Good beer sessions vs bad ones - does it affect you?

If by "a bit sour" you mean feeling physically ill or heading in that direction, no.

But if you mean affecting my overall mood, sure. A beer I don't like can feel like a chore to finish and make me wish I had something I like more, like a good pils or English pale ale.

 

Before we move forward, we need a definition of your use of "session". Having some low ABV brews for a few hours, or just doming Imperials with tha bros?

 

Then yes, beers I don't fully enjoy affect me in a similar way. It's why I've gotten away from trying new beer and stick mainly to beers I know I love -- or beer styles I know I love.

In fact, I've been trying to empty my fridge of a bunch of beer I don't love for seven months, but whisky and the fact that I don't love these beers keeps getting in the way. I'll drink them at some point (football season's coming up after all ), but I'll probably run a play from your playbook and use "cleansers" to help the process. It makes sense to drink 2-3 of these "bad" beers then finish the session with a dram of Glenfarclas 105 or Ironroot bourbon.

 

I understand what you’re saying...which is one of the reasons I stopped chasing beers. I’ve had 1500+, but more often than not, I drink old favorites like SNPA, Union Jack, Pliny. Those live in my fridge and are daily drinkers.

The thrill of the hunt has lost its luster....I just want to drink good beer.

 

That my jam too. 2 weeks ago I picked up some Union Jack and found some jai alai under 30 days fresh. Also, just picked some miller lites, torpedos and founders porter for camping this weekend. I’ll take a $10 six pack of good beer over a $10 single bottle any day.

 

To answer your specific question about a bad drinking session it bums me out and makes me feel like I just wasted a bunch of calories. I try not to drink beers I don’t like but sometimes I find myself drinking beers I don’t particularly like.

For instance, I went to a bbq and all the beers were meh. I had a few but then I thought why am I drinking this? Just for the buzz of course. The first one or two is good or maybe with a meal but when I am drinking multiples of kona. pacifico, Or whatever. I always feel regret later and think I should have saved those calories and my liver for something I really wanted.

 

I only go downtown (houston) 1 night on the weekend for church. So I used to be like a kid in the candy store when we went to eat afterwards, wanting to try everything on the menu, having issues deciding, just the general fomo shit. I always wanted to go to a restaurant that had a good tap list to, those days are gone. If there is a sure fire thing on the list, I am going to go with it. Nothing worse than popping a whopper (chocolate candy) in your mouth and finding out it is stale. That just fucks my day up, so kinda like having a shitty beer when you know you only can have a couple for that night. Also, if it is bad, I don't drink it anymore. Would rather waste the $ than consume those calories.

 

I think I enjoy every session I share with friends I love. We even have a night we drink only beers we bring to the share that are either old or awful, the worse the better. Believe it or not it is one of the best shares we do.

OTOH drinking beers with morons, neanderthals, lovers of bad music, folks with oppressive philosophies they feel need to share, and other types of humans I can't stand in any situation can leave me feeling sour even if we are drinking my favorite beers.

 

I prefer to try new beers, but choose ones I'm likely to like based on reviews or base my decision on my experience with similar beers. I don't get disappointed if it isn't good, that's part of the process of reviewing new beers for me. My cellar is for when I can't find enough new beers. So no, beers don't get me down even if I get a bad one once in a while.

 

Hell yeah to that. For me trying new beers is a means to an end, not the end in itself. That's why I'm usually selective about what I buy, and also always have a good mix of faves on hand too.

 

Or a ginger ale.

 

The last time I had a bad session I was expecting to have one. It was a local brewery (Yale Terrace) that opened to bad reviews and never got any better. The reviews were right . I did not feel bad since I expected to just wanted see for myself.

 

Not a ticker; as clear from my WBAYDN choices, I usually reach for a steady, delicious, familiar beer that I know will be good to great.
People disappoint me enough, on a daily basis, that I don't need beer to disappoint. Cheers!

 

Rather than have a bad session, I'll usually dump a beer I'm not enjoying and move on. But I always give it a solid chance and will drink at least half before doing so. Sometimes as a beer warms things turn around a bit.

 

Not much to offer here. Some multi-beer evenings used to but that was more related to my mood going in than which new beer.

Given life these days I generally don’t have more than one in a row unless out with friends or having guests for the evening.

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