How long have you been drinking craft beer?

Many decades....I am 63 and have been drinking non-AAL since the 1970's and imports and such - Anchor, Christian Moerlein, Augsburger, Pete's, Great Lakes, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams etc - many "youngster's" on BA do not remember (or were not born yet) the "first micro-brew" wave of the 1980's and 1990's
There were a number of microbrews (as they were called then, not "craft") out in my area of NE Ohio, who did not survive the first wave (Liberty St Brewing, Burkhardts, Blimp City, and others).....it boggles my mind how many breweries there are in the US now, versus 10-15 years ago.

 

About 50 years. Anchor Steam (ocassionally) beginning about 1971 or 72. Started hombrewing about the same time.

 

Or maybe the Haze Bros and Kool-Aid Kids are choosing to avoid this thread? Nothing in the title about "Hazy" or "Juicy-Juice".

Cheers!

 

I started with Rolling Rock pretty much. Tried some New Belgium and Goose Island that didn't do it for me, went back to Rolling Rock. Around 2011 I started branching out a bit more. I think I started packing my fridge with Newcastle and Schell in 2012. First real WOW beer I had was probably Old Rasputin. Game changer. Passed out on the couch with 1/3 bottle in my hand. Became a stout fan and the rest is history.

6-10 years was my vote.

 

Didn't realize Tap & Growler also opened right around the same time. Place was nice, too.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-12-30-8704060885-story.html

Last I heard it was a craft beer bar, but I don't know if it's still open.

 

Good craft beer for about 10 years, mass produced craft beer for about 30 years.

 

a) Yes, craft beer definition isn't a good definition for good beer, maybe useful only as an industry size classification.
b) I was able to sample about half of the beers in your long list (that I truncated above after a few Ballantines), thanks in part to friends who brought us sample beers from around the country in the early 70s.
c) I'm not sure that the DoL inflation numbers are necessarily a good indicator for consumer goods. I'm not an expert, but housing and health care might have an outsized impact on the DoL number. Also, liquor excise taxes that are included in the price certainly haven't risen at any rate comparable to inflation (and craft brewers get an extra tax break).

 

I moved from Halifax to Toronto in 1990 and that’s when it started for me.

 

Thanks, my absence was unintentional. Been in quarantine for a damn year now and had little to post about. That and a paucity of beers available to me. Got my second shot yesterday so I'm ready to travel. Might buy a new SUV and hire a cute college coed to drive me around.

 

Been about 13 years for me. Had my first Hearty Hop from NG when I was 17, didn't like any alcohol at the time. Boy was that an eye opener.

 

We're glad that you're back. If that coed thing comes true, tell us how you managed to do that. Some of us might need some new pick-up lines.

 

first "Craft" beer was Sam Adams Boston Lager in the fall of 1992 as a HS Senior...the evolution of beer since then has been amazing

 

He said "hire" not "pick-up".

 

Late 90s so 21-25 years... that's as much math as I'll do.

 

True start 1987, Northampton Brewery opened, and from that point off to the races. Commonwealth Brewing in Boston as well
Prior to that it was, English, German imports.
Cheers

 

My first full beer was a Sam's Boston Lager when I was about 16, and that was 2004. In college I never messed around with macro stuff really (other than the occasional Genny Cream Ale and PBR.) I mostly went for Wachusett Blueberry or Smuttynose mixed 12 packs. So I guess that's 17 years? Which is real weird.

 

Hah! Good deal, man. Just don't try to do too much at once.

 

Before I married my wife in 1981 and had a 2 month honeymoon at her family home in France I was a solid Miller High Life drinker with occasional experiences with Tuborg Gold, Lowenbrau(German and domestic), and Henry Weinhart(sp) in the late 70's. But my French father in law loved Belgian beer, and one brother in law was an over the road trucker in Europe who brought me cases of beer from wherever he had just been. That kind of ruined American swill beer for me. I was also an early fan of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and whatever else I could find, which was not much where I lived. So I started homebrewing in 1992, which required massive amounts of "product research", usually done on weekends.

 

I started young in my late teens and early 20s in the 70s. (Not counting taking sips of beer at our family crab feasts before my teens.) German and English imports turned me onto beers other than AALs. Dortmunder Union, Dinkelacker, and Hacher-Pschorr, Guinness, Old Peculier, Bass. Then, I experienced Maryland's first microbrewery, which I believe was Oxford in my growing up town of Glen Burnie, MD and the Weeping Radish in the Outer Banks, NC, where I vacationed, which I believe was NC's first microbrewery. I got married and had 3 kids and for 14 years, starting in the late 80's, I did not drink. Maybe I should not have started again. When I started up again, the landscape had changed so much! There is so much more brews today. Craft is so exciting!