What was your gateway craft beer?

Sam Adams Imperial Stout...

 

Boulevard wheat was my first craft beer that I drank often. Pseudosue showed me a whole new level of beer.

 

Ommegang Abbey Ale

I was tired of the usual party beers (MGD/Corona/whatever) and figured there had to be something else out there. Grabbed something off the shelf that cost as much as a 12-pack (for one bottle!) and was immediately converted .

 

First I tasted some random beers in a local pub, each one was by recommendation of the bartender.

We started with Sixpoint Resin, Brewdog Punk and Três Lobos, all ipas, a hardcore start for newbies like me, and all very different of my usual american adjunct lagers.
I didn't like too much of IPAs in the beginning because the bitterness, at this point I wasn't used with strong bitter beers such IPAs.

But the beer that opened up my eyes was Westmalle Trippel, in the first sip I knew that it was a different "breed" of beer with it rich complex taste and full body. Since that day I became a real beer lover, and never stopped to try new beers and styles.

 

Every time I reply to a thread like this my answer is different because I simply eased into it rather than having that one awesome epiphany. I started with Coors Light, then got fascinated by Grolsch (????), and Fat Tire came soon after. Breckenridge Brewery was the first craft brewery that I became obsessed with, so I would say Breck Oatmeal Stout or Avalanche Ale would be my craft epiphany beers if I had to pinpoint it.

 

When I was still young I drank mostly Coors light and other similar beers, but I made friends with a few guys that were older when I moved out of my parent's house and they drank a variety of micro brews. I remember trying Lagunitas IPA, Red Tail, and SN which over time got me branching out from macro beers,

 

Not really craft beers but Boddingtons/Kilkenny were my first two gateway beers! Still enjoy them from time to time as a reminder!!

 

When I was in Dublin, I visited an astounding bar called L. Mulligan Grocer a bit north of the river, and a block away from my air bnb. I had a fleadh ale (an Irish IPA) by The White Hag brewery. I suppose now it would be called a red IPA, but lord did that beer change me. I had loathed IPAs up until that moment.

When I got back, new Belgium snapshot and ranger caught my attention, as they were fairly new and upcoming, and still hold a lot of sentimental value to me. Ranger has such a unique taste that I have yet to find anyone able to replicate it. Although there are tons of more flavorful and explosive IPAs out there, that one still remains unique in my eyes.

 

Fat Tire was one of the first few beers I had, and the first one that wasn't a from major domestic brand. I was 17-18. I always bought the 750ml Smokestack bottles from Boulevard to get drunk on at parties when I was in my early 20's. I would just take 1-2 of them to a party and drink it from the bottle. Long Strange Tripel was my favorite. And then around 2010-2011 I found hops, and IPAs. And now I'm here.

 

Sam Adams BL. I remember it vividly, a July 4th cookout in 2006. I had it before, but that day it was different in a great way. That got the ball rolling. Then one December(a little over a year later) I tried something called Celebration Ale...wow....From there Bud Light et al. never tasted the same. And for that, I am grateful.

 

My Gateway Craft Beer was SixPoint Resin!

I continue to drink them till this day.

 

SNPA

But what took me to geekdom was Lagunitas Waldo's Special Ale

 

Samuel Smith's Nut Brown was the first beer I was introduced to that made me question whether there might be more to the whole "beer" thing than the common yellow lagers plus Guinness lineup. From that, I expanded to the Taddy Porter, and eventually picked up a couple beers from GLBC by the names Edmund Fitzgerald and Eliot Ness.

It's been malty, yeasty bliss from then on.

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale..my brother, who is 6 years older than me, handed me one of those. That green labeled gem, combined with our first conversation about Great Divide Old Ruffian (that day, he had just bought a case of it), and I had a new obsession..er, hobby.

Cheers!

 

My gateway beer was Blue Moon. It moved me away from Budweiser and taught me to try other beer. I transitioned to real craft beer quickly after my Blue Moon phase.

 

Went from Miller Lite to Sam Adams to Torpedo and Two Hearted Ale. That made me get the bug. Now this will sound crazy, but when I was really getting into craft beer in 2010 or so I found a bottle of BCBS and decided to pick it up. This is when I realized that beer can fit about every need. If I remember correctly that was the first time I had a St Bernardus Abt 12 and realized Belgium made some great beer. The best part of this story. For 3 solid weeks I walked in and found more BCBS on the shelf. Now I gotta fight to get a couple overpriced bottles.

Oh, and that spring I got my hands on 2 cases of KBS and realize I liked it even more than BCBS.

 

Very initial gateway (2005 for me): Smithwick's and Hoegaarden
Get serious gateway (2006): La Fin Du Monde and Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout
Obsession gateway (also 2006): Old Rasputin

 

Schell's Deer Brand. Moving from rural MO to rural MN a long time back. One could argue that Schell's is not 'craft' but it's better than Busch. (Pre-dates Miller Lite, that's how long ago. ) Then, on a business trip to San Francisco, my collegues came up with Anchor Steam Beer, fresh from its new home. That is what did it for me.

 

Not sure how to answer this, I think Red Dog, Red Wolf and Killian's. Then came Heineken, Becks, Hofbrau and some Leinie's Berry Weiss. They each blew me away at the time. I think my biggest revelation was bourbon barrel beers though I can't remember my first. Aging a beer in a barrel? That's some wizardry right there.

 

The first sort of unusual beer I had was a malt liquor - Molson Brador in 1978. To me it was unusual. I went to college in Northern Vermont and we would do beer runs to the Canadian border and come back with cases of Brador. Drinking age was 18 then.

During the 80's I mostly drank British imports such as Bass, Watney's Red Barrel, Samuel Smith's, Young's (original), and Newcastle.

My first actual craft beer was Catamount Pale Ale from Vermont in 1987. After that I drank mostly Sam Adams, Harpoon, and Pete's Wicked Ale.