What Was Your Gateway IPA?

A couple of years ago I saw Harpoon IPA on draught at a restaurant in the Catskills by my parents' house, so took advantage of the chance to revisit it- I found it to be quite pleasant, and even better than I thought it would be. It seemed like a really fresh keg, too. Here's hoping your next time approaches that level. Cheers!

 

Sierra Nevada Torpedo was my gateway and never looked back!

 

Stone IPA, wasn't my first IPA I tried, but the first one I truly appreciated. Still love it.

 

Ruination. One of the first IPAs I had and I've been hoked ever since.

 

Victory Hop Devil. It was easy to find at the store when... uh... let's just say I wasn't around when most of it was purchased. (college, am I right???)

 

I only acquired the taste for IPAs within the last couple of years...my gateway IPA was Lagunitas Sucks.. so delicious!

 

sculpin

 

The first IPA I ever had was Samuel Adams Latitude 48, whenever that was first released. Actually for most styles Sammy was my first as I pretty much only drank their beers for a year before I started to branch out and try beers from other craft brewers. I didn't really like it, it seemed like drinking a liquid forest. The next IPA I had was SN Celebration. I didn't care for that at first either, but by the time I got to the end of the 6-pack it had grown on me. I'm glad I didn't give up on them too soon.

 

60 Min and Harpoon in early college.

 

First Hoppy beer I ever liked was Hopslam.

 

Right on! All the way.

 

Lucky you! The first I had was I really have no idea, it was at a party and I hated it. Oddly enough I love them now.

 

Alpine/New Belgium Super IPA

 

Mine was Grant's India Pale Ale...man do I miss that one! Ballantine IPA as well, that was my intro to IPA's.

 

Sam Adams IPA. It was like 15+ years ago and it came in green labled bottles.

 

Hop Devil in 1999.

Bill Covaleski himself was sampling that and Prima Pils at a small liquour store in West Trenton, NJ. Victory was less than 3 years old at that point. I was hooked.

 

Not necessarily an IPA, per se, but A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' did it for me.

 

Still searching for one.

 

Zombie Dust, served fresh at the brewery my first time there.

 

It was definitely Stone IPA for me. Winter of 2011-2012 we had a little house show, for which we bought a case of Stone IPA and a case of Heineken. Nobody who came to the show drank anything and we were left with a fridge full of beer. I took it upon myself to do my part and help drink it all. 7 days in a row, I had one Stone IPA each day. The bitterness and tongue-altering effrontery I had once perceived began to take on a desirable quality. It was a bit like being exposed to my very first brutal hot sauce. After the seventh day in a row of having an IPA, and since no one else at home was drinking them, I decided to have a Heineken. That was the moment of epiphany. Heineken tasted like dirty tap water to me. What had once seemed like a perfectly drinkable beer, albeit one I never had the slightest craving for, suddenly tasted like bilge next to the complex flavors I had unwittingly been assaulting my tastebuds with by only drinking Stone IPA.