What was your first craft beer?

Yuengling Lager...when it was still obscure. Fat Tire also

 

DuClaw Euphoria Toffee Nut Ale

 

I drain poured my fist craft beer!

Kidding, probably a Liberty Ale circa 1986.

 

When was Yuengling Lager ever obscure in PA? Maybe the first month it was released?

 

yeah ,that was my introduction to "great" beer.
although weihenstephaner hefe isn't probably considered a "craft" brew its a gem and its the best beer in that style.
I'd probably have to say SNPA.

 

I was a stella Carlsberg export guy till I popped in to my local Waitrose & a bottle of Thornbridge Kipling caught my eye ever since i've tried maybe 100 or more beers!

 

Still in PA, NY, OH area is what I meant

 

On a bigger scale, I'd say either Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Sam Adams Boston Lager. But what really did me in was Mother Earth's Dark Cloud and Old Neighborhood. I didn't know beers could be that different, haha.

 

I believe my first craft beer/the one that started it all was Ranger IPA from new Belgium

 

My roommate in college and I bought an Otter Creek mix pack when I turned 21 because I wanted to try something different other than the Busch and Keystone we had been drinking in college up to that point. The first beer I had out of it was the Stovepipe Porter, I remember choking on it at first.

 

It would have been one of our local regional brewers , either Home Ales or Shipstone's.That's going back well over 50 years. Happily a beer based on Shipstone's, brewed by one of their brewers is still being made and I've just sunk four pints of the mild this lunchtime.
Regarding the new micro breweries,because the locals had things sewn up pretty well we didn't get their products until the late 70s.
In this part of the country we never lost our small local breweries at the time when keg and lager became the fashion.By the time they were swept away there was a mass of beer from small breweries coming on stream.

 

Highland Gaelic Ale

 

Stone IPA if I don't count my time while stationed in Germany.

 

Sam Adams Honey Porter when I turned 21 back in the 90's. First 6 pack I purchased by myself.

The next few were all IPAs from local brew pubs.

 

I was always looking for something a little different in a beer. When I first began drinking beer on a regular basis i preferred Michelob ("Michesnob", as my buddies called it!) then I moved on to Dos Equis Dark, Lowenbrau Dark, Guinness, Grolsch, Carlsberg, Pilsner Urquell, Becks, you can see a definite preference for the imports. Pete's Wicked in the late 1980's marked my move towards a domestic craft beer.

 

Had Chimay Blue for the first time last week.... Must have been a great introduction into better beer!

 

Sam Adams Boston Lager. Maybe Augsberger Dark?

At one time I thought Killian's was the epitome of sophisticated next-level beer. I drank Killians and Sam Adams a lot as I graduated from college bullshit beer (mainly MGD and Special Export), long before I had ever heard the word "craft" or considered myself a beer officiando.

 

First one that ever remember trying years ago was Flying Dog's Old Scratch. Only because I love Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman does their artwork.

Recently the beer that I first really "noticed" was St.Feuillien's tripel. That was the beer that made me go "Oh man, I really need to start trying new beers! There is beer that can taste amazing!"

 

The one beer that opened the floodgates for me was Saint Arnold's Elissa.

 

rouge dead guy ale/heavy seas loose cannon/black cannon/victory golden monkey/ass kisser dipa and there was one more. It was a make your own 6 pack and I can't remember which one I drank first.