Good you like them. I hated beer in college, because all I knew was BudMilloors. My buddy and I decided we would try to learn to like beer, because we were sick of bars watering down drinks. Depending on the bartender, we'd never know what we were buying. But, they couldn't put water in a bottle of beer. So we made up our minds to drink nothing but Bud Dry. haha. Then I had a neighbor who brewed his own beer a couple of times, right there in the dorms on a dry campus in a dry city. I tried some and it was actually pretty good. If we fast forward about six years, when I was getting married and we were shopping for things to put on our gift registry at Dillard's, they had a big display for a Mr. Beer beer making kit. Just to be funny, I scanned it onto the list. A girl from my high school, whom I didn't even really know but who had attached herself to my wife and me for some reason and we felt like we had to invite to the wedding, ended up buying the Mr. Beer kit for me. I couldn't put it to waste and decided to give it a try. I'm the kind of personality that if I do something, I go full bore into it; so, I started researching how to make beer. Part of that research, of course, was trying new beer styles. I started back in 2000, and let's just say I've done a lot of "research to improve my craft." I came to respect beer as a good drink, not as a means of getting smashed, and I continue to try as many new beers as I can. Since New Mexico is somewhat limited in what can be sold due to its franchise laws, whenever I travel (which can be quite pretty extensive at times, though the past few years have been dry with opex pressures for my company) I make it a point to find a good beer store and pick up a couple bottles I've read about but can't find in NM.
So, glad to hear you like the recommendations. The American craft beer industry, mostly as a result in the boom in home brewing during the '90's-'00's and the work of the AHA, has really taken off as people read about the history of brewing in America and continue to work to overcome the ravages of Prohibition. And other countries are upping their games as well, largely in response to the creativity and risk taking they see happening in small-brewery America.
