[6 April 2012] It will no doubt be tomorrow's meme.

[Corneel]

Heineken isn't beer either :p

Grimbergen (dobbel for preference), Westmalle, Cinay, Guldendraak, ...

Those are more deserving of the term.

In my opinion though, over 95% of all beers out there are pretty awful to drink. There's a few I'm willing to have a single pint of to be sociable, but barely any I'll drink because I actually want to taste them.

Agree on Heineken.
I prefer Leffe Blonde, or if it has to be a lager then Jupiler.
Btw it's Ciney or Chimay, not Cinay

[Laika]

I had my first vile sip of beer at 19, (very legal where I'm from) and it took me about seven years to learn to enjoy it.

It helped that I had a beer-loving boyfriend for a part of that time: I had sips of his beers and eventually had to agree that a Corona went well with your mexican food. After this I quickly got used to real beer as well through the method of not turning down free alcohol when someone was offering. (If I was going to buy it myself, I still chose cider or wine.)

Then, about two years ago or so I caught myself feeling like a beer all of a sudden, even though I still couldn't find the taste quite pleasing. I found that beer has this lazy, casual summery feeling to it, that I'd occasionally choose to drink it for. And now, at last, I can claim that I actually like the taste of beer.

I'm guessing the next step is to learn to tell the difference between different kinds of it.

I'm also guessing you can speed up this process quite a bit by drinking more often than I do.

[NobodySpecial]

Beer is a wonderful thing. Budwieser isn't beer. If malternatives like Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice are more your thing and you MUST have beer, though, then try something like a Blue Moon, which is good with fruit.

[PlushieNii]

That's not beer, Sara. It's a Budweiser.

You summed up my thoughts here.

I personally like beer, but understand why so many people don't. xD

[sorrowtoserenity]

Beer's the same, for me. I've tried several varieties, and just no. Worst flavor ever.

I enjoy other stuff, mostly if it's flavored in some way(Mike's, Bailey's, Kahlua, etc.), though. Some people have called me a wuss for this, but I mock the entire 'drinking-as-a-pissing-contest' concept.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

'drinking-as-a-pissing-contest'

If the participants are just sober enough, it'll turn into one once enough time has passed.

Sara's reaction is the same as 3 year old me (my mom didn't manage to grab the bottle away fast enough) and then 12 year old me, trying both beer and wine. In fact, according to my mother, I made that same face when I was 12 and trying out the wine with her permission. So it's amusing me that despite her "what does that mean?" reaction a few days ago, she's already got more in common with Michael than she initially thought. XD

[sun tzu]

Bleh. I disapprove of alcohol on general principle.
But at least Sara and Lisa seem to be doing better.

[Muttley]

Condemning beer after a mouthful of Bud is like condemning wine after a taste of cheap red. The spectrum of beer styles and flavours is at least as broad as that of wines, and exploring them is delightful.

I'm surprised Sara can taste anything, since Bud is well known to be the blandest of beers. I suppose it is at room temperature, and we don't know how long Lisa has had that bottle open.

Taz, being from Belgium, is blessed to be living where the best beers in the world are made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Belgium

Chimay bleu is one of my very favourites. The results of a lifetime of ongoing experimentation also include Kwak, Sam Smith's Oyster Stout and Hopback Summer Lightning. My top favourite is another Belgian speciality, gueuze, the spontaneously-fermented lambic beer from the Senne valley, close to Brussels.

There are fruit beers, chocolate beers, champagne beers, beers for every occasion and every palate. Don't stop at just one, especially not if it's Bud.

[IlliadAndOddity]

Beer is disgusting. I've had so many people tell me "Oh, you just haven't tried any good beer." And then they make me try a taste of "good" beer, and I always try it and go "Nope. Still beer. Still disgusting."

Wine is my drink of choice. There's this absolutely wonderful blueberry wine from a vineyard in West Virginia that I go out to buy a case of once every year or so.

[MariMother]

:O I only bothered posting today to iterate my personal love of beer. I think it is absolutely hilarious that liquor drinkers (many of them, atleast), feel that way about beer, while we beer drinkers (many of us) feel that way about liquor.
I actually wonder the same thing Sara does when people sit down with a bottle of vodka or whiskey.

[Trefle]

Hahahahahaha, That's a wonderful facial expression; for both faces! Kudos, Jason. Kudos.

I don't know about beers. Personally I dislike it but I never try the fancy ones Muttley described up there (fruit beers? Chocolate beers?); I did try drinking beer with chocolate milk....while it indeed made the beer easier to swallow; the fact that I require chocolate milk to drink it doesn't seem to be a good sign for the beer itself (I LOVE chocolate milk, however.)

Besides, I'm not sure socially people will drink a lot of those fancier types-- less alcohol, I believe?
Generally, I do avoid alcohol though. Sometimes I drink it just because (no stress, alone) or as a companion to certain dishes (done more than once, but cannot taste the differences anyway...) so..yeh.

[sgtrock]

Can I just chime in here as a long time beer drinker? Have you ever noticed that the split between beer lovers and haters is largely gender specific? This thread is a pretty good indicator of that. More than half of the people who have responded that they don't like beer are women, while the beer lovers are more than half men. While I've observed this for several decades, I've never seen a good explanation of it. A female acquaintance of mine back when I was still a sailor put it down to the fact that men are inherently idiots, so OF COURSE we'd prefer to drink swill.

Also, those who think that American beer is all terrible simply hasn't visited a liquor store here in a very long time. I think the variety and quality stacks up against the best beer anywhere else in the world.

While there's been a good selection available since the Germans and Belgians first emigrated here in the mid 1800s, Prohibition put a damper on things until about the 1970s. After that, though, there's always been a very good selection here for those who were willing to look. Heck, even Walmart carries a decent selection these days.

A very, very small sampler of American brews that I really like:

* Almost anything brewed by Summit Brewing.
* Almost anything brewed by James Page, even after they were bought out by Stephen's Point Brewing.
* Fat Tire Amber Ale
* Anchor Steam
* Polygamy Porter (Tagline: "Why have just one?")

Beers that I don't like? Anything too sweet. I pretty much can't stand the fruitier ones like Blue Moon Belgian White, so I stay well away from them. Instead, I tend to look for beers with strong English, Irish, German, or Czech heritage.

Beer isn't necessarily an acquired taste. Clearly, though, there's a wide range of beer geared for different people.

[starkruzr]

You're doing it wrong, Sara.

Pour that out, recycle the bottle, and get a 21 year old friend to get you a bottle of Dogfish Head Midas Touch. Pour it into a goblet. Drink it slowly over the next hour. Savor EVERY DROP, because it is STUNNINGLY delicious.

That is how you have your first beer.

EDIT: I am an equal-opportunity booze appreciator. There is NOTHING like a good Scotch sitting outside at night in the spring or fall. But definitely cold brew for summer nights.

... we can haz beer thread? WE CAN HAZ BEER THREAD.

Can you guys see this? http://untappd.com/user/starkruzr That's my roster of late.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

The Freudian symbolism of this one just hit me in the side of the head like an angry yeti. Please tell me that wasn't intentional, T. >.< (Sara + her sexual orientation + bottle, for reference.)

[MeganKoumori]

I'm not a beer drinker and judging from today's strip and this, I'm guessing neither is T. Just guessing.