How long have you been drinking craft beer?

With this thread still going, thought I'd jump in with my first post though I seemed to have created a BA login about 6 years ago and then went dormant as life got in the way.

I'm in the 27-year range for starting my transition into better quality beers than the macro swill that was the norm for 3 or so years prior to that. Used to go on half-price pint night at a beer bar and restaurant that had about 12-15 taps. They also gave us to-go containers with one for the walk home. First foray into a few Belgian and German imports, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Pete's Wicked, Harpoon, Catamount, and the like.

Of course, a couple other nights of the week were occasionally spent at dive bars with $1-2 pitchers of Yuengling or drafts of Guinness at a neighborhood Irish bar.

 

My first 'craft beer' experience was when I was 20 years old, in 2003 or so. I had drank BMC up until then in college, with the odd Amberbock or Dos Equis Amber sprinkled in. I went to a brewpub in a neighboring town with a class group. Ordered a “Red” of some sort and it was amazing. Bought a growler and kept it in the fridge, which promptly went flat. I didn’t know they did that . . .

Graduated college and “graduated” to Fat Tire, SNPA, Sam Adams and the likes. Didn’t have a lot of options in Iowa in the mid/early oughts. Craft beer boom soon hit and I took full advantage. Was a good time to be a craft beer drinker. Started to brew in that time period too.

It’s all leveled out now; there’s an embarrassment of riches in the stores now. I regularly pass up Toppling Goliath or Surly stuff I would have killed for 10 or 15 years ago.

 

Yeah, when I had it from BW, my love for it turned to like. My memory is probably wrong but I thought that the label said Tumwater.

 

Welcome to the forums. Visit and chime in as often as you wish. We're always here 24/7.

 

Missed the poll. Oops. I'm 42 and have been drinking craft since 1995 when I was pilfering them out of my old man's fridge.

 

That would have been later - circa 1998-2000, after Stroh/Heileman closed Blitz-Weinhard and then went out of business and Miller bought the former Olympia brewery in Tumwater from Pabst to, in part, fullfill the BBC and Pabst contracts. (IIRC, there was even a Boston v Miller lawsuit when Miller closed Tumwater and expect BBC to pick up the shipping cost to the west coast from Eden, NC. Somethin' like that.)