What's your most memorable beer experience?

There have been many a beer that twists my tassels, but nothing like the first time I had Celebrator! I never knew a Lager could taste that damn good!

 

Hop Ju Ju was pretty jaw dropping. Surely Abrasive was too. Heady Topper was great, but I expected that based off of the attention that it received.

It's funny, I love every style of beer, but IPAs really jump out at me. It's rare to find a perfectly balanced ipa that is also fresh.

 

Corona!
On vacation, in the summer.
Just hanging out in a bar, good music playing.
Hooked up with a cool girl.

 

Drinking an Old Style while mowing 2 acres of weeds back in 1988. I can still remember that taste!

 

1) Back in January of 2010, after a brutal tech interview, during the most miserable weather Seattle has to offer, I took a cab to Brouwer's to try my first sour: Supplication. It blew my mind. I've been in love with sours ever since.

2) Years ago again at a brewpub back in Florida where I used to live that was bought by Gordon Biersch but not branded. The head brewer was allowed to do small experimental batches. One night a dear friend and colleague of mine joined me and we tried the latest small batch: a rosemary-grapefruit IPA. The amazing flavors and great company made this one pop into my mind when I saw the question. As many wonderful beers I've had over the years, the best occasions are when you can share them with people you love.

There have been a good number of other memorable beers but these are perhaps the two stories I hold dearest.

 

I dont think he posts much anymore but if he still did this would win most memorable beer.

 

The view and setting made these memorable.

 

First BCBS at GABF...it was then that I started to understand what beer could be, and what it could do to me.

 

Long story, but many hurdles in my career to get where I am now. After 9 years of hard work I got the call that my interviews went well and I got my promotion. Had a Heady Topper to celebrate, it was my only one. Tasted like achievement.

Many more coming, birth of my first child is on the horizon, so something will top that.

 

A great day of back country snowboarding outside of big sky/moonlight basin here in MT. Then stopping in to find SN celebration on tap, while seeing some great bluegrass(emmit nershi band) it really was the perfect day

 

Every King Cobra I drank from 15-18 yrs old

 

My first Guinness. It was like when Jim from Taxi had his first Baked brownie-somehow the world was different from that day forward (and I dropped out of Harvard and found myself in a blue color job, but it was all worth it).

 

Hair of The Dog Matt followed by Bells Wild One, then I hooked up with this chick. I remember drinking a little BVDL as well. It was a good night. Some real Kentucky craft beer bullshit.

 

i remember most beers i've had. i have a terrible memory otherwise, but i have an uncanny beer memory.

i guess especially memorable would be...

dry hopped arrogant bastard. just perfect.

rum barrel xyauyu.

the first time i had lagunitas gnarlywine at burp castle in NYC 5~ years ago.

so many really.

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edit: best beer i've ever had?

again, dry hopped AB is competitive. NEBCO redrum. again xyauyu barrel. recently, 2011 (?) j.w. lees. some of the stuff i had during the belated collected works tasting at hill farmstead (soured what is enlightenment, for example). i don't know.

honestly, when you get into Best territory, the beer is tied to the occasion. there isn't really an order of rank.

best made? i don't know... fresh NEBCO gold stock? CBC cerise cassee at its best?

 

The remainder of a coffee abraxas that the group in front of ours gave to me to share among my friends while waiting in line to DLD 2014. Was the very first beer I drank that morning and actually got to drink a pretty hefty portion of the bottle myself, it was freakin awesome and the best beer I had that day in my opinion... still looking to trade for a bottle of it.

 

One of my brothers best briends was married recently. I stopped off by the house to congradulate them and brought some beers for them. It turns out that his brother was in town from Boston and brought some Heady. It was a nice surprise to be handed a Heady in rural Oklahoma when you least expect it.

 

Two part answer.

1.) I inadvertently bought my first sour on the morning of the day I had to organize and pack up all my military gear to turn it in for good (several hour process). It was a 2012 Weyerbacher Riserva. Drinking that first delicious sour and the emotions associated with cutting my name tag off my helmet, taking apart my ruck, etc. will always be a strong memory in my mind.

2.) By this time, most of my other military buddies had gotten out. That weekend, my buddy and I enjoyed an amazing care package sent my way from @SammyJaxxxx. I was big into craft but hadn't had any of the big beers yet... that box had my first Heady and PtE, among a few other awesome brews. We spent that night reminiscing about our years as paratroopers overseas and stateside, and I left for home a couple days later. That box also turned my friend into an avid Budweiser/4 Loko guy into a craft lover.

Here are some pictures I took from that time that basically illustrate what I just described, haha:

 

Yeah, I agree. Bolt Cutter is stellar!

 

Most memorable beer experience I've had is most memorable because of the story that was associated with it, not the beer itself, but beer is what tied everything together and the part of the story we still conclude with when retelling it 15+ years later. On the Tuesday after Labor Day '98 Mark McGwire hit home run 61 to tie Roger Maris. On a whim me and 3 solid friends drove thru the night from Baylor University up to St. Louis hoping to get tickets for the game... We were broke college kids and we got lucky and got tickets and got in and were so tired we were sleeping in between innings... Then he did it, number 62 and we were jazzed up- none of us being 21, a 12 year old would've been sold brew that day, and we got some to join in on the celebrations.

So my most memorable brew experience?:
September 8th, 1998. St. Louis. Busch Stadium. Bud Light

 

The first Black Tuesday. I remember waiting in line, for a few hours, wondering if this new local brewery (the Bruery) would produce a good Impy Stout, and if I was an idiot for waiting in said line. Needless to say, I tasted history that night. The first BT was mind-blowing. And all since have been great. But when you factor in the that they lost a huge portion of that first batch, some blew off in barrels and some spilled on the floor in a mishap with Patrick Rue (owner) and Tyler King (Head Brewer at that time) this was the beginning of truly strong Imperial Stouts.