Do You Remember Your First IPA?

What HB store? I started homebrewing in 92 and use to go to the place in Malvern and eventually just started trekking up to Keystone.

 

I remember oregon trail and I believe Sam Adams brewed it.

 

Yeah, I started paying attention in '92 and entering competitions the year after. It seemed like half the IPA entries were Celebration "clone" recipes, even the winning ones published in Zymurgy. I even took the category at a local competition in '94 or so with my own version.

 

I remember it was so bitter to me that I got a headache. But it got me hooked!

 

No, but I'd bet myself some cheap stakes that it was a Redhook IPA.
But prior to the I being any kind of factor? SNPA, for sure.

 

That store was Beer Unlimited and they had two stores, the one in Malvern and also one in Conshohocken. I live about midway between the two but I mostly visited the Conshohocken store.

OK, one more story. During the early 90's I was traveling frequently to the UK (mostly London) for business. After coming back from one trip a co-worker asked me how the business trip went. I related the business side of things and then went on to tell him how much I loved the cask beers I had at the various pubs and how I wish I could get those beers here. The following discussion:

Steve: "Why don't you just brew your own beer?"
Me: "WHAT!?! You can make your own beer?"
Steve: "Sure. My girlfriend buys here ingredients at a store in Conshohocken (Beer Unlimited)."

That next weekend (Saturday) I went to that store, bought my homebrewing equipment kit (plastic buckets, etc.) and the young fellow working that day sold me a ingredient kit of Muntons Traditional Bitter plus some 'extra' East Kent Goldings hops for flavor and aroma additions. That beer turned out really well and I have been hooked ever since. And I have homebrewed an English Bitter Ale every year since that first batch; needless to say not from a Muntons kit but now all grain using nothing but English ingredients for grain, hops and yeast.

That is now my LHBS but it is a trek for me as well (i.e., not too local). I will be visiting Keystone next week to obtain ingredients for my next four batches (lagers).

I like Keystone but I do wish it was closer.

Cheers!

P.S. The owner of Beer Unlimited was Jim McHale. He was a good guy as were all of the employees. I always enjoyed going to those stores.

 

It was really fun. Had a keg of Stouts Hefeweizen as well. Outdoor on a very humid fall day. Still have people tell us how much fun they had. It was a big party with people in suits all the down to shorts and t shirts. Groups from many different parts of the country that met and are still friends. We forced people to mix as we had no assigned seats and not enough tables or chairs for all so it forced people to mingle. Live band. Just a great day overall. The huge after party held for us by a really good friend was quite fun as well.


Enjoy

 

Pretty sure it was Celebration, back in either 1999 or 2000. I liked it, but it seemed so bitter and I liked SN Pale Ale better at the time.

 

I spent my last few krone on a can of Elephant in the Copenhagen airport for memories sake. From this experience I gathered that we only drank it back in the day because of the higher ABV.

 

I used to drink Elephant back in high school. It seemed to damn strong back then. Good times.

 

Ballantine IPA, early 80's.

 

my memory is this: in the early days of craft beer's significant impact on & presence in my market,Denver, which I would put in the late '80s, I drank primarily 3 things: Red Hook ESB, Fullers ESB (yeah, I know--import) and Bridgeport IPA. Oh, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Even through the mid '90s this was my jam. So my first IPA was undoubtedly a Bridgeport and I probably had Red Hook's version, Long Hammer, a few times in there. I probably also had a few Odell IPAs but was probably more interested in their Pale Ale back then, which (before 5 Barrel) was called Cutthroat, same name as their porter, IIRC. But by far my favorite beer was Red Hook ESB, which is why I never got to 10 tours at Old Chicago--so many of my beers, back when I drank most of my beers in that bar, were the same SKU.

But when I fell in love with IPA was on a family trip to Cape Cod and the IPA in question was Harpoon. It just knocked my socks off. Looking back that trip must've been summer of 1995.

The damn beer STILL isn't in my market so I've had it infrequently over the years, and don't even know if I'd still like it. My palate definitely moved on from Bridgeport IPA and Long Hammer, both of which I HAVE tried in the last 5 or 6 years, once each and that was enough.

 

I drank the Ballard Bitter before Longhammer came around.

 

The BridgePort came after that time period, however, so you may be mixing it up with something else. They didn't introduce the IPA until '95-'96; prior to that it was Blue Heron, Coho Pacific, Pintail, names like that.

 

I don't know that it officially counts, but mine was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I was 19 and visiting one of my friends at his college, he handed me one, I cracked it open, took a sip, and hated it. Thought it was so bitter and gross.

Well, I was wrong.

 

Thanks! Those were some names I was wracking my memory for.

Got to enjoy them at the Portland location and at the San Francisco spot (if I'm remembering correctly) too.

 

Harpoon IPA. At 21 in Boston in 1999 going to Harpoon fests and brining home plastic pint glasses was how I filled out my dishes.

 

One of my friends worked at the Portland brewery during the 90s, so I spent many an hour drinking many a pint there.

 

That's where I got to rub shoulders with the Beer Hunter.