Growing up, I ventured to many different amusement parks. Each park usually boasted its newest, fastest, and most vomit-inducing rollercoaster. Fearless young scamp that I was, I was always looking forward to the challenge ahead- assuming they would let me on the damn thing, damn the posted height requirements. It might just be a macho thing, I can't really be sure, but I never lost my lunch and I rode every rollercoaster in my way. As an adult, I have taken the same approach to drinking.

There has never been a cocktail too scary, nor beer too hoppy, to drink. Challenges of funnels, shotguns, case races, and everything else you can image, I have risen to the challenge. I haven’t always been successful and I have ended up praying to the porcelain g-d on more than one occasion, but it was all part of becoming a self-proclaimed professional drinker. My college years were about finding my limits, testing them, and learning along the way. I have developed quite an appetite for many different forms of alcohol, and I have honed my drinking craft. I soon neared the point where I eventually entered a state of semi-retirement.

I realized that I have a wealth of drinking knowledge and that it is enjoyable to pass on this prudence to those not-so-experienced imbibers of alcohol, that we affectionately refer to as "beer newbs" around here. One of the missions of this website is to help these newbs break free from their comfort zones into a world of new and magical beerdom and alcoholness. The prospect of walking into a bar or your local supermarket and spending your hard earned money on some product that you have never tested before makes some people apprehensive. It is our job here at BN to expose the breadth of beer culture without the pretentious know-it-all-ism that stems from your common, snooty beer snobs.

In my personal experience I always tend to order the unfamiliar, which has not only allowed me to find new products that I enjoy, but also to understand what I don't find palatable as well. It is only through experimentation and experience that you can truly know what you like (which is true for more than just beer by the way). Personally, I am no exhausted guru, and I have been humbled and stumped on occasion, but that is okay. As we all do, I still have much to learn along the travels of life, but one must possess the fortitude and spirit to expand your horizons. It is the mystery of the unknown that both simultaneously scares and sparks our collective inquisitive nature. Remember the next time you sit down with a cool one, that drinking is supposed to be about having fun and good times, so raise a pint glass and enjoy.

Cheers,
Beer Snob