What was your Gatewaybeer to craft beer?

[Onkel_Udo]

Not sure where I stated that there is only one answer... After that opening line, I didn't even bother to read the rest of your post. This is not a debate, just a place for people to share. Thanks for contributing!

"I think some of you are missing the point. If you consumed mass quantities of Widmer Hefe in college, then that basiscally is YOUR Bud Lite."

Hence, one right answer. You were starting it had to be a beer that opened your (our) eyes to the breadth of options that are craft brew. I was stating it could have started the other way around...your general exposure was to good beer, and a variety of it, THEN BMC became to norm around you.

Glad you could not be bothered with the rest of my post

My original answer was many, many pages ago and followed your chosen format. I too follow this thread for the stories.

 

[TxBigHops]

Hence, one right answer.

That's quite a stretch, especially when I have explicitly stated the opposite many times, but hey, you are free to form your own opinion. It didn't appear that the poster I responded to was offended by my prodding for elaboration, so don't know why you are.

Can we get back to the fun stories, which is why this thread exists? Thanks.

 

[NHatcbrewer]

In the early 90's I had a college roommate from Belgium who's parents shipped him a regular supply of great beers. That got me started followed by big foot.

 

[garrettbuckeye]

I've always liked bold flavors. I love spicy food, dark chocolate, stinky cheese, peppery charred steaks with a rare center, and black dark strong coffee that makes your piss smell like Starbucks after a half a cup.

In college, it was the beast and keystone pounders. One time a buddy brought home a couple of 6 packs of yuengling from the bar. It was hard to complain since I was only 19/20, but I was annoyed because it cost more for less beer. He said "This is the good stuff. You won't get headaches because it's in a green bottle." Right.

Fast forward a few years, I'm working at a Tex Mex chain restaurant and start bartending at 21. The restaurant is near Youngstown, and a $3 beer means 32 (plus) ounces of a BMC product. Randomly somebody would try a Heineken, Sam Adams, or Amstel. It didn't take long and I realized I needed to be able to sell that $3 skunky, bitter, or "almost as good as coors" beer to the guy who just bought it. They were either happy with the purchase and left me a tip, or pissed they dropped the money for 2 bud lights on that bottle of nasty.

The beer reps we had were great. They gave us all the "material" we needed to sell those beers. Sometimes, they'd even bring a sample of new beers to try.

Pete's wicked ale wasn't new... But chain restaurants go for crowd pleasers usually. It was new to us. I was surprised when we started offering it. My coworkers described it as ear wax and grapefruit rinds mixed with tea. I really liked it though. I noticed the first time I tried it... It didn't have to be ice cold. We had frosty mugs for all our beers. There were guys that would drink 2/3 of a beer, then order another. The warm was was "schwag." That should tell you something.

Anyways... Pete's Wicked and Sam Adams became my go to beers. They had flavor, and it tasted good even when warm.

 

[Hanglow]

I've always drunk different beers, but I guess I grew up drinking the likes of Tennents, Tartan Special and McEwans heavy and export

I do remember having my first german wheat beer and enjoying the difference between that and british ales. Can't remember what one it was though.

Also having some Oakham and Harviestoun beers back in the late 90s, they were a bit different from my usuals in that they were well hopped with zesty hops and they probably started my love of modern, hoppy beers.

 

[bobo31]

Troeg's Amber Ale and Troeg's Cultivator.

 

[rcreamer0713]

I had two different stories.

Buddy and I would gt beer for weekend late night fishing. Ussually tried to gt something different. Bought something. Think it was dogfish head. Well didnt enjoy it. At all.

Next i got victory hopdevil ipa. Loved this beer and it was down hill from there. Now i home brew and go all over trying different brews.

 

[6midgets]

Shiner Bock on draft at a local sports bar was the beer that got me curious as to what else was out there.

 

[govner1]

Pete's Wicked Ale

 

[TxBigHops]

Shiner Bock on draft at a local sports bar was the beer that got me curious as to what else was out there.

Thanks for bringing this old thread back to life! Any more good stories out there?

 

[TxBigHops]

Pete's Wicked Ale

Thanks! I think I may have mentioned Pete's in a later post myself. That was still back in the day when I mostly drank Bud Light. But I would splurge and buy Pete's or Shiner Bock when I could justify paying a few extra bucks, because both were always available in the grocery store.

 

[Zuljin]

Shiner Bock on draft at a local sports bar was the beer that got me curious as to what else was out there.

Also Shiner Bock. That was the final push, anyway. Before that, I admit, I would sometimes buy beers based on snazzy looking bottles and cans.

 

[mlafnitzegger]

Sam Adams Lager and Pete Wicked Ale changed my life...

 

[jodell]

First beer I ever had was a guinness at the factory in Ireland...never looked back at my non beer life

 

[Gravity]

Blue Moon was my gateway to craft. Then I started brewing. The rest is history.

Blue Moon
Guinness
Siera Nevada
Le Fin du Monde

 

[HopGobbler]

New Castle Brown Ale
And Sierra Nevada

 

[Bbeck8386]

Back in college a roommate bought a 12 pack sampler of Great Lakes Brewing Company. I believe it contained Edmond Fitzgerald, Holy Moses, Elliot Ness, and Dortmunder Gold. He had one Edmond Fitzgerald and gave up on the entire sampler and gave me the rest. To this day I'm pretty sure he considers PBR to be an upscale beer. After that sampler pack I went out and bought a sixer of Commodore Perry which started an IPA obsession that is still going to this day.

 

[Roycebarrow]

I used to drink the standard Bud Light beers, but I lived in Germany for a while and grew to love pilsners. After that, my first craft beer was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and that really opened my tastebuds to every type of beer. Well, almost every type. I still don't love sours, and probably never will.

Hey Yooper, where were you in Germany?

I started to brew beer because even though there are the best beers ever in Germany, I still wanted a nice Mexican beer, or shiner bock ruby red bird in the summer months here. After that, it has pretty much consumed my life.

 

[woo_pig]

Stella

 

[Yooper]

Hey Yooper, where were you in Germany?

I started to brew beer because even though there are the best beers ever in Germany, I still wanted a nice Mexican beer, or shiner bock ruby red bird in the summer months here. After that, it has pretty much consumed my life.

I lived in Frankfurt in the early 80s- long time ago!

 

[troglodytes]

Had a housemate in college whose favorite beers were always in the house: Trois Pistoles and Hennepin. He would always share and I was hooked. I guess that's why I love Belgians so much today.

 

[Sbe2]

FIL gave me a Hennepin about 12 yrs ago, then had a Southern Tier IPA

 

[jack13]

I assume that most of us didn’t start out drinking craft beer. If not, then what’s your story? Was there a moment or turning point that you remember when you decided that fizzy yellow beer or whatever you were drinking at the time just wasn’t going to cut it anymore?

One night in my late teens I was out drinking with some friends. We were drinking something cheap and disgusting; I think it was peach brandy, and some Budweiser beers. I got totally wasted and tossed my cookies. For several years after that night I could not stand to drink beer of any kind. When I entered college I was mostly drinking Canadian whiskey mixed with Squirt or Sour mixer. This went on for a couple years, after which I got tired of always taking a bottle to keggers and other parties. I finally discovered that I could stand to drink most kegged beer EXCEPT Budweiser, and that I could drink Miller High Life in the bottle. In fact, to this day, nearly 40 years after that night as a teen, I still cannot stand to drink regular Budweiser.

At that time I didn’t care for Miller Lite, but when Bud Light came out in the early 80’s, that became my beer of choice. By this time I had graduated college and moved to Texas where they had this odd, dark colored beer called Shiner Bock. I discovered that I liked it a whole lot better than any of the fizzy yellow beers, and I would drink it whenever it was available. So I would consider Shiner Bock to be my Gateway beer.

From there, I would try other dark beers like Dos Equis dark and ***** Modelo which I also liked. A blues bar I frequented had several non BMC beers on tap and I started drinking Full Sail Amber. From there I moved on to some really hearty beers like porters and brown ales. But I believe the day that I thought I had died and gone to heaven was around 2001 when I stopped into a hamburger joint in San Antonio with a huge bottle selection and decided to try a Salvatore doppelbock! Yum! That beer is a meal in itself, and to this day is probably still one of my top 5!

The most recent evolution in my beer taste occurred after my oldest son moved to California to attend college. I had been trying every different kind of beer that I could find for probably the last 10 years or so. I was familiar with IPAs and had tried a Dogfishhead one time and hated it. Around 2006 I flew out to Cali to visit my son, and he took me to a local microbrewery. He insisted that I try their IPA, and I insisted that I didn’t like them. But I would try it. Wow! It didn’t taste anything like Dogfishead. That was the day I discovered citrusy West Coast style IPAs, and beer drinking has never been the same since. He also introduced me to Stone IPA that visit, so if I could have a second Gateway beer, it would probably be Stone. Now I would say that about 3 out of every 4 beers that I drink is an IPA, APA, pale ale, or other hoppy beer.

All hail the mighty HOP!

Ca. 1991. My dad asked at a restaurant: "Do you have Samuel Adams?"

Having only been aware of BMC and such, I asked "What the heck is THAT?".

The rest is history.

 

[bilder]

I tried the BMC stuff in the late 80's and did not like it. Did not touch beer again till I was 26 when a friend bought a flight sampler at a local restaurant. I tried a couple and the light came on and the doors opened.

Till then I thought all beer was fizzy horse piss.

 

[alexnova]

It's not really craft, but my first exposure to non-BMC was from my parents around 1990. They went to Europe for their 25th anniversary and started drinking Carlsberg and Elephant when they came back. I started drinking it too when I went to college. In economic terms, I was choosing the "normal" product vs an "inferior" product (e.g. Milwaukee's Best aka Beast). My econ professor used Budweiser as the normal product in class, but I knew better.

First true craft I remember having was Shepherd Neame ales while in England circa 2001. Probably had a Sam Adams or Red Hook before then, but it admittedly wasn't as eye-opening as Spitfire or Bishop's Finger.

 

[teal]

Honestly - I always hated beer/macro. Then I found out you could make your own beer and I was vaguely aware that there were styles other than BMC.

So in a way - homebrew was my gateway to craft.

Now I can tolerate Coors Yellow Bellies, PBR and Schlitz.

I didn't get to any of those first before I did homebrew tho.

 

[z-bob]

A German Pils you could buy in 5L minikegs. I can't quite remember the brand; I think it was Dinkelacker. Bought a couple of those when I was in high school. (yes, it was legal, I was 18) I don't know if that really counts, tho'. I wasn't really old enough to appreciate it. Or maybe it's not all that great for a German pilsner.

So the real answer was probably Pete's Wicked Ale or Shiner Bock a few years later. (this was way before the hipsters discovered Shiner Bock)

 

[CultofLoonLoon]

When I was like 19, I went to an older coworker’s barbecue. Up to that point, I’d only had Bud Light and possibly Coors Light. It was a BYOB party but because I was so young, I was at the mercy of others. Luckily, my buddy was kind enough to let me have a few of his. Unfortunately for me at the time, it was Stone IPA. I thought it was horrid! Yuck! What was this horrendous, bitter brew that all these people were drinking!? Needless to say, I didn’t finish it, found a corner and poured it into the grass.
Fast forward to a few months later. At a Christmas party, that same friend offered me the darkest sludge I’ve ever seen. It looked like a combination of motor oil and orc blood. It smelled strange and pungent. Turns out it was Old Rasputin. Different party, same situation. Found a lonely drain and poured it down! Blech!
For a while beers came and went. Three Philosophers, Delirium Tremens, and a variety of others met a similar fate.
A few years later, when I was 22, I started a band with a friend who was a craft beer enthusiast. After every band practice, we’d go to a bar in Whittier called “The Bottle Room”. There he introduced me to many beers that I wasn’t a big fan of, but were at least palatable. Over the course of a year, I got used to the complex variety of flavors in beer. He exposed me to different varieties of hops, malts and even yeasts that changed the flavor profile. I began to get a taste for it all. I began to crave it. Every week a new adventure.

The rest is history.

 

[TxBigHops]

When I was like 19, I went to an older coworker’s barbecue. Up to that point, I’d only had Bud Light and possibly Coors Light. It was a BYOB party but because I was so young, I was at the mercy of others. Luckily, my buddy was kind enough to let me have a few of his. Unfortunately for me at the time, it was Stone IPA. I thought it was horrid! Yuck! What was this horrendous, bitter brew that all these people were drinking!? Needless to say, I didn’t finish it, found a corner and poured it into the grass.
Fast forward to a few months later. At a Christmas party, that same friend offered me the darkest sludge I’ve ever seen. It looked like a combination of motor oil and orc blood. It smelled strange and pungent. Turns out it was Old Rasputin. Different party, same situation. Found a lonely drain and poured it down! Blech!
For a while beers came and went. Three Philosophers, Delirium Tremens, and a variety of others met a similar fate.
A few years later, when I was 22, I started a band with a friend who was a craft beer enthusiast. After every band practice, we’d go to a bar in Whittier called “The Bottle Room”. There he introduced me to many beers that I wasn’t a big fan of, but were at least palatable. Over the course of a year, I got used to the complex variety of flavors in beer. He exposed me to different varieties of hops, malts and even yeasts that changed the flavor profile. I began to get a taste for it all. I began to crave it. Every week a new adventure.

The rest is history.

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

 

[TimmyWit]

My first duty station was in England in the late 90's. Shortly after I arrived there, some of the guys took me to a Belgian themed pub in Cambridge called the Hogshead and introduced me many English and Belgian beers one of which was Hoegaarden. I swear the stuff was magical back then and they must have changed the recipe. It had its own glorious tower, separate from all the others. I even ended up working at that pub part part time for a few months. When I started, I had to watch a training video specifically about how to pour a perfect pint of Hoegaarden.

Now, it doesn't taste anything like I remember it. I rarely, if ever drink that or any Belgian Wit. Still, I'm TimmyWit on HBT since she was my first.