What Beer Was Your Point of No Return?

[MichaelSterling]

Rouge Dead Guy

I was always more of a whiskey drinker because I hated BMC beer. When I was 21 A friend of mine invited me out bar that had like 40 craft brews on tap. I couldn't decide and didn't know the difference between a lot of the styles so I picked "that one over there, with the skeleton on the handle". I went back to that bar 3 more nights that week to try all the different brews they had. I was hooked!

Dead guy is amazing. It in my top three

 

[GetLooseontheGoose]

My first non-bmc was Guinness. Never went back to bmc.

Same here...Late 90's my dad would come home from Ireland with a few cans here and there...and i wasn't even 21 yet! Thanks Dad!

 

[starrfish]

Blue Moon - even though its technically a BMC, it's not a "light beer", and was what made me realize there were beers other than bud light. Its like the gateway beer.

Talk about showing age...I remember when blue moon and killians red weren't owned by the big BMC ... DAMN they were both GOOD in the late 80s early 90s! big reason I continued brewing... some of my favs got sucked up to the big BMC. Kilians USED to be good BLUE MOON USED to be good...

 

[jbgd825]

Mines a little different. It wasn't craft beer that got me into the craft beer scene. I was always aware that there was better stuff out there besides bmc. But during my first drinking experience. All my friends had was budlight (we were 18 and knew no better at the time) after that first can I knew I could find something better than this and didn't want to be like all the other college age kids just drinking whatever was available. With a few exceptions I now rarely drink the same beer twice without a gap (just too many options!) and I'm lucky enough never to have to buy bmc! My parents even put me in charge of buying the beer for all of our holiday parties because my dad will just go out and get a few sixers of corona and bother everyone!

 

[sgillespie]

St Peters English Ale

 

[thethirsty1]

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale still one of my favorites

 

[smokey]

My point of no return was also a place, I was stationed RAF Lakenheath for 3 years and wanted to sample all that England had to offer, from national brands to local pub favorites. My taste buds changed for the better. Bud light just wasn't right anymore.

 

[italynstallyn44]

Hoegaarden

 

[dave5155]

Stones anniversary beer, the bitter chocolate oatmeal stout. it opened my eyes. I received it as a white elephant gift several years ago for christmas. Great Lakes Burning River Pale ale converted me.

 

[passedpawn]

Harpoon IPA. At Guppies, a great little seafood place on the gulf of mexico. I do remember the experience vividly - an "a-ha!" moment.

 

[Tagez]

Bell's Porter.

 

[BendBrewer]

Mirror Pond Pale Ale before they started bottling it. Now that beer is just kind of meh....

 

[Jenks829]

Chimay Blue Grand Reserve

+1 here

 

[motobrewer]

sam adams winter lager probably got me looking around.

 

[Rev2010]

Fuller's Vintage!! Yep, believe it or not. I had started tasting new beer before that as a best friend had a store with tons of different beers. I had no idea there were even so many different one's back then so I would buy and taste all the different ones. That was my start to the wonderful world of beer. But one night out at dinner I was in a Scottish restaurant (Manhattan) and their beer list was really long. One thing stood out to me - the word Vintage. So I ordered the Fuller's Vintage and it blew me away. It was so different than anything else I'd tasted I hadn't really known beer can get that different. So from then on I ramped up my beer connoisseuring and have been at it now for about 12 years. My favorite beer to this day is Franziskaner but I love so many others.

That's why it's funny it took me so long to start brewing. I guess being busy making music I never really looked for something else to do until the wife got me my kit for christmas. Now I'm hooked and seriously getting into brewing, though still a total n00b, but I'm learning.


Rev.

 

[Mightyscoop]

I always had the desire to try something "different." First that I can remember was Warsteiner (5 years before legal drinking age.) I quickly tried all Sweetwater had to offer, but it was their IPA that really did it for me.

 

[shelly_belly]

In 1980 I discovered Premier Malt Extract at the grocery store. It wasn't the greatest beer but it stood up against BMC. I also learned that I could make a case or two of beer for what a 6-pack cost.

 

[Goosta]

Bell's Two-Hearted Ale and Upland Winter Warmer.

 

[Vance71975]

Mine was Obsidian Stout And Black Butte Porter(had them the same night) Both from Dechutes Brewery in Bend Ore.

 

[gak27]

Bass on tap @ The Old Shillelagh in Detroit, listening to live Irish music...

 

[bh10]

A 2 year old bottle of Sweetwater Festive Ale.

 

[QuaffableQuips]

Old Chub on draft at Oskar Blues in Lyons, CO got me hooked.

 

[heywolfie1015]

There wasn't one in particular, but there were standouts along the way.

In roughly the order they got me:

Newcastle
Killian's Irish Red
Bass
Avery's The Reverend
Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale

I actually had an interesting conversation with some friends about this recently. If you look at my list, it leans to the malty and yeasty. My buddies got hooked on good beer through Sierra Nevada. What we each mainly brew now are, respectively, British/Belgian ales and hop bombs. When you trace it back, it kind of makes sense.

 

[cruckin78]

Westmalle Triple in October 2007

 

[Morkin]

Easy. Old Chicago's Beer Tour, which i'm unsure if they still even do. (they closed up in Columbia Missouri near my old apartment).

Got 57 out of 101 before they shutdown.

 

[Valcarde]

It used to be that all I'd drink was Kieth's or Sleeman's Honey Brown.
Then I tried Strongbow Cider, and it become my alcoholic beverage of choice.

After that, I went to a local brewpub and tried some of their in-house raspberry wheat. After that, I just started devouring random styles and brands, and then I tried Trafalger cherry ale, and Hoptical Illusion.

I haven't gone back, except to drink some Grolsch now and then for the bottles.

 

[iijakii]

I had never really liked beer because all I had ever had was BMC or at best Shiner bock.

Then I tried the following all within a week: Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Old Rasputin, and DFH 60m

I started all-grain homebrewing within a month.

 

[pd230soi]

My dad was a Black Label drinker. He used to go to either the bottling plant or the distro location and get cases of beer that were mislabeled for realllllly cheap; can you imagine, CHEAPER Black Label.

So when when I had my first Sam Adams - that was important. Later one of my sister's friends from childhood opened a brewpub (Gritty McDuffs) in Portland, ME - life is good when I go home!

 

[mburlison]

I always had the desire to try something "different." First that I can remember was Warsteiner (5 years before legal drinking age.) I quickly tried all Sweetwater had to offer, but it was their IPA that really did it for me.

I was a BMC guy all the way until I moved to Atlanta. I went to Sweetwater and tried everything on tap. I think I hated the first sip of each beer, but I fell in love with each one, especially the IPA, by the end of the glass. Never looked back.

 

[TheTimotin]

My first non-BMC beer was actually a Sam Adams Boston Lager, but it wasn't until a friend gave me a Sam Adams Octoberfest that I really jumped on to the craft beer bandwagon.