First "Good Beer" Experience!

random 40's= Late High School
Keystone & Bud Light= College
Heineken, newcastle, Sam Adams= Post College
Kasteel Rouge, KBS= about a year ago.. Hello craft beer world, so very nice to meet you

 

Turning 30 this year. Damn time flies, got a kid on the way too. Felt like it was yesterday playing beer pong with steel reserve in the college dorms.
18 to 23: macro lagers & 40s
24 to 25: german lagers & Belgian ales
26 to 27: all styles of American ales including sours, but no hoppy beers. I hated hoppy beers for a while. Palate too underdeveloped
28+: IPA, DIPA, Barley Wines. Ironic that I hated these styles 2 years ago and now they represent about 70% of what I drink.

 

I rarely drank beer as a teenager. I thought it was disgusting. Molson, Labbatts, Bud. I didn't like it so I didn't drink it.

As I got to my mid twenties I drank lots of wine. Learned a lot about wine really enjoyed wine.

3 years ago I was out with friends and they forced a Guinness on me. I drank it and noticed some layers of flavour. It wasn't sweet fizzy yellow juice. I tried some more Guinness, Kilkenny, Smithwicks, etc. it got me into exploring different beers and actually enjoying them. Tasting them like you would a wine.

I don't drink a lot of wine anymore. I drink good beer. I read about beer. I love discussing beer.

I love DIPAs. I love stouts and Porters. I am just getting into exploring Sours and Lambics.

 

Malheur 12. Remember it like yesterday, so much flavor and drinkable beyond belief! I didn't notice it was 12% until I looked at the bottom of the beer label. I've been hooked on Belgian Strong Darks ever since.

 

Guinness started me exploring good beer.

 

Sophomore year of college - at U of Iowa - a friend drove back a keg of Fat Tire from Ft. Collins. that is the first significant exposure to craft beer that I really remember...and I'm also fairly certain I didn't really appreciate it enough at the time. At that age though, beer was much more of a financial decision...30 pack of Keystone Light costed roughly the same as a 12-pack of Sam Adams.

 

Portsmouth, uk 1971 cask ale. Navy visit.

There were still folks calling themselves hippies in the 1990'? lol

 

Way back when in college (circa 2007) when I stepped my beer drinking game up incrementally - went from frat party BMC & European macros to buying 6pks of Sam Adams and DFH and trying whatever Stone bombers I could come across.

 

Having had mostly the mass-market version, I used to not like beer. The sole exception would be a hot day, when quaffing it quenched my thirst faster than water.

Then one day I was stuck at a birthday party at a beer garden, when a colleague I used to try different lunch places with, recommended me a Weihenstephaner Korbinian. It was like the proverbial bulb lighting up my taste buds, and it turned me toward appreciation of well made beer.

 

Sam Adams Triple Bock. A little blue bottle-poured out like syrup but tasted like BEER...My Budlite tastebuds jumped out out of my mouth and ran in fear of the second sip...I remember thinking back then [the 80's] 'who would ever pay for a six dollar 6-pack of Heineken or Bass? '..I wonder how much that little blue bottle has cost me over the years...

 

It only gets quicker from here, my friend. This year thirty, next year forty. And your kid will be in college in the blink of an eye. It seems like my daughter was a newborn yesterday. Now we're signing her up for kindergarten. Enjoy it while it lasts and keep on drinking. Cheers!

 

1970 Café Belgique Amsterdam Chimay Blue. Spent 2 months drinking everything they had to offer. Ate out of the automat down the street to save money for the beer.

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale!!
It was approx. the year 2002, again my big time hippy buddy gave me one, then 2 then 3 and I don't remember anything after that...
It was either that instance or another me and my peeps were skating the "Dust bowl" and one of my dudes showed up with a case of kronenburg around 2002 also and I liked that too!! But I have no clue which happened first!

 

Boston lager around freshman year in college in the mid 1990s.

 

My introduction to beer was in the days when the area was dominated by three excellent small local breweries.Assuming that it was well kept (and we all knew who served a decent pint and who sold vinegar!) it was as good as anything of its type today.

 

Tuborg Gold.

 

Was walking around Santa Rosa, CA in late 2006 with my my wife and sister in-law who lives there. She decided to take us to a local brew pub for some drinks to rest out feet. My mind was blown!

 

New Glarus Spotted Cow. Maybe 10 years ago.

 

Love Mackeson XXX. My first very good beer other than Sam Adams (which was very good at the time). Still my all time favorite - but cannot find it any more. My first taste was 1999.

 

St. Pauli Girl and then St. Pauli Girl dark.....I was ruined from then on out.

Ahem----that is back when it was considered a "good beer" and a premium at that.