On the evolution of taste

I wrote the last post and still had more to say, so here's another.  You'll have to pardon the pondering pontification I partake in periodically as I just enjoy talking beer.  And sometimes pretending to be an english major. 
Anyway, as a beer drinker moves from the college days into later life and higher categories (see the last post if you don't understand), their tastes and pallet have to evolve.  I mean, you could try to jump from drinking only Coors to something like Oaked Arrogant Bastard, but you might not enjoy it.  You also might die, because that's a hardcore beer that will beat your taste buds into submission.  A much more common transition is toeing the water a bit, trying things like Fat Tire and Blue Moon and easing into it.

It takes a while to really understand what you like.  With what's available now, you may never be able to fully explore the beer options out there.  That being said I'll try to break down the typical progression.  Note, these don't correlate with the age you should be while you're drinking them.  Don't give toddlers beer:

• Infancy - No idea what you like, so you usually just stick with Bud, Miller, or Coors.
• Toddler - Starting to notice others out there and try some of the standards (Boston Lager, Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada Pale, etc.). 
• School age - Discovering local breweries and bigger craft breweries that distribute in your area.  Starting to understand styles and tastes.  Also testing your boundaries and possibly turning yourself off to things by trying them too early.
• Teenage - A good grasp on the standard styles and breweries, you go out of your way to try new styles and continue your education.
• College age - Where many people get stuck on a single style or aspect.  Hops, malts, whatever.  Some get out, some don't.
• Adulthood - You know beer.  You know what you like, what you don't, and why.  The education never ceases, but you're officially a beer snob.
• Old age - You like beer so much that you start making your own. 

Obviously some people make it all the way to old age, others get stuck at various points.  I suppose you could skip steps, but I don't know how well it'd work out.  I'd like to focus a bit on the college age, specifically on the hop kick that many people go on.  I'm in the midst of it right now.  I love IPAs, ESBs, Pales, etc.  I just can't get enough.  If you look at some breweries *COUGH*stone*COUGH* it seems that they never got out of that phase.  Not a bad thing by any means, it just pigeon holes them a bit, but who am I to complain.  All that being said I believe it is an imperative part of the evolution of a beer drinker.  If you don't go hop crazy for a bit, you're not quite there.

And now a little background on my own edification.  The first beer I ever had (barring small sips of my dad's or whatnot) was an ODell Easy Street Wheat.  I was not a fan.  I followed it with a Coors Light, which I didn't love, but was better at the time.  I was lucky enough to have New Belgium close by, so I developed a taste early for their beers and styles.  I also did my damndest to try new beers through college, but I definitely bit off more than I could chew and ended up with a fridge full of old beer that I never got around to drinking.  Rookie mistake.  I moved to Iowa for a year and drank a bunch of light beer, then moved back to Colorado and have been evolving since.  As I said, I'm in the midst of a hopathon, but I'm also getting into homebrewing, so I'm straddling adulthood with a foot in college and one in old age.

Well I think that about beats that topic to death, so I'm out.  Until next time, bottoms up.