Tips for a beer newbie?

As just sort of an easy and practical way of getting into things I reccomend grabbing the sampler twelves available all over. It will expose you to a bunch of different styles and will introduce you to the larger local breweries in your area in a realtively short span of time. They may not alaways be the best representations of the style but it will provide you a baseline to begin comparisons and then when you stumble upon a new brewery you can appreciate it when they knock it out of the park with a cetain style. I remember in the late 90's early 2000's grabbing these packs and it widened my scope beyound IPAs and let me get to know the local breweries that were around in my area like Harpoon, Long Trail, Otter Creek, and Catamount and really appreciate it when a local brewpub would kill it with a style I had tried from one of the packs. At least thats how I fell down the rabbit hole!

 

Since you already like IPAs I'll pass along Commandment #1: Drink IPAs as fresh as you can find them because the hop flavors will fade in a hop-forward beer and the beer will pick up a different character.

 

There are noobs who read these threads whether the OP is a fake or not. Discuss topic freely.

 

Buy a harpoon and read moby dick. By that I mean go get new tires on your car and deeply contemplate how much money you are willing to spend and stick to it!

 

Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?

 

Now that you started drinking and understanding better beers, go to your local Home Brew store and grab a 5 gallon pail kit! Nothing helps understand beers than actually working with the ingredients.

 

What I did was look up the top 250 beers. I made up a wish list of what was highly ranked and readily available in my area. I went out on treasure hunts. I located great stores that were highly ranked in the "places" section of BA. I've been able to compare similar styles and have picked some favorites. I also learned that I liked some lower ranked beers compared to the higher ranked beers. Its all about style and what you like. Now I am a Pliney bounty hunter pilaging through towns and harrassing vendors on the phone to see if its in stock. This is more of an addiction and stressful. DO NOT GET TO THIS POINT HAHAHAH

 

Try your best to be respectful of the beer preferences of others. When I first started with craft, I found that I tended to be a bit snobbish towards macro beer and those who drank it.

 

Like several have said here - I am new to Beer Advocate, but have enjoyed craft beer for some time. I signed up here to begin trading, but after reading some of the advice, I intend to begin visiting my region's forum. ...we're all still learning.

You've got the right idea. I'd like to reiterate that it's generally easy to make friends with other craft beer drinkers. When you go to the brewpub and sit at the bar - take note of which bartenders enjoy describing their offerings and which patrons are careful about what they order. Make friends with those folks. Craft beer drinkers like to "help" newbies in their journey, and it's best done in person.

 

My tip: Do lots and lots and lots of research and reading before posting in any forum or responding to any post. I didn't post my first response until six months after I signed up on BA. When you post you'll want to add substantive comments/ opinions.

 

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

 

You're from North Carolina. Get your hands on anything Duck Rabbit and you'll be good to go.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Great pilsners =/= Budweiser and the like!

Also, don't neglect lower ABV beers or well balanced brews. There are incredible pale ales, helles lagers, brown ales, etc. that aren't hop/coffee/bourbon "bombs," yet are incredible brews.

Not every beer needs to be so intense in any one aspect that you'll need something even more intense the next time to satisfy you. No need to be chasing the dragon.

 

In the last 10 months or so of re-discovering beer, I've found that ten dollar sixes of brew is WAY better that any ten dollar bottle of wine!

 

Commandment #2: Have a plan (or two) for the learning process:

• #2a) Compare and contrast all of the beers from a local brewery to learn the differences between styles (at least for that brewery.) Then do it again for another nearby brewery.
• #2b) Compare and contrast beers of the same style very close together (i.e. same drinking session or same day if possible) so that you can see how different brewers brew the same style. (But allow for a taste difference in IPAs because of different hops used by each brewer.)