5-10-15-20

5- I was doing ISO: Hawaiian Punch; FT: Bubble Gum medicine

10- Still no beer, nor any chest hair. Probably tried a sip of my dad's Lowenbrau. Not fun.

15- Tried my 17 year old brother's Molson Ice. Worst thing I ever consumed up to that point. Had a Bud Light at a kegger, choked it down because there were hot chicks drinking it too.

20- Drinking a lot of Bacardi and Captain Morgan. A lot. More than people of legal drinking age should be drinking. Started to dabble in beer, as I realized it could keep my buzz going for cheap. I'd also drink whatever beer clubs my band(s) were playing at were willing to give us on the cheap and whilst looking the other way on my age. Was interested in Magic Hat #9, first beer I really enjoyed.

25- Drinking fuck loads of Rolling Rock, Narragansett, Honey Brown Lager, Miller Light. When I had the scratch I was buying Long Trail Ale, Sierra Nevada products and decent stuff on tap at bars. My love of cooking leads me to be interested in producing beer and home brewing. I was into home brewing before I was into drinking craft for real, ha. My "blue pill" moment with drinking craft comes at 26 when I have Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball on draft at Julian's in Providence. After that, I'm off and running with the full obsession of the hobby.Made lots of mix a sixes at that time.

30- Totally into craft for a few years by this point. Brewing it, reading about it, trading for it, visiting breweries, going to festivals.

33 (current age). Gave up chasing hyped beers when I realized they aren't that much better than the stuff I can get on the shelf. Gave up on going to festivals when I realized it's a really expensive way to try a bunch of beers I've already had. Still brew, still enjoy lots of local breweries and visit them when I can. Tastes have gone to low abv (read 5%) more traditional takes on pilsners, porters and pale ales. Still love a big stout or DIPA every now and then though. Main difference now than before is I'm totally focused on finding awesome lagers (which I don't pre-judge like I did when I was 26 or so. Now, I'm obsessed with them).

 

Great thread idea.

15 Tried a Coors Light after my 8th grade grad party and my parents went to bed, thought it tasted like cleaning fluid and I was poisoned haha.

20 Had been drinking craft for about a year already, while I loved (and still love) stouts at the time, Trois Pistoles and La Fin du Monde were consumed quite frequently

Turning 22 in 2 weeks exactly, so I'll report back in 3 years

 

Still got any of that Bubble Gum Medicine?

 

I haven't even been drinking beer for 5 years...

 

5 years ago - So much busch light. Like I should own a portion of AB amount of busch light - those sweet seet college years
2 years ago- craft ephifinay

 

5 (and 10) - had my first taste of beer when I was 4 years old. Stayed away for 10 years.
15 - Drank my first beer without my parents at age 15. Did not like it much, but would have a can or bottle here or there for the next few years.
20 - College drinking in full swing. If it was on tap at the party, I drank it. Did I like the taste? No. But it was not about taste at that point. At the end of the year, I arrived in Glasgow and had my first Guinness on tap. That changed how I saw beer.
25 (and 30) - Still drinking Guinness, and sometimes a SA porter or stout. Drank a lambic once in a while.
35 - Moved to Rogue, but we are reaching my beer bottom. Wine was more common.
40 - Minor stir in beer interest, but still drinking Rogue stouts and porters or SA for the most part. Still largely unaware of non-Lindy lambics, or most craft beer options. Around this time, I had my first 3 Floyds, one of their stouts, and thought it was very, very good. Still mostly about wine.
45 (coming soon) - Focused in on craft beer about 2 1/2 to 3 years ago, and have not looked back.

 

5/10: grew up in a pub. I think what I actually got to taste though was watered down wine on occasion. Was definitely familiar with the smell of beer though. My darts and pool-playing skills peaked earlier than most, aged about 9.

15: Tennents/Stella - easy to get served underage at a pub (not my parents' one to be clear) in Scotland haha

20: Introduced to cask when at University in England. Theakstons Best Bitter, whilst not necessarily my favorite beer, was consumed in great quantity.

25: Moved to London. Tim Taylor Landlord was beer of choice. But at same time, a work trip to NYC introduced me to American craft. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout blew my mind.

30: Living in NYC. Hill Farmstead What is Enlightenment was eye opening

33 (present day): Current focus is on the great breweries that have opened in NYC in the last couple of years. Other Half Superfun is a personal favorite

 

15 - Had a sip of my grandfather's Michelob
20 - All about Blue Moon, Bud Light, Miller Lite. Miller Lite would give me bad hangovers so eventually gave it up.
25 - Sam Adams era - all of their beers - Boston Lager was a staple, bought every seasonal mix pack. A much simpler time that I kind of miss.
30 - Game On - started "ticking" and trying every style imaginable. Early favorites include Loose Cannon, Guinness, Troeg's Dreamweaver, SN Pale Ale, Hop Wallop (pretty much everything from Victory).
35 - Started "whale chasing" a bit and drank a lot of high gravity stuff - BCBS, 120 minute, various barleywines, etc. This got old fairly quickly.
38 (current age) - Finally got my hands on Heady. Drank so much I got burned out on it. I feel like I've come full circle and am going "back to my roots" - simpler, lower ABV stuff. Current favorite - Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest. Also love most of the Sixpoint stuff, Jack's Abby, Otter Creek, German and Belgian brews. I feel like I'm in my "Golden Era"

 

Why not add music back into the mix as well?

5 - A sip of something gross when I was a kid. Stroh's or Budweiser? George Thorogood and Sesame Street were my jams.
10 - No beer at this point. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young was my music of choice then
15 - Still no beer. Staind and Metallica for music.
20 - Guiness Extra stout on my 21st, Newcastle became my usual. Blind Guardian became my favorite band, and Prog. Metal as my genre.
25 - DeuS-Brut des Flandres changed my life, and I went whole-hog into sticky malty beers. Turisas and Korpiklaani provided a new shift in music to Viking Metal
30 - Finally started enjoying hoppy beers in the lead up to here, started by DFH 90 minute, and sours have also been enjoyed, started by Lindeman's Cuvee Renee. I feel like I'm at a point where I can enjoy just about anything thrown at me. Wardruna and Lumsk widened my musical tastes into Norse Folk

 

5 - Uncle Jimmy used to let me have sips of Budweiser
10 - The occasional sip from the on sale crap that my dad bought, Utica Club, Koch's, Ballentine
15 - Gennessee Cream Ale
20 - Double Diamond (UK)
25 - Big debate over Bud Light vs Miller Lite
30 - Started Homebrewing...Abita Springs was the first Micro Brewery I visited
35 - Bitburger (Germany)
40 - Back to Hombrew and Bud Light
45 - Bells Two Hearted and DFH 90 are where the craft beer obsession really began
50 - Pliny and Zombie Dust were the hit of that year

 

5 and 10: Sneaking hits off the Bud kegs at massive family camping trips
15: Genny Ice
20: Natty Light
25: SA Seasonals
30: Heady
35: Hill Farmstead
37: Trillium

What a ride.

 

Just did a homebrewed bubble gum medicine Heff. The esters are great.

 

15: Labatts
20: Old Style
25: Michelob Light
30: Newcastle and other brown ales
35: Warsteiner and other German lagers
40: Sam Adams
45: Two Hearted
50: Beer Advocate Beers of Fame

 

5/10: Obviously not drinking, but watching my grandpa drink tons of Hamm's and PBR.
15: Shoulder-tapping for Bud outside the local 7/11.
20: Guinness, Heineken, Rolling Rock: underage, but drinking whatever I could get my hands on at college parties and work events.
25: Anchor Steam (!) The first beer I bought a six-pack of on my twenty-first birthday, still hugely satisfying in the right context.
30: Rogue Dead Guy/Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA. Thought I was really growing up at this point.
35: Pliny/Racer 5. Had these relatively close to each other. Will always remember my first Pliny: at Ben and Nick's in Oakland, had no idea what it was, just that it had a funny name. Felt the same way drinking it as the dude on the Heady can.
40: More RR (my first trip to a PtY release), starting to expand into other West Coast craft like Stone, Deschutes, etc.
45: Hardcore BA'ing, trading for tons of NE beer, attending festivals, expanding into stouts and sours. Mind blown by trips to Tired Hands, Alpine, and other top-tier breweries.
46 (today): Pulling back a little for financial and health reasons, but still trading for faves like Heady, attending small bottle shares, and spending most of my beer dollars locally.

 

5: A couple of my parents friends worked at the Genesee brewery, and they would bring home beer, generally in the 8 packs of 7oz bottles. At weekend get-togethers, they would open 1 or 2 and pour all us kids an once or two.

10: By now we would sneak a few of those small bottles, and take them with us as we went out into the woods to play. Also, sometimes Dad would let me have a 12oz can or bottle after a particularly long day of yard/house work. And, took my first brewery tour (F. X. Matt brewery, Utica NY. It was my idea) on a family vacation.

15: In the middle of high school. Miller High Life was our collective go-to ($2.14 a sixer, with sales tax), but we always try different things too. Lots of Boones Farm and Southern Comfort mixed with Mountain Dew consumed this time frame as well.

20: Pretty firmly into Genny Cream Ale for a few years. Would drink other beers, of course, and sometimes would try the "Exotic" Canadian beers (LaBatt, Molson, Molson Golden when we wanted to impress the ladies). Sometimes big cans of malt liquor for those "Biggest Bang for the Buck nights. Gallons of Jack Daniels magically disappeared as well.

25: First craft beers tried, as well as imports not from Canadia. First IPA (something with a picture of an Elephant on the label) somewhere in this region. Went through a stretch as a Bud Man during this era as a tribute after Richie Evans died.

30: More crafts, regionals, and imports start showing up in the stores. All were tried. Booze and weed consumption slowed.

35: Seriously into micro brews. The first wave of "Beer Bars" and brewpubs were starting to pop up. First Belgians tried, mind blown. Weed out of my life, and spirits just a small portion. Unless I was on a beach, then fruity drinks were had.

40: Full immersion. Road trips to brewpubs, virtually no BMC stuff, except cans to take into the races. Would keep a cooler of good beer in the car though, and run out during intermission for a flavor fix. Was an OTR driver at this point, and would smuggle myself home some beers that I would find on the road. Soon to move from Upstate NY to the PNW.

45: Living in the PNW. More beer than anyone could ever try, with more constantly coming along. Only BMC stuff was for ticks, or if someone bought me one at a show.

50: Same as above. Don't tick as heavily as I used to, but still try the majority of new stuf that shows up. More new breweries in my town means, more new stuff on a regular basis.

55: Keepin' on keepin' on. Not automatically impressed by every new beer or brewery, and might be a bit overly cynical about the way some things are in world of beer. Still pouring them down with regularity. Still trying as much new stuff as I can. 4 new breweries ready to open in my town in the next year means I'll have plenty of exploration left on my schedule.

 

5- I was sneaking sips from my dad's budweiser (You can ask my mom to confirm)

10- I was given sips of my mom's michelob ultra

15- i was drinking anything i could get a hold of in high school, Vodka, Whiskey and Stone IPAs

20- I thought Stone IPA was the greatest beer in the world

25- (current age) Alpine had taken over my life these lasst couple of years until the GF deal

 

LOL F*** loads.....classic.

 

5: Stuck strictly to Juicy Juice, Ecto Cooler, and Apple Juice. Occasionally dabbled in those juices that come in barrels. That's the closest to a barrel aged beer I had back then.

10: May have had a sip of my father's MGD. My beverage of choice was likely Orange Crush or Sprite. Usually refreshing after a long day of soccer or baseball.

15: Just starting to dabble into drinking. Usually consisted of vodka that got warm because hidden in a car from parents (that was on a good day when me and friends scored booze). The remainder is a plethera of stuff me and my friends were able to get from the parents liquor cabinet. Usually consisted of warm spirits and wine coolers. The occasional shit beer (icehouse) made a rare appearance.

20: The college years consisted of cases upon cases of Keystone Light, bottles of rum, and the usual college cocktails like jungle juice with too much everclear in it, hot apple pie shots, jello shots, summer beer. I started to dip my finger in the craft scene. Alot of mix 6's. This was maybe once a month due to monetary reasons. I was a big fan of wheat beers back then.

25: Really started getting into the craft scene. IPA's dominate my life early, but my appreciation for other beers has growing. Started brewing my own beer, started a cellar, started chasing rare beers.

26(current age): I have a huge appreciation for all styles. Finding rare beers has made drinking fun. I've tried to try every beer that strikes my interest in some way, analyzing beers by the ingredients. I probably spend too much on beer, but it has become a passion.

 

(1979) 5 - milk

(1984) 10 - had my first Michelob at 9

(1989) 15 - Budweiser quarts and Meister Brau

(1994) 20 - Hofbrau, Sam Adams, Pete's Wicked, John Courage, Bass, Grolsch

(1999) 25 - Sierra Nevada, Hofbrau, Sam Adams, Saranac

(2004) 30 - Victory everything, Sierra Nevada, Weihenstephaner, Pilsner Urquell

(2009) 35 - EVERYTHING

(2014) 40 - EVERYTHING