i feel the same way. way back in the day when my older brother first introduced me to beer he mentioned it was an acquired taste, but all i drank were cheap beers. fast forward to now when i'm older and wiser and we live in this glorious age of craft beers and wham - beer is my go to drink and anything else just taste like cheap cocktails. i have a friend who moved out to portland a while ago and they're always posting and talking about these great beers out there, we're are planning a trip this year actually so i can finally see if it lives up to the hype. and i did get to visit hamburg germany last year and yeah, great beer country out there and the hofbrauhaus was great... at least from what i can remember after all the beer we drank.
we actually went to cali' last summer as well and did a tour of the stone brewery out near LA and it was pretty awesome too. the hardest part about liking beer is keeping track of all the ones i try now. actually a buddy of mine just introduced me to a new app called untappd (https://untappd.com/). sadly i haven't had a chance to go out and use it since i downloaded it, but it should help me keep tabs and find new brews.
When you start tasting great beer, there is no coming back. I find the perfect micro-brewery for me in my area, Brasserie Dunham. They always experiment with many style of beer and you will always find something that stand out in their selection. They're been using all kind of wood barrel for aging for the past two years. It is crazy how aging could also do good to beer. Now since I'm so close to Vermont I need to go on a road trip to taste all they have to offer.
@defrost I heard that the taste is different with the wooden barrel! I havbt been lucky enough to try it out yet! A local brewery just opened a coconut cask so I am eager to try that!
