if you are among those who cant understand the crazy love your peers have for beer you are not alone and this brings us to the question with so many beer lovers out there what makes some people gag at the thought of sipping it well like most other things this preference is linked to our genes they decide how we process bitter tasting things along with cold beverages interestingly it is said that for some people tasting bitter beer activates the evolutionary wiring that is meant to keep us away from potentially dangerous and poisonous food and drinks and for many this trigger is stronger these are the people who cant stand the bitterness of beer the reason some people like the taste of beer is because they have singular tastes and their taste buds are opposing their evolutionary instincts these bitter taste receptors evolved for human safety wherein they can tell by taste whether a food or drink is dangerous for them going back to basics our taste buds have five taste cells and they can perceive salty sweet sour savory and bitter tastes once the taste bud identifies the type it sends signals to the brain while there are only two receptors in the human body to identify salty foods there are 25 to recognise the bitter taste moreover it is not the bitter receptor alone that makes you cringe at the taste of beer the carbonation present in beer also affects our cold receptors which have genetic variations too they view cold and bitter combination as unappealing