Which Beer(s) Got You Started, Western BAs?

I don't know if "got me started" is really accurate, but i was definitely reinvigorated/hooked by a bomber of red hook double black stout, purchased at a fred meyer in bellingham in the fall of 1997.

 

Fat Tire and Alaskan Amber were my intros in 2000-2001. I went to graduate school in Ellensburg near the end of Bert Grant's brewpub existing in Yakima and I went there a couple times. A few years later one of my dad's best friends became the brewmaster at Deschutes so I started drinking lots of Mirror Pond and got into beer from that point forward.

 

I had been into good beer long before I moved out here. In fact, beer was a big part of the reason I came out for vacation in the first place. Used to get some of the Mendocino back in NY, but I think that was brewed in NH. The first beers that grabbed my out here were Deschutes stuff, especially Mirror Pond and Black Butte, and Bridgeport Blue Heron Pale.

 

My first "Wow, this is different" beer was Rainier Ale, the old "Green Death." Very different from all the AALs around. I was drinking that in the late 70s. I also remember Anchor Steam as a very early distinctive beer. My first local craft micro that stands out was something by Bert Grant.

 

Mendocino “eye of the hawk” , red hook esb, lagunitas ipa, pyramid , Marin brew co , and of course Sierra Nevada pale ale was a common keg at high school parties in the Bay Area in the mid to late 90s.

 

Pretty similar to what's above. Pete's wicked, Mendocino's hawk beers, Anderson Valley (lovin' the Belk's Bitter back before I knew what an ESB was). Anchor & Sierra. Jamaica Red. Lind brewing before it was Drake's. We used to sneak into Bison brewing on Telegraph before I turned 21 since they pretty much never carded. Good times.

 

Eye of the Hawk was one of the first "whales" I can remember trying to chase down. Brewed twice a year, stores limited you to 1 or 2 bottles max, etc. (circa '94 or '95).

For me it was Rogue Nut Brown or Grants Russian Imperial Stout in the late '80s, which we used to get at the Father's Office in Santa Monica (when it was a dingy bar frequented by vets before they started making burgers and became a hipster beer bar).

 

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar? Yeah, I can understand that.

 

When I turned 21, I went to a bar for the first time legally. I saw the bartender pour an orange beer. At the time I assumed all beer was yellow. I asked what it was, he said Sam Adams Boston Lager. I immediately ordered one. Loved it. As soon as I was done, I noticed an Arrogant Bastard tap handle and knew I needed to try it. I was obsessed with Stone for the next couple of years. Once I finally landed a decent paying job, I found a nice liquor store with a great selection and started trying everything I could get my hands on.

 

Ain't gonna lie, McTarnahans Amber

 

During undergrad in OK, their shitty alcohol laws shifted me to things like Guiness, Negra Modelo, Shinerbock and Breckenridge's Avalanche Amber. But arriving in CA for grad school in 2001 opened the craft floodgates. SNPA, Mirror Pond, Black Butte, Red Hook ESB, Arrogant Bastard, Racer 5, Red Tail Ale, Rubicon IPA, my list could go on and on and on...

 

I was raised conservative pentecostal, so all alcohol was forbidden. Shortly after I finally figured out I could love Jesus and drink beer, I was at a Chili's for dinner with friends, and decided I was going to have my first real beer. Got a Widmer Snow Plow, back in 2007. Was hooked after that. First beer I ever brewed was a Snow Plow clone.

 

I suspect quite a few people (living all over) cut their teeth on Redhook, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, and Widmer. We had access to those in the mid 90's even in Alabama. The west coast breweries had better distro than their eastern cousins.

 

New Belgium was formative, with sunshine wheat being the main drive at a late night punk show for me. Honey brown made some rotations in as well. I didn't go for hops for a long time after. But New Belgium was sticking it to the man in my eyes, and I'm all for sticking it to the man. So I was sold on it %100.

 

And now they're sold on it 100% too!

 

Developed my palate on the east coast, where $2 pints of Dogfish Head 60 Minute at happy hour were always enjoyable, but the true revelatory beer for me was Smuttynose's Portsmouth Lager.

 

Yellow beer to SA BL to Stone AB... I was expecting this sentence to end with using stale bread to scrape your tongue and swearing off colorful beer for the next 5 years...

 

Dead Guy for me. I grew up going to the Newport location every summer of my childhood and had so many good memories from it. Had my first beer on my 21st birthday (2007) and it was a Dead Guy. My craft beer journey started that day and now it’s my livelihood.