What Was Your Gateway IPA?

Ithaca Flower Power...phenomenal beer. Amazing arrangement of aroma, bitterness, and malt. Still my No. 1 go to beer.

 

New Belgium Ranger was probably my intro to IPA's. Not fancy, just a good solid beer thats easy to find.

 

Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf definitely got me into IPA's. I live right down the street from the Three Floyds brewery, so I was lucky enough to get an awesome IPA as my starter.

 

Dogfish 60 minute. Since then, it's been full speed on hops.

 

think it was Racer 5. that was the first beer where i thought to myself, "holy shit, what is this shit? i fucking love this shit"

i use a lot of swear words in my interior monologues

 

Odell IPA

 

Four Peaks Hop knot started it Heady Topper and Ghandi Bot Solidified it now I actually find myself craving hops on occasion especially fresh squeezed from Deschutes and easy jack from Firestone Walker

 

Pretty much any Sierra Nevada IPA variation.

 

CCB Jai Alai

 

Bell's Two Hearted. After that I kept a cooler of ice and "new to me" IPAs wherever I went, to try and share. Ahhhh, the good ol' days...

 

O'Dell IPA. Right place and right time as that beer emerged.

 

Although I don't pick it up much anymore, I blame good old Lagunitas IPA for opening my eyes to the style.

 

21st Ammendment Brew Free or Die.

I was always more into Belgian triples and quads but had become burned out on them. Decided to give the 21st ammendment a try and noticed some citrus flavors to the point that I was wondering if there was orange juice added to the beer. That fascinated me and it clicked from there, and now I love IPAs. I have not have the 21st Ammendment one in a couple of years now though and I wonder if I would even still enjoy it.

 

For sure, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA popped my cherry. And to this day, it is one of my go to IPA's.

 

My first IPA was SN Torpedo, but really my "gateway" into the world of hop forward beer was SNPA. I first got into craft beer through Blue Moon and witbiers (now that I think about it, I can't remember the last time I had something of that style...) and avoided anything that was supposed to be hop forward, thinking the bitterness would be unpleasant. Eventually I mustered up the courage to try SNPA, and on the first sip it was something of a revelation. The flavor of pine was very strong on first sip, but it didn't turn me off like I had expected. In fact it tasted amazing!

To this day I really do enjoy the pine resin-ish side of IPAs, a side that doesn't seem to get as much love on this site as the big fruit flavors hops can also produce. Today I still enjoy an SNPA, but I am never able to get that same first sip impression of it again, I assume because my taste buds have been tempered by much, much hoppier brews (in fact the thing that stands out to me most about SNPA today is the great malt base). However, that first sip definitely left a lasting impression on me and opened up a whole other side of beers to explore.

 

The first IPA I really enjoyed was Stone IPA. Before that, I was 100% stout/dark.

 

I think DFH 60 Min was the first one I liked, then Stone IPA was the first one I loved.

 

Celebration was the one that made me more open to IPAs.

 

Wayyyyy back in the day, Ballentine and Yuengling Lord Chesterfield.
I am now, however, suffering from a massive case of 'hops burnout'.
Brown ales and porters are my current go-to brews...

 

Exactly this