How Did You Learn So Much About Craft Beer?

join untapp'd if you haven't already. And join as many area specific beer groups on facebook as possible...trading will open up doors as well

 

QuizUp Beer Category.

 

Sam Adams mix packs

 

Spend enough time on the WBAYDN threads here and you'll learn about all kinds of tasty ways to drain your wallet. Finding a good beer shop with knowledgeable staff and talk to them is also a good way to gain some knowledge and further your spending habits.

 

I have a group of 10 guys that started out as a local craft beer fantasy football group, we're pretty much based out of GR. We talk everyday, pretty much all day(FB group messenger). When we started the group I had been on here about a year or so and had done some trading by myself. All of that knowledge came from this site, being a member at Founders, taking brewery tours etc.
Every guy in our group is somewhat unique which makes it great. We have shares throughout the year and they are some of my closest friends. My recommendation to you would be to find a good core group of guys, you stated that your the most knowledgeable of the ones you currently have. Seek out new beers and share them with them. Show them how much fun trading can be and as they grow in knowledge you will too.

 

I started buying it when I was 17 from the guy at the AM//PM around the corner who would sell it to me. SN mostly, but anything that wasn't light beer. I remember the first time I picked up a bottle of Stone AB. Almost broke my brain...like a caveman finding an iPhone.

1) get started.

Then once I turned 21 in 2004 and could buy anywhere, I tried literally anything I could get my hands on. Belgians, hoppy beers, foreign stouts, etc. I was a 21 year old drinking Orval on a July day after washing my truck. Delicious!

2) try everything.

In 2009, I thought ....I like to cook, and beer is expensive on a grad student budget, so why not make my own beer? Homebrewing doesn't save that much, but it's fun and you can make different styles, taste different malts, yeast, hops, and adjuncts.

3) homebrewing.

Along the way I would seek out and/or receive books about beer & homebrewing. What are the top beers in each style? They change periodically.

4) read books and beeradvocate.

Lastly, practice.

5) time to crack open a new hobby.

 

Purchase, consume, trust your palate. Repeat... over and over for 2 years or so.

 

Haha I got my first knowledge from Charlie Papazian starting in 1989. I'd grown to love fine beer over the years, both imports and the first "craft" beers. Funny that in Dead lot folks always were around with the finest...enjoyables, including the first local beers from around, and all the fine imports.

Anyway, drank mainly imports at home, always pretty good distro of imports in NY, especially loved English beers, then I got a gift, in 1989, of a homebrewing kit, and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, by Mr. Papazian. My ex wife did some good things for me, and that gift was one. Read that book backwards and forwards and started to brew extract brews. No one I knew liked fine beer. No one I knew brewed beer. Needless to say I drank a lot of the beer I brewed, probably way too much. I bought my ingredients at the New Paltz Science and Hobby, and even those guys back then didn't know how to brew and couldn't give advice. Learned a lot. Gave up brewing in '93, and drinking beer too, if you can believe it, didn't start drinking beer again until 2002 or so.

Lurked here starting in 2006 and I can honestly say that there has been, and is, an incredible body of knowledge here, and I have learned so much. Started brewing again around 2008(?), joined a club in 2009(?) where learning is our raison d'etre, and to this day never stop seeking to learn anywhere I can. Listening to pro brewers is a great way sop up good knowledge.

To me, beer is one of the four things that enabled civilization, and I love learning about it. But not quite so much as drinking it.

Cheers!

 

Drinking.

 

Drinking beer, talking to beer people, home brewing and reading.
This BA site is a good source.

 

Greg's Beer Reviews on you tube crusty old dude from VA is straight shooter!

 

Drank a lot of different beers. Started homebrewing. Read trade magazines/books/websites.

 

You are on the right track. If you really want to up the knowledge fast take the Beer Judge Certification Program and study to become a beer judge. Pick up "Brewers local news" type papers if in your area too that post events and what is new with local breweries.

 

papazian....palmer...Brewing TV...Brewing Network...Blogs...Uprising at Novare

 

This site has helped. Drinking beer helped. Attempting homebrewing helped. But I feel I learned the most from talking to other people at bottle shares and being able to to ask questions of people that knew more than me.

 

Who says I have???

 

This thread inspired me to finally purchase Mosher's Tasting Beer. Never to late to learn more.

To the OP, you've lots of good info from all but the one I would bump is to taste things with others (beer shares is one form mentioned above) and discuss with your drinking partners. Having immediate feedback of what everyone is experiencing as you experience it can be enlightening.

A well-run "virtual" mass online tasting that occur occasionally on this site can be a proxy for this as well.

 

Having that first beer that opens your eyes and peaks your curiosity. That beer that makes you wonder what exactly makes that beer so good, and where you can find more beers like that. For me, an autumn night in Dublin having White Hag's Irish IPA on cask. That at least sparks the interest and hunger for knowledge of craft beer.

 

Years of reading about and drinking beer.

 

Time. Read things. Ask questions. Listen to answers. Get your BS detector tuned up. Drink beer.