Taste of beer causes chemical reward.

I read the article about this subject. My father was a brewer, and said that the hop resin in beer has a similar effect to opium. Perhaps this causes the noted reward effect? John Skinner.

This doesn't seem surprising. If someone has enjoyed drinking before then tasting it will begin to elicit a response in the brain as it "remembers" the last time[s]. I wonder if you did this study with people who had never drank before in their lives if you would see the same difference between the sports drink and beer, my guess is there would be no difference and neither would cause dopamine release.

Does the same thing happen with someone that strongly dislikes the taste of beer?

I wondered that myself. It's not immediately clear, to a layman, what the practical difference is between "the taste of beer releases a pleasure-response chemical" and "the subject likes the taste of beer".

The abstract of the study indicated that the subjects "rang[ed] from social to heavy drink[ers]." My guess is the scientists picked only those who actually liked beer somewhat and didn't select those who dislike beer.

Hm. That could be a significant flaw, though one can see some logistical difficulty in redressing it.

Sometime down the line I imagine someone would test how beer affects those who dislike it.

I'm actually more interested to know if it is the beer flavor itself, the ethanol in the beer, or even both together that stimulates the release of dopamine.