Beer Tasting 101: How to Tell the Skunky From the Merely Funky

Nothing wrong with this one!

Another Serious Eats piece, and (I think) the first published beer article I ever wrote. Did it inspire gatekeepy comments from cargo short dudes on the /r/beer subreddit? Oh you bet it did.

That said, I’ve always thought that not liking hops/sour/dark malt is different versions of the same initial reactions we all had to that first beer at COUGHCOUGH years old. Nobody liked their first beer. That pilfered MGD was like an unwelcome avalanche of bitter bread. Now it’s basically water for when I’m bowling. So if you really want to get into beer, understanding (if not necessarily full appreciation) of the full spectrum of beer flavors will happen. The thing is, you have to know the “stuff I don’t like” from the “stuff nobody likes.” Once I figured out German lagers aren’t supposed to taste like butter, I learned to pick better German bars.

And if you need more rambling than I’ve offered here, then read the piece at Serious Eats.