I remember when...

I remember the first time I bought abyss it was $9.99 and I was shocked it was so expensive.
When I first lurked the forums, leviathan was a what everyone was after

 

Pete's?!!
I suppose you are being facetious, but I'll just clarify that those days never existed (especially considering that both Bigfoot and Grant's Imperial Stout preceded it. Liberty Ale, too ).

Me- I remember the days when 5-6%, or other normal gravity, beers weren't considered 'thin'.

 

I still have bottles of The Abyss from the first vintage with price tag stickers that read $4.99

 

I remember when craft beer sixers were the same price or cheeper than BMC sixers. I remember buying sixers of GI hexnut brown for $4.99, the bud light was $5.99.

 

...years ago, scoring Darkness, Sexual Chocolate, Dark Lord and KtG was a big deal.

 

I remember when you could buy a case of bmc for less than today's cost of a 22 oz bomber.

 

I remember when seeing Harpoon Winter Warmer on the shelves made my nipples hard.

 

And KBS. I totally referred to KBS as a whale in a different thread and somebody called me out on it. It hadn't even occurred to me until then, but KBS isn't a whale anymore.

I'm about 10 years into craft and I'm blown away by how much the second half of those 10 years have differed from the first in how easy it is to get amazing beers. It blows my mind even to this day that I can get a Stone RIS at a local liquor store. I remember when I first got on BA and looked at the Top 100 and SO MANY Stone beers were on it. And just wishing to myself I could try even one of them.

 

Which Buehlers? I live in Hinckley, so I'm fairly close to most of them!

 

That was last year, At least around me.

 

It took me a second to realize that 13 years ago... was still only 2000.

I was going to say that it's hard to imagine what the beer scene was like 13 years ago... until i realized that I have been drinking for about 11 (and drinking craft for about 10)...

 

When this site did not exist and was on AOL under "beer".

 

Anchor Steam was something like $7.99 a sixpack. When it went to $8.99, I was upset. When it went to $9.99, I looked for something else to drink. Which is what got me started on ticking.

 

I do miss when I could go to the local shop and have my pick of all the delicious beers. Now it is a rat race if you want to try something new or buy some "whale". Now I don't go. I just buy my regulars at the big box Total Wine or Bevmo and Trader Joes. Sometimes I get lucky but I stick to my regulars.

 

Classic! Before I met beer was a 30". What the hell happened??

 

I also remember the lengths I would go to to try new beer and new beer venues and the distance I was willing to travel. Like a 1987 round trip journey from Waterloo Ontario to Buffalo just to try the Buffalo Brew Pub's Oatmeal Stout. Wasn't very good but the sea of empty peanut shells on the bar floor as never forgotten.

 

Haha. Was about to post a similar thing. "Move to NYC".

 

I remember when I was impressed with Rolling Rock Bock.

 

Red Hook ESB was the hopiest beer I had ever tasted and dumped it for a Warstiner!

 

Nah -- there was a time when Pete's Wicked Ale was a pretty good beer to find at a bar. Hell, I even drank it in Portland at the Microbrewer's Conference in the 90s. 'Course, we were diggin' Grant's, Sierra Nevada, Anchor… and Rogue too.