Jamie Bogner
I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE. I love to drink new beers. Lots of them. I try dozens and dozens per week. And I keep track of them all on Untappd. Over the past 3 months, 70 percent of the beer I’ve drunk is “new” beers.
That may be anathema to a certain community of curmudgeonly brewers who decry the culture of exploration and adventure afoot in craft beer. “It’s okay to drink a beer more than once,” they say. “You can’t really understand a beer if you just take a taste.”
There’s an element of truth there, and this is where the second point of the confession comes in—i also drink a lot of the same beer over and over. I mean a lot. As in, if you were to check Untappd. com, you’d find me in the number one spot of all time for check-ins to some of my favorite beers (Weldwerks Juicy Bits, for example). As much as I love exploration, I also love my favorite beers over and over again. I don’t find these things mutually exclusive, and from my anecdotal observation of beer enthusiast friends, I think the same behavior is more common than some like to think—the parallel drives of exploration of new beers and consistent enjoyment of the beers we know we love exist in an unresolved tension. Both are important, both are valuable, and neither will ultimately win out over the other. On one hand is the inspiration of novelty and the new, on the other hand is the beauty of familiarity and nuance.
That flies in the face of the easy narrative—“beer drinkers have no loyalty, beer drinkers are all one-and-done.” But even the most fickle beer drinkers I know don’t operate that way. All still have favorites and go-tos. Whether it’s Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Live Oak Hefeweizen or Saison Dupont or even Juicy Bits, we all eventually go back to the things we love—the things that had a formative effect on who we are as beer drinkers and brewers. There’s comfort and satisfaction in that familiarity, and no matter how devoted we are to exploration, we never turn down a can or glass of that beer that played such a part in our own personal beer evolution.
Whether you’re a committed explorer or a devotee to consistency (or both), we hope you enjoy this dive into the world of light ales and dark lagers...because we made it for you. Cofounder & Editorial Director Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® @rckstdy on Untappd