What was your gateway craft beer?

Harvey's of Lewes. My first trip to England was 1983. Yes. I'm old. I was always disappointed in goofy American beers and their associated advertising. Tried them all. Couldn't really tell any difference although I really tried. Then I tried Harvey's Best Bitters and I was hooked. Got back to Ohio and started brewing my own. Learned a lot about brewing and had to ship ingredients from wherever, but it was worth it.

Then Samuel Smith's started exporting to the USA and I was a Nut Brown Ale nut. Expensive? Yes? Worth it? Yes. Went to Tadcaster to take the tour and check out the slate vats. Then came Bass, Guinness, Old Speckled Hen (From Abingdon), among others from Olde Blighty.

Eventually American beer grew up. Hops were discovered. New hops were developed. Better recipes followed. Good beers and ales became the norm. Still not a fan of fruit infused or other silliness, but a good American IPA can be very tasty and refreshing - almost as good as Harvey's Best Bitters cask ale while sitting in an East Sussex pub.

 

Has to be Brewdog Punk IPA. A revelation after the many disappointments of trying craft beers since the turn of the century. I realised that when the craft brewers started shifting the emphasis from mainstream ales and lagers to more hoppy beers that they were doing things the established brewers could not risk, although many of them are now following the trend. Now my favourite is Lagunitas IPA but there are many really excellent IPAs out there and long may the revolution continue.

 

First beer was Corona with Salt and Lime back in high school parties.

First craft beer for me was Leche Oscura from Smog City; it was a one time brew thing.

 

Chimay Grande Reserve. After drinking that, I knew manufactured beers would never be the same.

 

Harpoon's Raspberry UFO was the first beer I ever drank a whole bottle or pint of.
Sam Adams' Weiss Beer and White Ale were my saviors at beer fests my hubby and I frequented, before I got sick of beer (hadn't found other styles I liked yet) and fests and was about to give up on beer.
Jackie O's Berliner Weiss got me back into beer (and introduced me to the world of sours). <3
Still going to beer fests!

 

When I was in highschool and on the Europe trip, we snuck out to a pub in Germany and I discovered that there was beer that I actually liked and not all beer was that horse piss my friends were buying. But, I had no idea what I'd drank and when I got back to rural Tennessee, my choices were nil in the 1980s. Fast forward to 1994 and I discovered Sam Adams Boston Lager... That was amazing!

 

New Belgium Fat Tire

 

Sam Adams Boston Lager showed me that not all beer was bland, yellow water. Arrogant Bastard, though. THAT blew me away and made me start asking questions about what beer could possibly be.

 

Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro.

I always (and to this day) hated the taste of Bud Light, Coors, etc. In college, before 21, I obviously drank whatever was cheapest and whatever our "buyer" could get for us (usually a 30 of Keystone and maybe a handle of McCormick's or Hawkeye vodka). I would mix the vodka with a bottle of juice or gatorade or whatever I had available and drink the Keystones after that when I didn't care about the flavor anyway. After turning 21, if I was out I would sometimes order beers like Boston Lager, Fat Tire, easy stuff like that as well as whiskey drinks and long island iced teas.

Now here's how I discovered craft. My first job out of college was in the same city I went to school (Ames, Iowa), and one of my friends from engineering also worked there. The company would occasionally do happy hours down the street at this Irish pub called Dublin Bay, and my friend and I started going almost every week on our own. That's where I tried Left Hand's Milk Stout Nitro and loved it. From there I would try other dark beers they had pretty regularly such as Deschutes Obsidian Stout and Black Butte Porter as well as Founders' Porter. Eventually I discovered this site and r/beerporn on reddit and started trading/chasing beers.

 

This is easy. Summit Extra Pale Ale. I believe the year was 1986 or 87 and I was already somewhat of a beer snob and drank imports when they were available. Summit Brewing opened on University Ave in St. Paul and I was pleasantly surprised to find any American beer with flavor. I worked nearby and after work we often went to a little place called Johnny's Bar which was directly across the street from the brewery. I literally watched them roll the kegs across the street more than once.

 

This brings me back to buying single bottles at Piccadilly in Champaign, IL in the late 90s....

Bells Amber Ale (in a keg too!)
Redhook Hefeweizen
Pyramid Pale Ale & Hefeweizen
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale & Celebration Ale
Anchor Special Ale
Pete's Wicked

 

Mine was a true craft beer, two of them actually. My brother in law made a batch of coffee stout at Incredibrew in Nashua, NH, followed closely by a brew he called Hopzilla. If I remember correctly he used eight different hops varieties and nearly a full batch worth of each. First sip made your tongue want to crawl out of your mouth, but the aftertaste was like being in heaven. Since then I've settled in to mostly SA Boston Lager, but my favorite now is Steenbergen's Goulden Draak - triple fermented IPA heaven.

 

For me it was Founders Breakfast Stout, that beer changed the way I perceived beer.

 

International I'd have to say Bass Ale (back when it was good) and Craft beer the wonderful Newman's Pale Ale from The Wm. S. Newman Brewing Co.in Albany, NY

 

Not real sure what a "craft" beer is, but a a 65 year-old beer lover who began drinking beer as soon as it was legal, the first time I discovered and could afford styles of beer other than local Milwaukee lagers was in grad school. In the late 70's in Pasadena we would head over to a local Irish bar who served Guinness, Harp and Watneys Red Barrel. Soon after I discovered imported beers like Beck's and Dos Equis and became an avid beer hunter. Yuengling Porter was my first initiation into the world of American craft styles back in the 80's when I moved to Philly and shortly after Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale started my love for pumpkin beers.

 

I was living in Milwaukee at the time (1985) and drinking mostly Augsburger (when I had money) and Blatz (when I didn't) when I noticed selections from a new brewery, Sprecher, at my neighborhood liquor store. I remember Black Bavarian and Special Lager as being the first styles available.

 

For me it was Fat Tire on tap, at a Hockey game.

 

Guinness and Blue Moon were the beers that showed me beer could be something other than the BMC stand-bys.

 

My gateway beer away from the world of high school parties and flat, watered-down macrobrews (Miller Genuine Draft, Corona) was Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen. From there, I never looked back.