New drinker, looking to get some recommendations!

Welcome to good beer!

I would recommend a couple different styles to a new craft drinker.
Pale Ale: the style that berthed craft beer. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a must-try for any beer drinker.
Amber/Red Ales: nice, balanced drinkable beers. I would start with New Belgium's Fat Tire.
American Wheat Ales: building off your previous experience, I would go for beers such as Sierra Nevada Kellerweise or Odell Easy Street Wheat.

Once you give those styles a try you can move on to India Pale Ales, Belgian Ales, and many many others.

I would give stouts and porters another shot. Guinness isn't a particularly good stout, and these styles have a ton to offer. Deschutes Black Butte Porter is a classic intro beer. I find that with friends of mine that are new to drinking, often they will not like certain styles at first (usually IPAs), but after time spent expanding their taste buds and trying new beers eventually they come around.

As far as sampler packs go, Sierra Nevada, Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams), and Left Hand offer good, approachable varieties.

Cheers!

 

Some good beers in your state of Florida! You might like Floridian from Funky Buddha. It is in grocery stores often.
Keep experimenting. Your tastebuds will change I've time and with experience.

 

Since you are from Florida, Cigar City out of Tampa makes a wonderful brown ale called Maduro. Florida Cracker is their Belgian White (wheat) offering which is also good. In fact, many of their beers are highly respected.

Weihenstephaner from Germany makes one of the best Heffeweizens (wheat beers) in the world.

From my home state, Sweetwater 420 is a readily available Extra Special Bitter that is bitter but not too hoppy.

For something darker, Terrapin Liquid Bliss is a chocolate peanut butter porter that is outstanding.

 

If you dont mind UFO or Blue Moon then just seek out lighter belgian styles like Witbier, white ales, saisons etc... eventually youll come to find darker belgians which may lead to darker beers in general like a stout or a belgian ipa which can lead to dipas. Good luck. We all get there thru some path.

 

Sam Adams Boston Lager. You'll think it's bitter at first, but midway through the six pack you'll be converted to the craft beer cult.

 

Welcome to the BA site, mbng. Two things for you to consider: 1.) if you have a brewery close to you, go there and order a sampler flight of the beer styles that you lean toward, but explore others too; and 2.) go to your local beer store and pick out some single bottles, again in styles that you think you'd like.

Check out these style descriptions too: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/

 

Not a fan of beer ....but looking for beers you think I would love. Err whaa ? Troll post.

 

Good example at the moment @SLewis gave me the idea. You can find Cold Snap everywhere about now. Give that a shot given the beers you already like.

 

Start with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Its delicious. You can get Jai Alai in Florida. Actually Florida gets a good selection of craft beers. I have seen Fat Head there recently too. Lagunitas Born Yesterday is a great Pale Ale too. Start with craft pale ales. Then move to IPA and DIPA.

 

http://21st-amendment.com/beers/hell-or-high-watermelon/

 

I would say that if you don't really enjoy beer, move deeper into something you already do enjoy. I mean, we all have enough vices anyway. Why force yourself into another? Right? Right??

 

I second the Cigar City beers. As you get into craft beer, Cigar City will become your best friend.

 

Start with Lagers. Mainstream German lagers like Warsteiner and Spaten Pils are a good start.

 

Honestly, I had a friend who was similar. Heck, when I first starting drinking, I couldn't stomach IPA's after the third or fourth sip; the hops just puckered my mouth. And stouts were too rich for me too. If you want to get into all the styles and appreciate beer for the wonderful drink it is, then taste, taste, taste and taste some more.

Recommendations:

Amber Ales and malty beers like Sam Adams Boston Lager
Brown Ales (Maduro is great, Samuel Smith Nut Brown is awesome and drinkable too)
Pale Ales (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is easy to get, Schlafly Pale Ale is good, Flying Dog Doggie Style is good too)

 

I got deep into craft beer by way of Belgian Ales and German classics. so I'd surely recommend those. Some that I started with:

Chimay Blue
Duvel
Gulden Draak (blew my mind when I first had it, still fantastic to this day)
Delirium Tremens
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Weihenstephaner Korbinian
Weihenstephaner Vitus
Hofbrau Original
Spaten
Paulaner Oktoberfest
Paulaner Salvator

You can get these at any Bevmo.

Happy hunting!

 

If you like Blue Moon, your jumping point should probably be Florida's own Cigar City's Florida Cracker. They also have some other great examples of less extreme styles, i.e., one's you're more likely to like right away, and are readily available throughout the entire state. Some examples would be Cigar City's Maduro Brown Ale, Invasion Pale Ale (maybe), Tampa Lager (if you're willing to try a beer closer to what you're already used to, but with more flavor), and Jai Alai, which is an IPA (the biggest craft-category by a wide-margin, and an excellent example of the style).

Better yet, if you live anywhere near Tampa, you should hit up their brewery and/or their brewpub and try flights of different beers. You never know what you may wind up enjoying.

 

Try a wide variety of styles. I would recommend trying Sierra Nevada pale ale, weihenstephaner hefeweizen, cigar city jai alai, boulevard tank 7, duvel, and left hand milk stout. I know you said you hate stouts but you might not, I personally don't like Irish dry stouts, like guiness, and it scared me away for a while, but stouts are now my favorite style.