What beer would you describe as the beer that 'awakened' you...?

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Bert Grant's Imperial Stout, served at Rico's Tavern in Pullman Washington. If memory serves, it was 1986.

I miss it even today. Although I have a decent clone - at least I think it is as BGIS hasn't been brewed in a while.
 
Back in the 1990s, I started drinking Sam Adams Boston Lager. Then I heard about a special Sam Adams "Triple Bock" beer that was high in alcohol. A buddy and I decided to split one. We both thought it was awful, but it made an impression on me and I began to look for other examples of high gravity beers. Since my palate has changed and I have learned to appreciate beers more, I wonder how that Triple Bock would taste today.
 
Mackeson's Triple XXX Stout, sadly no longer available in the US. I spent two years looking for that brew after having one a few years back. When I finally moved to a city with variety, I got hooked on Chimay Red and Delirium Nocturnum but it was the search for the Mackeson's that set it all in motion.

:mug:
 
Combination of going to a wedding where my old college roommate made some very good wit and porter homebrews... and then trying both O'Hara's Irish Stout and Acme Pale ale on the same night. Since I was on vacation, I was able to read Palmer's online version of How to Brew and whalaa.
 
Living in Germany before I was 21, I drank house hefes throughout Bavaria (most of em served w/ lemon slice) just to get wasted, having no real appreciation for the brew. it wasnt until after I left that I acquired the taste and realized what I was missing. I think it was hoegaarden for me too.
 
The beer that opened my eyes was Promise Ale. I bought 4 bottles simply because I liked the bottles and label. It was awesome at the time. Unfortunately, I never found it again after that night. The store never received any more either. I'm not sure if they even brew it anymore, but that beer did it for me.
 
Turning 21 is what opened me up to the beer world. Since I was now of legal age I was able to go out with my friend who is adventurous like me to find the perfect beer and try as many different types of beer possible and was not confined to miller and coors. I think the first beers I truly valued for the taste was Hefeweizen's it was a smooth transition from the watered down lagers i was used to and had much more flavor. I think who I have to give credit to, for giving me as much appreciation for beer as I have today would be Stone. Living in southern California almost every store has Stone beer so it didnt take long for me to try it and fall in love with it. Then one day I decided I loved Stone so much Im going to go check out the Stone brewery. While there I was almost instantly inspired to start brewing especially when the tour guide told me how simple it could be. And now my journey continues...
 
Victory Hop Devil was the first craft beer that REALLY impressed me. I think it is a double IPA. That all being said, I recently had Sierra Nevada's Anniversery Ale, this year it is a cascade IPA....WOW
 
My own beer was the turning point for me. Before I brewed beer, I thought I knew something about beer. I was wrong. Once I started brewing, I began learning. I read (and still read) everything I can find about beer. I seek out the beers I've read about and beers I've never even heard about. Among my friends, I'm a beer snob and THE guy to ask about beer. Among beer snobs, I consider myself an amateur. No time like the present to broaden my palate...what's in the fridge?
 
I'm with LGI. It was really Mr. Beer that opened the doors for me. In the last three years I've tried probably 100+ different beers, before that I seriously may have tried 10-15 beers total EVER. I remember one notable beer from my younger years, but that brewery went out of business and I went years after drinking MGD and the occasional Henry Weinhards. (Thomas Kemper, why did you leave us?). There were instances in my life where a 6 pack would last me over a month and after one nasty hangover/puke from Budweiser I didn't drink for at least two years.

Once I started brewing, the gloves came off and I really discovered beer for what it is, nectar of the gods and not as a vessel for a quick buzz and a crappy day after.
 
Westmalle !
always drank alot of beer but it was always molsen\bud\Coors until I decided to try a larger variety, there was a LHBS next to a Hobby store and a few friends and I went in...I was instantly hooked, I had to try it! I've been brewin ever since ...love it ...but Westmalle was the beer that changed it all for me!
 
My love affair with beer started one summer in Japan with Kirin Lager and then Asahi Superdry (basically the Japanese versions of BMC). These were... hell, still are, very good in hot weather, but all taste just about the same.

Like the original poster, my first taste came from Hitachi-no-nest White Ale and Sweet Stout. We took a trip to Ibaraki-pref to brew on-site there (if you live in Tokyo and have never been, it is a nice trip out away from the city for a day)... http://kodawari.cc/en/

We tasted the real deal while making our own "clones" with their permission... the fact that what we brewed was very close to what we had got me hooked.
 
When I was in college, I went to a liquor store to buy a bottle of vodka. I didn't have any cash on me, so I had to use a credit card. When I got up to the check out counter, I noticed the store had a policy of $20 minimum purchase for credit card customers. The vodka was about $15, so I quickly grabbed something that was about $5. Luckily for me, that "something for about $5" was a small bottle of Chimay Red.

I was blown away when I drank the Chimay. It opened up a whole new world for me. It's still one of my favorite beers.
 
Dogfish Head 90 and Bells Two Hearted Ale changed the way I looked at beer. Before them I would drink mostly lagers and never really appreciated ales. Hell, I'm not sure I ever knew what hops tasted like before that. Changed my life and now I'm addicted to this hobby. LOVE IT!
 
Back before the micro brews took off, I was driving by this shop in a semi-industrial part of town that advertised "craft and home brewing supplies".

Of course this caught my attention. I stopped and talked to the guy for a good while and he told me about a meeting of the newly formed local homebrew club.

After attending my first meeting, and tasting beers that had been brewed by the guys, that's what hooked me. I can't really pinpoint a specific brew, especially mass marketed stuff, because this was still when you basically just had bud/miller/coors to pick from at the store and bars.

So, I blame my club ... which I'm still a member of after almost 20 years...lol.
cheers

~r~
 
permo said:
Victory Hop Devil was the first craft beer that REALLY impressed me. I think it is a double IPA. That all being said, I recently had Sierra Nevada's Anniversery Ale, this year it is a cascade IPA....WOW
Click to expand...

Victory makes incredible beers. The brewery tour is highly recommended. They have about 30 different beers on tap at the brewpub. :mug:
 
I would have to say probably Leinies Big Butt Doppelbock made me get away from just drinking Miller lite and the like. Then New Glarus' Spotted Cow really got me trying different beers. Then I joined Old Chicago's World Beer Tour and have tried hundreds of beers. Lots of them bad but a few of them good. Bells Two Hearted was the turning point that I really started liking hoppy beers.
 
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and NewCastle... I didn't even really drink beer before those, never started with Bud or Miller... It took me a couple years after drinking those regularly that got me interested in brewing my own when a friend said he brewed stuff like that for "cheap"
 
I was a 30 stone girl through college and shortly there after. Then one day one a whim of being bored and needing something to do we got a mix pack of Sam Adams. Started trying each of them and nothing really hit, then I tried the Black Lager. I was sure when I saw it I was going to hate it. I was amazed that I could like something so dark. So we moved on to other styles and I found my true love of IPAs. Thanks Mr. Koch.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
My own beer was the turning point for me. Before I brewed beer, I thought I knew something about beer. I was wrong. Once I started brewing, I began learning. I read (and still read) everything I can find about beer. I seek out the beers I've read about and beers I've never even heard about. Among my friends, I'm a beer snob and THE guy to ask about beer. Among beer snobs, I consider myself an amateur. No time like the present to broaden my palate...what's in the fridge?
Click to expand...

I can relate to this. Hanging out with my friends makes me feel like a beer genius, and I take pride in to having turned many of them in to more educated beer-enthusiasts. Then I come on to this site, and you all humble me with your knowledge and experience.

There is something to say as well regarding how your tastes change after brewing your first batch. After I had actually smelled my first bag of fresh hops and the steeped specialty grains, and then tasting the malted extract, I immediately began appreciating a whole new kind of beer (I had never really liked 'bitter' beers, but now I can almost consider myself a hophead).
 
There's no BMC "dark side" as far as I'm concerned but what first got me interested in beer in general was working at a pizza joint with a ton of different beers on tap and in the bottle. After work, we'd sit around and drink whatever we wanted from domestics like Coors Light and Miller Lite to imports like Bass, Warsteiner, and Guinness to smaller breweries like Marthasville (an Atlanta microbrew that may not be around anymore), Pete's Wicked, and Red Hook. And we had a great beer distributor that really loved beer and would talk to us about what we had in stock. There's never been a great divide in my life where I suddenly realized there were more beers out there than what's at the convenience store, but only because I was fortunate to spend my formative drinking years around so much variety.
 
r2eng said:
Bert Grant's Imperial Stout, served at Rico's Tavern in Pullman Washington. If memory serves, it was 1986.
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Ha, Rico's is the site of my beer epiphany as well!!!

I'd never been much of a beer drinker. I was only ever familiar with the cans of fizzy yellow liquid my dad would drink from time to time and I just never got it.

One night, while I was early in my grad school stint at WSU, we went out to Rico's Tavern, it was the thing to do apparently. Not being much of a beer drinker, or a drinker in general to that point, I decided to go with the crowd and ordered a Hale's Dublin Stout, almost certainly the first stout in my entire life. I took a tentative sip unsure if this black liquid would agree with me. I took one sip...and I was ruined! :D

It's interesting to be able to look back and see the exact moment where it all began! :mug:
 
I have to say, the first drink that turned me on to beer was... wine! I had a glass of decent wine with a steak a few years back and I was amazed of the flavors that hit my tongue. For the first time, I actually took a conscious effort to taste all the different flavors.

Since then I'd have to say that it was an Allagash Dubbel that got me going on beer. I simply took the same time with tasting the beer as I did with wine. Ever since, I kicked my wine habit and have stuck with any craft brew I can get my hands on!
 
Almost 20 years ago, about 17 or 18, a friend and i wanted to try somethiing different then the usual heineken or grolsch that we were getting tired of..
The two that did it were Leffe and La Chouffe.. Especially the Chouffe in the (1 gal) growlers.. yummmmmm :)
 
I never really drank beer, I had a couple here and there but they were diet beer and I was never very interested. Then I had Samual Adams Boston Lager and realized that I like beer, to this day I have only had BMC a handful of times.

As time went on I had a couple of other "reawakenings", notably Rodenbach Grand Cru and when I discovered the beers of New Glarus.
 
Leinenkugel's around 92. Hardly an amazing beer by my standards today, but it was the first amber commonly available in bars around here and way ahead of the Bud and Milwaukee's Best phases. After that things got fuzzy (college and all), but early standouts were Red Hook Double Black Stout (man I'd love to try that again), Chimay, seeking out an Anchor Steam which I didn't care for (need to try one of those again).
 
Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:
Translated into "English" English, you were once a 420 pound girl? Did you ever lose that weight? :p
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heh, heh. I was wondering that too. :)

My awakening came many years ago when a book club offered a little beer brewing kit; can of John Bull, yeast, plastic bottles, the works! I actually liked it! Ya, I was hooked.
 
I'd say it was homebrewing that got me drinking all kinds of craft beer, and being a beer geek in general.
 
Edcculus said:
I'd say it was homebrewing that got me drinking all kinds of craft beer, and being a beer geek in general.
Click to expand...

Me too, I mean I drank good beer before brewing but since I have had both feet in the water brewing like crazy I have really learned to appreciate what beer is and what the breweries have to go through to make such a great product.
 
Age 19, my roommate's dad bought him a 750mL of St Bernardus Abt 12. My dad had previously mentioned something to me about Belgium, Monks, and wild yeasts, so I was intrigued to try it, although I must admit it was a bit much for me at the time haha.
 
I'd like to take this oppurtunity to sincerely thank South African Breweries for getting me started in homebrewing.
Yes, your flavourless fizzy p!ss water that you have forced on the SA public under the guise of a gold medal you won in 1907 at a cattle show became unbearable and I was tired of drinking wine.
And BTW - your Hansa "Marzen" Gold isn't a marzen - its a lager - but you knew that didn't you.
Viva SABMiller Viva !
 

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