What year did you get into craft beer?

All my friends drank Bud light and other macro's in high school but thought they were terrible. Never really had beers until 1997, I was 20 and about to be 21. Drank with my dad and he had a fridge full or Wienhard's Porter and Blue Boar Pale. Those were the first seeds planted.

 

Unofficially in 1996 when I discovered I didn't really like any of the typical "lite/light" stuff but I did enjoy Pete's Wicked, Guinness, Red Hook ESB, SN Wheat, Dead Guy, and (maybe unrelated) English ciders.

 

Last year around October/November. Gulden Draak and Weasel Boy Plaid Ferret got me interested.

 

1989. No, really.

 

3 years ago. I started working for a craft beer store while I was finishing my degree. Havent looked back since.

 

I'm one of the young punks around here. I got into craft beer in 2011. Started off with Rogue dead guy and Henry weinhards private reserve. While I haven't touched either of these beers in a couple of years they hold a special place in my beer drinking life. Living in portland made it pretty easy to fully emmerse myself in craft beer once I realized just how damn good it is.

 

I think it was 1996 when Arcadia Brewing was born (my home brewery), and that got me going there to discover that beer can be a lot more than fizzy yellow stuff.

 

Good beer - around 2000-2001
Craft beer - 2007

 

2012

 

I picked up a sixer of Stone IPA at the PX on Camp Pendleton, California in 2003. I was hooked instantly.

 

1998, I was well underage & partied constantly with the usual BMC shit, when I met & started to hang with a hippie friend who was totally into "microbreweries" lol.

 

'94. Pete's Wicked, Brooklyn, SA, I guess some of the "Oregon" label SA put out if that counts.

 

Early 80's, during my regular business trips to England at that time, when I discovered English ales.

But, if you mean the craft "movement"... I still have not gotten into that.

 

Nah -- Papa died long before I was old enough to drink.

On the other hand, there are probably pictures of me lurking around Lakefront Brewery, Brewmaster's (Kenosha), Goose Island, Tap & Growler Chicago or Siebens Chicago in their first years of business.

Oh... forgot Sprecher -- and they opened in '85, so my timeline might be a bit off!

 

I began drinking craft beer (meaning beer in general, as I never drank macros since I thought they tasted like cold, stale ass) in 2000, when I was 35, reeling from a failed marriage and living alone. My friend who had just gotten into craft himself ("there are no disciples as devout as the recently converted") looked me in the eye one day and said, "You are now ready to understand beer."

He was right.

 

Tried Magic Hat #9 in 2003 and realized beer could taste good. Money was tight though, so for a few more years I continued to buy cheap beer because being hammered was more important than enjoying the taste. Around 2007 I, being someone that likes to make food and drink from scratch, became interested in home brewing. It was my interest in home brewing that lead me to want to try new beers (which I think is the reverse of how it usually goes) and check out places that sold different types of beers. I would say the official moment of me becoming obsessed with craft was when I had Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball on draft at Julian's in Providence sometime in (or close to) 2008. Previous to that, my craft experiences were a whole lot of Long Trail and Sierra Nevada (not that there's anything wrong with that, as I drink even more Sierra Nevada these days, though less Long Trail). As soon that Hairy Eyeball hit my lips everything changed. I really do remember that moment quite well. I was like, "Wow, this is what I've been searching for." I may have even said that aloud.

 

Hmmm....