The Craft Beer Obsession: "What was your Gateway Beer?"

True beer enthusiasts don't just drink a Keystone at a college party and discover they're into beer. No, I assure you, they think that stuff tastes like piss, just like everyone else. The true goodness of beer is only realized by those who are offered, or who stumble across one of many less available but much better brews, one which reveals to them that beer is so much more than they thought.

It's their "gateway beer," if you will, and not long ago, I started a thread in the Beer Advocate forums titled, "What's The Beer That Got You Here?" The thread became not only an interesting survey on the various "gateway beers" of our community, but also a mosaic of surprisingly interesting stories which further confirmed that anyone can become a beer enthusiast. All it takes is that one special sip.

Here are a few of my favorite accounts:
 

I was at a bar in Cleveland that had a weird beer on tap called Gumballhead. Sounded tasty enough to try out and it was different and amazing since all I normally drank was Miller Lite.

 

 

 

It was my first real actual beer that I drank back when I was about 15. I helped my neighbor build a swing set for his kid and he invited me back for dinner where he gave me a local micro brew from the town over... Nutfield Brewing - Auburn Ale. The taste, while still very new to me, was fantastic and full of rich flavor unlike the sips of whatever it was that my dad used to drink when I was young. It sold me. Craft beer for life.

Delirium Tremens. Started with a girl telling me to order the "pink elephant beer." She was late to the bar, but requested I put in that order prior to her arrival. Came in the Delirium Tremens Snifter. Was absolutely stunned (I had no prior experience with real beer whatsoever). Got a bomber of Delirium shortly after, and from that point on I always vowed to have at least 1 bomber of Delirium in my fridge at all times. Little did I know that the craft world was as expansive as it really is. At this point I just vow to have something GOOD in my fridge at all times.

It started in 2010 with my buddy saying, "You have to try the best beer in the world!" We were in Amsterdam, on tour with a jazz group, and he was talking about the Westvleteran 12 which is always available at a bar named Cafe Gollum. Before trying what turned out to be a life changing experience, I hated beer. All I knew was PBR, Corona and Coors Light. As far as I was concerned, beer tasted like piss. Fast forward to Spring 2012, I had tried hundreds of beers without pause. Living in NYC and touring Europe as a musician, the access to some of the best beer was and is overwhelming. I literally went on a beer tasting rampage, which was a fun but unhealthy choice in my life. After gaining a lot of weight, spending too much time by myself at 'hip' bars and powering through a couple nightmarish hangovers, I decided to quit drinking beer. Alas, the beer gods let go of their grip on my life. I realized that the mere amount of beer choices and my inability to pace myself in my quest to try the world's best beers was the reason for my epic downfall... Fast forward to 2013, I'm drinking a Founders Breakfast Stout with a couple different Troegs bottles waiting for me. Fuck it, you only live once!

There is a restaurant in my home town called The Brass Cafe. In the entryway they always had a little poster with Michael Jackson , a.k.a. The Beer Hunter, holding up a glass of Lion Stout. I had just started exploring beer at the time with stuff like St. Pauli Girl, Sam Adam's Boston Lager and the like. I had seen this poster a hundred times and never thought anything of it. Then one day I was said to myself, "Who the hell is this guy and what the hell is this beer?" In short order I had the answer to both. An amazing man and one hell of a brew. My beer drinking life got a lot more expensive from that day forth.

 

Leffe. I drove to a beer store and asked for a good beer for someone who wants to get into good beer he put a 6 pack of leffe on the counter and said this is your portal to good beer my friend..That was like 10 years ago. I remember coming here [to Beer Advocate] after I drank what I thought was nectar from the gods. I read the reviews of my favorite beers like amberbock and yungeling black and tan..oh man, I didn't come back. 


You can find the entire thread here.