Confessions of a beer "dweeb"

Ok, I like to drink beer.  Anyone who knows me knows I will, from time to time, imbibe.  When I first started to drink any serious beer I was a freshman at college, which was perhaps behind the curve when compared to my peers.  I usually drank beer at the keggers and rarely drank whiskey or other "hard liquor" with the exception of "Punch" with everclear and God knows what else.  As not particularly wealthy college students, the beer was almost always cheap. Heineken or Warsteiner were reserved for the formal dinners at the fraternity house, which suited me fine.  Even at that early age I preferred the lighter brews to the darker ones with more distinctive flavors.  I didn't really feel any peer pressure to drink heavier beers and craft beers were in their infancy in terms of their current popularity.

So college comes to an end and "real life" begins -- working, marriage, family, settling down. I still like to drink beer but it is mostly reserved for weekends, when work doesn't interfere.  For the most part, I stick to Miller Lite, Coors Light, or Old Milwaukee/other cheap beer.  Skip forward 30 years. 

Social norms change over time, and the younger beer-drinking crowd seems less interested in "dads" beer and more interested in the many craft beers that have exploded onto the scene in recent years.  You may have run into this guy, the guy who REALLY knows all these beers and can describe the differences.  A beer "connoisseur", beer "snob", whatever word you like.  This guy was indeed rare in my formative beer drinking days in the Midwest.  He isn't so rare anymore, as I have found out.  Compared to this guy, I am a beer "ignoramus" or beer "dweeb".  Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with beer snobbery.  I am glad there is something out there for everyone, its the free market at its best.  I just ain't that guy.  This past weekend I was invited to a party with a beer and boardgame theme.  In attendance was an old friend and his son and son's friends, so most were in their twenties, and college-educated.  Upon arrival, I find that there is a LOT of beer.  Many different kinds of beer.  Curiously, there is NO Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors, Bud, or any other "popular" beers that would be there were I to be throwing a get-together.  It was a little bit of shock to the system, to realize just how far out of the loop my beer dweebness was from the younger hipper crowd.

Well the games and the company was great, and I was able to sample a few brews I hadn't before, some of which weren't bad at all.  I find that I just don't care for anything citrus-y or dark.  It's just that, after so many years of common lagers, I have developed a comfort level with "dads" beer.  So I am the beer dweeb.  Thirty years ago the peer pressure would have made me go the way of what was hip.  Today, though, I realize what is hip may not appeal to me.  The music sure doesn't, and the beer doesn't have to either.