First beer where you recognized what hops taste like

1974, Ballantines IPA.

 

Stone Ruination

 

The hops experience for me came in different phases. Back when I drank BMC, someone offered me a SNPA. It was the most bitter nasty thing I ever tasted at the time. Sometime later after I acquired a taste for hoppy craft beer, Bell's Two Hearted Ale introduced me to a broad spectrum of fruity pleasures. 2HA is my favorite beer of all time, period. Pliny the Elder, my first in your face imperial IPA, introduced me to to the more subtle flavors of hops. It sealed the deal, so to speak. On that day, I realized "I got it, this is the beer style for me." There were many other pale ales, AIPAs and IIPAs along the way, but those 3 are most important ones to me.

 

I definitely experienced that sensation with a mini-keg of Dinkel-Acker in 1982 (a pretty hoppy German Pils), but probably didn't have the understanding of what it was until a few years later. Still, up until I started to get Sierra Nevada and Liberty Ale by the end of the decade, those Pilsners were my 'hoppy' beers.

 

SN Pale Ale i think

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, several years ago. I avoided them for a LONG time after that as it just wasn't what I was wanting out of my beer. Even going as far as avoiding the brand because I thought that was all they made. Now I am coming around on them and understanding beer a little better than I had before.

 

Deschutes Inversion, I do believe.

 

Hmmmmm....I feel like it was Green Flash West Coast IPA.

 

Brooklyn Lager. I had this on a whim at the dinner of a wedding rehearsal in my early 20s. After drinking Yuengling Lager and the likes of St Pauli Girl in my youth, this beer was a cascade hop bomb. I still like to return to my roots on this one...

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Goose Island IPA.

 

Probably an Anchor Steam Liberty Ale. The balance of hops to malt held up under the heat and humidity and created a truly remarkable beer experience.

 

New Belgium's Ranger, my very first IPA in college and I could barely stand it. I think I gave away three bottles of that six-pack because it was so resiny and bitter. Turned me off IPAs for a couple years, but then I tried a Blind Pig IPA that was very floral and citrus heavy. I've been a hop head ever since, but remain somewhat less than fond of Ranger even though I drink far beers with strong resiny hop flavor regularly.

That said. I think there is a wide range of hop flavor and there isn't one "hop flavor" to recognize in a beer.

 

NXNW - Austin Tx, Py Jingo Pale Ale

 

So I think I was drinking Bass already as my new go-to after my Miller Lite college days, but I would say the first beer I remember thinking wow this is "hoppy" is the same one many have mentioned - SN Pale Ale. Was in 2000 or 2001 when I was in Cali for work

 

For me, it was Fat Tire (2010). The grapefruit-like taste struck me as different and was unlike anything I has tasted before in a beer. It was definitely a defining moment for me!

 

Harpoon IPA....still one of my favorites to this day.

 

Sierra Nevada pale ale in 1998 in Athens, Ga. I didn't like it at first but it grew on me quickly. I feel it would have happened earlier, but craft beer was very late coming to the South. It is finally catching up!

 

2 Hearted

 

Either SNPA, Lagunitas IPA, or Finestkind IPA. Not sure. Those were strange, psychedelic fueled times.