The beer that got you into beer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Samuel Smiths stout pulled me out of the Schlitz wasteland.

Their oatmeal stout for me! I was wandering around a concert parking lot and some hippie was selling it. It was the most delicious thing I ever drank. Been chasing the dragon ever since.
 
Their oatmeal stout for me! I was wandering around a concert parking lot and some hippie was selling it. It was the most delicious thing I ever drank. Been chasing the dragon ever since.

Just had their India Ale for the first time over the weekend. WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO TRY IT?! So good.
 
In 1990 I tried Pete's Wicked Ale, back then there wasn't a lot of craft beer on the market so this was really different. I liked it and started brewing my own 3 years later.
 
Mac & Jack's African Amber was the first non-BMC beer I drank and is still the one I ask for first. I've seen some folks on this board talk about how it's overhyped but I don't really think it is. I like other beers fine but Mac & Jack's is like the beer version of the worn t-shirt you can't part with because it's just so damn comfortable. Maybe it's not the most stylish, maybe it's frayed and threadbare, but damn if it doesn't feel good.
 
Had a buddy that was stationed in Germany with his Guard Unit during Desert Storm, who brought back a bunch of Hefeweizen. Don't even remember which brands he had, but that was the first time I had something besides the "normal BMC" (including Killian's etc in the BMC mix)
 
I am an old guy and I grew up drinking whatever BMC was cheapest. I had a client take me to a British bar and we shared a pitcher of Bass Ale. I then knew I liked beer with flavor! I would try imports whenever I could and sometimes in my travels I would find a brew pub that had great beer. I was lucky enough to go to Belgium and enjoy beer nirvana. It wasn't until I was out on the west coast and was intrigued by the "You're not worthy" slogan on a bottle of Arrogant Bastard. They were daring me to try it and I then realized that there was something to this whole craft beer thing. That was it. I started trying every craft beer I could lay my hands on and then my son suggested that I try brewing my own. Best suggestion I ever got!
 
Brauerei Gold Ochsen Kellerbier Dunkel
kellerbier_dunkel.jpg


Age 11
 
Well,as far as craft beers & imports are concerned,it was some 29 years ago when my #2 son was in the hospital for open heart surgery. It was in Cleveland,& we wandered over to the corner from McDonald house where we were staying. Walked a little ways down a side parking lot & found a little English pub called The Elizabethan Club. Carved teakwood,with a piano & stand up bass man playin jazz. We sat at the bar,& I asked if they had any real English beer that I could try. The piano player was apparently listening,& gave me most of his bottle of bass ale after pouring a glass.
Needless to say,I was diggin it. Wife didn't think it was too shabby either. I was hooked into exploring this further. Tried more English ales,German beers,too. Loved the bock & Octoberfest. Made the rounds of these beers till January of last year when I got my first brewing kit. Then went to pale ales,Salvator doppel bock,Belgians,porters,stouts (other than guiness)...you get the picture. My new stove heating elements are to arrive tomorrow,so I may get started on that PM cascade pale ale that's been waiting so patiently to be brewed. If it turns out as reported,I may never buy SNPA again...:tank:
 
Another old guy here. For me it was Dos Equis, Noche Buena, Lowenbrau and whatever German imports I could find. That was long before Sam Adams or Sierra Nevada existed.
 
yuengling, then sam adams boston lager, then dfh 60 minute. it really took off after the 60 minute
 
For me it was Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams back in the day and then a friend brought some Pilsner Urquell back from Praugue and I never looked back.
 
Hanging with Aussies, Kiwis and Brits in Churchills in Waikiki, drinking the stuff they liked, telling stories and making fun of each other. Going back to bmc beer just didn't cut it unless I wanted to get a cheap drunk on. This was in the late 70's and early 80's.
 
Back in college the beer that turned me into a beer drinker was Guinness, Sam Adams got me to try more types of beer and Alagash Triple got me obsessed with craft beer.
 
I remember walking into a local liquor store wanting to try something different. I bought a six-pack of Founder's Dirty Bastard, and my friends and I barely choked it down. It was a challenge, but by the time I was done I wanted more.
 
When I got stationed in Germany as a younger man, I made myself try German beers. Thank god I did, because my eyes were opened. I especially liked the Weizens and Pils. If I knew then what I know now, I would have tried so many more.
 
I drank Miller Lite mostly, sometimes Coors. I was researching Homebrewing before taking the plunge. After discovering all the different types of beer I hadn't even known existed, I bought a pint of hobgoblin one night, I'm still hooked on the hobgoblin, but the next day jumped at a homebrew kit, and have been slowly gettin better at brewing ever since!
 
Growing up in Ober Franken Germany (more breweries per capita than anyplace in the world) I drank many great beers as a youngin'. It wasn't till my first rauchbier that I realized how creative this whole thing could get
 
Surprisingly it was not beer that got me into beer. In Korea I started drinking scotch and while learning about single malt and stuff on the internet I drank a lot of Hooegarten and Rogue dead guy when the scotch was scarce. When I was cooking for the masses they got kegs of BMC, but when I spent my had earned bucks on beer I got anything but BMC.
 
In high school I was a proud Bud Ice drinker, than in college Bud Light. In college I went to Utah with my parents (dad worked for the Olympic ski team) to scout some houses for the 2002 Olympics. We went to the Wasatch Brew Pub & Brewery, and for some reason my mom ordered me a sampler. The raspberry wheat really sticks out in my mind. Loved it. But went right back to drinking Bud Light.

After graduating, I went over to a friend's for New Year's Eve, and headed over to the local grocery to buy some beer. They didn't have Bud Light, and got something else that caught my eye, Green Flash West Coast IPA. Drank all of them myself, and have been loving hops ever since. Bud Light still is nice when golfing though...
 
For me it was the taste of a Bass Ale served at 48 F in a pint glass. I then realized that I had been drinking inferior BMC beers for years that were served too cold to really know how badly they tasted. The only BMC style beers i drink now are Grain Belt and PBR but only after mowing the lawn or cooking something good on the grill. I estimate over 80% of what I drink is homebrew i make or trade with others.
 
I think Sam Adams sent me down the path to trying different things, but I was at a fantasy football draft and a buddy ordered a pitcher of IPA. I'd never had it before. I was hooked.
 
sXe in high school, but my dad always enjoyed fine European beers, having grown up in NL and lived in England, Finland, Denmark, Germany, etc etc... When I started drinking in college, stuck to sub-32 F PBR, mostly out of cost concerns. The beer I would always splurge on, when available, was Duvel, remembering when my father would give me a sip to try. Then a German friend introduced me to Hefeweizens, etc etc... I guess the interest was always there, but in hindsight, wish I had taken more advantage of Eli Cannon's in Middletown, CT with their huge selection of taps.

Love all these stories - we're living in a golden age of beer, and no joke.

Edit: Also! Found out when I started brewing that my dad did too, as a younger man in England, a fair time before I was born. According to him, you could buy homebrew kits in the local drugstore!
 
I think new belgium 1554 was the beer that got me in to trying different things. Also, when I was of unmentionable age I had a goal to get my name on the wall at one of the local old chicagos before I was legal! I succeeded and tried a lot of different beers in the process.
 
I drank Miller Lite mostly, sometimes Coors. I was researching Homebrewing before taking the plunge. After discovering all the different types of beer I hadn't even known existed, I bought a pint of hobgoblin one night, I'm still hooked on the hobgoblin, but the next day jumped at a homebrew kit, and have been slowly gettin better at brewing ever since!

I had a friend bring over some Hobgoblin and Spitfire when she came to visit from the UK - Hobgoblin is what made me a "beer guy".
 
After drinking MGD, Coors Light and Keystone for years in college I tried a Pete's Wicked Ale. Then the Strawberry Blond, then the Wicked Winter Ale. From there it was Sierra Nevada and so on and so forth.
 
I became a beer guy when I stole my first beer from my folks! It was a Rainier, and I had to drink it warm due to hiding it behind the couch until I was sure they weren't missing it. That might sound sick, but I sure do like beer! Been hooked and always down for trying something new ever since.
 
For me it was Sam Adams Boston Lager.

It was 1986 and I was a freshman in college. To that point my beer universe was very small. Genesee, Utica Club and Pabst products were all my dad ever drank. Occasionally, we'd run into a Miller Genuine Draft or an OV Split at a house party. Old Viena was as exotic as it got.

Flash forward to my first year in college, my first time away from home. I went to a professors house for a 'mixer' and he was drinking a beer I'd never seen before. I asked what it was and he told me: Sam Adams Boston Lager. I didn't get to try one that night (I was underage after all). But I set out to find myself a six pack to try.

Back in 1986, the quest for craft beer was actually a quest (further complicated by my underage status). The places I was able to purchase beer would be less than likely to have Sam Adams today, let alone 25 years ago. I was stymied.

While I was home for Christmas, I stopped into our local supermarket: Wegmans. For those of you who are familiar with Wegmans, I'm sure it will surprise you not that they would be on the bleeding edge of the craft beer movement. Even today, Wegmans stores have a craft beer selection that soundly trumps all but the best bottle shops. I love Wegmans.

December 1986 and there it was, a six pack of Sam Adams in the beer cooler at Wegmans. I had never tried my weak at best, Time Square issued fake id at a store as reputable as Wegmans. But I wanted that Sam Adams very badly so I grabbed a six pack, crossed my fingers and walked (as casually as my excitement and nervousness would allow) up to the checkout.

I put down the six pack, presented my id when requested and held my breath. To my pleasant surprise, the cashier passed my id back to me with barely a glance. I was home free, or so I thought. What the cashier did next nearly derailed my quest. She asked me for the $8.84 purchase price of the six pack.

At the time, I was used to paying $1.99 for a six pack of UC. I was convinced that I was being charged the case price by mistake. I had a split second to decide - did I push my luck and make an issue of it or did I make a hasty exit with my fraud undetected. I paid the $8.84 (which was the better part of what I had on me) and hot-footed it out into the parking lot. Only later did I come to understand that the price was correct and that my fiduciary relationship with beer had just shifted irrevocably in beer's favor.

I took the beer home and put it in the beer fridge in my garage. I tried two that night and was absolutely blown away. Sam Adams Boston Lager was a revelation to a palate trained on Uncle Charlie and Genny Screamers. I was blown away by all aspects of the beer. It's color, it's complexity - even the label shouted sophistication. I was hooked.

I made the six last through Christmas break having one beer a night, parsing out my find like the treasure it was. And it was grand.

I remember my first craft beer in such detail for two reasons. First and foremost, that taste of Sam Adams made me immediately unfit for fizzy yellow beer and set me on the path that has lead me through two plus decades (and counting) of craft beer, brew pubs and homebrewing (thank you Sam). Secondly, but no less memorably, that first Sam six pack taught me a valuable lesson in the economics of craft beer.

At the end of Christmas break, as I was saying goodbye to my parents I asked my father for some spending money to carry me through the spring semester. He shook my hand, said "Anyone who can afford $7.99 for a six pack of beer certainly doesn't need my money" and walked back into the house.

That spring semester was rough. Since then, I've been very careful to keep quiet the actual amount of money I spend on beer. A valuable lesson that serves me to this day (thank you Sam).
 
Caracole - Ambree was the beer at the famous Brickskeller in Washington D.C., now closed and reopened with new owners I think. At one time they held the record the worlds largest beer selection. I pointed at it on the menu not knowing what I was in for. It changed my life forever.
 
It started when I had yuengling on a trip and was googling if I could get a keg in michigan, that search return a yuengling clone recipe, which I never brewed, but...... well you know the rest of story.
 
For me it was Sam Adams Boston Lager.

It was 1986 and I was a freshman in college. ...... (thank you Sam).

Very interesting. I'm surprised you didn't mention how the legal drinking age was probably only recently raised from 18 to 21 unless you lived in CA or OR. Most states changed their legal drinking age laws from 1986 to 1988. That would have put your story in a 'beer history' context.

Another historical landmark is the fact that SA lager came into existence in 1985 and that year it was only available in local bars. 1986 was a huge year for Boston Beer Co and you were right there!
 
I remember here in Ohio it was something like 73-74 when the drinking age for 3.2% was lowered to 18. I had a few bars withing walking distance of my house depending on what the night of the week was. I even drank with my bro at Dino's bar & grill from the song around the block from my house. & the lil brown jug from walk three steps. Joe was there too,as we partied with him for years in Elyria.
 
Very interesting. I'm surprised you didn't mention how the legal drinking age was probably only recently raised from 18 to 21 unless you lived in CA or OR. Most states changed their legal drinking age laws from 1986 to 1988. That would have put your story in a 'beer history' context.

Another historical landmark is the fact that SA lager came into existence in 1985 and that year it was only available in local bars. 1986 was a huge year for Boston Beer Co and you were right there!

Luckily I missed the debacle around New York state's drinking age. NYS raised the drinking age from 18 to 19 in 1982 and then from 19 to 21 in 1985 (when I was 17). My older sister was caught in the web though. She was legal at 19 for six months before they raised the legal age to 21. That's just mean...
 
Back
Top