The "this is beer ?" moment

the recent thread on extreme beers has developed an interesting side discussion

What was your first beer that completely changed your perceptions regarding the beverage?
The HOLY S!@#*T BEER

the one that made you into a beer geek/nerd/snob

Delirium Tremens was mine
it changed my entire perception of what beer could be

this may be an interesting place for non-beer drinkers to find a new beer to try

The first time I tried a Sammy Smith's Nut Brown ale.....

now I am hooked on Winter Welcome and the Organic Ale though....

yummy!

i think Samuel Smith will be a pretty popular result on this thread

great English beers

For me it was Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout and Winter Welcome beers that blew my mind way back when in 1992 on Dead tour.

For me it would have to be that first Guinness. I can remember the way it looked settling out in the glass. True beauty.

The first beer that made me think I should give beer another chance was Blue Moon, which I don't especially like anymore. The first beer that really blew my mind was Fin du Monde.

I really can't wait to read all the responses to this thread!

Oh god, I hope I don't get slammed for this, but Colt 45. Yes, that was my first exposure to stronger malted and hopped beverage. I haven't tasted the swill in over 13 years prolly, but I remember the impact and the relationship that I felt could flourish. Now good beer is nearly all I ever drink.

well we all have to start somewhere even if it is Colt 45

Every day. Kinda like that movie Groundhog Day. For real though, I think and I'm just taking a stab at this, Watney's I do believe.

[Robin Garr]

What was your first beer that completely changed your perceptions regarding the beverage?
The HOLY S!@#*T BEER

the one that made you into a beer geek/nerd/snob

I'm not sure I can cite specific brands, but my beer epiphanies have generally had to do with discovering a new horizon that expanded my world view far beyond the previous one.

* Going to Europe for the first time as an independent adult and tasting real ale in British pubs and fresh Guinness in Irish pubs when all I had tried before was the kind of stale, skunked crap that used to be all we could get in the way of bottled imports.

* Visiting my first Oktoberfest in Munich and grasping what really fresh, really good German beer could be.

* Watching (and covering as a journalist) the rise of the American microbrewery/brewpub movement in the 1980s.

In each of these instances, it was like Saul on the road to Damascus being hit by divine lightning and suddenly grasping, "Oh, there's more to beer than I thought."

Bert Grant's Perfect Porter.

i hated beer.
then when i turned 21, i suddenly was allowed a post shift beer at work.
it was on tap.

and the rest is history.


and sadly, the brewery has closed.

we actually managed to get one of the last kegs of it in the state for one of my (then) roommates birthday party.


sadly missed.


from then on, i became a beer aficionado
and i'd say from age 21-22 i drank well over 400 different craft beers.

well we all have to start somewhere even if it is Colt 45

as i was once told:

'if the 40 don't getcha, the 5 will!'

never could drink the stuff though.

on the road to Damascus you say

let it never be said the Robin isn't religious about beer

another great metaphor from a master

great responses to this thread so far, keep them coming

more divine lightning beer bolts from the heavens are welcome

The first step for me was going from golden to dark.

Early on, in ’78 or thereabouts (yeah, that's right - I was eighteen), there was a dark beer from a long-defunct Chicago brewery called Peter Hand available at Cut Rate Liquors. Soon it was followed by Augsburger Dark. Occasionally we purchased Lowenbrau Dark, having accepted without question Miller’s advertising strategy of "tonight, let it be Lowenbrau," and saving the Americanized version of a German dunkel for special times.

This led to Heineken Dark, then by '82 or thereabouts, to Guinness.

The rest would be history, except that I remember little of it.

Something very romantic about this thread...