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

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Beck's dark in high school. I never did like anything normal... at first it was anything dark... Guinness being the preference (though we would drink about anything... I remember willingly purchasing Mickey's....) Then in college I spent a lot of time in Asheville. Regardless of what I drank... I knew what tasted good. And for a long time Highland's Oatmeal porter was the bar... then I started drinking everything I had not had... then I started brewing...

now I prefer what I brew to alot of what is available and save my money for the exceptions.
 
I got to spend a lot of time in the Seattle area in '99/'00 and fell in love with any Porter I could find back then. Can't remember any of them though. I started brewing in '05 by stopping in at my LHBS and saying "I like Sierra Nevada, what can I do"... while waiting for that batch a friend of mind said I would like Arrogant Bastard. Bought a bottle of that, the Stone IPA and the Smoked Porter. I've been a sucker for IPAs ever since!
 
Troegs Oatmeal Stout, way back when it was still one of their production beers. That beer was amazing!
 
First real experience was rauch bier a friend's wife brought back from her town in GE. It was still to this day, the best beer experience I have ever had.

For micro-brewing awareness:
Killians begat Guinness begat a legitimate black and tan begat Sam Adams (one of their porters) begat Saranac begat Sierra Nevada (so, these are hops?) and so on...
 
For me, it was a christmas dinner and they didn't have Coors Light which was my usual swill. So, I still wanted a beer so the waitress kind of gave me a smile and said she'd try to find the closest thing and brought me a Mirror Pond. That became my go-to beer and from there it went to Black Butte Porter and Mac and Jack's and the rest is history.
 
Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde
it was a couple weeks before my 21st so most beer I had was from keg parties and seldom of any quality. A few micros here and there. I was at the Aspen Food and Wine Fest. Scored an employee pass :rockin:
The Unibroue guys gave me a bottle to take home. Shared it with my roomies.
 
Right now, my mind opener is Racer 5 or or preferably, Pliney the Elder.
And for Belgians, from Chimey and La Fin Du Monde to my now favorite WestMalle.
My tastes keep changing.
 
ChshreCat said:
For me, it was a christmas dinner and they didn't have Coors Light which was my usual swill. So, I still wanted a beer so the waitress kind of gave me a smile and said she'd try to find the closest thing
Click to expand...

That's awesome! You lived in bizarro world where everything is upside down! :D
 
I remember it almost perfectly. It was a Rock Bottom IPA that my dad got a keg of. I was about 18-19 years old, and I wanted to brew ever since. So around the time I was 20 I brewed my first 'no boil' extract kit. What a disaster! In fact I still have my first bottle sitting on my desk...
 
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.


.
 
I'd say Victory Golden Monkey. It was like nothing I had ever tasted before.

Then when I was going to Penn State I had a lab on late Thursday afternoons. After lab my lab group would go over to this little basement pub called Zeno's. They had a decent draft and bottle list and a beer passport thing, so I enjoyed many amazing beers while avoiding studying or doing any work :D.
 
For me it was Leinenkugel's Northwoods Lager while sitting around the campfire at our cabin in Eagle River WI, that started to open my eyes to more flavorful beers, I then moved to Sam Adams and Kiltlifter, then I had a Stone arrogant bastard... that was the tipping point to where I am today.
 
ChshreCat said:
For me, it was a christmas dinner and they didn't have Coors Light which was my usual swill. So, I still wanted a beer so the waitress kind of gave me a smile and said she'd try to find the closest thing and brought me a Mirror Pond. That became my go-to beer and from there it went to Black Butte Porter and Mac and Jack's and the rest is history.
Click to expand...

Those are some great beers to start off with :mug:
 
Sweet, I get to be unique! (for now anyway)

The one that really blew me away, and the one which i have been unable to locate since, was Kelpie, from... Williams Bros in Scotland i believe. I just thought it was fantastic. Hope when i try it again someday it will be as good!
 
I first started drinking "micros" with Stone IPA and Ballast Point Big Eye IPA. its been a marvelous journey since then. But never was into BMC, usually, newcastle etc...
 
Spaten Helles Lager, on tap. The junk they ship here in the green bottles isn't the same, is it?
 
My brothers home brew when I was 15 let me know there was something besides BMC out there. My Dad would always order a Heineken when out to eat. I bought Michelob dark a few times in High school. Really though I think Guiness was really what awakend me to something other than American Lagers. I mean it was different than I had ever tasted before. "Wow, this is BEER??" moment. And then to learn that there was soooo much more and better out there. Rural South Mississippi hasnt always been the beer mecca it is now LMAO! So until I made friends with people in some other areas my beer choices were pretty much limited to Guinness, Bass, Abita. Even now MS has limited beer due to the Alc content laws. The first time I went in the Frugal Macdougal in Nashville TN I swear I got a little wood! LOL! ALL THE BEER!!!!! My friends from TN and OR quickly exposed me to many great brews.
 
I can't peg it to one beer...

I LOVE wheats / blondes!

Hofbräuhaus Hefe (there is one local)
Christian Moerlein Helles
Weihenstephaner Hefe
Hoegaarden
And what pushed me over the edge was SN Kellerweis!

Patrick
 
jds said:
For me, it was Anchor Steam and Red Hook that first fanned my craft beer flames. Mind you, this was the 'old' Red Hook.
Click to expand...

This was exactly my experience actually. I took a trip to San Francisco back in '91 and had both Red Hook and Anchor Steam drafts at a small pub downtown. Blew me away and I have been assaulting my taste buds ever since looking for new experiences though beer.
 
Someone handed me a mystery honey brown ale at a bonfire when I was 16. True appreciation came sophomore year of college when we had a duel keezer and tended to keep on keg of party beer (PBR woohoo!) and another for the housemates. Even though the selection at our distributor wasn't great, we didn't really know it at the time and getting the various Sam Adams seasonals was eye opening. I still hold a special place in my heart/gut for Winter Lager.

Then there's the trips to London, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam.....those really opened up the possibilities. Drinking cask ales in London at 19 years old was kickass.
 
Brummbar said:
In 1992 I turned 21.

A friend had transfers to San Fransisco State, and lived near the Haight-Ashbury area, and one day while visiting him we walked into this bar... actually a beer house....

I sometimes still wonder if it's still there...


It was called Toranados ( sp )

I tried a really bitter beer called Red Tail Ale.... the rest in history...

I also, way back then, fell in love Samual Smiths Oatmeal Stout...,, but the bitter beers seems to call to me a strange way...



Holy Cow... Google is an amazing thing... http://www.toronado.com/
Click to expand...

we've got one of those in San Diego as well. it's only a few blocks from my place and I love it!

http://www.toronadosd.com
 
I had a Newcastle when I was in high school and it made me realize that all beer is not created equal. From that point forward I made an effort to test different beers whenever the opportunity presented itself.

That being said, I still have some appreciation for a Miller Lite maintenance beer.

Homebrewing was something that I had wanted to try for years, but didn't take the plunge until recently when someone gave me a setup that they had laying around.
 
Schafley in Saint Louis about 4 years ago sadly their bottled beer now if a faint reflection of the orignal so I've found another.
 
My friends and I have a game we like to play when we gather on weekends since we all left collge:

Friday Night: Drunk.
Saturday: Wakeup around noon, find a local brewery, order some fried food and set up in bar stools until they kick us out. Leave with Growlers as 'road juice'. Don't worry, safe driver applied.

Those Saturdays kinda added up and made me realize..hey, I should try this.
 
i used to think budweiser was the only beer made. my wife bought me a Mr. Beer kit for christmas. my first home brew tasted way better than any bmc i had ever drank. then i moved on to 5 gal batches and brewed a brewers best american amber i believe. the american amber completley change my beer taste. i am now doing ag and can no longer drink the bmc beers. i will actualy pass if thats all there is to drink, home brew has redesigned my taste buds i guess
 

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