Do you remember what got you into craft beer?

Blue Moon > Shock Top > Hoegarden

 

When I first started drinking at age 20, I lived in the Raleigh, NC area. When I turned 21, I would go up to the nearest World Market and just get mixed six packs of whatever to try everything. That is how I first had Terrapin Rye, Victory Golden Monkey, Avery White Rascal, and Dogfish Head 60 Min. Those, along with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale got me very interested in beer. And it has been a glorious and delicious road from there.

 

Before getting into craft beer, I was never really a fan of normal BMC beers. Or necessarily beer in general. At clubs/bars/parties I would always go for Boston Lager, Pete's Wicked, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Guinness... anything different just to try it. The first beer that I really remember liking a lot was called Munich Dark. I don't remember who made it, just that it had a cool German iron eagle design on the label. The beers that really kicked me in the ass and firmly planted my feet on the craft beer path were Stone Old Guardian and Imperial Russian Stout. Before those, I never knew how amazing and different beer could be. I will forever be a fan of Stone for that revelation.

 

Grad school. Every Thursday we had 3 kegs at 4pm until they kicked. It was a dry campus but we had an exception as a "professional" program. 2 Miller Lite kegs always surrounded. Got tired of waiting in line one day and thought I'd go to the lonely keg in the back. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Never looked back since.

 

I guess Sierra Nevada was my first experience into "craft beer" but I always attribute Delirium Tremens since it seemed so exotic at the time.

 

Actually when I was like 15 I tried a SNPA and I remember being disgusted by it. That actually kept me from drinking anything that I thought had flavor in it for a while. Flash foward 16 years and now I love SNPA.

Stone Ruination is the one that got me hooked though.

I live in southern cali so stone is prominent at every restaurant, every liquor store, every gas station, every party....

 

In college when I had the money I ponied up for Leinie's Red otherwise I was staying with natural ice, red dog etc. But the beers that really started me on this path were Blue Moon and Hoegaarden. I find it interesting that for so many it's some type of wheat beer that served at the "gateway" beer.

 

College in the mid 80s in Northern California. Went on a beer run. I was eyeing the Lucky Lager on sale, buddy wanted to try this new beer out of this really small brewery in Chico. Tried to talk him out of it. Failed. Synthesis.

 

Sam Adams, and then NG Spotted Cow (it's now pretty much the only NG I don't like haha). I got on IPA's for a while without venturing too far into other styles, then I had an Old Rasputin and that was the start of a full blown beer obsession.

 

I used to drink wine coolers back in the day and corona if there was a lime in it. Then at a party, someone had a six pack of killians. I know what you're thinking. How is that good beer? I don't know how good it was but the next time I was asked what kind of beer do you want; instead of saying "whatever" becuase who really cares, I actually asked "what do you have?" I started to try things I hadn't had before, the beer I thought might be the "good beer." And it's all because if killians irish red.

 

excluding imports (in which case it would be Guinness or Bass or Becks or Fullers ESB or Carlsberg Elephant beer) it would have been Red Hook ESB, in '88 or '89... at the Cherry Cricket in Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood, on its third owner since then but still cranking. In fact doing better than ever, that bar, though like Yogi Berra said, nobody goes there anymore, it's always too crowded.

 

A mix of Blue Moon, Edmund Fitzgerald, and La Fin Fu Monde. Haven't had a Blue Moon in years, but the other two I still regularly have.

 

Sam Adams Boston Lager. I was 17 and started working in a local beer retailer in July 1994. It helped that a guy who started working there shortly after me was a homebrewer and really into beer. He got me into the good stuff. He's currently working as a brewer for Foorhills in NC. Haven't looked back since.

 

Zombie Dust

 

Mine was GI 312. In college we always hit them up at the pool hall on Thursdays for 2$, then Moose Drool, then homebrews.

 

I was lucky enough to have a dad who drank Sam Adams, Bass, and Yuengling. We never ever had BMC in the house, so my baseline for beer was pretty high compared to a lot of my peers. In college, I tried Magic Hat #9 and liked it. The day I turned 21, I went and had lunch at the brewpub in my college town (Harvest Moon in New Brunswick, NJ) and enjoyed their pale ale. That night, I went to the store and built a few mixed sixers with a bunch of DFH, Victory, and Smuttynose stuff. The rest is history.

 

I just kept trying different beers everytime i went into the store. That lead me to drinking craft beer. I didn't kmow it was "craft beer" until someone told me it was. I just kept drinking them because they were way better than BMC. Then i tried kentucky bourbon barrel ale and i thought it was the best beer ever (now my favorite is rochefort 10). Now all i drink is craft beer and i love it!

 

zima > nattie light > honey brown > killians > SNPA > GL burning river > GL xmas ale > spaten optimator

Then for some reason I remember vividly buying a 6 pack of unibroue trois pistoles... I think we bought it because the label looked cool and it was a whopping 9%. I don't think we really liked it... but I call that the true tipping point of my craft beer journey... Mind you this was around 1997. I never did buy BMC beers. But I can remeber buying quarts (yeah 32oz bottles) of nattie light at the local stop-n-go for $0.79. 3 of those and I was set.

 

I was hanging around some guys in high school that loved their 40oz buds. SCUDS they called them. they would beat on each other, vandalize anything and race their cars all hopped up on SCUDS. I knew right then and there that I didn't want to act like that and I associated that type of behavior with BMC. So I found Sam Adams and Bass/ Guiness/ Harp. So I tried them and liked them and never stopped trying new beer. Ultimately I found German beers then Belgians then the whole craft beer scene started to explode. Then it was beer dinners @ myplace restaurant in Newtown with Sam C from dogfish head doing his best woodie guthie imitation. warsaw porters, all sorts of verticle and head to head tastings + beer bus trips to syracuse, baltimore, motreal and even Belgium ( I missed that one). and the rest , as they say history.

 

Not liking the taste of crappy beer that my friends got in High School, notably, MGD

Bass Ale was probably the beer that got me into trying new stuff.