I though this was a good read…made me think about my own tastes, and how I can better explain this to my beer drinking friends.
I agree Ken. So taken further, some super tasters will likely initially dislike stouts, porters, IPAs, and sours, but they may learn to like them…I am no super taster, but I like those beers despite not being a coffee or espresso drinker. It came through trying and adjusting.
i was not one of those first time and love it IPA drinkers. definitely was rewiring my brain much like described here.
I always use an analogy to spicy foods to explain hoppy beers. Some people love hot foods right off the bat, some come to love/like/tolerate them, and others never like them. Everyone I’ve ever met understands the food example, and it lets them understand the appeal (or lack of) hops to many drinkers.
For me it was a progression or evolution of my taste. When I was in my very early 20’s I was not much of a beer fan, I usually drank mix drinks. I then ventured into the malt beverage category, then light beer, and so on.
Today I look back and can’t believe how much I love the stuff. I want to attend festivals, and go to as many craft breweries as possible. I even try and map out where breweries are in relation to my vacation. My wife likes beer but she doesn’t quite understand my obsession.
I agree with our brains being prewired to like and dislike certain things, but I also feel we evolve over time. You know how many times I find a beer I think is the best ever only to come back to it later and think its just ok. So don’t give up on certain styles come back an revisit those you didn’t like before.
Got to go, heading to Winterfest in Indianapolis…Cheers!
If one examines what is currently considered to be hoppy beer through a critical eye, one rapidly discovers that most, if not all of the hop additions are made late in the boil, during whirlpooling, or added after fermentation is complete; hence, the beer is not as bitter as it is hop flavored. In fact, most of the trendy hoppy beers have a hoppy sweetness to their profiles that screams “fake.” The use of extreme late hopping preserves the sweetness that Americans in general prefer. Americans are raised on a diet that contains large amounts of table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup in addition to the natural hard-wiring to prefer sweet foods and drinks over bitter foods and drinks.
Jeffry Steingarden, (not sure of the spelling), a food writer and American Iron Chef judge says in one of his books that if you try something that you don’t like three times you’ll start liking it.
I have no idea if that’s actually the case as I don’t go back after the first taste of anything that I don’t like.
I generally agree. Hippy does not = bitter. I’m moving towards beers that have a distinct bittering but little hop flavor. I find them more refreshing and quaffable. I still like a hoppy beer with lots of hop aroma but generally one in a session.
I think hoppy beers take some getting used to for a lot of beer drinkers. I like beers that have appropriate but not excessive bitterness, but I do love hop flavor and aroma. A pils , pale ale, or IPA with great hop aroma reels me in every time - I’m a huge hop aroma fan. After all, smell correlates directly with taste.
I don’t know about three times, but this happened for me with salmon. I hated it but kept trying it when it was offered. One day I liked it and now eat it once a month. Same goes for avocado.
For those of us around before the craft beer revolution (not that I was ;)) think about your own taste in beer. I know I was drinking Bud and feeling superior to the Lite drinkers back in the 70s and early 80s. But if someone came along and handed me a Pliney the Elder or a Heady Topper then, I probably would have made a face and spit it right out. But that’s not how it happened. First, we found Bass Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sam Adams Boston Lager. Those beers changed our tastes gradually, prepared out palates for Anchor Steam and Harpoon IPA.
Fast forward to 2015 and it’s the same thing now with our BMC friends, you wouldn’t give them a pint of Russian Imperial Stout and expect them to love it. You give them a kolsch or a cream ale and bring them along slowly. If they’re open minded and willing, you entice them with an Irish Red or a Nut Brown ale. And you probably shouldn’t ask them if they’ve been living under a rock for the past thirty years. 
Obviously, I agree with the author. If a beer drinker is adventurous, or at least has an open mind, their palates will change. But they might need 20 or 30 years of gradual change like those of us who were there at the beginning had. Maybe not that long, but, It’ll take some time.
Totally agree.
+1 to bass being a gateway beer. I bet I drank 3000 bass from 1989-1999.
I was setting at a bar circa 74-75. A guy I knew called big Al was tired of Rolling Rock, and said John and I should join him in drinking a Balantine IPA. I had never tasted anything like it! Big hop aroma , bitter, 6.5-7%. You could say I jumped right in the deep end.
Concur!
I would agree, especially the part about being adventurous and having an open mind.
Why else would anyone try something called a sour beer! Let alone enjoy them.
I remember SNPA as the first hoppy beer I tried. Prior to that beer it was often dusty imports and Urquell was my favorite of the hoppy imports, but its freshness was spotty. But the first Sierra pale ale I tried was fresh and, though not hoppy by today’s standards, the Cascade aroma jumped out of the glass and I was hooked. I’d never had a beer with what we know as American hop character before and, in the next few years, I probably bought enough Sierra and Anchor Liberty (and others) to float a ship.
How could you not like salmon? Oh yeh: Steve in TX. 
I must admit that my son-in-law fishes a lot and fresh caught salmon is probably nothing like what gets shipped to TX.
Also a lot of people don’t know about a strain of salmon (can’t remember the name) that stays in fresh water it’s whole life and is fantastic.
Sam Adams was my first. And like any first love, it still holds a place in my heart. SNPA was probably the first American style hoppy beer, but it didn’t appear around here until much later. Bass Ale was the beer that opened up my eyes and made me think that there was more to beer than BMC or, like you say, dusty imports.
We got SN beers first, then Sam not too long after. I have a soft spot for SA too. I still like Boston Lager. Drank a ton back then. I remember being excited when I found the freshest stuff (by their freshness dating) - they were the first (or among the first) to do that, at least in beers that showed up here back then.