What beer got you into craft beer?

Chimay Blue

 

Dales Pale

 

Can't tell I'm from Wisconsin at all... Spotted Cow and Sprecher Special Amber

 

Growing up in Schuylkill Co., PA there was only Yuengling.

 

Pete's Wicked Ale

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Porter, and Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald

 

Sierra Nevada, Smuttynose, Brooklyn, and Sam Adams (my first love).

 

My trail started with Pete's, Henry Weinhard and maybe Smithwicks and then at a party I had a SNPA and I've been chasing the dragon ever since

 

Very similar to me, except I was down for hash bash in Ann Arbor and some friends of mine turned me on to it. Must have been 1995 or so? I had it in 22ozers with crooked labels for $5, which was a lot then. Back then I think the taste vasried from batch to batch. Also tons of sediment on the bottom. (....not that there is anything wrong with that...)

 

I was at a local restaurant and brewery, I tried their house IPA titled "Big Red". Assertively hoppy, piny, boasting a bold citrus hop flavor and aroma. Reminiscent of grapefruit.

Before that, I didn't drink beer for the taste. Like many of us started, I drank mass production corn and rice lager.

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

 

Blue Moon and Sam Adams

 

Weihenstephaner Hefe or SN Pale Ale if talking about US brews.

 

Michelob Dark and San Miquel Dark in the 80's

 

Bell's Black Note at the Porter Beer Bar in Little 5 Points in Atlanta, GA then I realized beer could have flavor!

 

Pete's Wicked Ale, Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve, and Widmer Hefeweizen, all in the late 90's. Actually, I should say they got me into beer period, since I started drinking those when I turned 21 - I never had a lager phase. A couple of years later I really got into bottle-conditioned Bridgeport IPA (~1999-2000), and I basically only drank that for 2 years. There wasn't a huge IPA selection back then.

 

Stone's Arrogant Bastard

 

I used to live down the street from a Thirsty Dog brewpub in Centerville, OH. Before Thirsty Dog closed the all/they burned down. Can't point to any one offering that converted me, but the lineup as a whole let me know there was this thing called "craft beer."

 

Trying my first Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was a revelation. But I didn't really get into craft until I went to the Bahamas, had a Kalik, decided that I would start collecting beer bottle caps and inevitably got into craft beers since there were so many of them I could drink and collect their beer bottle caps. And then I got hooked on the beer itself and the cap collection took a back seat. I still collect them (I have around 500 since I started back in 2011).

 

Probably the 80's, Anchor Steam when I could find and afford it. Later on it was Sam Adams..