All the beers I mentioned taste like beers. They're all malt, yeast, water, and hops. Yeah, they might throw some other stuff in. But it's all done by people who are enthusiastic about drinking and brewing beer. Had no one bothered to tip sour cherries into lambic, we'd not have some of the fabulous tart krieks. Someone at some point had to decide to start throwing hops into the mix. I expect there were anti-hop purists. Sours, lambics, saisons, etc. are now readily available. Compared to how grim the UK beer situation used to be, it's heaven. Just strolling through a market in Sheffield the other day and hey, look, a beer stall. Hundreds of different beers. It's possible to walk into a small brewery tap room and drink a half-dozen different styles, from basic pales through to funky sours. Good god, you can even get a pint of mild again. My grand-dad is probably clawing his way out of his grave right now.
What makes me a bit sad is watching people chug the nasties like Stella, which tastes pretty much like I'd expect toilet cleaner to taste like, or Carling/Fosters, which taste like nothing. Or those nasty sweet cider concoctions. I like the occasional pint of cider. I had a sip of Magners the other day. O jaysus. Other than a too vivid flashback to drinking two litre bottles of Woodpeckers behind the garages as a youth misspending his time, that was horrid. And people who think Guinness is a nice stout. I think they're just serving the water they've washed out the beer garden ashtrays in. A stout is supposed to have some body to it, Guinness just tastes like water with nasty bitter, burnt edge. No comparison to a pint of cherry-tinged breakfast stout.