What beer got you into this?

[farmbrewernw]

Oh probably Deschutes Black Butte Porter back in the day when my dad would let me take a sip, I was probably around 10 and at that moment I knew I would be a craft brew drinker.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

A place in Suisun City, Ca called Grizzley Bay Brewing Co. got me interested in craft brews. In time I wondered what it would take to make my own beer, and my wonderful parents hooked me up with a kit for Christmas one year. And here we are 8 years later.

Unfortunately Grizzley Bay Brewing Co shutdown years ago(bows head in moment of silence) but thank god they were around to get me into good beer.

 

[fixie]

My neighbor growing up was a brewmaster. My parents caught me drinking when I was like 16 or 17 and my neighbor told me to come over to his house a few days later. I wasn't sure what to expect I thought I was in more trouble but when I came in he asked me what beer I was drinking so I told him Coors light, he looks at me and just shakes his head then tells me to follow him into into his garage. He opened his fridge and took out two bottles of tasty brew gave them to me and said go home and drink these come back and tell me what you think. It all started there.

 

[SkewedBrewing]

My neighbor growing up was a brewmaster. My parents caught me drinking when I was like 16 or 17 and my neighbor told me to come over to his house a few days later. I wasn't sure what to expect I thought I was in more trouble but when I came in he asked me what beer I was drinking so I told him Coors light, he looks at me and just shakes his head then tells me to follow him into into his garage. He opened his fridge and took out two bottles of tasty brew gave them to me and said go home and drink these come back and tell me what you think. It all started there.

That story is classic...

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

That story is classic...

Yeah, I was worried though that it would end up as a "How I lost my virginity to an older man" story.

 

[Donthoseme]

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I'm surprised more people didn't use this as a stepping stone. I was drinking Sam before that and probably would have never drank anything else until that day where i discovered hops. I then ravaged every Dogfish head beer i could find trying to get more and more hops.

 

[spitfire9703]

Well after my first excursion into beer which was a Miller High Life Lite, I had my doubts in beer. I had never drank a drop before that. This was just over a year ago, about 4 months before my 21st birthday.

Then I had a Bell's Octoberfest....

My life changed at that moment. I decided beer was a good thing and started to dabble in some local stuff, Keweenaw Brewing Company, and some Leinenkugels. Ever since I have fallen deeper down the rabbit hole on a daily basis. Started brewing about a year after I had my first beer ever.

 

[nibiyabi]

I thought I hated beer until I traveled to Europe and discovered the ambrosia that was non-BMC, freshly-brewed beer on tap. I came back to America hungry to discover similar beers and found my oasis at BevMo! where my fellow BMC-hating friends and I would gather goodies to sneak back into the dorm in giant suitcases. Fast-foward a couple years and we are living in a house filled with good beer and, more recently, several gallons of homebrew.

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

Was there one beer that sent you off the deep end into this world of craft brews, and home brewing?

Budweiser. Seriously.

I decided one night the best way to avoid beers like Bud was to make my own. Now I've decided it is the most fun I can have with pants on and I'm contemplating brewing naked some day.

 

[MaynardX]

I grew up in West "By God" Virginia and had the horrible experience of funneling nothing but bud and miller down my throat. I didn't know any better back in the day. Fortunately, I ended up in Delaware later in my life. My apartment was located next to a "Total Wine and More" store and eventually got the nerve to try something different. I saw this six pack labeled as "Dog Fish Head" and, being the total red neck beer newb I was, I said "Who the 'F' would name beer after fish"? Thankfully, I ended up eventually trying it and now I am where I am! It was the Shelter Pale Ale, which I don't care for much anymore, but I still credit it as the new beginning!

 

[reim0027]

Corona got me drinking beer. Sam Adams got me loving beer. Numerous micro brews made me want a little of this, a little of that, etc. Then, I decided to make my own beer, so, one day, I could have a little of this/little of that in 1 beer.

 

[SumnerH]

The more I think about it, the odder my path was. My parents brewed when I was younger; they gave it up when they had 3 kids in middle school or older, just because of time. But even then they always had something like Geary's Pale Ale or other non-mainstream options in the fridge.

But I never drank beer until after college. I didn't drink at home, and when I got to school all the parties had BMC stuff which I tried a couple of times and didn't like. Actually it was another macro, Guinness, that was the first beer I liked, followed quickly by Anchor Steam and then Weeping Radish Corolla Gold (a Helles lager).

 

[ceannt]

1978.... Anchor Porter. I was perfectly happy drinking BMC in ignorant bliss until a buddy of mine ordered one in a little place in Fremont Ca. "WTF is that?, it looks like used motor oil" "here, try a sip, you probably won't like it....... hey give me back my beer!"
Not too many craft beers around in those days, so I mosly drank imports. when I moved to WV in '81 nobody carried any...... so "OK, I'll make my own...."

 

[lowlife]

My coworker had been giving me some home brews to try. He gave me a six of mixed home brews for Christmas that made me want to brew beer (dubbell, trippel, moose drool clone). After that it was over. I had to make my own beer.

 

[trimpy]

First beer I ever tasted was homebrew. My dad made a simple all cascade IPA back to the late 80's. I really didn't like it and didn't really drink until a trip to germany over my 21st birthday, where I got hooked on malty lagers. No idea what they were, but things slid downhill quite quickly after that.

 

[Evan]

mine was in college, we always were drinking some kind of BMC at parties, but i had a friend give me a bottle of Big Daddy Brown by Mad Anthony's in Fort Wayne, IN. they use to bottle it, but dont anymore. that day on i was hooked. so anytime we had to run and pick up beer i'd grab a six pack of something to try, and i can say, since i graduated and started making money, i bet i haven't drank a case total of BMC in 5 years. usually when its the only option at a resturant, and i'll just never go back to that one

 

[Reverend JC]

I was actually a coors light. I was thinking that I could make some really cheap beer in mass quantities. Of course, cheap and this hobby DO NOT go hand in hand and after my first kit (vanilla porter) I learned beer could have flavor. To this day, a coor light clone has NOT been attempted by me.

 

[StoutFan]

Founders Dirty Bastard. Love the Scottish ale-ness of it. It was the first 6 (after my 21st ) other than Bud that I bought. After than, it was on. I wore out the selection in little Cheboygan, and started making runs down state to get craft/import beer. Now it's an obsession.

 

[neko]

Mr. Beer threw me off into the brewing world.

I know that's not the "beer" you're looking for, but that's what came to mind. I don't think there was any commercial beer that got me into this hobby, more like people kept dropping hints that I should start homebrewing. An old roommate gave me a homebrewing book for my birthday and a friend gave me his dad's unopened Mr. Beer kit and this was before I told anyone "I'm going to start homebrewing". SWMBO pushed me into this too so I guess I was forced into this hobby and it's too late to turn back.

 

[Mutilated1]

For me there wasn't really a single beer that made me want to brew. My uncle brewed his own beer when I was little, and I was fascinated by the bottles and bottle caps for some reason - so basically I knew that I wanted to brew beer someday since way before I was old enough to sneak a beer of my own.

Then I guess I pretty much forgot about brewing beer until a couple years ago I was chatting with some friends online and conversation turned to someone mentioning that someone homebrewed. Well it sort of sounded interesting the way the described it so I started looking at beer websites while we were all chatting and I found makebeer.net and sort of on the spur of the moment decided to order the kit. Well as it turned out I couldn't wait for the kit to get here so I found a homebrew store near where I live and bought a few buckets and carboys there and just jumped right in.

Anyway, getting back on topic of what beer got you into this.... for me I suppose it was Busch or Busch Light because for as much as I like all kinds of beer Busch is the beer that I just can't really do without -- thats pretty much what I wanted to make when I started. Then once I got started making beer I made all different kinds and varieties. And now that I've gotten pretty good at making beer, regular American style lager is most of what I make.

 

[romanalex1]

Probably the weekly visits to the Brooklyn Brewery, shipyard IPA.
I'd also add a few trips to london sampling the cask ales, tim talyor landlord as well as fullers esb (on cask of course) fullers london porter, youngs special london ale, a few that come to mind, is what pretty much did if for me. I wanted to replacate a few of those, and not pay 2-3 dollars a bottle of stale beer at the local beverage center.

 

[Hambone]

I used to always drink to get drunk and cheap was the way to go. Started young with bud and bud light. Highschool was mostly Olde English 40oz's and keg parties. Begining college was kegged beer and Natty Ice, then I moved to hard liquor. Always loved crown royal but settled for anything cheap and dark. Too many nights of getting completely f'd up and not remembering much helped me move back to beer. Then I graduated and bought a house 10 min from the Abita Brewery. Started going on the free tours and fell in love with their Andygator and Turbodog. Being the competitive person I am, I decided I wanted to try as many craft beers that this world could offer. In March of this year I got a big refund for being a first time home buyer and decided to blow it all on home brew equipment. I don't regret a thing.

 

[JVD_X]

Pete's wicked ale back in 92 or so.

 

[bensyverson]

Probably Hoegaarden... I wanted to learn to make a wit.

 

[Natron008]

For me it was actually mead...I loved it, it was hard to come by on a regular basis, I heard you could make it yourself and that sounded good.

I bought NCJoHB and read about mead, decided to do a beer first as a test run to get the process down. I had literally NEVER bought a craft/microbrew at this point and didn't really like beer.

Yeah that was over two years ago and I haven't brewed a mead yet. Started doing beers and just kept doing them. Discovered a lust for craft beers that has not been kind to my wallet.

It was actually mead for me as well. And when I realized beer brewing was just taking that process one step further - I was in!

I think it was also the whole "hop bomb" surge. I absolutely love Nugget Nectar and could only get it once a year. It didn't take long to realize I could change that all with one turkey fryer and a few 5 gal water jugs!

 

[Nova5]

I blame Woot.com, they had a good deal on Mr.Beer kits and i snagged one. after a few i bought and extra ferementer keg. Now i started progression into 5gal.

 

[dontman]

For me it was a homebrew I tried back in '84. That was a revelation. Best beer I ever had. There weren't too many higher end beers available. I started brewing a few years later. These days there are so many great craft brews available commercially that I'm not sure I would start the hobby now. So I'm glad for the way it has worked out because this is one frickin great hobby.

 

[KYB]

Sam Adams, Guinness Draught and Extra Stout got me interested in better beer. From there I started looking up good beer online and trying new things, then started homebrewing.

 

[mc_eric]

My buddy gave me a bottle of his rye IPA a few years ago and it blew my mind. I remember thinking that it was literally the best beer i had ever had. Then, a few months ago I made him come over and teach me how to brew, and I've done about 10 batches since then. And they've all been pretty damn good, even my first shots at coming up with a recipe from scratch turned out really tasty.

Life is good...

 

[carp]

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I'm surprised more people didn't use this as a stepping stone. I was drinking Sam before that and probably would have never drank anything else until that day where i discovered hops. I then ravaged every Dogfish head beer i could find trying to get more and more hops.

I have to agree with the SNPA thing. Of course I had to drink over 100 kegs of it (really) before I got inspired to make my own. My dad turned me on to Sierra and it got me off of Budweiser. Nowadays I wouldn't call it the best beer, but it is my favorite, in terms of pure basic regular reliable pleasure delivery.
I expect homebrew to supplant it, but I only on my 6th batch, so I'm not quite there yet.