The route into craft beer?

the route usually passes thru SN or SA and proceeds

 

Tiny sample size, but that was my beginning and two of my friends. Maybe just because IPA's are the craze today

 

I still hold the belief that it strongly depends on your food/beverage habits prior to getting into craft beer. The people most likely to like IPAs from the get-go are probably people who like their coffee strong (although coffee drinkers in general, I'd argue, might be more apt to liking stouts and porters), and people who smoke weed, as hops/cannabis are related and many IPAs have that skunky pot smell and taste. I do not like coffee nor smoke weed and I hated IPAs the first time I tried them, and there seems to be (of the small samples size between my friends) a correlation between pot heads and people who like IPAs right away. I would also think people who liked certain vegetables might like IPAs. For me, though, I had to learn to acquire the taste for IPAs, beginning with less bitter pale ales and wheat beers.

 

I didn't like any heavily hopped beers for the first couple years I was drinking craft beers.

 

Jump in beer for me was a Porter, just getting into IPA's this year, and its taken quite a few to find the right ones and for me that is one that is not over 65 IBU unless it is an Imperial then I can go up

 

I tend to think so because most "standard" beers are not IPAs, but IPAs are not as huge a leap from those standard beers as other craft beer styles (stouts, Belgians, fruit).

I also agree with a few that the entry point to craft beers are the larger crafters and their general ales, or what not. But the question isn't whether people's first foray into craft is IPA, it's whether that is their preference (maybe I am inferring "or what they are looking for").

I do love IPAs but have grown into Belgians and even imperial stoudts, but my go to would still be an IPA. My thought is, because its a little "safer" than some styles, that more often than not, the statement is true. Obviously everyone has their own experiences and the question is broad enough for interpretation... And apparently I am in the minority on this.

 

I was too. Still by far my favorite style. I do enjoy IPAs and IIPAs, but that took a little time

 

Drink everclear then craft is easy to get into...

 

It was a porter that lured me away from my previous love of Keystone Light. Grant's Perfect Porter, sadly it is no longer made and I think that Grant's is no longer with us.