What Beer Was Your Point of No Return?

For me it was La Fin Du Monde. The taste, alcohol burn, uniqueness all contributed to my never going back to a BMC beer. Granted I had imports and micro's before, LFDM opened my eyes.

St. Bernardus Abt 12 on draft on my 21st birthday.

Dogfish Head 90min.

My world changed.

Chimay Blue Grand Reserve

Boston Lager. Which I now hate.

Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout. In all honesty, the first beer I ever drank.

jbrookeiv said:

St. Bernardus Abt 12 on draft on my 21st birthday.

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Great way to celebrate your birthday. By the way, IASIP is one of the funniest, f'ing shows I have ever watched. I literally fell off of the couch watching their version of Extreme Home Makeover - the music playing while they screamed "Good Morning Juarez Family" is classic.

Rouge Dead Guy

I was always more of a whiskey drinker because I hated BMC beer. When I was 21 A friend of mine invited me out bar that had like 40 craft brews on tap. I couldn't decide and didn't know the difference between a lot of the styles so I picked "that one over there, with the skeleton on the handle". I went back to that bar 3 more nights that week to try all the different brews they had. I was hooked!

jbrookeiv said:

St. Bernardus Abt 12 on draft on my 21st birthday.

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Fantastic.

I was never into BMC, and got started on numerous craft beers (not even craft necessarily; everything from Guinness Draft cans and Weeping Radish Corolla Gold to Sierra Pale Ale and Allagash White). But it was a tasting that I went to one night with (among others) a Lost Abbey Red Poppy, a 2 year aged Dogfish Immort Ale, a fresh Ballast Point Sculpin, and a cellar-aged Hoppin' Frog BORIS that sent me down the rabbit hole.

Stone IPA.. bought from Vons at prospect and beryl in redondo beach, ca... approx 2005....

Good stuff maynard!

I guess I gradually went to the dark side. No one beer did it. I started by grabbing a 6 pack of "something I hadn't tried before" along with my usual coors or keystone purchase. Eventually I would just buy the craft beer while I still had coors in the fridge. Now my fridge is full of homebrew. I still love trying a 6er or bomber of something new based solely on that packaging or name.

SumnerH said:

Fantastic. I went to one night with (among others) a Lost Abbey Red Poppy, a 2 year aged Dogfish Immort Ale, a fresh Ballast Point Sculpin, and a cellar-aged Hoppin' Frog BORIS that sent me down the rabbit hole.

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Those are some great beers no doubt. While La Fin got me hooked, Dogfish and Stone became staples. 60 Min, 90 Min, Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Bastard, Raison, RIS, Immort, World Wide Stout, Burton Baton, and the vertical epic series are a hell of line up for just two breweries and I know I am leaving a ton out.

None in particular. Never been a huge fan of craft brews; I always thought that I would be a BMC drinker for life. After drinking a few batches of homebrew, BMC's were boring.

DFH 90 Minute is a beer that I REALLY enjoy. Which reminds me that I need to get some more.

Mac & Jack's Amber.

First time I had a beer that wasn't Bud, Coors, etc.

1997, Saranac's Raspberry Wheat.

Maybe Bass? I can't remember. I hated beer in college. Never had a fake ID. Fortunately my roommate had been to England and knew of good beer, and worked to indoctrinate me.

Of course once I turned 21, I reverted back to "whatever's cheapest" which was mainly Icehouse.

Then coming off that was a gradual process, with no single trigger. Though for some reason Magic Hat's Roxy Rolles sticks out in my mind right now as a beer that I could just not buy enough of, even into my dawning days of homebrewing.

Malty and hoppy, and "something else" (which I now scornfully identify as buttery Diacetyl) it really had me hooked at the time. Kinda makes me want to go pick some up... should be in season now or soon.

My first non-bmc was Guinness. Never went back to bmc.

Spent a summer in college working excavation and every night my roommate and I would pick up a six pack of something new and one of BMC. Over that time we sampled 100 different beers.

DFH 90 minute was probably it for me.

Good question. When I was 15 or so I had drunk my share of Coors light and had the opportunity to have a Sam Adams Boston Lager which is where I first got the idea that some beers were better than others.

At 18 attending the University of Kansas I found myself in love of Free State beers.

At 21, after a few years of *****ing around, I found myself living in North Carolina working at Whole Foods. A coworker was a big fan of Beamish which I tried and loved and love to this day. While working there I notice a bottle of beer with glow in the dark print and picked it up. This happened to be Rogue Dead Guy Ale which I thought quite highly of at the time.

Fast forward a year and I find myself in Portland Oregon attending Portland State University and living, conveniently as it were, within walking distance of the Pearl District Rogue Public House (and working at Whole Foods again). This is where my life of craft beer was born. Drinking from the extensive Rogue draught list, buying imports with my discount at Whole Foods. At this point I started to think about home brewing but I was poor and lived in a 330 square foot studio.

To be continued...

After my freshman year of college I worked at a brewpub during the summer. Had only had BMC up 'till that point. That was the beginning of drinking craft beer and homebrewing for me.

My "point of no return" wasn't so much a beer as a place - Brussels!

petep1980 said:

Boston Lager. Which I now hate.

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Me too. There was no Dogfish back when I was in high school.

It started with Thirsty Dog's Siberian Night. A couple years ago I moved to a house which is no more than 300 feet away from their brewery. On my 21st b-day I walked over there and sampled every beer they had on hand. Siberian Night was the one that made me say "wow!".

I recently had the same experience with Hoppin' Frog's line up. For me it raised my standards. Their Boris the Crusher stands out as the most recent beer that caused me to never look back, so much so that I've been working to clone it. (90% of the way there).

old peculiar. there was no going back. still one of my favorite beers...
probably why brown ales have such a special place for me.... happy. 1st home brew 5.2% brown ale. ready in 3 weeks didn't age well.. but yummm

Probably showing my age here but here goes. Pete's Wicked Ale I'm talking the original back in the late 80s early 90s. Before that I was pretty much a Scotch drinker or Michelob if I was having beer. Now days I still like the Browns (Dogfish, Cigar City etc) but I enjoy most styles now if well crafted everything from Pale Ales to Ambers to IPAs and the darker Browns, Porters and Stouts. The only thing I haven't developed a taste for is the sour beers...I've tried but just can't warm up to them.

Sierra Nevada back in college. Until that point all I drank was Yuengling (local PA beer which actually has a pretty good cult following and not bad for what it is IMO), Busch pounders, and Miller Lite. Ugh. After the first Sierra though, it was quickly followed up by Sam Adams and then it just got ugly...

Blue Moon - even though its technically a BMC, it's not a "light beer", and was what made me realize there were beers other than bud light. Its like the gateway beer.

My beer was New Glarus Hop Hearty IPA. Anyone who has tasted that glorious, piney, herbal, citrusy, and discontinued brew understands.

as much as I hate to admit it .....Sam Adams Boston lager. Got me and the brotherinlaw from 9.99 18 packs of headache mgd. From there Several IPA'S then my BREW. Hands down my fav when going out is to go to BJ's and have a few Jeremiah Red's.

electrichead said:

Rouge Dead Guy

I was always more of a whiskey drinker because I hated BMC beer. When I was 21 A friend of mine invited me out bar that had like 40 craft brews on tap. I couldn't decide and didn't know the difference between a lot of the styles so I picked "that one over there, with the skeleton on the handle". I went back to that bar 3 more nights that week to try all the different brews they had. I was hooked!

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Dead guy is amazing. It in my top three

ndsgr said:

My first non-bmc was Guinness. Never went back to bmc.

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Same here...Late 90's my dad would come home from Ireland with a few cans here and there...and i wasn't even 21 yet! Thanks Dad!

chapa said:

Blue Moon - even though its technically a BMC, it's not a "light beer", and was what made me realize there were beers other than bud light. Its like the gateway beer.

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Talk about showing age...I remember when blue moon and killians red weren't owned by the big BMC ... DAMN they were both GOOD in the late 80s early 90s! big reason I continued brewing... some of my favs got sucked up to the big BMC. Kilians USED to be good BLUE MOON USED to be good...

Mines a little different. It wasn't craft beer that got me into the craft beer scene. I was always aware that there was better stuff out there besides bmc. But during my first drinking experience. All my friends had was budlight (we were 18 and knew no better at the time) after that first can I knew I could find something better than this and didn't want to be like all the other college age kids just drinking whatever was available. With a few exceptions I now rarely drink the same beer twice without a gap (just too many options!) and I'm lucky enough never to have to buy bmc! My parents even put me in charge of buying the beer for all of our holiday parties because my dad will just go out and get a few sixers of corona and bother everyone!

St Peters English Ale

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale still one of my favorites

My point of no return was also a place, I was stationed RAF Lakenheath for 3 years and wanted to sample all that England had to offer, from national brands to local pub favorites. My taste buds changed for the better. Bud light just wasn't right anymore.

Hoegaarden

Stones anniversary beer, the bitter chocolate oatmeal stout. it opened my eyes. I received it as a white elephant gift several years ago for christmas. Great Lakes Burning River Pale ale converted me.

Harpoon IPA. At Guppies, a great little seafood place on the gulf of mexico. I do remember the experience vividly - an "a-ha!" moment.