Do you remember what got you into craft beer?

New Belgium and Big Boss harvest time

 

For me it was a summer variety pack of Sam Adams my Dad had lying around last Fall. He doesn't drink beer, so it was just sitting there. Knowing I'd turn 21 soon, I figured I should learn to like beer, even though my previous experience with BMC didn't make that very easy. I loved the Sam Adams pilsner and kolsch, and appreciated the flavor variety in that pack. Later I had an opportunity to try a Paulaner hefe, which made me love that style, and then when I turned 21 in May I just went all out. Now I'll drink basically any style of beer. They all have their merits and I can appreciate all of them for what they are.

 

What got me into craft beer? Divorce.

Well, that and having a BJ's Brewery across the street from my new apartment (after the divorce, see?). A friend who had just recently discovered craft beer (this was in 2000) came by and offered to treat me to a sampler across the street.

I had only tried BMC lagers before and hated them, so I was hesitant. By the end of the sampler flight, I was hooked.

 

Back in the very early 80s. I don't think I saw the Dinkel Acker Oktoberfest past '85 or so, but it was very good stuff.

 

Great Lakes Edmund Fitz....SNPA....West Sixth IPA

 

My friend and I back when we were like 21, 22 used to go into this beverage center to buy our 30 racks of Keystone Light...we would walk buy all those magical brews on the shelf we always thought of as gross or weird beers... then we started trying them almost as a gag. We would try different things that looked crazy, weird or downright awful. I remember seeing Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout and thought that would be the worst stuff going. I got the set with the Nut Brown Ale and it came with the 20 oz. stout glass... at the time, we actually DID think it was gross, but going from Keystone to Sammy Smith Oatmeal Stout...its not exactly a gateway beer. But we started trying the Saranacs and the Magic Hats, Mississippi Mud, Long Trail... eventually the tables turned and we found that Keystone and the other beers we drank before were crap! Oh, and that was like 8 years ago and I still have that Samuel Smith Glass!

 

About 20 years ago I had a Sam Adams Triple Bock, but didn't really know what I was doing, and thought Sapporo or Foster's were import "splurges" for special occasions. Hell, I bought Sierra Nevada to celebrate my birthday back then.

Fast forward...

Two years ago, I was sitting in a bar waiting on a train, and they had Hercules DIPA on tap. Had never heard of it, much less a beer that had 10% ABV. I had "a couple," and they made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I rather liked it, and have branched out from there. To this day, Hercules and Great Divide are part of my "go-to" baseline.

 

Long trail double bag and #9, then sunset grille in Allston MA after college and the rest is history....

 

AAL's got me into craft beer.

Seriously, though, I hadn't drank much since my college days until a friend had me try a Blue Moon (their standard Belgian White). Having previously had only AAL's and skunked imports, this beer was quite an eye-opener for me. From there I started trying their sampler packs, then pale ales. Once I had a SNPA, I burned through a pale ale phase. I was still drinking "crafty" beers and "imports" then, too. IPAs were a novelty for me; something I'd get a craving for every once in a while but nothing I had to have in the fridge all the time.

Then one day I stumbled upon an Enjoy By at my local liquor store. "Limit 1." Why limit 1, I thought? What's so special? So I picked one up, went home and drank it, then immediately schemed how I was going to get a second one from that store. I've had almost nothing but craft beer since (unless there were no other options of course) and I've managed to turn into a hop head.

 

My first move to the PNW back in 2000 did it for me(if you consider Boise to be PNW) My first craft beer was Deschutes Black Butte Porter.

 

Living close to victory, my intro into craft beer started with hopdevil and headwaters pale ale. Now I try everything. it's like an adventure every time I go to the beer store.

 

Buddy brought me to a local bear warehouse and I've been a maniac ever since.

 

I lived in Portland Oregon in the early nineties. I was also like three years over drinking age at that point. I also liked to get a good buzz on at that age (still do). Basically craft beer was all there was to drink. I hadn't developed my palette yet though. I was just drinking the heaviest stuff I could find. All porters and stouts and God knows what. Then one day around 2004 I got married. My wife and I would go out to Washington to visit my folks from time to time ( we like the train). She got into wet hops. She said it was like hot peppers ( I like hot peppers), the hops burn a little hole in your tongue and nothing else will satisfy after that. So I started getting into IPAs and ten years later I can't drink anything else but IPAs and the occasional miller. Or sometimes tequila and modello when we go to Mexico.

 

Moved from NY to LA in 1992. Was very disappointed that the Molson tasted different. Went for some West Coast stuff I had never tried like Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam & Henry Weinhard's. Game on!

 

My brother got me into craft, drinking while under age. The progression went Molson, Yuengling and then Saranac and it hasn't stopped since. Gave me my first taste of DFH Raison d'Extra (no, not 'etre). He also bought me my home brewing equipment and got me started on that hobby.

 

You should've been hanging at Chumley's!

In any event- it's great that you found the good stuff. We had it in NY at the time, but you had to know the secret password to find it .

 

I was always into it, even mentally, starting when I was a kid. My dad always had (and still always has) SA Boston Lager in the house, so that influenced me. Plus, I wasn't much of a drinker in high school, and I didn't get along with the kids who tended to get their older siblings to buy them 30-racks of whatever BMC they felt like that friday night, but I didn't want to seem like a total lame-ass, so when people would ask me about drinking, I told them "I like to drink a bit, but I don't like being drunk. I like to have a couple good beers and that's it". My lie to fit in was a self-fulfilling prophecy, it would turn out. Fast forward to college, and I've found that do like being drunk, and will drink BMC whatever if it's all there is at a party, but those occasions are rare (plus, Narragansett is very popular- I don't consider that in the same league as BMC) and I do of course prefer craft and always have some in the fridge. I still never buy BMC to drink at home or order it at a bar (exception if money is tight and a bar's got ≥$2 pints- at that point, who am I to complain- I'm 21 and consistently broke), though.

 

I used to listen to the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen podcast (RIP). One of the members of that show split off to do his own podcast, The Beerists (http://thebeerists.com). I listened to them in preparation of my 21st birthday. Then I got a 12 beer sample pack from my parents (mostly Bud, with a Fort Collins Brewery Chocolate Stout thrown in for good measure). It was all downhill from there. I was obsessed with trying all the different brewers and styles.

 

60 minute ipa did it for me.

 

I love Weyerbacher. Visited them in July. Great tour, excellent beers.