Upgrading Your College Beers

I'm in college now. My first beer was Blue Moon Agave Nectar. Blue Moon and Sam Adams were the gateway to my craft journey. I still like some of SA's offerings, but Blue Moon has completely fallen out of favor with me. I remember ordering a Belgian White at a place with a very poor tap list and thinking "Wow this is really bland" after being into craft for a few months.

 

My boilermakers went from Well and Busch to Jack and Bud. It's good to be makin that sweet post graduate money!

 

It's the path of enlightenment which once taken there is no turning back. Beautiful scenery though.

 

High school was all about the Beast (all variatals), occasionally Old Mil, and one friend with a great fake ID always took our money and order, and came back with Genny Ice.

College was '94-'98 in Buffalo, so there was a lot of Labatt's Blue and to a lesser degree Molson. Koch's Golden Anniversary was the cheapest beer at the college bar, so tons of $3 pitchers. One bar served Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Guinness, so that bar was a treat for special occasions. Periodic trips across the border to pick up the "good stuff" Molson and Labatt's put out in Canada only. My favorite was Molson Brador and Molson Dry. We'd get the super-high ABV stuff, like 5%! Jr and Sr year, a supermarket started stocking a few shelves of single bottle crafts and imports. Every Sunday a few of us would each choose 2 bottles, and share them. Sam's Winter, Redhook ESB and Negro Modelo became my go-to beers.

 

College was keystone light
Now if I'm going for mass quantities it's either coors original or rolling rock. That said, I haven't done that in a while either.

 

I was Natty Light for the party atmosphere and Long Trail IPA for casual drinking.

 

Molson's to Sam Adams

 

I'm still in college and currently enjoying an Arrogant Bastard, so I don't think I need any upgrading.

 

whatever was cheap or free was the main rule in college. And always quantity > quality. Dollar pitcher night with keystone light. Ugh.

 

damn right!

 

High Life to Pete's Wicked Ale and SNPA (10+ years ago)

Who the hell knows what was in the kegs during college...they were free. Now I keg my homebrew....I've come a long way.

 

I didn't start drinking beer much until my last year in school, much more into liquor then. But I guess I started with a lot of Sam Adams seasonal and variety packs. We got the Imperial Series for a bit too.

 

We drank kegs of Shed Mountain Ale and I used to drink Rail City Ale out of St. Albans all through college.

 

I drank many a Sierra Nevada visiting friends at Chico.

 

Living in Athens, GA for 8 years for both school and work, the Terrapin Rye will always fill me with nostalgia. I probably buy a 6 pack a year now, but the memories make it one of my favorite drinking experiences. More than anything, I miss being able to buy it at a bar for $3 or sometimes $2 on Tuesdays. Terrapin Rye will forever taste like college for me.

I also remember the first time I picked up some Bell's Two Hearted. It was my first venture out with a more expensive purchase where I was rewarded handsomely. I had always preferred craft since high school, but could not afford to gamble on buying new-to-me beers on every purchase. After drinking that sixer, I wanted to try everything I could. I think that was the summer before junior year.

I still fondly remember kegs of natty and keystone light. For me, beer is all about the setting. I want different beers based on where I am, who I am with, what I am doing, and what I am eating. I find it sad that I no longer find myself in situations where natty light is the best choice. I will never forget $1 pitchers of natural light. My friends and I would all have our own drinking straight from the pitcher.

Now I wonder how different my college experience would have been with the ever growing Georgia beer scene. Really wish Creature Comforts was around back then.

 

Rolling Rock Ponys to Sam Adams Lager to English beers to ipas to dipas to ba stouts back to Pils/ lagers and AAL. Ive come full circle. I still love great IPAs and dipas but they have to be legit great, I'm kinda over mediocre overly hopped beers.

 

I enjoyed that read. Interesting. My entire family besides my father who drinks craft, they are split. You either drink Blue Moon, or you drink Bud Light. I thank them that they stopped drinking Heineken lol. So i should pick up some Allagash White and see what they think.

At the same time, ive gotten my friends who drink steel reserve to try SNPA which result in me getting made fun of. Lol. And my girlfriend who likes bud light lime but said Otra Vez is the worst beer shes ever had. I agree that this is a good list of upgrades. But as long as the person is open minded. I am happy that my father drinks imports and craft because it gave me the interest to do the same.

Tl;dr

I started with Guinness. It was the first beer i bought of legal age.

I didn't want to be like everyone else i always looked for a new beer to be my own and i never stopped looking so here i am now. I never knew about craft but the desire of wanting new beers instead of the regular BMC, i fell into craft.

 

Graduated from Western Michigan in '91. All the BMC was the same to my buddies and I so we purchased whatever was the cheapest. I don't think we ever paid more than $8 for a case. And if we had enough friends around to purchase a quarter or half barrel, we did that and saved even more money. We had one semester where we found a nearby shop that sold cases of Labatt's 50s for $8. Back then, that was an upgrade. We felt like kings that semester.

Shortly after graduation, I discovered Killian's. That was certainly an upgrade over BMC. Then came Sam Adam's Boston Lager. I was blown away by my first Boston Lager. I would still drink it today if they made it the same way as they did in '94.

 

The same for me. I think Sam Adams was just getting going and I don't know that I ever had one in college. My preferred college beer was Guinness Extra Stout, and I essentially never went to the frat parties where the cheap beer in kegs was served. There was a place near campus that had Watneys on tap for a while, and I enjoyed that a few times with friends, but that place went out of business. I'd occasionally drink a Budweiser or Moosehead for something lighter, but in general, it was Guinness for me, and it wasn't until years later that the opportunities to "upgrade" became frequent.