First beer you ever had…

[Snuffy]

First beer I ever had was a warm Schlitz we swiped out of the cooler in a friends dad’s bass boat while on a “camp out” in another kid’s back yard. One of those where every kid involved is supposed to be “camping out” with a buddy and you end up running the neighborhood like crazed raccoons all night. It took me an hour to choke it down. It tasted like broccoli broth mixed with wee and soap suds. I was probably 13.
Second was a frosty Miller pony when I was about 15. That was the one, right there.

 

[shoengine]

Bud light? I think I was around 20. Don't have fond memories of it.

 

[Snuffy]

Bud light? I think I was around 20. Don't have fond memories of it.

Totally understandable. We have friends and relatives to the house to hang out in the summer and they tend to leave extra beer in my bar fridge. There are Bud Lights and hard seltzers in there that are probably a couple of years old. I think I saw a couple of Miller Lites. Either some visitor will drink those or they will be tossed with the refrigerator when it dies.

 

[mac_1103]

Probably a Schmidt's that my dad gave me when I was 13 or so. He only drank ice cold beer on really hot summer days (so it didn't actually taste like much of anything), and this stuff was 69 cents a six pack. Or maybe a Schaefer if it was on sale. Miller High Life was for special occasions.

 

[Snuffy]

Probably a Schmidt's that my dad gave me when I was 13 or so. He only drank ice cold beer on really hot summer days (so it didn't actually taste like much of anything), and this stuff was 69 cents a six pack. Or maybe a Schaefer if it was on sale. Miller High Life was for special occasions.

"The Champagne of Beers"

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I don’t really remember, but the story is that when I was two years old my uncle gave me Budweiser from his tall boy. Enough that I’d gotten ‘sleepy’. Maybe that’s why as an adult I’ve never cared for it, essentially it’s pretty much the only beer I’ll pass on. Oh, and my mom was pissed every time she talked about it.

 

[Snuffy]

Decades ago, a work buddy invited me to attend his girlfriend's daughter's birthday party. It was really just an excuse to have an after-party at the pool in their apartment complex. When it came time to blow out the 2 candles, he picked her up and while he waited for everyone to gather round, she kept grabbing at his beer. He finally just let her grab it and take a sip. She immediately made a face and slapped the can out of his hand, which then fell on the cake and spewed out the candles. Then while everybody scrambled to limit the damage, she puked down the neck of his shirt. We got tossed from the birthday party because we howled with laughter and the ladies did not appreciate it. We still had our pool party tho, so it all worked out in the end.

 

[mac_1103]

...the story is that when I was two years old my uncle gave me Budweiser from his tall boy...

There's a similar story about me, but it involved this stuff

and a very obviously drunk two year-old. And eventually, projectile vomiting. Yeah, my mother never thought it was nearly as funny as everybody else did.

 

[Broothru]

First beer I ever had was a warm Schlitz we swiped out of the cooler in a friends dad’s bass boat while on a “camp out” in another kid’s back yard. One of those where every kid involved is supposed to be “camping out” with a buddy and you end up running the neighborhood like crazed raccoons all night. It took me an hour to choke it down. It tasted like broccoli broth mixed with wee and soap suds. I was probably 13.
Second was a frosty Miller pony when I was about 15. That was the one, right there.

Miller High Life (the "Champaign of Bottled Beer"). A few cousins and I, prolly 14 or 15 years old, snuck off to the basement of my folk's house during a reception after one of my older sister's wedding. All the grownups were upstairs while we raided the refrigerator downstairs. I don't think any of us will forget those first beers, mainly because it's impossible to erase the memory of that first hangover, not to mention the wrath of parents, aunts and uncles afterwards.

Their anger was probably more about the case of beer that went missing, however. Whoever coined the phrase, "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer," had it all wrong. When you're out of Miller High Life, the grownups get really pissed!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

My dad's side is from western PA, when I started hunting and fishing it was with my dad and grandpa, they mostly drank Straub because it was local ish (St. Mary's PA) and cheap, they had 18 oz bottles in a hard cardboard case that you would return your empty case to the distributor and get a dollar or 2 off your next case or something like that. I was young so bear with me on the details. So as a young lad, looking up to dad and grandpa I couldn't wait til I got the chance to have my first beer with them, we would place a few bottles in a feeder stream in the morning so it would be mountain water cold, and when we got done fishing they would each crack one. We fish a small stream using fly rods and did a lot of walking up and down the creek. Time came to pop my beer cherry when I was 13 going on 14, we got back to the feeder stream, my dad cracks a beer, takes a sip (gulp) and hands it to me. He looks at grandpa, he shrugs his shoulder with a grin on his face. I was legit thirsty, so took a decent swig, I remember it being surprisingly smooth but immediately let out a big belch and my dad and grandpa laughed.. took me a while to finish it. I'm 40 now and we still fish that same stream, though grandpa is no longer here. In fact we were just there for the trout opener last weekend, me, my dad, my wife and a family friend. Though I did not drink any Straub last weekend, I do pour a bit of beer into the feeder stream for grandpa each year.

 

[Broken Crow]

When I was 4 years old, (the last year of my birth-fathers life) there was a picnic or party or somesuch in my backyard and when my father asked me to get him a beer, (Carling Black Label) I opened it with my teeth and then, being me I took a sip before handing it to him... He got a kick out of it and suddenly everyone was having me get their beer and open it for them and of course I had many sips before my mom put stop to it It didn't appeal much to me but it was 'different' from everything else, so I'd occasionally have some of other peoples beers in the years that followed... usually it was Old Vienna, Labbatts Blue or Molson Canadian, but that first Black Label taste stuck and even though I'd moved on to 'better' beers as an adult, I did buy it for nostalgia a few times in the 90's.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

 

[BongoYodeler]

Summer after 6th grade. I lived on a dead end street with miles of woods past the end of the street. A friend and I decided to pack our lunches and go on a long hike. As I was getting my lunch ready I opened the fridge and saw a bunch of my dad's Stegmaier beers. I quickly grabbed one and covertly stashed it in my lunchbox. Later, as we sat eating our lunches, I opened the can and we nervously giggled as we shared a beer that neither of us enjoyed but were too proud to admit.

 

[DonT]

I remember Dad giving me a sip of his Olympia one day when I was probably 8 or 9... it was before his first heart attack because he quit beer after that. I remember it not tasting like much, ice cold right out of the fridge... I don't recall my first full beer, probably in my early teens.

 

[firerat]

My dad was a painting contractor and all 4 of his brothers worked for him. And they all drank Busch beer like it was water.

Everyday after work my dad and his 4 brothers would sit in our garage and drink an insane amount of cans of Busch beer.

I used to get them beers from the refrigerator and I couldn't have been older than maybe 8 or 9 when one of my uncles told me to have a sip. So i did. And it became a regular thing to let me have a sip or 2 when getting them beers. My dad though it was hilarious until my mom smelled beer on me and i wasn't allowed in the garage when the uncles were over anymore.

My first full beer came shortly after when i swiped a few for me and a friend.

 

[hilljack13]

TBH, I was maybe 3-4 and I had an aunt that was babysitting with her bf at the time. Offered me a sip of whatever they were drinking. I just remember not liking it.

Fast forward to some random teenage year, Budweiser was the thing in the 90's. Funny b/c I never really started constantly drinking beer till I was in my mid 30's. Being broke probably had something to do with it.

 

[Skeeter686]

There's a similar story about me, but it involved this stuff
View attachment 872852
and a very obviously drunk two year-old. And eventually, projectile vomiting. Yeah, my mother never thought it was nearly as funny as everybody else did.

I was told that when I was two, I was reaching for my dad's Scotch and soda. My parents thought I'd hate it and it would be a good lesson for me, so they handed me the glass. And I just started drinking it like it was water!

They took the glass away and switched to different tactics.

 

[mschoeffler]

Pull-tab Coors, when there was only one Coors.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I was told that when I was two, I was reaching for my dad's Scotch and soda. My parents thought I'd hate it and it would be a good lesson for me, so they handed me the glass. And I just started drinking it like it was water!

They took the glass away and switched to different tactics.

I guess it was the good stuff, because the cheap stuff it like turpentine.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Pull-tab Coors, when there was only one Coors.

Pull tab, not push button?

 

[doug293cz]

A couple oz pour of Grain Belt Premium (" From the land of sky blue waters... ") my dad gave me somewhere around 8 - 10 yrs old, IIRC.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

I remember Dad giving me a sip of his Olympia one day when I was probably 8 or 9... it was before his first heart attack because he quit beer after that. I remember it not tasting like much, ice cold right out of the fridge... I don't recall my first full beer, probably in my early teens.

I keep trying to forget about Oly. In college, whenever the keg kicked, someone would make a beer run (I didn't have a car, so it was never me.) Seems like they always brought back bottled Oly. Tasted like crap after drinking draft all night.

Brew on

 

[jdauria]

God, it would have been over 50 years ago..odds are, growing up in CT, it was one of my dad's Knickerbockers or a Hull's (New Haven brewery back in the day).

First craft beer, was a Henry Weinhard's from West Coast somewhere between '79 and '83. Buddy of mine in college played in DII College World Series in CA and drove back cross country with his family and bought some back. Remember it having floaties in it and was like what the heck is this?

First dabble into European beers - Also in college, New Haven had a place called The Brewery, it had beers from all around the world and if you drank them all you got a t-shirt and name on wall. Never came close, but it was my first experience with Pilsner Urquell...before they got bought out, and it was heavenly.

Last story - If you remember Smokey and the Bandit, Coors was not a thing in most of the country for a long time as it had to be shipped in refrigerated trucks. Anyway it was not available in New England back in early 80's. Friend and I visited girls at a school in New Jersey, which was one of the first east coast states to get it, so we bought several cases, took the spare tire out of my trunk, lined the tire well with trash bags and ice and put the Coors in there. Then when we got back to CT, we sold them for $5 a bottle to kids at college.

 

[doug293cz]

Last story - If you remember Smokey and the Bandit, Coors was not a thing in most of the country for a long time as it had to be shipped in refrigerated trucks. Anyway it was not available in New England back in early 80's. Friend and I visited girls at a school in New Jersey, which was one of the first east coast states to get it, so we bought several cases, took the spare tire out of my trunk, lined the tire well with trash bags and ice and put the Coors in there. Then when we got back to CT, we sold them for $5 a bottle to kids at college.

Went to college in Washington (UW) and we couldn't get Coors there at the time, so naturally it was the "whale" of beers, especially for the frat boys. So, the college paper ("The Daily") ran a blind taste test with Coors and several other beers available locally. The winner was Ballantine, one of the cheapest beers you could get at the supermarket.

Brew on

 

[MaxStout]

Not counting the sip of Budweiser that Dad gave curious little 8-year-old Max ("I told you you wouldn't like it!"), the first whole beer I consumed was a Schlitz, when I was a teenager. I lived in a state (SD) that had two drinking ages: 18 for 3.2 beer, and 21 for spirits, wine and "high point" beer. Accordingly, there were two kinds of bars: full bars for 21-plus, and beer taverns that served 3.2. A few of the latter had onsale/offsale licenses and you could buy beer to go. One even had a drive-thru window. We knew the places that were lax on carding, or we knew someone a few years older who'd buy it for us if we gave them a few cans. You could also get 3.2 in grocery stores, but the clerks almost always carded.

Coors wasn't sold in my state at the time, but it was a 90-minute drive to Nebraska, where it was available. A bunch of us would pile into a car and drive to a store just across the river from Yankton, SD. We'd each haul a couple cases home. Showing up with a couple sixers of Coors at a party was kind of a status symbol. The beer had cachet only because you couldn't get it locally. We hated the push-button cans, though. Once Coors was distributed nationwide, no big deal.

Other beers we sought out as misguided youth included Oly (I think their advertising slogan was "It's the water and not a lot more"). Also, Schell's, Old Milwaukee, Old Style, Hamm's, Blatz. If we were feeling rich, Miller High Life in bottles (I still buy once in a while for a lawnmower beer).

That's my retro beer story. Pardon me while I adjust the onion on my belt...

 

[doug293cz]

Interesting side note on Coors:

The reason that the beer needed to be kept cold during shipping is that it was unpasteurized, and the yeast would create off flavors if stored warm. Then Coors came up with micro porous ceramic filters that would remove the yeast (and perhaps other microbes), so that pasteurization was not necessary. Coors built their own factory to produce the ceramic filters. But running a factory just to produce a low volume of special product has a high financial overhead, so Coors started making, and selling, other ceramic products. One of their products was ceramic substrates for integrated circuit packages, and my initial job at my long time employer was working with those IC substrates, which involved regularly interfacing with Coors. Took several trips to their Golden, CO operation, but never did get a brewery tour (did get some very nice meals courtesy of their sales team.)

Edit: My history was a little off. The Coors ceramic business existed long before they started using ceramic filters for the beer, and I don't know if they still use the ceramic filters.

Brew on

 

[BongoYodeler]

Interesting side note on Coors:

The reason that the beer needed to be kept cold during shipping is that it was unpasteurized, and the yeast would create off flavors if stored warm. Then Coors came up with micro porous ceramic filters that would remove the yeast (and perhaps other microbes), so that pasteurization was not necessary. Coors built their own factory to produce the ceramic filters. But running a factory just to produce a low volume of special product has a high financial overhead, so Coors started making, and selling, other ceramic products. One of their products was ceramic substrates for integrated circuit packages, and my initial job at my long time employer was working with those IC substrates, which involved regularly interfacing with Coors. Took several trips to their Golden, CO operation, but never did get a brewery tour (did get some very nice meals courtesy of their sales team.).

Brew on

Never knew that. Very cool.

 

[day_trippr]

The tours at the Golden facility were epic back in 1970 and the handful of following years I was at Denver University. On the first visit we found out they had some amazing brews on tap in the hospitality room that one would never see for sale anywhere, particularly a dark beer that tasted like what I now know as a munich dunkel style.

After a couple of visits we used to try to skip the tour and sneak directly into the tap room but that never worked - Golden is surrounded by tens of thousands of college students within driving range so the staff was always on high alert

Cheers!

 

[Snuffy]

I keep trying to forget about Oly. In college, whenever the keg kicked, someone would make a beer run (I didn't have a car, so it was never me.) Seems like they always brought back bottled Oly. Tasted like crap after drinking draft all night.

Brew on

The only beer I have ever poured out was Olympia. Picked up a 6 for a canoe trip and stuffed it into the cooler immediately. It must have been allowed to sit at room temp for some time cause, even frosty cold, it was undrinkable. I suffered thru most of one and then came to the horrified conclusion that we were going to have to finish the float w/o beer. Pouring that stuff out was as solemn as a burial at sea. It was never amazing fresh, but spoiled was like red oak stump water and vinegar.

 

[seatazzz]

I've told this story before, but like many of you my first beer came from my dad. When I was about 4, he would ask me to go get him a beer (because that's why people had kids back then, to do stuff for them). I remember liking the smell after the swooooosh of the tab being pulled, and telling Dad. He gave me a sip, and I was in love. After that, about once or twice a week, he would ask for another beer and tell me to bring a small glass; he would pour about half an inch in the glass, and it was mine. I still remember those glasses; green with gold leaf. By the time I was 13 or so I could have a full one once in a while, especially if I was helping with a home project; I was the tomboy of the two girls in our family. As to the brand, it was either Budweiser or Burgy, which I think was only sold in Utah where I grew up. When Dad would work on projects with his brothers it was always Rheinlander since it was my oldest uncle's favorite, and he would bring a case along. Those bottle caps had picture puzzles on them, always fun to figure out. I also learned new words on those days since my dad and his brothers could work together for about 10 minutes before it all went to hell and they were arguing. All in fun though.

 

[BRbarfanTimmy]

Freshmen year of college and I don't know what it was. One of my fraternity brothers gave me a fake ID and a small group of us went to the main campus bar. Another freshmen and I were standing outside in the beer garden and one of the older guys handed us each a plastic cup of beer. This was the early 90s so undoubtedly a Miller Lite or Bud Lite. It was a big opaque cup with the bar logo on it. All I remember is that it was tough to take down and I had at least a few. The rest is history. I'd had mixed drinks and wine up to that point in my life but never a beer. My parents would have beer on occasion and there was rarely any at the house. A month or two later I went home and told my dad that I'd started to drink beer and the next day he brought home a red label Chimay Ale which was one of his favorites. I think I had one small glass and he had the rest.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Sorry, but I can't remember anything that happened before I was two.

 

[Brockness Monster]

I was 7 or 8 when my dad would host a monthly chicken.. hugging tournament. You know, the kind where you put two chickens in a ring made out of haybales and they would... hug each other. Anyways, during these tournaments, where there was totally only hugging taking place, I was placed in charge of the keg and people would pay me a dime for a refill. A couple times I didn't walk away with much money because my attention span would get real short after sampling this gross soda pop that the adults kept drinking. Knowing my dad, it was either Coors light or the cheapest beer available.

 

[Snuffy]

Cheap beer will make you hug a chicken.

 

[mac_1103]

But the chicken might not like it.

 

[DuncB]

Strict alcohol intro regime for me. Had to follow my Dad's path for his intro.
So cider first and then Newcastle brown ale and finally a John Smiths.
Before the widget so it was an okay bottled beer.

 

[wdavis2003]

Bud Ice

 

[corkybstewart]

Who knows, but I'll guess it was a Miller High Life my Dad gave me while we were fishing. He rarely drank beer but when we fished he drank MHL. That would have been close to 60 years ago so my memory is a little foggy. In junior high it would have been Coors on a skiing trip in New Mexico.

 

[corkybstewart]

Edit: My history was a little off. The Coors ceramic business existed long before they started using ceramic filters for the beer, and I don't know if they still use the ceramic filters.

Brew on

As a field geologist we used Coors dimple dishes to test for oil in rock samples. Put the sample in the dimple, pour a few drops of a carcinogenic solvent in the dimple and use a UV box to see the oil streaming out of the rock.

 

[Dgallo]

At like 13 I took one of my dad’s old school bud heavy’s that were in the basement for years. Didn’t even cool it down… was not a good experience lol