Your first real craft beer experience?

Miller bought the Henry Weinhard trademark in 1999 when Stroh/Heileman went out of business and Pabst bought most of their other brands. Initially, Miller operated the old Olympia Tumwater brewery (which, had been owned by Pabst since the 1980s) and brewed HW there. They closed Tumwater and for quite a few years they had it contract-brewed at Full Sail in part to be able to label it an Oregon brewed beer. That ended in 2013.

Even that official article from Molson Coors is inaccurate. Pabst bought Blitz-Weinhard in 1979 and then Heileman bought the brewery and brands in 1982.


Stroh bought Heileman in the mid-1990s and it was Stroh that closed the Portland brewery as they went out of business in 1999.

 

I should have added the following link to a story about the reintroduction of Henry Weinhard PR:
https://www.google.com/search?clien...irefox-b-1-d&q=henry+weinhard+private+reserve

 

Its terrible nothing like even the PR from the late 90s .

 

For me it was the mid 90's and a combination of Guinness, Newcastle, Sam Adams, and Anchor Steam. I didn't care for the typical Bud/Miller/Coors stuff that was everywhere so I didn't really think I liked beer. I was mainly drinking Woodchuck cider and whatever random alco-pop was around at the time. To be honest, I didn't love the Sam or the Anchor at the time, but I at least found them mostly drinkable. The Guinness and Newkie were legitimately good to me, though. They were the gateway to a few other items that I would eventually grow to love: Pete's Wicked (especially the Maple Porter), Redhook ESB, and Fat Tire.

 

Age 14. Anaheim, CA. Stole some SN Pale Ale from my stepsister and remembered it tasting like cold dog shit because it was prolly a few years old. Still drank it with my friend then went to basketball practice with a decent buzz and failed to put the ball through the hoop even once Lol

I was a wayward shitbag as a teenager and I'm sorry I stole your beer, Megan. But thanks for having good taste cuz years later I would try it fresh on tap based on that memory and it blew the lid off the rest of the beer world for me. Proceeded to cut my teeth on Murphys Irish Stout, Anchor Porter and Rogue Dead Guy Ale then moved into the "fancier" stuff and never looked back. Cheers to you Megan!

 

Mid 80s to early 90s. Whatever Bud/Bud light I could try a few sips of from my step dad while camping.

1993 - 1997 whatever my older friends found that was cheapest in the biggest suitcase at the packy. Old Milwaukee, Bud Ice, Icehouse, Red Dawg. Molson Canadian kind of drew me in as much as any beer could at that point in my life. My first specifically looking for a beer moment occured when I crossed into Canada near lake Champlain to buy Molson XXX. I heard it had more alcohol in it and couldn't be sold in the US. Seeking it just because of the alcohol, so still my stupid kid head driving things.

1998 I was done with my shift at Electronics Boutique and went to hang with a co-worker at Uno's bar area. Sam Adams Oktoberfest. Beer can be enjoyable and not simply a means to an end? Start the curiosity.

1999 camping in VT and I tried Catamount. I think it was 8 lives or similar name. Hooked.

2000+ Catamount dies and so did my desire to ever buy beer just because it was cheap or I'd get S faced off it. First next tier step Simco, everything with Simco please. Pine bomb me to hell.

 

Think I've told this story before in other threads: was "ticking" wacky AAL/craft beers in late 90s/early 2000s... then discovered Total Wine and discovered Victory\Weyerbacher/Troegs around the same time. Then someone at a new job recommended Grape+Gourmet (RIP) in VA Beach... the rest is history.

 

Miss Weinhard dark....that was a good one back in the day.

Cheers

 

Sprecher Brewing Black Bavarian. Milwaukee, WI. 1998.

 

I was sort of into craft before it was craft, maybe like M. Jourdain speaking prose without realizing it...

In 1973 or so Mike Royko, a Chicago Tribune columnist, wrote an article singing the praises of Point Special Beer and claiming it was America's best beer. It was a tiny brewery in Stevens Point, WI and according to Royko Point Special had bested all the best selling beers in a taste test. Royko marveled at the toylike brewery, the workers putting the bottles in crates by hand, etc.

So I had to try it, and ca. 1974 it was hard to find even in Madison, where I was a grad student. But I did eventually find it in very pretty steel cans, and drank it from that point on. I found it much better--mellower, slightly sweeter and richer--than the major brands (Pabst ruled the roost in those days in WI). I was even a beer snob avant la lettre, telling my friends that I drank a much better beer, bringing it to parties and holding forth, etc.

I've had Point Special since then and have found it entirely unremarkable. But then I learned that up until 1995 Stevens Point Brewery had used a wooden bright tank-- I wonder if the wooden tank might have had an effect on the flavor of the beer. Here's a brief article on the history of the tank, made by the Dunck Co. in Milwaukee:

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS2683

 

Differences among the AAL brands even in the 70s were minor. Preferences are personal. Point Special might have been Royko's (and your) bests, but opinions varied. Of the small AAL brews in the midwest, I preferred Huber Premium. Among the larger ones, Pabst Blue Ribbon. Those brewers also made my favorite US superpremiums in the 70s: Augsburger and Andeker.

 

Anchor Steam
Pete's Wicked Ale
Dock Street

 

Same year and same beer for me (Boston Lager/Boston Ale at same time). I was still in my senior year of college but a friend of mine got an accounting job up in Boston working for Sam Adams (and he also ran brewery tours on the weekends). That’s all it took.

 

As I mentioned before, my wife got me into the craft scene with Heady Topper. (Good Wife)! This brought me to BA. But before that i had some decent belgian brews (i lived in Bitburg, 40 miles to Belgium and France, 60 miles to NL and 10 miles to Luxembourg): Rochefort, Orval and Duvel. My friends were drinking "Bitbuger Pils" and considered my choice as undrinkable or forgetable....

 

WOW; that´s a story!!!

 

Yes, when differences are very minor (as between AALs of the period) one tends to notice them more. When differences are exaggerated the minor ones tend to disappear.

I too liked Huber a lot in those days, like Point a little sweeter and richer. Absurdly cheap too--what was it, $3.45 a case, or something like that?

 

You might not call it craft, I'm fine with that. But it was the first widely available American beer that didn't taste just like every other widely available American beer. People had not fully narrowed down the definition of craft beer yet, so I'm gonna still call it my first craft beer.

 

Henry's might have been the first interesting beer available to you, but there were plenty on the market before Henry's. Most just weren't consistently distributed in the west. And Henry's really didn't get far east. Widely distributed were Pabst Andeker (national distribution), Hamm's Waldech (mostly midwest and west), and Falstaff's Ballantine Ale (national). I do remember seeing Waldech when I visited the northwest in the 70s, but I didn't see the others. In the early 70s I lived in CA and drank a steady diet of Ballantine Ale, with some Andeker and Anchor Steam for variety. Rainier Ale was a west coast phenomenon then too.

 

I remember in 1976 Huber's Hi Brau Bock 12 qt returnable quarts at Foremost liquor in Chicago for about $4.59 plus tax and deposit. A tasty beer (probably relabeled Huber Bock) for a great price.

 

It's odd that yo say Henry's wasn't craft because it was brewed by a medium sized regional brewery, but then you tell me Andeker and Waldech were craft-both brewed by very large breweries. And both beers that to this day I'd never heard of, and I drank a lot of Pabst and Hamms-they both tasted exactly like every other AAL. I'm not trting to argue but you are not very consistent. And to compare Henry's with Michelob makes me think you never had Henry's, they did not taste remotely similar.