An emerging trend amongst my nerdy cohorts is a love of unique and craft beers. I met a friend of mine, James, at The House of Beer in Orlando, Florida for a couple of beers one afternoon, and that was all it took. I had coffee stout and James did too. I wasn't much of a coffee drinker at the time, but the beer was amazing, poured expertly into a tall glass. We browsed the menu looking at the strange and exotic new beers to try, we talked about life, love, and video games while getting buzzed in the cool Florida night.

Ever since then I have a hard time enjoying anything from the big breweries, Bud anything, Coors, Miller, etc, it’s all the same. The micro-brews, the really funky ones, pique my interest. I've tried everything I can get my hands on. I love local beers. James’ dad brews beer in his garage (I've never had any, but I would love to. I love Florida beers. I like drinking them in special glasses made to sniff the aroma and open the flavors. I love tearing apart the different levels of flavor before I look at that bottle or can and see what’s inside. My love of beer is one I share with a timeless sect of nerds. I would go as far as saying the founding fathers started this tradition of nerd beer loving. There was a brewery down the road from the building the constitution was written in and they drank a lot of beer. I cherish the thought of my father and his friends sitting around a card table throwing twenty sided die and drinking beers they pilfered from their fathers. I sit in my den, cold beer in hand, playing games with friends of mine and the cycle continues.

A favorite beer of mine is Shock-Top. While it is brewed by a major brewery, it’s available and relatively inexpensive without any of that bland grandpa’s beer taste, so it is my go-to. A recently acquired love of mine is Devil’s Tramping Ground Tripel brewed by Aviator Brewing Company in North Carolina. The convenience store down the road from my house was recently purchased by an independent owner (now called ‘Quik Mart’) and he brought in some of the most unique beers I have ever seen. I’ve tried beers from China I bought there. The bottle is shaped like Buddha, it’s a pretty plain tasting beer, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the green, almost jade colored, bottle. I found Devil’s Tramping Ground there, and another beer by the same company called Mad Beach, an American wheat ale, with a light citrus flavor and mild taste of coriander. Last night I had a beer called Killer Whale. The brewery called it a Cream Ale; it tasted like beer in between a Budweiser and Bud-light and almost completely flat, I don’t think I will get it again, but the point is I tried it.

Beers are graded on five points generally: appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel, and overall awesomeness.

Appearance is very important, if it looks good it’s going to taste good. Our minds are wired to enjoy things we find aesthetically pleasing. A good looking beer has the correct color. The head, or foam at the top of the glass, is a part of appearance. A thick head of foam that leaves “lace” or bits of foam on the side of the glass is generally sought after.
Smell is the first step in tasting anything and is therefore very important to a beer nerd. Common beer scents are hops, a grassy and/or peppery smell, and malts, sometimes chocolaty, sometimes earth smells.
The reason a nerd becomes a beer nerd, Taste. There are no strict guidelines for judging taste outside of the beer tasting how it is supposed to taste. Some breweries have different levels of ingredients in mind, say three times the amount of hops as their normal beer, and that may overpower the unexpected pallet.
Mouthfeel is an often overlooked sense when drinking anything. It is the feel the liquid has inside of your mouth. Is the beer very thick? Is it light and watery? If you swish the beer does it flow freely or have some resistance? How about carbonation? Is the beer flat? Or does it have so many bubbles it overwhelms the mouth?
Lastly, the overall score. These four attributes make up a work of art, and while they can be viewed separately, they should be regarded as a whole. So while a beer may have little carbonation, the aroma and the appearance could be the most fantastic pairing with that low carbonation making it one of your favorite beers.

There are beers for all walks of nerd life. Whether you wear a fedora, or are the broniest nerd, a cool nerd or a lame nerd, alphas or betas, neck-beard or lumberjack there’s a beer for you. The Fedora gent may prefer a traditional lager, while the brony would shoot for something crisp and fruity. The alpha would have something impressive and the beta would have what she’s having. The cool nerd would look outside the box, and the lame nerd would try what the cool one was trying. The neck-beard loves IPA’s and the lumberjack drinks the strongest beers around. A lager is a standard beer: yeast, hops, water, and barley. Bubbly, crisp, cool, and satisfying to most of the American pallet. The fruity choice of the brony would be a sweet shandy, a beer mixed with a sweet soda or lemonade. The alpha would order something impressive like a Guinness in an over-sized glass, a thick beer with chocolate malt and full beer flavor. The beta would have an appletini and talk about “o.m.g. how tasty” it is. The cool nerd orders the coffee stout, a beer like Guinness brewed with coffee, and the lame one follows suite. The IPA (India Pale Ale) is a beer with a robust flavor of hops, a pale complexion, and a grassy aroma much like the neck-beard. The lumberjack would order a cask of whiskey and flapjacks as far as the eye can see. Then they would sit around a table, drink their beers, and make fun of each other until they ran out of money.

A new generation of beer lover is emerging, with tastes and interests that have never been explored before. Our ability to communicate what we what, how we want it, and how we make it, has never been easier. It is a glorious time to be a beer nerd.