Well, I always found it is good to know what to expect before drinking any reasonably complex drink neat. If you don't know the coordinates so to speak you are in left field. In beer, the key to it is a sweet cereal taste counterbalanced by a bitter flavor from hops and often the hop aroma (flowery, earthy, citric). So it is like Ovaltine, say, or Postum, if anyone here remembers that outside of the Squire, Savannah Mike and some other oldsters.
The bitter off-sets the sweet, same thing really in Dr. Pepper except no alcohol. Root beer is similar. Sarsparilla. Et seq.
Depends too on the style of beer. It is a pity really to have to learn the palate by brute force/repetition although many do...
As to bourbon, it should taste to a good degree of wood, a tannic leathery woody taste (leather is tanned - tannins - tannin is from oak). But also a touch of smokiness because bourbon barrels are fired black inside. Finally, you want a certain chemical note which are the by-products of distilling grains. Some bourbon, especially if not too old, can taste of corn oil, Mazola-like, because corn is the major ingredient and the oils vaporize out from the still with the alcohol.
Now try it.
Gary