink it at least 2-3 times in separate sessions
B. getting to try it at home where I'm in control of temperature, glassware and the pour
C. giving it a full review on BA after the second or third session

Ticking looks like a rat race to generate a big number, just hopping on a flywheel and running and running and watching the meter run higher and higher.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit the numbers are cool ... I notice my overall number and number of styles tried most. But what I enjoy more than anything else about beer is sitting at home with a new brew, giving it a chance to make an impression, then trying it again a day or two later and seeing if those impressions change. My guess is the dude sitting at 10,000 "hads" looks at me and thinks what an idiot.

 

I generally like to try a new beer in the form of six-packs, or the variety 12-packs if possible. I'd definitely agree that trying something new 2-3 times before making any judgments on it is probably a good idea. It's a nice feeling to discover you actually like (insert beer here) more than you thought you did initially, or that (insert super-amazing beer here) is just as great the second time around as it was the first time you tried it... and sometimes there's those that you find aren't as good the second time around, which is another good reason to have at least two or three just to be sure rather than liking it the first time and then running out to get more only to find that your taste buds don't approve of it quite so much now as they did the first time.

I've never gotten sick of something before I was done with a six-pack so far, though I don't think I'll plan on buying "just one beer" 12-packs unless I already know ahead of time that it's something I really like.

I guess buying just one might be smart if you think there's a good chance you won't like something at all, though. I've always been kind of afraid of getting stuck with the remaining five beers from a 6-pack of something I really don't like, though so far that (thankfully) has not happened.