Well, yes, actually. I can catch similarities with similar breweries' beers, I can pick out the nuances of British malts, and I welcome them like an old friend. Like an old girlfriend. Two years later I moved back east, saw her at a party, and I've honestly never thought about another woman since. Love at second sight.
Good beers can be a lot like old friends.
You like them a lot, but some times you don't see them as often as you should. Still, when you do get around to visiting them again, they quickly remind you of why you liked them so much in the first place. Having tasted almost 2400 different beers at this point, it's quite impossible for me to visit all of them on a regular basis without turning my liver into a pickle. Tonight however, I'm dropping in on my old buddy Sam Smith. The beer has very few positive characteristics to make up for its shortcomings.