Do you remember what got you into craft beer?

Curiosity took over when I was 20 and it was all thanks to Bud Light. Got a bottle at a Cubs/Reds game at Great American Ballpark, took a sip and wondered just where in the blue hell the flavor went. I had drank it plenty of times but at that exact moment it just tasted like water. Not long after that a friend had me try an oatmeal stout (no clue which one it was, honestly) and from then on I just wanted to try different stuff. Started with Dundee, Boston Lager and Guinness Extra Stout. Haven't looked back.

 

Arrogant Bastard. Maybe because of the name? Don't really remember, for that was many beers ago. But I do remember drinking a lot of the stuff in the early 2000's.

 

Sounds like you were already into craft and didn't know it/still wont admit it. Drinking stuff like Anchor and SN is leaps and bounds better than what I used to drink before getting into good beer.

For me, it was transitioning from Miller High Life to a locally brewed pale ale (Nimbus, Tucson AZ) that was constantly over-carbonated. It's really not anything special, but the fact that it was cold and fizzy, helped hide the "hoppiness" but peaked my interest in trying new beers aside from the crap I would drink.

 

A good friend handed me a bottle of SNPA 15 years ago.

 

Hated BMC/Old Style in 1980-81 high school. Buddies and I started on euro-lagers as a supplement then one buddy learned of home brewing and the whole micro movement. Living in Chicago helped get our hand on Anchor and early Sierra Nevada et al. But it was 1983-84 Ballentine IPA (Falstaff version) and Naragansett Porter that really caught me. Wow they were good (in my memory).

 

Young's Double Chocolate Stout and Anchor Porter brought me here.

 

Don't quite know the answer. I was always akin to drink different beers than the normal ones. But on my last trip, I've been to Stockholm and in some bar they had Maredsous 6 on tap. I tried it and it never stopped.

 

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome was the brew that pushed this youngin' down the rabbit hole.

 

I was 18 or 19 and already sick of drinking BMC crap, and I don't know what even gave me the notion that it existed but I asked my dad to get me "good beer" and he picked me up a 6-er of Dead Guy Ale and after running through most of their offerings I found this site and it took off from there.
At 21 I was finally able to make my first official beer purchase on my own which, along with others, featured Abyss and Old Rasputin.

 

Birth.

 

I used to hate beer, but then about two years ago my boyfriend began to widen my horizons by introducing me to beer outside of the crappy college beer I was used to (budweiser, etc). The first beer I believe I liked was Blue Moon, though not exactly craft. I think I really started to get into craft beers about a year ago when I went on a brewery tour of Sam Adams, where I was introduced to Oktoberfest. It was then that I began to realize there is a whole world of beers out there that I never even knew existed, and now here I am looking forward to going to a bunch of craft beer events in Chicago this weekend

 

Jolly pumpkin la roja. Blew my mind. Lead me to so many other great sours and other beer styles for that matter

 

Schaeffer, Piels, Rheingold, Budweiser, and Coors. Like asking what got a man dying of thirst into water? The desert did!

 

DFH 120

My uncle who loved craft beer had one sitting on the counter and I asked him what it was. He then "we can open it and share it if you want" and I was sitting there thinking, why the fuck would I want to share a 12oz bottle of beer. Anyway he cooled it down and then split into 2 snifters and after I took my first sip I realzized what I was missing out on. I thought it was incredible. Him living about 10 min from DFH he loves all of their stuff. So I have been trying to lock down the 2003 C&C 750 bottle of 120 min to give to him as a gift for opening my eyes to the whole craft beer scene. Just this week I was finally able to get one. Awesome.

 

2009 New Belgium La Folie .. i couldn't believe a beer could taste so 'sour' it literally blew my mind. I still have one unopened that i'll keep forever as a reminder.

 

I decided I wanted to start homebrewing, well, just because. Sam Adams and Red Hook were my favorite "exotic beers" and I really didn't know much about beer in general, let alone what constituted a "good beer" or how to make it. The engineer in me just wanted to make some beer and learn more about the process. I bought a book (Papazian), some rudimentary equipment, and a recipe kit and I was on my way. On my first brew day, I opened my first packet of pellet hops. "Wow! So that's what hops smell like!". That was ~8 years ago. Been hooked ever since.

 

I would say I have to thank Sam Adams and Guinness for getting me into it. The first real good brew I had which totally jumped me into craft brews was SN Stout and weihenstephaner (how ever you spell that ridiculous name) original premium.

 

BMC and their cousins, like jax, pearl, hamms etc. aka AAL and my hate of these so called beers drove me to Euro beers.

 

A buddy of mine from Santa Maria asked if I ever see Russian River beers in my area (bay area) and if so, would I pick him up a couple bottles. This was a year and a half and several thousand dollars ago...