Your first real craft beer experience?

I was visiting my best friend at his university apartment, which was sort of like two sets of duplexes stacked on each other. The university is in my hometown so a third friend of ours from high school was also going to swing by.

we heard a knock on the door and thought it was him. After hurling playful insults at him we heard another knock. I opened the door and a woman shoved a six month old baby at me and said I’ll be right back and promptly ran away.

We sat the baby down on the sofa and stared at it, too terrified to touch at as we had no clue how to take care of a baby. After a couple of minutes passed we phoned the police, having a sinking feeling that the mother wasn’t coming back.

Shortly after we heard a commotion coming from behind the apartment and looked out the window. The mother was chasing a man with a golf club, hitting him on his back as he ran away. We updated the authorities and stared in amazement as the police showed up. The baby crapped his diaper and we had no replacement.

the mom eventually came back up and thanked us profusely. We wished her the best. Then our third friend showed up with a six pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It was the first craft I’ve tried and remains my favorite beer to this day, and occasionally I drink to the mom and baby (who is probably 13 or 14 now’s health.

 

It was 2012 and I made my very first trip to Hill Farmstead. This was also my first experience with "line culture". I remember getting there 15 minutes after opening, thinking I'd be in good shape. Hahaha. I think it took me 4 hours to finally get to the small counter to order bottles and growlers. They were serving little "tasters" in 2 oz cups. I think I had like 5.

Despite how miserable that sounds, it was worth it. The beer absolutely blew me away, and I had spent over $100 on beer for the first time ever, thinking that was some kind of pinnacle (hahaha).

At that point, I had really only drank Sam Adams beers and the occasional random bottled IPA from the beer store to try. But I was blown away by Abner and Ephraim and of course Edward. The rest is history.

 

Continue on with the story even if you have to make up the rest of your tale.

 

Ah, I won't even attempt to top that story! Props dude!

 

There was a beer bar in DC called the Brickskeller that had a couple hundred different beers available. I think we went there in the late 80’s or early 90’s. They had so many choices, in the days that you only had Bud or Miller. I think they closed around 2010. I only recall visiting a couple of times, but the beer options were eye opening

 

I wasn’t really into beer until I hit age 46, and joined this site in 2015. I’ve had various macro beers over the decades (North American and European) and also a few brewpub beers (Rock Bottom, Ellis Islsnd, 777) before 2015.

Hacker-Pschorr Weisse and similar German wheat beers were popular in the 1990s here in Chicago (wheat beers remain popular here and the Midwest). The bartender would roll the bottle (didn’t know why), pour it the large appropriate glass, and in most cases inappropriately garnish with an orange or lemon slice. Still not a huge fan of the style, so wasn’t converted into craft beer in my 20s.

I do vividly recall my first SNPA during one of my first visits to the Wynn casino about 15 years ago. It was still relatively early, and I didn’t want to start my Makers on the rocks yet. I saw a few people drinking “the green labeled beer” aka Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I asked the cocktail waitress about it and she said it was piney, which sounded nice, so I ordered one. I really liked the pine flavor and bitterness, and ordered a few more before hitting the bourbon.

On return visits to Vegas, I would continue to look for and order this beer for afternoon and early evening drinking, not knowing it was even available outside of the Nevada or California until I joined this site and began shopping for beer in grocery / liquor stores.

I now regret not discovering SNPA or other craft beers like Goose Island in Chicago in the 1980s/1990s, or further pursuing other craft beer until several years after “discovering” SNPA, though I am trying to make up for lost time.

 

Great thread. I posted one similar a year or two ago about nostalgia and craft beer. I've lived in GA my entire life. It was the late 80's and early 90's (the drinking age in GA had changed from 18 to 21). At that time, there was not a lot of craft beer around. We did have SweetWater (GA), Terrapin (GA), Red Brick (Atlanta Beer Co.) and nationally known brands like SN but I was a broke college student (yeah, back then it was easy to get away with underage drinking in college or rural towns) and we all went for the cheap stuff. If I wanted to go "upscale", I might would grab a Molson Golden or Amstel maybe one or twice per year.

After I graduated from college, I went to work with my dad. We did a lot of traveling to various parts of the country. Around 1994, when I was 24, we took a trip to San Leandro, CA. The first night we were there, the evening manager at the hotel recommended a restaurant a few blocks away so we gave it a shot. We were thirsty for a cold beer and as we perused the beer list we spotted this beer call Anchor Steam. Well, being the dedicated beer drinkers we were, we had to try that. Wow, that opened up a new world of possibilities. It was full bodied; you could taste and smell the hops and it had a mild bitterness and clean finish. World of difference vs. my normal Miller Lite. After that, I started exploring all the others but the Pale Ales and IPA's didn't stick with me as well. It wasn't until later when I started drinking German Hefe and Lagers that I really started understanding how good beer could be. Strangely, as a side note, that was also when I started better appreciating a full range of beer styles. I also wanted to drink more beer made fresh and locally; thus, began to drink more at the local breweries.

My dad will be 83 this fall, God willing, and we still drink a few beers together. He has a love for Dunkel and Schwarzbier, so I take him some of the locally made ones or imports he may not have tried before. We don't drink Anchor Steam very often, but it always brings back some good memories when we do and it's still a good beer.

Awesome thread @Shanex! Thanks for starting it.

 

It's aways interesting to me to hear the perspective of someone who grew up in Europe on this. I would have thought you would have gone to the "craft beer" choices in France, Belgium, Germany, etc. right away. Sounds like price and availability still matters a good bit, at least to younger drinkers.

 

For me it was within a week of moving to Chicago to start my first job. My department had a Friday "party" where a cooler with cold beverages was put together. In there I saw several bottles of beer with a rustic-looking green label. I was like, all American beer is crap (I had just moved to the US after years of living in the UK) but let's try this thing. One sip and the rest is history. It was of course Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

 

I willing to guess there are a ton of people SN had that effect on!

 

In my first year of college (fall 2005), I went to hang out and play video games in the dorm room of a senior who lived on the same floor as me. He offered me a beer and I accepted, expecting to be given a Coors light or similar. But he handed me a Goose Island Oatmeal Stout. I enjoyed it. He told me any time I wanted to enjoy some "better beer," I could give him case before his weekly liquor store run.

The next weekend I gave him $10 and asked him to get me a six pack of whatever his favorite beer was. A couple hours later he delivered me some cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The rest is history.

Thanks, Kyle!

 

My first “craft” experience was in 1988 in Chicago at the original Goose when I was 25. Couldn’t tell you what I drank or if I liked it, but I do remember the food was very good.

After that, it was back to Miller Lite with Red Dog as a “premium.” Really. Then I Benito Amstel Light, which took me up to August 2005, when I was 42 and in Kansas City at Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, where I ordered my obligatory Amstel Light.

They didn’t have it.

My rep suggested, “Try a Boulevard.” What’s a “Boulevard?” Turns out it was their Pale Ale. I was blown away. When I got back home to Mankato, my local had it, and it was always in my fridge for probably the next year.

A few years later, I found BA. And here we are.

 

Oh, Jack Stock Barbecue! I've been to Overland Park a couple times. The first time I ate at Jack Stock and got hooked on the Burnt Ends. You can't find that many places in my part of the country. Love that place.

 

I'm sure I had a few in college and post-college but nothing i'd consider an experience.

I very much remember my first experience being at the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. Sat next to a very nice stranger who shared a few bottles (i never did remember exactly what they were) with me and i was hooked. That also became my local spot for years to come

 

A brewery had opened in downtown Battle Creek and the local newspaper gave them a good review for the food, but I don't recall much written about the beer. (The reporter probably didn't have a clue either.) That was in 1996, I was 50 and had been an AAL drinker for 35 years.

My wife and I went to check out the place and when our server was taking our beverage order I told her I didn't have any idea what to order. She recommended a sampler flight which had a pale ale, stout, porter, and IPA. I fell in love with the porter, but hated that grapefruity IPA. I never ordered an IPA anywhere for two years before venturing into that style again. Today, hoppy beers are my favorite style.

 

My first ever beer was a skunked Corona I stole from my aunt's fridge when I was 12. Such a horrific experience I only drank craft beer when I started drinking a few years later. Believe my first proper, non-stolen beer was a Magic Hat #9 and I loved it. Funny part now is I love corona with lime as a go to dive bar option, and you couldn't pay me to order magic hat anywhere.

 

Concur with the last part!