What was you first Craft Brew?

Anchor Steam sometime around 1980

 

1992 Hosters Brewing Wheat beer in Columbus Ohio.

I was 22 and had just moved from Detroit to Columbus OH. I had no idea what a micro brew but was soon happy to live about 8 doors down from one

 

I had a Sam Adams Boston Lager at a wedding in MA back in 2001 and hated it! Prior to that, was probably a Heineken sometime in the late 70s.

First brewery was definitely Weyerbacher about 5 years ago.

The rest is history. . .

 

First craft brew: Karl Strauss Red Trolley
First brewery: Karl Strauss

That's the best I can recall, anyway. I moved to San Diego in 2005 from a small town in southwest Virginia and at the time wasn't a beer drinker outside of cheap swill from college. I saw Red Trolley in a grocery store and thought it was pretty cool that it was a beer brewed in my new city! Sweet! Who knew, right? And then I saw they had a restaurant downtown, so I ate there and bought some beers direct from the company that made them, while eating their food. My mind was blown, lol.

 

Sad to admit this, but it may well have been a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat when I was 15/16 years old. Didn't care for it then, and sure as hell don't care for it now. SA Boston Lager, Yuengling, and SNPA would have followed in pretty quick succession after that, and changed my life.

 

Uncle used to drink Fat Tire all the time when he wasn't downing BudLight, he'd go to NC and buy a case of FT every few weeks before we got distro and he let me try that at like 19 so I'd say that was my first time. Then I started trying everything I could.

Earliest memories of buying craft when I turned 21. Thought I was cool, so I drank a whole six pack of Flying Dog - Raging Bitch one night (very fast). Was not ready for that. Lol. Learned that day about ABV% and that it was not meant to be guzzled.

 

It was either Sierra Nevada pale ale or Long Trail Ale.

 

Henry Weinhards 1977?
New Glarus Early 90's?

 

First craft beer would have been Dixie's Blackened Voodoo - I was probably 15 or so. Didn't have the whole thing at that point, probably a small sample. First legal beer would have been on a cruise when I was 19, SABL, (drinking age is 18 on those.) on land on my 21st birthday my friends took me to a brewpub, and a couple days later bought a 6er of Sam Adams Cream Stout.
I don't remember what my first craft brewery was - Maybe Harpoon or something.
I did go to the Budweiser one (well, my parents took me) I was about 4. Most of what I remember is the Clysesdales (and dalmations) and stream of cans on the packaging line.

 

From Bozeman Montana, Black Lab raspberry wheat around 1995. My first beer with taste. Never looked back

 

First beer = Yuengling

First brewery = I would have to say Breaker Brewing Company in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

 

I had Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot at some point in the early 2000s, then Boston Lager and Raging Bitch after that. First brewery tour was Magic Hat iirc.

 

New Glarus Spotted Cow.....and I've never looked back.

 

Solsun. I haven't had one since I moved to Kalamazoo over a decade ago! During the early days of craft beer, this was readily available and known in Michigan. Like in the 80s. Yes, that's what it was initially called, but Molson argued there may be some confusion... So before you give Larry a hard time, consider that, please.

 

Depends on the definition of craft. Falstaff wasn't huge, kind of regional I guess, snuck one that became first beer when I was about 7.

If that's not it, we have to go to 1989 when a buddy shared with me a sixer of Lienenkugel. Along the same lines of Falstaff, it was a run of the mill lager, but ultra regional.

Finally, a bona fide entry is circa 1993 when I first discovered the Pete's lineup. As much as i liked Wicked Ale, Strawberry Blonde from Pete's was my water for about 2 years back in good ole grunge days.

 

The whole family had been into craft for a long time, yet I was too young to really care. But my brother worked part time on the weekends at a local brewery and he would send me back to college with a flat or two of the brewery's beer (without my parents knowing, as I was 19) he would get monthly for free. I would bring it back to the dorms and my buddies would rave about it. Not because of the taste, but because our minds were blown that there was beer out there that was 9%, and there was a world outside of Keystone light.

But to answer the question-
1.) my first real experience with a tasty brew when I turned 21- Community Mosaic IPA- a delicious 8.6% brew from here in Dallas
2.) Deschutes brewery in Oregon, I was maybe 17 at the time visiting family up there and didn't think much about it. Now that I'm 23 I sure wish I could go back!

 

Falstaff was the third largest brewer in the country (late 50s-60s) and stayed in the Top Ten through to 1980 or so --- eventually folded into the other S&P-owned brewing companies (General, Pearl, Pabst) under the "Pabst Brewing Co." umbrella. Granted, not much left of it besides the "Ballantine Ale" brand - sold off Narragansett and dropped the Falstaff brand itself.

In '89, Leinenkugel had already been owned by #2 Miller for around 2 years

Hey, don't mean to pick on your post specifically since there's about another half dozen replies that warrant a " " (St. Pauli Girl and other imports, beers from Genesee, Yuengling, Dixie, Blitz-Weinhard....) but I guess that shifts the topic down the rabbit-hole of "What is this 'craft beer' anyway?" --- which even the Brewers Association refuses to answer.

But, I guess, I know what it ain't (well, give the nostalgic topic, maybe just "what it weren't"? ) and, certainly at the time, the industry would not have considered beers from America's small and regional breweries founded before the late 1970s (save for Anchor, of course) or any imported brand "craft".

 

Anchor Steam - February 84
Penn Brewery - Pittsburgh

 

I've been drinking beer since the late 60s, but my first craft beer was Allagash Grand Cru in the early 90s.

 

Sam Adams Boston Lager/Abita Springs Brewery