Your 1st imported beer?

Moosehead Lager, circa 1979 or thereabouts. Due to a distinct lack of common sense regarding mind altering substances, memories of those days are rather muddled...

 

Mine was Ayinger's Jahr Hundert Lager. A very pleasant change up... Not really counting Heiniken and Corona lol

 

Lowenbrau...

 

Budweiser (drunk in Ireland)

 

I guess I did it right?...

​

 

Belhaven Scottish Ale

 

Heineken. But since my craft evolution Chimay Grande Réserve.

 

If the Carling Black Label you had in 1970 was purchased in the US (the brand was also brewed in South Africa, the UK and Canada, etc), it was a domestic beer. It had been a US-brewed beer since Repeal when Canadian Breweries, Ltd. (later "Carling-O'Keefe") licensed the brand to the upstart Brewing Corporation of America. BCA was eventually purchased by the Canadian brewery, which renamed it the Carling Brewing Co. and operated it as their US subsidiary into the late 70s. In 1970, Carling was a 5m bbl/yr brewery, 8th largest brewer in the US (having just been passed by Miller on its rise to #2).

Carling Black Label remains a US product, brewed by Miller, marketed by Pabst (via their purchase of the Heileman/Stroh portfolio in 1999. Heileman bought Carling National in 1979.).

(Sorry for the deja vu reply...)​

 

Still no Jamaica/Caribbean option? Mine was Red Stripe.

 

Moosehead or Labatts, maybe Moosehead as it was on tap at Huskies. Harp and Becks were probably next, maybe Heineken.

 

Definitely Heineken for me, but I'm unsure if I had the regular (light) before the dark. The dark was definitely my first pint I ever ordered in a bar, though.

 

Modelo negra? I'm thinking was first import.

Unless you count per like the one bar by the house. Still not sure if Wisconsin is a foreign country I guess

 

Guinness. I drank about 1/4 of the can and had to pour it out -- needless to say, I was not a beer guy yet.

And while Guinness may not be the greatest thing in the world, it still has a time and place.

 

Incidentally, this reminds me of a story my brother tells. He was in some bar in Idaho, I think, and they had 3 domestics and 1 import. The domestics: Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light. The import: Michelob.

So I guess "import" is in the eye of the bartender, eh?

 

Too long ago to remember. Probably a Canadian one. I had Molson Brador very early on in my beer drinking history. 1979 I think.

 

Labatt Ice Beer!!!

 

Molson Golden Ale.

 

Old Vienna - From Canada, late 70s

 

Spaten