What was your gateway craft beer?

It was 2011 sitting in a hotel bar in Wisconsin tasting Lakefront Brewing beer.

 

Boulevard Pale Ale.

2005.

Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue in Kansas City.

 

Boulevard Wheat. Growing up in KC Boulevard was readily available. But what really got me into trying different beers and exploring was a trip to Europe when I was 20 and drinking in English pubs and then spending two weeks in Zywiec Poland and drinking Zywiec Porter for 2 weeks. Light beer forever sucked after that.

 

The one that broke me off of "blue beers" was newcastle.

The one that got me to venture out even farther into craft was Breakfast Stout. Then one day the lady at my local bottle shop asked me if I'd ever tried Kentucky Breakfast Stout and I was hooked.

 

Marijauna . . . Oh sorry, thought we were taking about something else.

Just kidding, my craft entry beer was Belhaven Wee Heavy. Tried it at a craft bar in DC in the early 2000s. Liked it so much I started going to a speciality bottle shop. It's still my style flagship.

 

For me it was my first visit to The Brick Store in Atlanta when i moved there in 2005. I had liked craft beer in NC before that. We had a local called Red Oak that i enjoyed, and Paulaner Hefe was a go-to, but TBS opened my eyes to the breadth of beer. At first i loved the big belgians, like Gulden Draak, Delirium Nocturnum, Rochefort, St Bernardus. Then i got into the stouts, especially Yeti. I used to go there and just close my eyes and put my finger on the menu and order whatever beer it landed on. Thats how i tried my first Framboise. I hated it!

 

My gig as an Outward Bound Instructor in Maine in the mid 1980's afforded me one or two days off each month. Geary's Pale was the first favorite.

 

At Brooklyn Bowl in 2009, I went to the bar to pick up a pitcher of beer and saw something called Sixpoint Sweet Action. Thought it sounded better than the usual Miller Lite so I tried it. Great decision although my wallet wasn't too happy at the time!

 

God, which time?

My first craft beer experience was getting drunk off my ass (I was 13) at my grandfather's funeral on Fat Tire.

However,love for craft came with the Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter that were always in the house. Only in college did I find the really interesting stuff...

 

I don't think I could pick just one but there are many that are responsible for my love of craft beer.

Stone IPA, DFH 90, Stone AB, Ommegang Hennepin, Victory Hop Devil and Prima. These are just a few.

Cheers!!

 

Back in high school, my friends and I would go "garage shopping" (stealing beer from peoples fridges in open garages... , ashamed now and still waiting for retribution). Anyways, most was the typical light beers and such, but one day we got some Sam Adams and Redhook ESB ! When I started BUYING my own later, I would grab 2 six packs, one I knew I liked and one I never had, and the rest is history...Cheers!

 

I've had a few "gateway" ones over the years.
I was never a BMC drinker. Of course I was experienced in them over the time, but I never thought it tasted at all good. This changed when I was about 17 or 18, and a family friend who had a gourmet store with cheese, wine and beer brought a few "new" things for my dad to try. My folks were pretty easy about my trying stuff then, so I got a try a couple. The one that hit me was Dixie's Blackened Voodoo. Partly because of the label, and partly because I hadn't seen anything that dark at that point.I still wasn;t much of a drinker, went off to college and the unofficial beer of the place was Natural Light Ice. Worse than any of the other BMC crap I'd had at the time, (it's main appeal was how cheap it was) so I didn't drink at that point either. My 21st birthday my friends took me to a brewpub and it was all over. When I started buying my own, it was all stouts and porters - anything you could see through wasn;t worth drinking. That went on for a few more years, Then a friend brought over a Ruination. Once again, the end. I was an unabashed hophead for a few years more. Then I started going to a weekly tasting at a local store. I wasn't into Belgians at the time, but the guy who ran the tasting was, so we had a lot of those, and I learned to appreciate them. Over the past few years now, I've been more and more into the lighter, simple styles - pils, helles, etc. Not as into the heavy duty stuff anymore.

 

The first beer that really got me thinking "there must be something to this craft beer thing" was dragons milk.
Later after trying singles here and there. I came across a little beer called rockfort 10 and I was hooked.
Then in my first trade I was able to get a bcbs and being in Ohio that was a big deal. And my mind was blown.
Those were the 3 beers that got me into craft beer

 

For me it wasn't just one beer that made me appreciate what we now call "craft beer". It was a combination of different beers over the course of a semester or two (circa 2006) while at college in Boston that made me appreciate good beer.

The now-retired (I think) Long Trail Hit The Trail Ale was one of the first beers I had that I really enjoyed.

I had a sip of my friend's Rogue Brutal Bitter Ale that really impressed me when it was an ESB-style ale; stupid of them to change it).

I also remember a friend of mine got a keg of Blue Moon for a keg party in college and it was eye opening to me. Another friend had provided kegs of Magic Hat Roxy Rolles and Circus Boy at a party we hosted. By then I was enjoying SA Octoberfest and SA Double Bock (man, I miss the old Sam Adams double bock recipe). Pete's Wicked was also really good but was starting to become less common on the market place as it once was (wanderlust cream ale and strawberry blonde come to mind).

 

Bass Ale in the late '70's.

I had enjoyed Coors, Olympia, Lowenbrau and the occasional Heineken before then but had detested all others but a few craft brewed beers during Octoberfests in Frankenmuth, Michigan that I never knew the names of. Bass Ale foamed my head to a completely different flavor profile that soon led me to Samuel Smiths, Fullers, Tetleys, Youngs, Bodingtons, Belhaven and of course - Guinness.

Sad that this entire list no longer is brewed the way it was back then, imho.

 

BP grapefruit sculpin + Victory at Sea

 

Berkshire Brewing Co's Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale. I was on a picnic in Hanover, NH and needed only one bottle of beer to take with me. At the local food Co-Op, Berkshire had the cheapest bomber I could find at $5. From there, I proceeded to try every Berkshire variety in the store.

Big shout-out to BBC's Coffeehouse Porter, which was also my gateway into stouts & coffee beers.

 

Boulevard wheat with a lemon. I drank that exclusively for a few months, then decided to go to a beer tasting. The first sample I was poured was of nearly room temperature old ruffian. The taste was perfectly described on the label and my mind was blown. That was 9 years ago and I haven't bought a BMC beer since, though I have had one or two that were offered.

 

I try to get my dad into some lighter beers sometime, but all he wants to drink is bud lite lime. Whatever, just happy to drink with the old man.

 

Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Buddy in college was given a 6-pack of each from his dad, but he couldn't stomach either (not nearly as good as a natty, I guess?), and so began the downward spiral into craft beer obsession.