Before craft beer drinkers became craft beer drinkers, we started with the same generic American fizz water as everyone else. We all had that revelation at one point or another, though, that there is something else out there-- that beer can taste good and doesn't just have to get you drunk. There are a lot of misconceptions that one may encounter on the way toward beer geekdom. Below are just some of the common misconceptions people have about beer.Darker beer is always heavier.

When people think of Guinness or other stouts, they instantly think of a disgusting mess of a drink that's thick, syrupy and undrinkable. "Only lighter-colored beers can be enjoyed," they think. As someone who's tried heavier light ale, let me tell you: This couldn't be further from the truth. Compared to a light barley wine, Guinness Draught seems thin and watery with hardly any sweetness but instead some great roasted characteristics.

Color does not affect the thickness of the beer; unfermented sugar does. Whenever a beer is brewed, the yeast never fully eats all the sugar, because some of it is too complex for the yeast to consume. This sugar remains and produces a lot of enjoyable flavors that give each beer its set of unique characteristics. This contributes not only to flavor but also to the mouthfeel, which makes us determine whether a beer is thick or thin. You shouldn't just dumb this fact down to claiming that all dark beers are heavy, since each drink has its own style and flavor.

Slices of citrus improve a beer.

Nothing drives me crazier than being served a good cerveza at a Mexican restaurant (I recommend Negro Modelo, a nice dark-amber-colored lager) and having a lime stuffed in the bottle. On those same lines, seeing friends ordering a Blue Moon (a white ale brewed by Coors) complete with a large slice of orange floating on top is equally aggravating. I will admit, some of my pet peevery is unfounded and snobbish. But I find beer to be quite sacred and think additives disturb which with we shouldn't tamper.

But to some scientific standpoint, my concerns are true. Acid cuts through the carbonation of a beer, and that frothy head is something that is part of the quality of the drink. It unleashes the flavors of the drink to be enjoyed, and the citrus stops that from happening.

It should be mentioned that many great beers are brewed with fruit and other additives. In Germany, many enjoy a refreshing mix of lemonade and beer. This is known as a radler and has been consumed for centuries. However, the Americanized citrus- slice version is quite new, and in my opinion, should be frowned upon in the sacred World of Beer.

Wine pairs better than beer with food, especially cheese.

I'm currently reading The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery. In the book, he discusses how to best pair food and beer together, and he sells the fact that beer might just be a better beverage to pair with a meal than wine. He writes that due to the fact that beer has both sweet, malty notes and bitter hoppiness with a backbone of carbonation, one can find a way to match almost any food to it. Wine has a lot of different flavors, too, but that are very one-sided and can't really fulfill many different types of cuisine. Any spicy food, for example, cannot pair with a wine-the flavors just don't match. Beer, on the other hand, has carbonation which helps clear some of the heat from the mouth. This isn't the only example; the most groundbreaking area is in cheese, a traditional companion to wine.

I personally often get laughed at when I tell people that beer pairs better with cheese than wine does. To explain this, think about where beer and cheese come from. Beer is brewed from grain, and cheese comes from milk, which is derived from the grain that an animal consumes. Wine itself is derived from grapes, with no real attachment to anything that an animal would consume to make its milk. Also, wine and cheese are both acidic, so often the flavors collide with each other in the wrong way. Beer, when paired with the right cheeses, does not have this problem. I'm not saying that your wine and cheese party is completely hopeless, but beer can bring new life to these gatherings.

These are just some of the things I've learned over my year of being legally allowed to drink beer. The best way to learn is to order a glass at a craft beer bar and talk up the knowledgeable people around you. In the coming weeks, I hope to review more places where you can find such beer and knowledge.