What was your 1st imported beer?

Stella, Belgian beer at its finest!!

 

Probably Lowenbrau, maybe Beck's. Fancy shit in the 1970's. Dos Equis was early on. I remember Tuborg & Erlanger (was that an import?), but those were probably later. Heinecken was in there somewhere too.

[edit] Carlsberg was another early one. Foil, man. That's how you can tell it was good.

 

Been so long ago that it's a toss up between Corona and Lowenbrau...can't remember.

 

From the FWIW department:
For all of the Lowenbrau folks, here's the contract-brewing timeline just so you can double-check your dates on whether it was an import or not at the time-
1975 to 1999- Miller brewed an 'Americanized' recipe in the US
1999 to 2002- Labatt takes it to a Canadian brewery (technically an import, I suppose)

Post 2002 we have been receiving the Munich-brewed beer, but sightings have been spotty.

Anyway- that Lowenbrau Dark in the 70s/80s was great stuff no matter where it was made, but it was my own very first Import that led me down that path: Heineken Dark.

 

I had a skunked Lowenbrau that was imported from Canada thanks to Labatt brewing it for North American in those days.

 

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout or Guiness

 

Good call - that was one of the first beers I remember really enjoying. While lesser, Dos XX Amber was another.

 

Heck, yeah- the Dos XX Amber was the good old reliable choice at Mexican restaurants in those days, before Negra Modelo started showing up.

 

Molson Golden, when I was a teenager. We thought we were styling when we brought it to a party.

 

Carling Black Label, prior to being of age. Molson Golden once of age.

 

Tuborg was brewed domestically by Carling in the US starting around 1972, don't remember when the license expired but Heileman brewed it for a time after buying Carling-National in the late 70s. (An interesting "craft" side note is that the VP of Carling at the time was Joe Owades, who, besides developing the early "light beer" Gablinger's for Rheingold, also worked on the recipes for both New Amsterdam Amber Beer and Samuel Adams Boston Lager.)

Erlanger was Schlitz's late 1970s attempt at a "super-premium" - coming out just a few years before ithe company collapsed. Stroh continued to brew it after buying Schlitz - eventually reworking the label and recipe - into, at least, the late 1980s.

Unless you were getting your Black Label in Canada and "self-importing" it, Carling Black Label has been a US-brewed beer since Repeal when Canadian Breweries,Ltd. (later "Carling-O'Keefe") licensed the brand to the Brewing Corporation of America, which the Canadian company later bought and renamed the Carling Brewing Co., running it as their US subsidiary into the late 70s. After that, it followed the familiar ownership route of Carling-National>Heileman>Stroh>Pabst, which still markets it in some regions of the US. Starting with the Heileman-era labels, they did play up the Canadian heritage of the label.

 

I was going to say Lowenbrau but turns out it was brewed in the USA by the time I had one. So probably Guinness.

 

Heineken. During my first year of drinking I had five while playing Golden Eye and didn't feel drunk until I went to bed. That was also the first time I had spins, alcohol-induced vomiting, and an absolutely miserable flight the following morning.

 

Probably a Belgian. I would guess Duvel.
Could have been a Canadian Unibroue, though.
Maybe a Guinness?
We are talking about 14 years ago. I don't recall clearly.

 

Birra Moretti, though I was in Italy when I tried it at 17

 

Rochefort 8. Between that and Rochefort 10, they're still a must have in my beer stash.

 

Tecate on trips south of the border in the early 70's, then later drank a lot of Carlsberg Elephant Beer and Lowenbrau.

 

Loenbrau for myself as well around 1987. Tasted so good. Tried one about a year ago, and it still tasted good. Then Corona, Labatts Blue, Molson, Moosehead...not sure which order though.