Everyone has to start somewhere.

You should consider attending a beer festival. I went to the Big Texas Beer Fest last year and had a great time. 90+ breweries there with lots of styles represented. I sampled around 30 beers (small 2 oz servings). I identified my favorite local beers and revisited some old favs like Chimay. I learned a lot. Live music, some food and not a totally unruly crowd as I expected.

 

Don't forget to have fun and try to enjoy your adventures.

 

Paulener's Natural Wheat Hefewiezen and Abbot Ale are pretty good if you like somewhat fruity beers. If you want to try the way a porter should be have an English porter or Left Hand's Black Jack porter ...

 

some places will let you try a flight of beers, they give you about 2oz of 5-6 beers that way you can taste all their beers. another suggestion is if you go to a craft beer bar ask if you can taste a beer before trying it to see if you like it. Alot of "craft beer" drinkers will find 1-2 specific kinds of beers they like and stay in that category. Your taste is your taste, enjoy beer searching and trying... if you like to keep track of what you drink there is an app called untappd that works great, its like the social media for beer drinkers.

 

I thought that's what THIS was!
I really wish I had a smartphone

 

ba is good for forums and reading about what a specific beer is and how people rate it.
untappd you keep track of what different beers you have had and can see what your friends are drinking. you can check your beer into a specific place and right a short comment about it.

 

-I have to ask.. what kinda liquor were you drinking, and were you mostly shooting it? You may find you really enjoy it, too, down the road.
-As many have said, IMO try sampler packs. Boulevard, New Belgium, and Left Hand's Mountain Mix sounds like it would be great for you. A coffee porter, a sweet/milk coffee stout, an amber/strong bitter (great starter for pale and bitter beers), and an english IPA (next step in bitters).
-I'm not a good reference for witbiers, but you will probably like many (hopefully all ) that everyone listed/

 

Drink what you like, don't follow trends, and keep in mind that opinions on this site are very biased toward IPAs. If you never find one that you like, you will still live a full life.

 

Some good introductory IPA's are Founders All Day IPA and Brooklyn East India Pale Ale. For something a little less bitter try Sweetwater 420, Ommegang Witte, or any Harpoon UFO beers.

 

I definitely started with Sam Adams and worked up from there. Prepare your wallet..

 

As far as what compares closest to Sunset Wheat...give Anderson Valley's Summer Solstice a try. It has a similar flavor, but one level up. Even better on tap!

 

Leinenkugels snowdrift vanilla porter is still a favorite of mine

 

I started with the big craft breweries from my region because they were available everywhere. Since some regions arent as beer rich as other that would be harder for some people.

 

Glad to hear you liked it. Honestly, you can't really go wrong with anything from Sammy Smith, and they are readily available.

 

Yup, that was one of my first, if not THE first. I remember thinking, "Man, India makes really tasty beer!"

 

It's true, although I would replace "rides a motorcycle" with "is a cult horror movie fanatic." But that's just me.

 

When I started out, I did mix a sixes without any regard to BA ratings or hype. If the label was cool, I'd pick it up. I had some bad beer but discovered plenty of great stuff too. Eventually I started focusing on breweries I really liked (such as Victory) and buying all of their stuff. The key for me is to not go crazy chasing every new hyped beer. There's plenty of good stuff out there year-round.

 

If you have access to New Belgium Brewing, try their new white IPA, Accumulation. It is made with wheat (which you like already), and it is a great way to start liking hops. My wife loves it, and typically doesnt care for IPA. It features Mosaic hops, which can be very fruity and interesting compared to some of the other piney, bitter varietys that people far too often associate with all IPA's.