I never got into it and I feel like I'm missing a huge social part of my life. I've tried alcohol and it just tastes bad. Maybe if I had enough to get inebriated I'd feel different, but so far nothing about the experience of drinking has been good. Also I grew up around Baptists who don't have drinking in the culture, so maybe that's part of it? My parents never had alcohol in the house and there was never beer/wine at family gatherings. I never even saw a full glass of beer in person until I was like 23.
Bars are too loud and there's too much expectation to drink, parties have the same problem, drinking at home alone sounds sad. I go to concerts and I'm the only person without a huge glass of beer. People hand me drinks and I'm like "nah" and they get mega confused.
What do I do
Is this the opposite of a problem?
Alcohol can absolutely taste good. However, it takes time to figure out what you like and the good stuff is often quite expensive or takes skill to mix (cocktails). If you don't want to spend time and money figuring out what you like to drink that's totally fine. I might have one drink every three months these days. A lot of people need alcohol as a social lubricant to get over their anxieties and talk to people at parties. If you don't then that's cool too! To paper over awkwardness it's good to stand around with a beverage in your hand anyway, like a fizzy water.
The one time I think I was actually intoxicated I just started crying at people and saying open personal stuff about my family abusing me, stuff I wouldn't normally say but normally I don't say anything to anyone at parties. It wasn't a good time. I don't think I'm the fun sort of drunk.
You can realize pleasant effects of alcohol without being drunk. I haven't been proper drunk in probably a decade now. Most people past 30 at social gatherings just have 1-2 drinks. It's really only college-age people that have this myopic focus on drinking to get drunk.