• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

Who remembers the first beer they had??

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
My dad used to give me sips of the High Life when I was little. My first full beer was a Red Dog at a Rose Bowl party when I was 17.
 
When I was 11 or so, my buddy and I found a four pack of coors floating in the lake near his house. We drank them lukewarm in his dads wood shed and I remember liking the taste of beer well enough at that age.

Also, I drank coors almost exclusively until I was 18. Thank god those days are over.
 
Busch in the can. Real man's beer. I sorta gag even now thinking about the taste. And, of course, I pretended to savor every little drop to impress my friends.

First beer I had that I didn't choke on was Miller High Life. Ahhhh ... the Champagne of Beers!
 
My first was a Grain Belt my cousin and I found floating in a lake while fishing. It was fairly warm and tasted like CRAP! - We poured most of it out!

Then a year or so later, I was given a cold Grain Belt after a HOT day of baling hay and it tasted GREAT. I have been a beer drinker ever since!
 
my first was one of my dad's homebrews. My parents were out, I had a babysitter, she was in the shower, I slammed 2 because I wanted to be "grown up"..... I was 4 years old.
 
Late March 1964. Ft. Ord CA in Basic training - our first "day off" after five weeks of hell. They let us go to the EM club where the pitchers of beer were 25 cents each. No idea what brand. Sweet Jesus that was good! Haven't let myself be more than two weeks away from a beer ever since..........:tank:
 
I'm not sure if I had a sip of this one or not, but it's a cool shot with me and my Dad. Notice the steel (not aluminum) Olympia Beer cans. "It's the water and lot more."

Anyway, the picture was probably taken summer of 1968.

Web Danny-&-Dad-710-Shelton-Ave.jpg
 
I don't personally remember my first but the story I've been told numerous times is that when I was three I was in garage with my grandfather who was working on the tractor. When he walked away from the bench to replace what he had been working on, I grabbed his mostly full beer, drank it down, and replaced the can on the bench. He soon returned to find an empty beer can and a rather drunk three year old boy stumbling around the garage. Knowing my grandfather, it was probably a Busch, Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee's Best, or something along those lines.

I don't think I would ever purchase his standards myself but there is something to be said with how well they go with fresh boiled blue crab on a hot Alabama summer day.
 
My first taste would be off my dad's can of Oly... while he was driving. Ahhh the good ol' days when you could pick up a "road beer".

My first solo beer was when I was about 14 or 15. I used to buck bales for a local farmer every August and it was decided that "If you can work like men, you should be able to have a beer at the end of the day". That beer was a can of Schmidt. What we called "animal beer" because it had pictures of elk and pheasants and salmon on the can.

Both were cheap crap pissy beers but it's what everyone drank. When I got older, I decided I was too good for that stuff and only drank GOOD beer. Like... Lowenbrau... ya know.... the GOOD STUFF!
 
Ah, yes....good 'ol Animal Beer. Back in 2003 we had a "Trailer Trash Bash" at my house. I was able to locate my Animal Beer shirt from high school (class of 1983) that I wore to many "keggers" and put it on for our party. It still had grease stains on it from when I changed out the rear end in my '69 Chevelle. Pics attached. Gotta love the drunk duck with aviator glasses on coming in for a landing. If that shirt could talk.



My first taste would be off my dad's can of Oly... while he was driving. Ahhh the good ol' days when you could pick up a "road beer".

My first solo beer was when I was about 14 or 15. I used to buck bales for a local farmer every August and it was decided that "If you can work like men, you should be able to have a beer at the end of the day". That beer was a can of Schmidt. What we called "animal beer" because it had pictures of elk and pheasants and salmon on the can.

Both were cheap crap pissy beers but it's what everyone drank. When I got older, I decided I was too good for that stuff and only drank GOOD beer. Like... Lowenbrau... ya know.... the GOOD STUFF!

Get Schmidt Faced.jpg


Animal-Beer-Cropped.jpg
 
Probably a Genny Light, that's what my old man used to drink.

I do remember when I was a kid - probably in third or fourth grade - we were walking home from the bus stop and found two full Budweisers on the side of the road. Probably flew out of the back of someone's pickup truck. We snuck off into the woods behind the house and drank them, piss-warm. I remember, too, doing bottle drives when I was a Boy Scout and finding a full one a couple times.

That's not a good way to learn about beer; old, warm beer that's not very good even when it's fresh and ice-cold!
 
My first memory of beer was when I was about 5 or 6. We were at a BBQ and my brother, sister, and I were each given a beer. They didn't like theirs and, being the "Mikey" in the family, I ended up drinking all three:drunk:. I ran around repeatedly letting my mom know my state.
 
First sip was 4 years old. My grandpa gave me and my sister drinks from his beer. I can still remember my grandma saying, "Gerry, don't give those kids beer!" LOL! I remember thinking, it's not too bad. My sister was grossed out.

Later, I had a tall glass at a friend's brothers party at their house. Later, some more beer, and my first drunk at their house. We'd "sneak" (although I know now that his folks knew and just didn't give a rats ass) some Michelob Light to the upstairs of the small barn and drink beer and try to shoot chickadees with the BB gun.

He had a pool table downstairs and we'd sometimes hang out shooting pool and drinking beer for several hours, if there was beer available.

Ah, good times. My friend later got busted more than once for drug possession and after he got out he supposedly got straight, but a few years later was killed at a downstate bar. I think he may have been the bouncer, or simply got back in with the wrong crowd. Who knows. I quit knowing him when he started selling.
 
I started taking the occasional guzzles from my dad's Genny's when I was around 6 years old (usually when he and his buddies were all hanging around at the firehouse after calls and such). At around 12, me and some friends would start to sneak beers from our parents and bring them to whatever house was having the party that weekend.

The best story from the early teen days was when me and my best friend Justin (whom I'm still best friends with now and is my trusted brewing partner) managed to sneak a 6-pack on a weekend church youth group trip (yes, you read that right). The first night there we stashed the beer in a plastic grocery bag filled with ice down by the lake in a remote hiding spot. The next night, we snuck out after most people went to sleep and had ourselves a couple of luke warm Genny's down at the lake (since, of course, all the ice melted... we really were brilliant back in the day). Only people that knew were those that had the privilege of joining us on that night.

Ahhh, the things we do when we're young and stupid. :)
 
Sounds almost as fun as my church camping trip. No beer, but I did watch a porn with the pastors daughter in their RV and one thing led to another.
 
I was probably about 5 and my mom let me try a sip of Hamms. The first beer I drank in its entirety was an Old Milwaukee my grandma gave me when I was about 10. She also introduced me to poker. She was the best:mug:
 
First beer to touch my tongue was when I was like 8-10 and it was probably busch that my grandpa had me try at my birthday party. My reaction was obviously of repulse and wonder of how they can drink that. My view has not changed.

Ha.

My first sip was around 10 at a microbrewery and deli, from a friend of my Mom's. I remember it being light. If this brewery hasn't changed their line-up since then, it may have been a Wit. Even though it wasn't a BMC, it was still gross (though I love Wits now).
 
RED DOG. Yup RED DOG. I was 13 and my older brother and his friend were bonging a 30 pack in the backyard. I had 3 and passed the f*** out! Woke up, couldnt find the bathroom so I ended up pissin on my bro who was asleep on the floor in a sleeping bag. He whooped my ass when he woke up and realized what had happened. Sorry bro...
 
A 10+ year old can of Budweiser sniped from my friend's basement. It was warm and, well, disgusting. It put me off beer until my late teens. The funny thing was the two of us claiming how good it was, trying to be "big".
 
16 years old, hot August nite, case of Rolling Rock ponies bought for us by George the pot washer at work (he was 25). By the time we dropped him off, drove 15 miles to my buddy's boat, got to the island where the party was being held, it had been close to 2 hours since he purchased the beer. Yep...warm as p*ss. Worst tasting junk I ever had. I remember thinking "no way I will ever drink beer again." Guess I was incorrect.
 
For me, it was prom night when I was a sophmore in high school (had an older date:rockin:). We had a case or two of beer, she was drinking some "malternative" beverage I think. The beer we had was warm, and I didn't know it was supposed to be cold. I cracked one open and forced my way through it. It was nasty, but I was sure as hell not going to let HER know that. :D
 
Pabst Blue Ribbon, the summer of 68. I was 18. It was luke warm, a common theme among young drinkers I see. We graduated to Heilman's Special Export shortly thereafter. I think it counts as Beer, I grew up in South Dakota and it was 3.2 beer, which was legal for 19 year olds to drink then. Not much other than Hamms, Grain Belt, Falstaff, and Schmidt to drink for regional brews, and Bud, Schlitz, PBR, and Miller nationally to drink in those days. That was even before light beer. Coors was not available in SD or very widely at all in those days, and was spoken of in hushed reverent tones. A friend boguht a case back from a ski trip to Colorado. and we gathered like pilgrims to a holy shrine to taste it. Boy was I disappointed. It tasted like, well Rocky Mountain Spring Water. I eventually graduated to Strohs in the 70s, a decent beer before Schlitz bought and destroyed it. And it spells Shorts backwards for those who appreciate palindromes. Olympia was the beer that Coors was meant to be, but it got destroyed by getting too big too fast as well. In graduate school my roommate and I drank Henley's (sp?) because it was cheap;, my roommate's friend worked at a liquor store and could get it for $3 a case. It tasted OK. Carling Black Label was pretty good in the 70s and so was Einbock. My wife taught at the University of Montana for a couple of years and we drank Lucky Lager. 11 Oz bottles and a rhebus under every bottle cap. The 80s ushered a whole new genre of beer, good beer compared to what we had previously anyway and Henry Weinhard's was a favorite for a long time. I learned about Anchor Steam in the 80s and living in LA brought ethnic beer like Tsing Tao, DOS XX, and ***** Modelo to my taste buds. Trader Joes often sold San Miguel nearing its expiration date cheaply and I drank a lot of that as well as Bueno Noche, which Trader Joe closed out cheaply in January and February. The late 80s and early 90s brought an explosion of good beers on the scene and I haven't looked back until now.

DoctorHops, You & I grew up in about the same era and area. I was in NW Iowa. Reading the list of all those beers really brought back some good memories!! Even the Hanley. Here's a pic... http://www.workalicious.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/hanley_380.jpg
And the Schmidt Animal Beer and Schmidt Big Mouth. Buckhorn was another one we got our hands on once in a while too. And of course the plain label beer from Falstaff when we were really broke. And then there was Schaefer. And if we were really fellin' upty up we'd get some Colt 45 Malt Liquor. And then Hamm's. Loved their commercials: or I still have my grandpa's Hamm's church key. I use it every day to open my homebrews & think about him every time. He used to give me a shot of his Hamm's in a tiny yellow mug the size of a shot glass. I was probably 3 when he started doing that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My first taste of beer -- I was around 3, and my Dad gave me some of his Coors. I still have a clear, snapshot memory of the moment. I also remember him saying "it's like water that burns your mouth." Apparently, that wasn't enough to turn me off.

My first illicit beer -- The afternoon after the last day of my freshman year in high school. A bunch of us got together to burn some textbooks and gym clothes. One guy brought a couple Buds and a couple Schaffers that he sneaked out of the house. I still remember the interesting bike ride home.

The first beer I ever got all excited about -- Anchor Liberty Ale. It came in a mixed set of "imports" that my parents gave me for my 18th birthday.


TL
 
I was about 11. My dad was drinking tall boy Bud's with some of his friends in our carport. I kept bugging him for a beer, so he made me chug one, thinking I would get sick. Instead, I liked it and asked for another.

:rockin:
 
Back
Top