whoaru99 said:
No. Why should anyone do that? If they try something and don't like it why try to "learn" to like it?
You've never heard of something being an acquired taste? Hell, even BMC is somewhat of an acquired taste... many, if not most, people don't even really like BMC beer at first taste. And acquiring tastes can be very rewarding, allowing you to appreciate some great stuff you didn't originally care for, and even actually allow you to better appreciate many things you did.
It's no coincidence that most of what are considered to be "the finer things" are also considered to require some effort. And this doesn't only hold for food and drink; it applies equally to things such as art, music, film, etc. (There are certainly reasons for this, but that is another matter completely, on which entire books and scholarly works been written). So by not putting in the effort to acquire some of these tastes, one risks missing out on many of life's greatest pleasures. It's no surprise that the "easy" stuff to like, like chicken fingers and french fries, are often relegated to kids menus... and one who sticks to similarly "easy" tastes essentially has the palate of a child.
And as homebrewers, we actually have the ability to make acquiring certain tastes more easily than others. I originally did not like stouts. I love realky dark chocolate (another acquired taste), but couldn't stand "roasty" beers, to the point that I couldn't even drink an Irish Red... even Smithwick's was too roasty for me! But I wanted to be able to better appreciate beer in its totality, and beers with roasted grains make up a pretty large proportion of that, so I considered it unacceptable. I chose to tackle this in baby steps... I first made a milk stout with chocolate, using only some chocolate malt and debittered carats for getting closer to the roasted character. It was a pretty easy beer to like, and after getting accustomed to it, I could brew (or even buy) a slightly more roasty beer, and after getting accustomed to THAT, repeating the process. It actually didn't take very long at all 'til I was drinking intense imperial stouts and liking them, and I'm VERY glad I put in the necessary effort, especially now that I can truly appreciate what I would have been missing!
I imagine this is a much longer reply than you were counting on, so to sum it up, I would answer your question with another question: why should an adult forgo the chance to be able to appreciate some of life's greatest pleasures just because they don't happen to instantly love something?
brigbrew said:
Just throwing my two cents in here, but having a discerning palate that is appreciative of many styles is kind of the point of being a beer aficionado. Plus, there is such a thing as sub par beer. Those two items mean that it is possible and not elitist for an educated palate to state truthfully that someone's tastes are limited if they only drink crap beer, especially if it's because they haven't tried anything else.
And this, I suppose.