The first beer that you loved

Dixie Blackened Voodoo. First had it in a Cajun Restaurant in Rolla, Missouri in the 80's, and later found it in New Orleans, Denver, and Sioux Falls, but have not had it in years. Might actually suck now that I've really gotten into craft, but looking forward to trying it again. The brewery was ruined in hurricane Katrina, so it is now outsourced to a contract brewery in Wisconsin.

 

I was a 19 year old college kid who started out on the same crap a lot of broke college kids start with: Natural Ice and variations of the BMC beers. I thought I was fancy when I upgraded drinking Miller High Life; I mean all of those commercials about it being the "Champagne of Beers" had to mean something, right?

Eventually, I decided to get really fancy and started buying Fat Tire and not long after dipped into some Blue Moon. Why? Because I started hanging out with friends who always had those beers, and to the guy who had only ever drank Natty Ice/Miller Lite/Miller High Life, those were unheard of "fancy" beers. I liked them. They were discernibly better than the crap I always drank. So yes, Fat Tire and Blue Moon were, in the moment, the first beers I "loved."

I can give you a lesser-known, obscure craft beer answer, but that's the truth; it was Fat Tire and Blue Moon and that lasted for a couple of years. Then I decided to try something else from New Belgium. I liked Fat Tire so why not? I don't know how I decided between the three or four non-Fat Tire New Belgium beers at my "go-to" liquor store, but I settled on Ranger; a very good but not great IPA. I guess that was the third beer I "first loved." It is the beer that turned me into a hop-head.

I've had better IPAs since my foray into the IPA world with Ranger, but I still occasionally pick up a 12-pack of Ranger and enjoy the hell out of it.

 

Gotta be Gulden Draak!

Belgians are what got me deep into the good beer scene. I used to rave about it to my friends and always tried to buy bottles and share with my buddies who hadn't had it before.

 

Stone Ruination, that was one hell of a beer. I miss it.

 

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar. Still my favorite brown ale.

 

Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde. Haha
So nostalgic for me.

 

True story..... As a younger man I loved natural ice, still keep a few in the fridge for working on the lawn. When I des covered the craft scene I fell in love with torpedo from Sierra Nevada.

 

Ballantine IPA, in the last millennium.

 

Probably Mackeson's Stout (can't remember if it was called milk or cream)

I was about 19-20 years old, stationed in England, loving the beers and pubs. I got on a big Guinness kick, then I found a can of Mackeson's and realized how much I really loved beer

 

There were a bunch I liked and drank regularly, but the first one that really wowed me was Victory Hop Devil. "Woah, hops. Damn, that shit is good!"

 

Arrogant Bastard. Don't care for it now, but man did I love it when I first turned 21.

 

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

It may have been the 1980's, but it opened my eyes to the fact that there was better beer out there than macro.

 

Guinness

 

Imported German Lagers, which back in the 1960s was as exotic as the local beer scene got.

 

Before I went to Bamberg, I was married to Becks. I enjoyed it very much, there was loyalty, but there was no love there. While in Bamberg I had Schlenkerla Marzen and that beer changed my life. That was no summer fling, I still love it. I've since had a divorse from Becks, but if I bump into it at a party, and I'm not with Schlenkerla, I'll have one for old times sake.

 

Tank 7 was the beer that showed me beer can taste good and made me start trying tons of stuff.

 

The first beer I thought was "special" Molson Brador. Crossing the Canadian border to get it (1978) added to the experience I think.
The first beer I loved and brought me to the craft beer world was Delerium Tremens. Likely explains my leaning toward all beers Belgian styled.

 

La Trappe Dubbel and Murhy's Irish Stout were the first WOW! beers.

 

Carlsberg, for some reason. European lagers (mostly German) was the height of beer sophistication for me when I was young. I am so old that Coors was considered an exotic beer.