What was your gateway craft beer?

For me.. as a poverty level student living in Montreal at the time... I walked out of the local grocery store with a bottle of Unibroue's 'Le Fin du Monde'... and that was a beer-life altering experience. I didn't know what the hell I was drinking... but I knew it was fantastic. A random pickup of 'The Duchesse de Bourgogne' a few weeks later had a multiplicative effect.

Later in life.... moving to California and having things like Lagunitas IPA and Bear Republic's 'Racer 5' available just about everywhere opened the floodgates to the beauty of the hop....

.... and lastly... after 10 miles hiking in South Carolina in some ridiculous heat/humidity a good friend and I had a near-psychedelic experience with a 4-pack of a beer we'd randomly picked up earlier that day.... Founders 'Backwoods Bastard'. Bourbon aged you say? Wonderful I says!

 

New Belgium Ranger

FW Double Jack

First 2 craft beers I remember liking

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and still make room for it in my beer fridge.

 

Silver City's Panther Lake Porter and Fat Scotch Ale, both I tried during the same dinner.

 

As seen from all these posts I think this answer is heavily biased by your age. Those in the 40+ category are going to pick either imports or something from the early craft beer explosion. I'm in that 40+ category and I'd really have to give that honor to Sam Adams beers (early 90's). There are several beers that we drank in that time that got us into craft beer but I think it was the seasonal beer selection from Sam that got us into trying new beers and new styles. Harpoon UFO is also a beer that really sticks in my mind of something that really made me go wow at that time.

I'd attribute my second "rebirth" into the craft beer scene actually to Untappd not a specific beer. I stopped drinking beer for a long time due to stomach issues and after I got over that I had young kids and my time for drinking was much more limited. I still would drink craft beer but I was much more conservative with what I drank (not wasting limited time or money on something I might not like). I'd either pick a brand or style I knew rather than explore much. I laughed at a friend who was obsessed with Untappd and one night while on a business trip (and many beers) with him I gave it a shot. Downloading that app kick started my obsession with craft beer again and I'm back to drinking every brand or style I can get my hands on. There are lots of styles I would have never tried had it not been for Untappd.

 

A hippie at some jam-band show bought me a Red Hook ESB in the early 90's. I was hooked.

 

Mirror Pond and Widmer Broken Halo IPA in summer of 2007. Spent the summer interning in Portland. Opened my eyes to good beer.

 

Lucky Bock and San Miguel Dark, already looking for something different in the 70's. Red Hook and Grants were probably the first I tasted.

 

For me there was no gateway.... just a clusterf*ck of liquid goodness.

 

I had delved into craft beers here and there but once I had a Sierra Nevada Torpedo I started picking up on the intricacies of beer flavors. A great beer with juicy fruit notes, I knew there was a world of beer out there I needed to try,

 

Back in the late '90s I worked with a guy who was a beer geek's beer geek. I didn't know much about beer in those days, but I really enjoyed listening to him explain stuff that was over my head. On my first trip to Alaska in '98, I had dinner and a flight at the Snow Goose in Anchorage. That was the first time I had ever stepped out of my beer comfort zone, and I couldn't wait to get back and give my coworker a report on the craft beers I'd tried. I didn't really get into beer until several years after that, but I know now what my coworker meant when he referred to pale ale as "grapefruit juice."

 

Homebrew. No joke. Didn't like beer (only had big beer) but I needed a hobby, so I went out on a limb, expecting to just brew for others enjoyment, and I attempted to brew a summer ale. When I tried it myself with low expectations, I loved it, so I felt the need to try a commercial version of it and they tasted great. Did that with other beers I brewed like brown ales, Oktoberfests, Vienna Lagers... became a fan of beer and fell in love with beer and brewing and the beer atmosphere and haven't turned back. Hoping to actually get involved in the business in some way

 

Michelob Dark, and then Sam Adams and some Leine's products.

 

My gateway beer was Hop Devil by Victory Brewing. It was poured from a growler from the brewery in Downingtown, PA. I was visiting a friend who lives near there, and he came home with a growler of that, and a growler of DirtWolf, their double IPA. I was instantly hooked on hops. And this love affair, will be over when i die. (Probably not even then.)



Before then I had only drank "big beer" beers. Coors, Labatt, and the like. Never going back.

 

Town Hall's Masala Mama...I will never forget the need for a water after taking a sip. Holy hell did thay suck the moisture right out of my mouth! After ordering second, I never looked back.

 

SNPA & Two Hearted, back in my college days. They are still in regular fridge rotation, too.

 

1994? Solsun at Hash Bash in Ann Arbor, MI. Later to be renamed Oberon.

 

2007 or 2008 I had a Long Trail Pale Ale. It was the first non Macro beer I really enjoyed. Believe it or not the first IPA that got me going was dogfish head burton baton.

 

Victory Golden Monkey - "Whoa, look how high the ABV is!" From there, I got into Belgian tripels, and the rest is history.