Your Top 3 Most Influential Breweries

Sam Adams - Solid lager beer that you can find almost anywhere.
New Belgium - Really smooth and flavorful brews, really creative small batch stuff too.
Bell's - Great stouts and IPA's, more crafty than the first two.

 

Three Floyds- Gumball Head, when it was in bombers, one of my first craft beers bought for the label before i knew anything about craft beer
Goose Island
Bell's

 

Sierra Nevada- made me decide to stop drinking any beer that's on a ping pong table.
DFH and Schmaltz- all the creative things you can create within a beer. (Hit or miss)
Blackfoot River- my local spot for supplying me with quality core and single batch brews.

 

New Glarus - got me into craft beer, and has only top quality beers
Jester King - taking sours/wild ales to the next level
Cigar City - very consistent and delicious beers

 

Samuel Adams - 20 years ago, they showed me there were better beers out there than the macros
Prairie Artisan - Their craftsmanship and creativity is so high that I'll try styles I'm generally not fond of.
Great Divide - nearly everything they made is solid.

 

For me there's just one. I've had beers like SN Pale Ale and Fat Tire before I knew what craft beers meant.

However, it's that one faithful day after golf I stumbled upon this odd looking bottle of beer, just a drab green label with a red dot. I took it home, and it was horrible tasting to the uninitiated palate (too bitter!). It was different enough that I actually started researching what I was drinking online. That was my foray into craft beer. Oh, and that beer was Pliny the Elder. So, my one most influential brewery is Russian River.

 

Samuel smith's, samuel adams and sierra neveda.

 

I plan most vacations around brewery/brewpubs; therefore, yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's.

 

Easy for me, since I have been drinking beer for many years now:

Anheuser Busch
Miller
Coors

These 3 breweries influenced me years ago to look for better beers to try.

 

80s. Catamount. Sam Adams. Carlburg/Heineken (first brewery tours)
90s. Harpoon. Brooklyn. Anchor.
00s. Stone. Sierra Nevada. Youngs/Adnams/Fullers/Caledonian (fell in love w cask ale and UK pub culture)
10s. The Alchemist. Hill Farmstead. Alpine. Can u say amazing hoppy dipas??
20s. ??

 

Got my feet wet with Berkshire Brewing Company.
Was first blown away by Firestone Walker.
Found a love of sours and subtlety at Sante Adairius Rustic Ales.

Very honorable mention goes to Cigar City.

 

Lakefront (Milwaukee) for introducing me to IPAs.
Dogfish Head for taking IPAs to the next level, plus some of their other beers like Palo Santo Marron.
Central Waters (Amherst, WI) for introducing me to barrel aged beers (top notch btw).

 

New Glarus- for introducing me to micro brews
FFF- for making some delicious beers and for getting lucky enough to get DLD tickets and experience amazing bottle shares which got me addicted to the craft beer scene
Goose Island- Local Brewery (at least the Island Brewery has remained relatively untouched from what I hear), that offers some great brews that I can actually get my hands on

 

Dogfish Head
Sierra Nevada
Stone

 

Anchor
Bells
Dogfish Head

 

founders
evil twin
stone.

 

Hair of the Dog for aging beers
Cantillon for sours / lambics
Driftwood as a local option doing great things

 

1. Short's Brewing Company(Bellaire, Michigan) My first time really tasting an assortment of beers and flavors. Still my favorite and look forward to my yearly early July trips. Can't wait to bring back as many different beers as I can. It's too bad they don't distribute out of state or to my state(Indiana).
2. Dogfish Head(Delaware) Got me excited to try so many new options out of the bottle, my gateway to newer and better beers. I try nearly everything I can get my hands on.
3. 3 Floyds Brewing Company(Munster, Indiana) Dark Lord Day 2014. My first visit and hopefully what continues as a yearly tradition. I find myself wanting to say they are overrated, but still rushing to the liquor store every time I see a post, tweet or whatever saying they have bottles in stock. Bought 4 different bombers and a sixer of Zombiedust just today on a whim.

Funny that my #1 had a beer collaboration between all 3 of my choices a few years back I was able to try(short's cornholio) Should have known then that would make up my top 3 list.

 

Troegs for giving me an awesome local option that's super easy to find.
Dogfish Head for jumpstarting my love of hoppy beer...and my love of reviewing beer.
Founders for...well, Breakfast Stout, really.

 

Never had Hill Farmstead, but the other two both came to mind for me.

Landlord was an important beer for me too, and they've helped get me into mild as well.

First time I had Rochefort 10 was quite an experience. Once I got over the shock and awe I wasn't sure if I liked the characteristic Rochefort taste or not, but I've come round to it in a big way and 6 and 10 are now among my favourite beers. Need to try the 8 again, since I think I'll like it better this time.

Before I was really into real ale and Belgian beers and such, Fuller's bottled beers showed me there was more to beer than I'd realised up to that point.