What was your gateway craft beer?

For me the ones that started it were either Anchor Steam back in the early eighties or a few of the Point beers. Another early one was Blue Hen back in the early Nineties

 

They have it everywhere in Montreal.

 

Mine too!

 

Sam Adams Double Bock. (It was a while ago.)

 

Mackeson XXX Stout was the a-ha moment....

 

My first beer was a craft beer - a Shiner grapefruit Hefeweizen - so I’ve never had a change-over moment. I’ve never really drink Big Beer as a habit, and for that, I’m grateful! I think the beer that really opened my eyes to what beer could be was the first time I had a Belgian Tripel - I believe it was Chimay. That really impressed me with it’s simultaneous level of drinkability and flavor, and it will likely always be my favorite style of beer.

 

Probably Sam Adams Boston Lager. Moved to Massachusetts from Florida in early '87, and thought I'd try a 6pk of something "local", so I picked up some Sam Adams Boston Lager after work one day. I HATED it!! lol. This was nothing like my beloved PBRs'!! Fast forward 2 years I find myself back in Florida and a new "bar" was opening next to where I worked, and they advertised something like 32-36 taps. Unheard of at the time, especially in FLORIDA. Anyhow, I saw Sam Adams Boston Lager on tap the first time I visited, and decided I should give it a second chance, and "boy howdy" I'm glad I did! I went in every afternoon (almost) after that and tried beers like Double Diamond, Watney's Cream Ale, and any and everything else they had on tap. I'd indulge in 2-3 pints, and catch the bus home. I was hooked.
In the coming years since, I've learned to "homebrew", and I'm always trying new beers. Even today, I tried Elysian's Def Leopard Pale Ale, which was quite good. I've got alot of work in the form of tasting / trying new beers these days, as I've left the heat & humidity of Florida long ago, and now reside in the beautiful and very beery State of Oregon, just an hour from Portland. In fact, tomorrow I will be visiting the newest monastery brewery in Mount Angel, Oregon that was reviewed in the latest issue of BA. You can't imagine how "spoiled" I am these days when it comes to beer. Cheers!!

 

1. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. 1998.( I was 20) A friend brought it with us to a large hippie-style gathering in The Northeast Kindom of Vermont. ....from there my biggest influences, the beer that kept me exploring was:
2. Sam Adams ...they had such a great variety of style, it was easy to get a grasp of what I really liked.
3. Magic Hat. The art work on the labels drew me in.
Sam Smith blew my mind with it's quality. And so it goes....

 

Drank a lot of Newcastle Brown in the early 90s, graduated to Saranac, Magic Hat and Guinness, but Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is what got me to the site and the rest is history.

 

I’m going to say Timothy Taylor Ram Tam might have been the first - had it as a student and maybe 100,000 pints later still go with real ale if I can find it

 

Sprecher Black Bavarian. It was the 80's in Milwaukee and out of nowhere this very Germanic-looking label started showing up in the local beer coolers. Up until then about the closest I got to thinking about craft & beer was getting excited whenever Huber (Minhas) released their "bock" each year--hey, cheap beer with flavor & body! This Sprecher stuff was something else, though--and then came their maibock, their doppelbock...

One day I noticed their gryphon logo on an industrial chimney and realized the brewery was within walking distance of my house. Remember going down there to pick up a keg for a party and being greeted by Randy himself, who had a stein going at his desk (it was a Friday afternoon...) but took a break to show us around. Struck me as the coolest job in the world, and probably still does.

 

Red Hook and Black Hook, fresh from the tap at the McMenamins' first taproom, the venerable Barley Mill Pub. It didn't hurt that I lived ACROSS THE STREET! Those were the first actual craft beers I experienced, but Euro imports had already stretched my palate for several years: Watney's and McTarnahan's especially.

 

Oh! And of course Tooth's Sheaf Stout.

 

SweetWater 420

 

For me it was Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse. Met some German guys while in college in the early 80's and they turned me on to a German place on campus that had $1 Hacker-Pschorr night once a week. Went there for $1 beer and came out a changed man.

That was the first beer I'd ever seen that wasn't your typical American pale lager. I was shocked at the different visual appearance and flavor profile. As a broke college guy I stuck to the Hacker-Pschorr that night, but this started my exploration of beer styles and my quest to try everything unusual I could find.

 

Not a great beer....but....a friend of mine included a Trader Joses Dark in a present and it got me interested. My first IPA(which is my favorite style) was Hoppyum by Foothills brewing

 

I g(th)rew up in St. Louis on Anheuser-Busch products. Then, I went to college in the late 80s-early 90s in Columbia, MO and discovered Boulevard's Bully Porter. KC had it goin on!

 

Junior year of college 2004. I was sick of pounding Natty Light, Rolling Rock, & Corona. I randomly bought some local Squatters American Wheat...I was like "damn, this is fresh!" From that point I went to Blue Moon, Sam Adams Lager, and a local favorite from home: Roosters Chocolate Stout.
A couple of years later, my first IPA experience: SN Torpedo Extra IPA. Hop bombed!

 

When studying abroad in South Africa, beer was sometimes cheaper than water. Up until that point, I had only tried Budweiser so I thought all beer was along the lines of watered down cat pee. As a broke college kid, I ended up with the cheaper option which was beer. The main beers were Black Label and Castle. Needless to say, after six months, I had developed a taste for beer. When I got back to New York, where campus is, I started experimenting with the different local beers. I think the first American craft beer I really took a liking to was Magic Hat #6.

 

It was 1995 and I was in Boston for business and for dinner we stopped at a pub in
Faneuil Marketplace. My co workers said lets have a pitcher of something called Eye-Pee A, from a brewery named Harpoon. I tried my first IPA and fell in love from that moment. Next day we stopped at a micro brewery, my first, called John Harvard , and I was hoked.