Your Top 3 Most Influential Breweries

Sam Adams... Intro to me for a life beyond Bud and Miller.
Sam Smith....for a life beyond Sam Adams
Lagunitas...for a life of consuming liquid calories.

 

Sam Adams
Boulevard
New Belgium

 

Sam Adams
Sierra Nevada
Anchor

 

Cigar City- Makes the most badass stuff all the time
Carton Brewing- Jersey love...plus great beer
Lagunitas- Affordable and always a great choice.

 

Odells - For opening up my eyes to better beer. Easy Street, 90 Schilling, and Cutthroat Porter helped me to ditch the shitty BMC/Macro crap and drink better flavorful beer. They are still one my favorite breweries.

Firestone Walker - I really have to credit them for turning me more into even more of a craft beer lover. I haven't had a single bad beer and they probably are my favorite brewery out of them all. The barrel program is amazing and I hope to get some of their barrelworks beers through a friend that lives close.

Russian River - Might be a bit cliche Anyways they really opened my world up to high quality beer. Pliny of course but their sours are among the best I have had. I have to give them the nod over Avery slightly.

 

Sam Adams for the start of the journey away from macro produced beer
Weyerbacher for the next small step into IPA's
Tie: Troegs/Founders for what that big step into a much larger world and seeing what it really could be

 

1. Odell for really getting me started
2. Surly
3. Founders

 

Anchor/Sierra Nevada - beers from these breweries were the first I actually enjoyed the taste of.
Bell's/Founders - Two Hearted and Founder's Porter were and still are my first loves.
Cantillon/Drie Fonteinen - changed the way I looked at beer.

 

St. Bernardus
Cigar City
Lagunitas

 

Coors - my first beer and favorite of my youth
Löwenbräu (pre-Miller) - my first indication that some beers had more and better flavor than Coors
Guinness Extra Stout - introduction to darkness and roast

 

Stone
Firestone
Russian River

 

1. Hitachino Nest - first love
2. Russian River - made me into a man
3. Cantillon - made me a geek

 

For me, it would be primarily one brewery: Dogwood Brewing Company. With the particularly limited selection available in Georgia during the late 90's, their offerings fueled my desire to explore the world of beer and expand my knowledge. And one of their later offerings in particular, Youngblood's Imperial Porter, will forever hold a place in my heart (and liver) until the craven release death will bring.

 

Anchor - busted my craft beer hymen
Sierra Nevada [Torpedo] - busted my IPA hymen
Alchemist [Heady Topper] - busted my "I don't chase craft beer" hymen

 

-Jack's Abby
-Smuttynose
-Founders

 

That's it, thanks Jesskidden. The only other "smoked" beer I remember from that era came in a green flip-top 0.5L bottle Rauchenfels Steinbiere. A quick google search shows this to be a "stone-beer". Though not a true smoked beer the flavor profile was very similar to the Kaiserdom Rauchbier.

From http://www.beer-pages.com/glossary/glossary_q_z.htm

 

Stuttgarter Hofbrau - the first brewery I started drinking from when I lived in Germany
Summit - the first brewery that showed me that American beer can be as good as German beer
Surly - for changing completely the beer culture of Minnesota which I now enjoy greatly

 

From an influential standpoint:

1) Sam Adams (hey, this tastes bigger, better, fuller than BMC)
2) Sierra Nevada (Wow, that's what hops taste like) ....and.....
3) Stone (YES! THAT'S WHAT HOPS TASTE LIKE!)

....and it's just expansion from there.

 

Surly
Summit
Sam Adams

Probably in the opposite order.

 

Sam Adams for always being available and for the wide range of styles. I still remember the first time i had SA Cream Stout- it was so unique and different compared to what I was used to(this was late 90s).

DFH- I remember my first 90 minute IPA- it was a revelation. I love their beer to this day and will look for any new ones, in fact I grabbed a 4pk of this year's festina peche last night.

Founders- because they perfected it