What's your most memorable beer experience?

Probably a fairly common occurence amongst the people here, but my first can of Heady. I went in with zero expectations and was completely and utterly blown away . Just a phenomenal and perfect (to me anyway) DIPA to me. @PA-Michigander I cannot thank you enough. The favor will be repaid.

 

Ok BA's, what is the best beer you have ever had? I am not just looking for the highest ranked or rarest beer you have ever consumed. What was the best beer drinking experience you have ever had? It could be the time you had a PBR with Lemme at the whiskey or the time you had a Boston Lager with Jim Koch. What was the best overall and most memorable beer you have ever had? For me it was.... GO!

 

Many beers have struck me as "the best beer I have ever had", but I must admit that FW Parabola is my favorite beer ever.

Other notables:
FW 14, 16
PtE (ever since my brother got this for me for xmas in 2010)
Heady
Gandhi
Barrier Money (especially cask with citra hops)

 

The sip of silver bullet I had with my dad when I was 6.

 

Westy 12 on a patio in Brussels.

 

BCBS got me at hello.

 

Schlitz at 12 years old with my father, grandfather & great uncle on a boat in a little cove on Lake Ontario as my great uncle Cooked the perch & bass we had just caught after a full day of fishing.....one of my favorite memories.

 

When I was 13, my buddy and I stole a few Modelo Negros from the old man's fridge, as well as an unopened pack of smokes. Man, that was quite an evening, but it has led to a life with less money to my name than there should be.

 

A few that have just stuck with me and the taste lingered in my head/on my tongue: bolt cutter, funk metal, bcbbw, ninja v. unicorn.

 

my first beer - a rolling rock pony. it was fucking horrible

 

It was a Sam Adams Octoberfest. My buddy and I bought a case and put it back for several months...I think we drank it in April or May? Anyway, we built a fire in the fire pit and drank the entire case together. We talked, we listened to music...I played the "air"drums and it was a great time. One of my best memories with one of my favorite beers.

 

Me and my lady got into "craft" at the same time. When we shared a six pack of Two Hearted with each other it really opened our eyes to what beer could taste like. Good times.

 

My first Black Tuesday was a bad experience but as my knowledge and tastes have grown, I've learned to love and appreciate beers like Black Tuesday, mocha Wednesday, bcbs + variants and other BA stouts. Wish I could have that 1st Black Tuesday back and in my cellar.

 

Rare a couple of months ago, awesome.

 

Sitting in a gasthof in Obereisenheim, Germany with my dad and brother. Ordered the local Krautheimer with the meal and it just completed the experience. Not even sure of the expression, but it was just clean, crisp, and just right! Went back 8 years later, ordered the same beer, and it was just as good. Chasing after craft beers was not long to follow.

 

my first bible belt has had me craving it for months now

 

Milwaukee's Best in 1980 when I was eight years old.

 

I've got 2 that stand out thus far into my young career.

1: King Sue. Had 2 glasses of it a few months back, via keg. Fuggin'. Amazing.
2: This was a shared glass amongst a 3 of us at a barrel-aged beer event, 2012 Bourbon County Cherry Stout via keg. Also, delicious as all hell, I'd LOVE to come across a bottle sometime. I can still taste that wonderful Michigan sour cherry backdrop (frontdrop?!).

HM: This should be more than an honorable mention, but the taste of Miller Genuine Draft out on the river, boating, from dads bottle, roughly 5-6 years old. I can still at times rememer/pin-point that taste (and it honestly wasn't horrible).

 

I think I've told this story before, but it has been a while. My most memorable beer experience happened about 6 years ago when I went to clean out my basement refrigerator after many years of overflow storage. At the time I was on hiatus from active beer drinking, although I leaned towards common craft and import beers when I had them and periodically picked up interesting looking bottles. I was as likely to drink wine as beer and then only occasionally. At the back of the fridge, I found a bottle with a cool Roger Dean-ish label: Fish Tale Leviathan Barleywine. I vaguely remembered buying it at what I thought was a premium price for a bottle of beer and saved it "for a special occasion". It had lain ignored for at least 4 years. I brought it upstairs along with some sad condiments and other stale beer to dump down the sink. At the last minute, probably because the label was so nice, I triggered a lost brain cell and remembered reading an article about some beers actually being cellarable. It seemed at the time to be far fetched, but I thought what the hell, I could always dump it. I proceeded to pour and drink what up then was most flavorful awesome beverage that I had ever tasted in my life. I was floored and amazed. About a month later, I wandered into Bottleworks and saw on their classic shelf another bottle of the same vintage with a $50 price tag and realized that I wasn't alone in appreciating that beer, although I was sad to also realize I would probably never have another. I was very happy that I drank it when I did, because if I had seen its value, I probably would have saved it past its prime. I've been a barleywine fan every since and have cellared quite a few. I figure that particular fridge clean out may have cost me thousands of dollars in subsequent beer purchases, but it's been a good trip.

 

I would say having my first Avery Maharaja Imp IPA. It was my first real IIPA and it tasted, at the time, a lot different than I imagined it would. Still a favorite to this day and it is what I use as a sort of bench mark when I try other IIPA's. Simple event but paradigm shifting at the time.