The first time I tasted Sierra Nevada. Summer 1992. At that time my regular beer was Sam Adams Boston Lager, and if I was feeling rich-blooded (I was only 21 and most of my friends drank Bud, etc.) I’d buy a six pack of Pete’s Wicked Ale. I’d gone to a couple of Grateful Dead shows with a group of friends, but at this particular show (RFK Satdium in DC), I’d come across a couple of guys selling beer out of a cooler. It was a label I didn’t recognize, so I figured I’d give it a try. I will *never *forget that first sip and the way I just stared at the bottle in awe and wonder. I was hooked and I was in love. I drank 2 more.
I searched high and low for that beer after that show, I guess distribution was lacking in the NY/NJ area at that time. So I did what any sane person would do. I followed the Grateful Dead around the East Coast. And while my buddies walked up and down Shakedown Street looking for what most people look for at a Dead show, I looked for a cooler filled with green-labeled beer. And I always found it.
It’s still my everyday beer.
My next three top experiences would be the first time I tried Pliny the Elder (2004), the first time I tried Pliny the Younger (2005), and the first time I tried Duchess de Bourgogne (2007). Each one gave me that little ‘new beer rush’ and I still love them all.
At the Portland Spring Beer and Wine Festival a few years ago, I stopped my a booth for a new Oregon brewer - Ninkasi. Had a nice talk with the brewer/owner for a bit, then tried my first Tricerahops. Still my favorite IPA…
I haven’t had a beer of theirs that I disliked. Easily my favorite brewer, surpassing Deschutes across the board. It’s really amazing what they have done in just a few years.
My bachelor party: After dinner, we spent the rest of the night at what was then Brickskeller in DC. The funny thing about Brickskeller was that they touted a list of near a thousand beers, but inevitably, you had to ask for three or four before you found one that was in stock that night - they were horrible with keeping supply.
As it was my bachelor party, I felt free (after a few beers to start) to order anything I wanted, regardless of past experience. If I didn’t like it, somebody else would take it over. I decided to try a beer from the Belgian section called Nostradamus, mostly because I liked the name; I really had little experience with Belgians, and didn’t want to go with a more predictable Duvel or Leffe or Chimay. Miraculously, it was in stock.
When I took the first sip, I was blown away by the flavor: sweet, malty, earthy, fruity.
I’ve tried dozens of Belgians of every stripe since then (and no shortage of everything else), some that by quality are certainly even better beers, and I’ve been very happy to find that Caracole Nostradamus is not as difficult to get as it first seemed in the first months after that night - it’s now a sentimental favorite to buy. But nothing has ever lived up to that first pour.
I had a great experience last night. I am in Tokyo visiting my daughter. I stumbled into a great bar in an alley in Roppongi, and they had a full line of Rogue beers. The fact that the bartender spoke english was a plus.
Speaking of Japan, my favorite beer is still the Hitachino Nest White Ale. Sorry, I don’t have any experiences that I can remember. Heavy beer drinking isn’t helping, heh.
As an aside… Sigh. I wish there were more craft beers or micro-brews in Japan. While I don’t mind the ‘so smooth you forget you’re drinking beer’ nature of your typical Japanese brew, it gets boring after a while.
For me it wasn’t the beer I had, I don’t actually remember what it was, except it was probably an American beer.
See, my car was on the blink and I had a LONG walk home on a HOT summer afternoon. Just a few blocks from my apartment(I lived in East Lansing, Michigan at the time) there was an establishment called the Harrison Road House. I was tired and thirsty so I stopped in and had a beer. Also ordered some deep fried mushroom.
As that first swallow went down my throat I fell myself reviving. Another couple of swallows and the mushrooms arrived, and they turned out to be perfect, hot and crispy without that doughy center some deep fried veggies have. As I said I can’t remember the beer, but I do remember the experience.
I visited there again, several times, and while I had a good time it was never quite the same, as the circumstances of that first visit were not to be duplicated.
I had been stationed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s – there were a lot of worse places to play soldier – so I had some exposure to German beer and the Oktoberfest experience. In the mid-1980s, however, I went back with my reserve unit for the great annual fall war games and the night we came out of the field I went out on the town of Aschaffenburg with our Bundeswehr liaison officer. We went to several little bars where Americans were not particularly welcomed but I was in civilian clothes and he did the talking. It was a long and pleasant evening that featured more glasses of real pilsner than I can fully remember --light colored and sharp with a strong hops taste.
For me it was the first time I ‘made’ a beer and it was good, no strike that, it was great, very flavorful and full bodied and just a good beer. And I made it in my own house! I have now made quite a number of beers and they all have been good beers, some better than others, and only one I didn’t care for (damn that licorice!).
But to create your own beer and have it taste as good (if not better) than many of the beers I get a the local pub, that is all kinds of awesome. Each beer I seem to step up into the next level (and spend a bit more each time) but they seem to get better and better. I usually take a bottle to my bartender at my local pub who after the last two beers asked me when I was going to open a micro brewery, not going to happen, but damn nice for my ego.
The last beer I made was a smoked scotch ale that I kegged and it seemed to just disappear (I suspect the wife–yeah that’s my story and I am sticking to it!) I am now trying to make a clone of Manny’s Pale Ale which is a local NW beer which I have enjoyed quite a bit. My first foray into trying something that wasn’t following a recipe. The nice thing about beer is that as long as you keep things clean and sterile, it seems to be pretty forgiving and damn there is such a range of flavors and types of beers. It always amazes me when someone says they don’t like beer, I am thinking, man with all that variety you can’t find something you like?
I don’t know how micro-brew it is, but have you tried Suntory Malt’s, Autolycus? It only made its way to the U.S. in the last couple of years, but it might be old hat over there. We found it to be way more German in its style than other Japanese beers. It’s costly, though.
By far the best beer I’ve ever had was at a random bar in Prague. It was a whole nother level. A couple levels. And only a buck a pint! Followed by several absinthse and a raw potato fight in a spiral staircase at 3AM. Ah, I miss those heady days.
