How long have you been drinking craft beer?

I hardly ever drank beer before having a Pete’s Wicked Ale in college. I’d had the occasional AAL at a party here and there but typically stuck to screwdrivers and whisky sours. Pete’s opened the door to Sam Adams then Guinness then Honker’s Ale...twenty-some years later I’m still buying 95% craft and mostly German and Belgian imports. Sure, I’ll drink a Bud or Old Style at the ballpark, Lone Star at concerts, and Tecate or Bohemia with tacos. And I’d never refuse an open Coors or PBR when hanging with friends. I’ll pay a premium for the beers in my fridge but I’m not snobbish or dismissive of what others enjoy.

 

Does drinking San Miguel in Olongapo City, P.I. count? Steel Budweiser cans in Seoul, Korea?

 

I always liked beer but my real intersted started 5 years ago.

It was triggered by some international friends who flew 8 hours to get to a beer festival in my town. During their stay they introduced me to a nubmer of beers that was of a quality I never seen before. I was sold.

 

I consider myself a "conscious drinker" of craft beers since 2009.
But I had already tasted Schneider-Weisse, Tripel Karmeliet, various Chouffe... etc. but I was still completely alien to this world.

 

Well this more or less sums it up for me also. We just went to the very few places that had "good beer". I had to go to the next county to find a beer store.
Y'all can check my profile to see how old I am, if curious.

 

That is the real question - one that even the Brewers Association, with it's (not even) 2 decade old, constantly changing definition of "Craft Brewer" doesn't answer except for the circular cop-out:

M. Jackson used the term in his 1977 (US ed) World Guide to Beer and in 1986 Vince Cottone, usually credited for popularizing the term wrote in his Good Beer Guide; Breweries, and Pubs of the Pacific Northwest:

...which would eliminate a LOT of the current Top 50 "Craft Brewers" and all imports. (Coming from the pre-craft era, it still blows my mind a bit when I see a beer on the shelves in the northeast from a 50k bbl. brewery in California...).

Hmm... but what about beers from the same brewers, like Augsburger Bock and Prior 'Liquid Luxury' Light? Anchor Porter? Huber's other "specialty" beers like Regal Brau (same recipe as Augsburger) and Gemutlichkeit?

Or (yep...I gotta do it ) Ballantine XXX Ale, Ballantine India Pale Ale, Ballantine Brewers Gold Ale, Ballantine Porter, Krueger Old Surrey Porter, McSorley’s Cream Ale, Lord Chesterfield Ale, Black Horse Ale (Trenton and Koch), Rainier Ale, Pickwick Ale, Croft Ale, Genesee 12 Horse Ale, Schaefer Cream Ale, Schoenling Cream Ale (Little King’s), Carling Red Cap Ale, Pabst’s Old Tankard Ale, Liebotschaner Cream Ale, Gibbons Ale, Kodiak Cream Ale, Tiger Head Ale, Scheidt's 20th Century Ale, Utica Club Cream Ale, Utica Club Sparkling Ale, Yuengling Porter, Nueweiler Cream Ale, Stegmaier Porter, Narragansett Porter, Narragansett Bavarian, Koch Jubilee Porter, Boarshead Stout, Koch Holiday Beer, Matt Holiday Beer, Geyer Bros. Dark, Old Chicago Dark, Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor, Schaefer Braunslager, Royal Amber, Esquire, Horlacher Perfection Beer, National Premium, Andeker, Christian Moerlein, Hudepohl Hofbrau, Stroh's (all malt) Bock, Trommer's, Schell's Pilsner and Weiss Beer?

And, of course, given that the Brewers Association now does not exclude adjunct (true adjunct) usage for "craft" beer, dozens more brands could be added to that above list based on size of the brewery (under 6M bbl). At this point it seems, "Craft Beer" is anything not brewed domestically by Anheuser-Busch or Molson Coors or internationally by Constellation or Heineken.

Well, after about 1981 it came in a new 'strange' bottle with a !@#$ 'strange new' retail price and only 4 bottles in a pack. (Yeah, that's not a new complaint). It went from around $2.25 a sixpack in the stubby-ish US "mod" bottle to about $3.50-$4.00 for the fourpack* of Double Dark Prior Beer.

* Sounds cheap? The DoL Inflation Calculator says $4.00 in 1980 dollars is equivalent to about $13.50 today. At $13 -16 a case for PDD, it was above "super-premium" and in the "Heineken/Import" price segment, more than the macro Canadian beers which were around $10/cs.

 

Same scenario for me 2009-8. I had a cousins husband who homebrewed so then I started to, at the same time got into craft brands. Brewed for quite a few years, but haven’t in probably 8 years now.

I hope to again someday when the kids are older and I have some more me time.

 

I’m 32, when I graduated high school in 07 the scene was obviously taking off. Neipas were developing but weren’t widely popular. I remember drinking beer from magic hat, Troegs, and saranac pretty regularly. By 09-10 alchemist cans had started making rounds

 

Lol, this thread shows there’s a lot of old farts on this forum (myself included).

 

You say cynical like it's a bad thing!

I see your point. I guess I'm more about anything sour, anything barrel aged, anything hazy, anything imperial or double and so on.

Adding mango banana kiwi cashew coconut peanut butter coffee, sometimes all at once, yeah that's new. But let's pretend this goes away.

Wow. Over 30 years. I haven't done anything for 30 years. Not even Suz. Wow.
Cheers

 

That depends... If Pete's Wicket, SNPA, and SABL are considered "craft beer", then 23 years. (I'm 44). I did not get into the current "craft" craze until 2015 when I had my first Second Fiddle, Singlecut, and Heady Topper. Changed my entire perspective on what I had been drinking.

 

This may be literally true.
The goal posts have been moved so many times I gave up trying. If it were not for your updates most of us would have no idea who bought or sold what and when it happened.
Cheers

 

My father (and grandparents) always drank imported German dark beers, so I grew up stealing sips of those. Then I started college in Austin, Texas in 1992, the same summer that Celis Brewery opened. After a few Celis Whites and Celis Pale Bocks, it was hard to ever drink "normal" beer again. Unfortunately, my budget required me to slum it most of the time: Lone Star tallboys; Shiner Bock if I was feeling flush. But over the years, I rearranged my budget priorities sufficiently to indulge my "hobby".

 

I noticed that too. It's an important thing to keep in mind for other polls and discussions. We are not representative of the larger beer-drinking population.

 

Well, I went to the original Goose Island in 1988, so 33 years.

But there was a LOOOOOONG void after one time in 1988 until 2005, when I started in earnest, courtesy of Boulevard Pale Ale. It's been a fun journey.

 

Too bad you missed the Siebens Brewpub about a year before that!

 

I haven't seen your handle in a long time and was legit starting to get concerned. It's great to see you posting again and welcome back!