Searcher? Ticker? Who are you?

I would say I'm 80% ticker, 20% searcher. I will trade for specific items, but usually I trade local for local. I'll pick up limited series stuff when I can find it, or when a shop holds one for me, but I don't chase trucks around the city to get it. In fact, just this weekend I was holding a very rare Missouri stout, and put it back. I hope I don't regret that, but for the first time, I sat a limited searcher-worthy beer back due to price and other options. I do have a bottle of that in my cellar, so the ticker in me was satisfied with that. At this point, there is soooooooo much good beer out there, I'd be wasting my beer drinking time if I spent it chasing something else.

Perhaps in a few years, that searcher percentage will go up when I've tried more, but at this point, I don't see much value in dumping money and time into finding a particular beer. For me at least.

 

The best beers are the ones that you want to have again and again. And do, as often as possible. Trying new beers is a means to an end in that respect, not the end in and of itself.

As distribution and new brewers increase, though, my time does seem more slanted towards stumbleupons lately.

 

I'm the sort of person that's either in or out, drink deep or taste not the beerian spring. I'm also like the traveler who always wants to see what's over the next hill. I've found some beers that I like a lot yet I'm always on the lookout for others that I will also like or maybe even like more. Hope springs eternal that I will discover the one true holy grail of brews but I know if I did I would still keep looking.

Don't know how to categorize that sort of behavior. Never kept a list or anything but was doing things this way for 50 years before I ever heard the term 'ticker'.

 

I want to try all the best beer on the planet. Part of me is a ticker. I take notes on almost every beer. I try a lot of beer. Searcher mostly. I want to see not just one beer from a brewer, or one style. I am constantly looking to compare brewers across styles too.

 

When I was first getting into craft beer I was definitely 100% a ticker. After finding out what styles I liked, I started searching for the best beers within that style, about 50/50 of each. Now, I'm 100% a searcher, I just want high quality beer and don't care nearly as much about the unique tick

 

I'm a searcher but don't put a lot of effort into the search.

 

I'm probably 50/50. I definitely like seeking out the "next big thing" in each style. At the same time, I enjoy having a core of beers that I can keep in my fridge, regardless of style, and never feel like I'm missing something.

 

I think I am almost all searcher. Probably 90/10 Searcher to ticker.

I do search for a lot of new brews, but I never buy anything just to tick. I like to trade for new brews that interest me, but I target specific brews, not just brews I have not had.

All the random ticks I have are from open trades or were sent as trade extras. I rarely buy beer at a beer store anymore. More because there aren't any that close to me (within 30-40 minutes).

If I lived in a more urban environment or really close to a brewery I would probably tick more.

I do try and tick all the releases from Hill Farmstead and River Roost, but most of theirs I could end up searching for at some point anyways.

 

I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked The Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn't help me either...

I am mostly a searcher - maybe an 80/20 split I'd guess. I tend to try a lot of beers, then purchase a bunch of what I enjoy the most. You never know what beer will just light up the old taste buds, but I don't think of myself as a ticker. I take notes on everything I taste and generally post reviews, which I think keeps me from being a true ticker who's playing Pokemon. Not trying a beer just to add to the count, in other words, but looking for the new "gems". If you don't try new stuff how do you know? We had a family dinner last night at a restaurant featuring Peruvian and Bolivian cuisine - a place we have driven by and said "what a dump', but the food, decor, and staff were outstanding.

The downside is this leads to stockpiling. i rarely drink more than one beer a day (trips to Wisconsin seem to be the exception) and I go through long dry spells, but I can't resist picking up beers I have heard a lot about. And there's the tendency to do the "SQUIRREL" thing when beer shopping, aided and abetted by the missus. I do try to keep the hoppy stuff from becoming dust bunny covered relics, but I reckon there must be a few in the inventory. The good news is my palate never gets worn out on anything in particular.

When I first joined up here, I was a little more in the gotta try 'em all mode until I realized the impossibility of that approach. A lot of those early beers I didn't even score - it took me a while to build up to reviewing and by then I had already changed my habits. My personality is more methodical (if that's the way to put it) and my current approach of open-minded trying of the new balanced by maintaining the favorites suits that better. I actually enjoy the note-taking and taking the time to figure out what's what with a beer, then posting at least a thoughtful review.

I've also slowed down some most recently because I have found many beers to be quite similar to virtually identical. Also finding that many are just a variant on a theme (flavor of the day sort of thing) and that often times the original is the better. Added to that I have experienced a certain level of disappointment in the crap shoot that seems to be the new brewery game. Yes - I have found some diamonds, but there seems to be a lot more coal.

Kind of a long-winded way of saying what @TongoRad said above...

 

I shall place myself within the category of beer appreciator. I have no idea whether this is a specific mix of searcher and ticker.

Cheers!

 

I occasionally look locally to see if I can find a particular beer but most often when I'm not looking I stumble on something (much as described by @TongoRad ). Now that we actually have them in PA, I often visit shops with lots of beers just to see to see what they have that might qualify to be a candidate for my regular rotation, but normally I'm in such places for some other reason (e.g., freshly chopped salsa with no vinegar and a short shelf life) and make a point of also checking out what's new that might seem worth trying. I often repeat the beers I've enjoyed before, sometimes even buying them a case at a time, sometimes to enjoy while fresh, sometimes track how they change with age.

But I also try to keep a running record of what I bought and what I've enjoyed to guide further purchases since what I hate most is to see a beer I think I might enjoy and then, after buying it, to realize I already tried it before and there was a reason it didn't make my list of "try again." (But then I'm a cheap sort of guy without a huge budget to waste on repeating the duds, so record keeping and reviewing may be a bit more work, but it saves me money. )

So in this context, I'd describe myself as a "Jack of all trades, Master of none."

 

How about none of the above? Drink fresh, drink local. I don't even keep track anymore.

 

If I follow the premise correctly I guess I'm a searcher. I try to find beers I like at a reasonable price point.

 

If the only ticking I do is what's on the Beers of Fame list does that just make me a searcher?

 

I think everyone has been a "ticker" to some degree. When we first got into this hobby we had to try different things to find out what we liked and didn't like.

My first year in the hobby, I was a ticker for sure. I got a new mix-six every week, probably tried almost 300 beers in my first year (living in Michigan at the time spoiled me.) But you better believe if I found a beer that really stuck out to me, I'd buy a sixer of that one. Eventually I got to the point where I tried most of the year-round beers in my area and started just buying my favorites, with the occasional mix-six for new releases.

But if I go to a local brewery that has a weekly small batch or I am out of town and see a new beer I've never heard of on the menu, I'm going to try those out. So I guess I'm a ticker more so at breweries/bars than I am when purchasing bottles.