The beer that got you into beer

So, I was just wondering if anyone here remembers the beer that turned you into a "beer guy (or girl)." For me, it was Sam Adams Octoberfest. I was just thinking about this because I just picked up a six-pack tonight. I remember for years that beer meant a bottle of Bud, or Guinness if I was feeling exotic. I had tried a bunch of different foreign beers like Heineken, St. Paulie Girl, Beck's, etc... but when I had that first Octoberfest, I was like "Whoa! This is beer?!?! It's so good!" Well, anyway, I'm pretty sure not too many people started drinking really good craft beer, I'm sure most of us started drinking the same typical light lagers, so I just wanted to know what beers turned you all from macro beer drinkers into beer aficionados.

Samuel Smiths stout pulled me out of the Schlitz wasteland.

For me, it was more the lack of good beer in the local gas station or Wally world. That I decided to make my own.

A business trip to the German countryside. I first ordered "bier" having no idea what they would bring me, then I moved on to ordering dunkel bier. Still do not know what breweries the beer was coming from but is was delicious, american light lager would never taste good again.

I actually started drinking good beer, but I have consumed my fair share of macro brews. My dad always had Sam Adams around the house growing up.

What started me down the path to full on beer nerd was a tour of Sam Adams Boston Brewery. It's a good tour, I now know that some of the info was wrong but it was my gateway for sure...

Fat Tire. That was my first exposure to craft beer after being pretty much an occassional budweiser drinker. Man, how my eyes were opened to the possibilities of good beer. I don't know how I stood drinking that crap (bud) now.

Westmalle Triple was the beer that sent me over the edge into Beersanity....

I drank bud (or steel reserve if I was feeling particularly frisky) until I was 22. Then my friend in the Army told me to try DFH 60 Minute IPA and that started me down the path of craft beer lover followed very quickly by beer brewer.

La fin du monde by Unibroue did it for me, although I don't really enjoy it anymore being that my palette has changed quite a bit.

I too was a BMC drinker until I had a Newcastle. Then I found anchor steam. After those I never looked back. I don't really drink them any more but they were pushed me into it. Oh I also got turned on to Bearish Irish Stout. So much better than Guinness.

There a beer here in Texas that's allied ShinerBock that I was super dark and cool lookin but was actually really light in flavor ... It's not the best by any measure , but it made want to try different styles and flavors ... If I could only remember what ipa really caught my taste buds .... The1st ipa I tried was broken halo and to my un-trained pallet it was terrible lol .. But now ipa's are all I want to drink

Hard to remember that far back, but it was either Saranac pale ale or Oregon IPA. But these were among the beers that I started out drinking. Rarely drank BMC in my younger days, only when it was the only option at a party and/or when the main goal was getting toasted. Now I don't think I ever drink BMC, unless its an ice cold PBR on a hot day, and PBR is all that's available.

jprice said:

La fin du monde by Unibroue did it for me, although I don't really enjoy it anymore being that my palette has changed quite a bit.

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Heh, mine was Don de Dieu, but have since moved to enjoy La fin du monde more so.

It was homebrew of a friend that got me away from bigger commercial beers and really provided that "wow beer can be awesome" moment. Also, I had goodlife brewing company's descender IPA early this year and that finally got me interested in IPA in more hop character.

I had a few different American Lite beers before a friend gave me a bench capper and I started Homebrewing. I've been trying different craft beers ever since. So for me Homebrewing turned me on to craft beer.

Chimay Blue and Warsteiner Dunkel.

I think Newcastle was the one that really turned me around on beer. Sierra Nevada completed the transformation for me.

Schlalfy oatmeal stout and Court Avenue casked porter. The latter led me to join my 1st mug club.

I was pretty much a Bud Light only drinker in college. I picked up a sixer of Stella on a whim and it opened my eyes a bit. It took me a while to appreciate and then enjoy hoppy beers. Sierra Nevada really completed the transformation. I remember trying Sierra in college and thinking it was disgustingly bitter, and now it's not bitter enough...

Becks Oktoberfest was the first beer I became "obsessed" with and had to have copious amounts of. One year I think I spent a few hundred dollars buying 12 packs of it knowing it only was released once a year. The beer that got me into brewing though was DFH and the DFH Alehouse here in Falls Church. I got tired of not being able to get some of the harder to come by DFH releases so I figured I would try brewing clones.

I drank bud light until I started working at a bar. My step dad gave me many different craft beers I thought tasted awful. I think it was at age 22 is when my bartender buddy had accidentally poured the wrong beer for a customer. I was off work so he asked me if I wanted it. It was a Dogfish head 60 minute. My life had changed. I started with the DFH and rolled down the line of our 17 taps. When I became a bartender myself I knew it was good to know what I was selling. So the drinking began. I went from bud light to DFH to Guinness to Leffe to chimay.......well you get the point. Then I found this great homebrew store near by. I asked my step dad if he wanted to brew my kit with me. It turns out that my step dad had been brewing for the past 15 years! I never really knew. With his knowledge and my ideas we made a great amber ale.(I added a vanilla bean to make it my own)

Now I have a passion for beer. All thanks to one bartenders mistake!

I'd say DFH 60/90 were my first "OMG, WTF am I drinking this is incredible I must tell the world" beers. But I think the Belgian beers like Duvel and Chimay is what pushed me into homebrewing. Those Belgians aren't cheap....

Hofbrau Hefeweizen.

Sophomore year of college, instead of getting an 18 pack of Icehouse every other night, my roommate and I stepped it up and started buying a six pack of craft beer and a 12 pack of Icehouse.

This way we could enjoy some good beer, then move onto the gnarly stuff.

We tried mostly everything at our liquor store but I would say that early on, Bell's Two Hearted was the stuff that made me really appreciate what good beer can taste like.

Eventually we transitioned entirely over to craft beer and a couple years later I started home-brewing.

Am I the only one here that had Wells Banana Bread Beer change their perception on beer?

Not that I think it's good or that I drink it now, it just opened my eyes to a world of flavor I never thought beer would be capable of. Heh.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale that I picked up from the Horno PX in Camp Pendleton while I was in. I had spent a couple of weeks buying a sixer here and there of what I thought were good beers trying them out, when I noticed the beautiful green box staring at me through the frosted glass. I went back to the barracks and drank it up, and was amazed that beer could taste so good! I've been hooked to craft brew since then.

Three Philosophers and Arrogant Bastard in college did it for me. Then Stone's IPA...

Believe it or not mine wasn't a microbrew, it was yuengling traditional lager. I couldn't figure out how it was supposedly the same style of beer as budweiser. Probably the first lager I'd ever had that didn't taste like ricey yellow seltzer water (which I thought was how beer was supposed to taste at the time).

For me, Hevelius Kaper and Warka Strong during a semester abroad in Poland. But back in the states, it was back to BMC. Then a couple years ago I started drinking beer from O'dell and that is what made me swear off BMC for good. Well, mostly. I still tip one back on rare occasions.

I had tripel karmeliet in my freshman year of college after a long time of 40oz

rifraf said:

Three Philosophers and Arrogant Bastard in college did it for me. Then Stone's IPA...

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Arrogant Bastard was one I had tried back when I drank Coors Light exclusively because I thought the whole concept was hilarious. I hated it. Tried it again later when I was a little more into craft beer and still hated it. Now I love it (though Double is way better).

Stationed in Germany after college. Bischofshof hefeweizen from Regensburg, I still miss it.

Pete's Wicked Ale was an eye opener for me back in the college days when BMC was the typical offering. Since then I had stuck with Sam Adams/Guinness, etc. The true epiphany came when I had a Stone IPA at a brew festival in San Diego a few years ago.. the line at a beer truck was about 30 people deep all night. After my first taste, I understood why.

Sierra Nevada pale ale, then moved to arrogant bastard, that's where it all began..

AmandaK said:

Am I the only one here that had Wells Banana Bread Beer change their perception on beer?

Not that I think it's good or that I drink it now, it just opened my eyes to a world of flavor I never thought beer would be capable of. Heh.

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That actually changed my wife's perception of beer. She loves that stuff still......

Pete's Wicked Ale and Samuel Smiths Taddy Porter, sold cheap out of coolers in parking lots of concerts . Have not had either in quite some time, but wow that question really brings me back in time!

I moved to an apartment with my future SWMBO around the corner from Tenaya Creek Brewery here in town. Sam Adams cherry wheat was what got me trying the micro brew.. And then I started homebrewing.

Dogfish Head Raison d'etre reignited a passion for homebrewing that I had ignored since college. I just realized I haven't had any of that beer in about 4 years. I should get reaquainted.

What started it for me was not so much a good beer, but the rubbish beer. Here in Austrlia the big brewers dish up rubbish and the micro brewers, though better are still not quite right, what they sell as English bitter or I.P.A is nothing like them and what they sell as American Pale ale is nothing like them either, it is drinking the imported English and American micro brewery beers that I really appreciated the craft that has gone into them, but it doesn't end there, we will never get the perfect pint because we keep on searching for it when you think you have found it another one turns up.

pigsaarz said:

What started it for me was not so much a good beer, but the rubbish beer. Here in Austrlia the big brewers dish up rubbish and the micro brewers, though better are still not quite right, what they sell as English bitter or I.P.A is nothing like them and what they sell as American Pale ale is nothing like them either, it is drinking the imported English and American micro brewery beers that I really appreciated the craft that has gone into them, but it doesn't end there, we will never get the perfect pint because we keep on searching for it when you think you have found it another one turns up.

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+1

For me, it was the fact that I didn't like the big brews so much I didn't even drink beer, and occasionally I'd have a craft beer or an imported beer and think it was better, but not great. So I tried making my own to see if I could actually make something I liked to drink.