What was your gateway craft beer?

In NJ back around 1980 the choices were very limited. Our group experimented with the handful of Canadian and German beers that were available and while we didn’t love any of them they made us curious to keep searching.

Bass, Fuller’s, and Watney’s were probably the first non-lagers that I tasted and they really appealed to me. They were hard to find and pricy but hinted at what might be possible.

Eventally Anchor Steam made it east, and Sierra Nevada shortly after. These beers were a revelation, fresher and hoppier than anything I’d had previously. Sam Adams, New Amsterdam, the Merchant du Vin offerings (Celebrator, Samuel Smith, Lindeman’s), Grant’s, Rogue, and more varieties from SN started showing up on shelves as the market grew.

So for me Anchor Steam Beer and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale were the gateway crafts, with an assist from English imports.

 

My 'gateway' craft beer tale... It was late 1981 or maybe early 1982. It was a cold evening in Seattle. Now I had been a hometown beer drinker since ... well about six years before it was legal for me to drink in Washington. The hometown beer was Rainier, brewed right next to Interstate 5. Rainier was the Seattle beer, I was from Seattle, I drank Rainier. One day a work colleague started telling us of this great ale he had at Murphy's Pub in Seattle's Wallingford district. It was called 'Red Hook'.

Now this was before it was called 'ESB' or the product it is today. It was simply 'Red Hook Ale'. Several of us headed to Murphy's after work one Friday, and there we were drinking this lovely, hoppy, malty, cloudy ale from half-yard and yard glasses. Damn it tasted good. Was damn filling, but so wonderful!

After that, I couldn't drink Rainier much anymore. Red Hook was a Seattle beer, and it became my new R' beer. Trouble was it wasn't bottled, and a very select few bars around town carried it. I got to know where these bars were. In my search I was introduced to Bridgeport, and Widmer, and Grant's, and Hales, and there was no looking back. The trouble was none of these were bottled, and I liked having a beer at home. As far as bottled beers, I found an 'import' store near work that sold the European bottled beers, and this one from San Francisco called 'Anchor Steam'. And so it went. My Gateway beer was the original Red Hook Ale.

 

Leinenkugel's Red was my first entry to craft beer. It was early in my beer drinking days and I while I drank many (too many) Buds, Busch, Keystone, Coors Lights, I knew each style had it's place.

 

O'Dell's 90 Shilling had to be the beer I remember the most. I first had 90 Shilling at a Home Brew fest before the brewery was even started. The following year they opened their brewery and 90 Shilling was and is one of their beers. Wish I could get it in Ohio.

 

I'll never forget...it was the early nineties...I was a young beer naive dummy wasting life away drinking bud ice at a popular bar. A lot of people there were drinking Newcastle Brown Ale. I went to order another bud ice, and the bartender gave me a Newcastle by mistake. As I started to return the bottle a guy next to me told me to try it, and that he would buy it if I didn't like it. One sip, and I never looked back to crappy beer. I no longer drink Newcastle though. It's definitely lost its taste over the decades.

 

Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.
Didn't know beer could have flavor and be complex.
Amazing.

 

When I was young there was only the macros available. In the Navy I had the opportunity to try an Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock. That made me realize that beer could actually be flavorful. Then came Guinness. But the real hook came from my 1st Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It is still in my rotation to this day!

 

For me it was Highland Brewing's Gaelic Ale. Back in the 80's

 

Charrington Toby was probably by first go-to "craft" beer. I say "craft" in that it wasn't a generic Molson or Labatt brew that dominated the beer scene in Canada for so many decades, but it was brewed by Molson as an attempt at an English ale. Up until I had a Toby (in the late 1980s), I think I'd only had generic beer.

The next craft beer that I recall having, in the early 90s, was Sleeman Cream Ale, from the then newly-revived Sleeman Brewing & Malting Company. I haven't had a Sleeman Cream Ale in years, and these days, it seems like a pretty generic beer, but that was the one that got me into exploring beers.

From then, I was hooked, and rarely went back to mass produced generic beers and then almost only when I was offered one as a guest.

 

Kind of like asking about one's first passionate kiss.
In retrospect, It may or may not have been particularly good, but you knew there was going to be more and better. Although in my 50+ years beyond adolescence, high testosterone levels got replaced by learning about beer... or at least that's my advice; beer costs less, also.

And learning about beer is really an evolution.
In the 1970s, Anchor Steam was my first kiss.
In 1980, I was introduced to darks via Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout and a malt-head was born.
Probably 1984, the woman who became my first wife (she wrote cookbooks) pronounced Dupont's Saison to be "delicious"... and I started learning about pairing.
Since then, I've developed my Belgo-phile personality and, now, most intently study how American brewers evolve their Belgian yeasts.

 

For some reason, back in 2006 I volunteered to work at the World Beer Festival. Never had a craft beer before. After my shift was over, I walked around doing some tastings. The one that I remember more than any other was Saison DuPont. Clean, beautiful out of the bottle, I was in the "scene" now whether I liked it or not! I've graduated more to stouts and heavier beers, but I can still remember the epiphany I had with the first GOOD beer that I drank.

 

Around 1987 I was frequenting a pub in a an 18th century stone house in Clay Twp., Lancaster Cty., PA called Whatney’s. They had a contest called “drink yourself around the world,” or something like that, where you buy a bottle of imported or obscure beer and they punch your card. You got a tee shirt if all the card was punched. I remember drinking Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout and Anchor Steam Beer. A few years later I started home brewing and going to breweries.

 

...Probably Leinenkugels and Heineken Dark, at that time there werent many choices. A few years later got my hands on some SM Nut Brown, delicious!
Came out west in the mid-80s when SNPA was becoming popular, but the one that did it for me was Anchor Liberty Ale, I dont think there was a better tasting beer at the time.

 

I think for me, it was Magic Hat #9. I'm not sure if that counts, but it taught me that there's something out there beyond Keystone Light or whatever. I drank mostly MGD before I came across that.

 

WTF is up with all these Initiates coming out of the woodwork to comment on this thread... is this a bot or are they legit?

 

There was a cross-post on Twitter recently, and I assume it is related to that.

 

Not a "craft" beer, but a bottle of Watney's Red Barrel at a pub in North Dartmouth MA in '87. It was a revelation that there was more to beer than the Rolling Rock and Stoney's I was drinking at the time. I don't remember my first taste of SA Boston Lager, but I remember ordering it when my dad took me out to dinner at Legal Seafood shortly after that. A friend and I subscribed to a beer of the month club; I remember Celis, from Texas.

 

Redhook ESB, fall 1988.

And it's been a pretty hoppy ride ever since.

 

It was a slow process for me. It started, believe it or not, with Leinenkugel Red and Hefeweizen (before Miller started exercising so much control, they actually had a really good Hefe that was only available on draft in their brewery). Then Anchor Steam and Hoegaarden and Newcastle and Sam Adams. But even then, I didn't really drink that much craft beer. What got me started with the good stuff to the point of never going back was Delirium Tremens, Goose Oatmeal Stout, and Sierra Nevada, all of which I tried for the first time about the same time (I'd say 2000). Alpha King was a game changer for me too, because I didn't love hoppy beers before that - Sierra Nevada was the closest thing to an IPA I would drink. Also, Bigfoot was another game changer, because I didn't realize big beers like that existed.

 

Anyone want to share their gateway beer story?[/QUOTE]

I was living in Charleston, SC, and my buddies surprised me for my birthday back in 2011 and took me to Westbrook Brewery for their first anniversary party, where they released Mexican Cake. Also had a quad beer for the first time, as well as a Gose. Completely changed my beer world. Thanks Dave and Brent.