Which Beer Took Your "BMC Virginity"

Bass made me think

Long Trail Ale made me dump yellow pee for good.

Pete's Wicked Ale

Man, I do believe it was SA Oktoberfest....but I think Bell's Two Hearted Ale sealed the deal.

My father has always been a Labatt's blue guy, so most of my non legal days i followed suit and drank that... faded in and out of that and bud light for years. For my 21st a friend of mine bought me a 6 pack of Guinness, which made me realize there are many beers out there that are much higher quality. I guess when i really started to get out and try a lot of different beers was after an old man i was doing a job for insisted on me taking a SA octoberfest home with me.

SA Oktoberfest and SA Winter Lager started it all..Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clinched it.

Mine was Samuel Smith India Pale Ale. I remember thinking wow I never knew beer could have great flavor like this! 17 yrs old and a freshman in college those were the days LOL

Ahhh yes ... I remember my first Guinness. Also my first European pilsner, something unnamed at a cafe in Copenhagen. I think my first IPA was a Goose Island.

New Castle got me outside the box, Stoudt's Fat Dog and Lancaster Brewing Company's Milk Stout sold me (just a coincidence that they are both stouts)

I think mine was the old Spaten club Weiss (white not wheat) in the large bottles with the gold foil and Sheaf Stout from new Zealand.

Corsendonk Abbey Brown

First what's "BMC"? hehe

Second, from what I gather that. That first beer that got me into beer was getting through my first Guinness. I just wasn't a beer fan period, and couldn't even swallow junk like bud, seriously. However, it was St. Patty's and I figured I'd pay my Irish side some proper respect and get through one big Guinness. Once I picked up on the roasty-ness and everything and noticed it's character. I really enjoyed it.

I've been a connoisseur ever since.

back in college would have been around 94(ish) Blackened Voodoo...and from the first couple of 6 packs I was seeking out great beer. Sammy Smiths became a regular and #9 as well

Rogue something or another.

I started brewing shortly thereafter.

Alaskan Amber was the one that really got me started.

Summit EPA.

Sprecher, probably an Amber, back in college in 1986 or so.

Bell's Third Coast Beer

Went to college at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Took a tour of the brewery in the early 90's and had a few of the beers in a tasting. Larry Bell was the tour guide and they were in a real small building near Kalamazoo college. We had a long talk with Larry after and how he got started in brewing. I was hooked on Bells, too bad I could not always afford it.

This experience actually was the inspiration for me to start brewing at home as well.

New Belgium's Fat Tire

alcibiades said:

Like all addicts remember their first time, is it possible that we all remember the first non-BMC, eye-opening, beer we drank? What is yours?

I definitely remember Harpoon IPA as my v-card snatcher, so to speak

Click to expand...

Same exact thing for me!

Back when I was a teen, my Uncle George brewed extract and fermented it in a green garbage can, with cheesecloth on the top, no airlock! Bottled in quart and 2 quart Dad's rootbeer bottles.

Dad used to buy "Duke Ale" in cases of 7 oz. bottles. Man was that stuff good. They quit making it in the 70's. http://statestoreblues.blogspot.com/2010/02/duke-beer-of-pittsburgh.html

My favorite Canadian beer, that we drank on trips up to Niagara Falls was "Old Vienna". Tried the US version and it's nowhere near as good.

Up in Montreal, QB, we drank Molson Dry, the city's favorite beer.

Like everyone else, when I was in college, we bought nothing but the cheapest BMC crap. $5 for six pints? No contest. What weaned me off that garbage was Henry Weinhard's. It wasn't that much more expensive and it allowed me to start exploring various kinds of beer beyond light lager without having to spend almost $10 after tax on a New Belgium six-pack.

These days, I've dropped the Weinhard's in favor of better microbrews (and my homebrew) but I do still appreciate them being around to fill that niche. I'm sure there are a lot of Weinhard's drinkers who would be drinking BMC if they could only choose between $5 light lager and $10 microbrew ale.

I think it was Moosehead and Heineken that were the "better" beers that I started to prefer, along with Sam Adams.

But I think it was Pete's Wicked Ale that "woke me up" so to speak to the more flavorful beers available.

bass ale, sam adams, then fat tire made me realize that bud light is not beer.

Before Sam Adams and craftbeer as we know it....

Augsburger Dark, Becks, Oranjboom, Heineken, Whitbread Best Bitter, Bass Ale, Banks...