Every time this comes up i always say Duvel on my first visit to belgium, weissbier in Berlin and t’Ij witbier in Amsterdam when i first started to work abroad. I can remember exactly where i was and how those beers changed my perception of what beer is.
But i should also mention Punk IPA that i bought in bombers and took to parties in London around 2010/2011. This turned me onto this thing called ‘craft beer’ and i searched for anywhere that served ‘craft’ since. Camden Hells fresh at the brewery around that time was a revelation of how good fresh lager can be. I imagine its probably changed since then, as Punk IPA has, but it was influential to me in its heyday.
My first experience with a “sour”, I was given a bottle of La Folie, 1st bottling, for free from a retailer friend. After the first few sips, I drain poured the rest. This is not beer, I proclaimed to myself.
I was a trad. real ale drinker throughout the '90’s & noughties. I might have said my biggest influence was Goose Island IPA or maybe Oakham Citra sometime around 2008-2010.
But it was discovering Brewdog in late 2011 that sent me down the craft beer rabbit hole. My brother bought me a mixed box online for my birthday, including a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin. I genuinely enjoyed it (have tried it since and I’m a lot less keen) but it put me on to Brewdog. My first real love was Brewdog’s Libertine in early 2012.
Poperings Hommelbier. Way more hoppy and flavorful than everything I knew, even though I already drank the occasional duvel, Westmalle, leffe and guinness. Hommel made me seek out strange new beers and breweries. It broke the frontier of the standard supermarket stuff.
Quite a few years ago, Merchant du Vine had an inventory issue with Belgian imports. I was buying cases of Hommelbier for about 35 cents per bottle. A great time.
Orval, some 20 years ago, is the beer that really opened my eyes. Before I mostly drank shitty lager and the occasional Grimbergen Dubbel (man that stuff is sweet, can’t believe I actually liked it). After that came all the satan-themed beers that formed my love for strong Belgian golden ales. Another major influence and eye-opener were the Great Divide beers that came available in the Netherlands back in 2007 or so. Had the Hibernation Ale, Yeti, Titan and Hercules, completely blew me away (keep in mind that there were virtually no IPA’s and Imperial Stouts over here back then). Luckily shortly after that De Molen made Hel & Verdoemenis and all their other world-class Imperial Stouts. Soon after I joined ratebeer, another major influence on how I viewed beer.
La Chouffe is also the most influential beer I have ever had. Sadly since the brewery was sold on to Duvel-Moortgaat it’s not the same. I loved the 0.75 lire bottles that were capped and had a cork below it, that was in the early 1990’s though.
Well, it’s hard to say. Such an interesting question. In the mid 1990s, maybe 1995 or so I was in high school. I had always been into interesting beer when we could get it. A few standouts were Guinness, Negra Modelo and Becks. I bought a beers of the world book and started crossing off the ones I’d had. Mind you, I was 16 or so and could not buy this beer legally. We usually drank Keystone. Anyway, I am in Station Square Mall in Pittsburgh and there is a hot dog shop with a ton of single beers. Jimbos I think it was. My friend who was also 16 looked older was with me and we picked two beers, Chimay Red and Unibroue Maudite. I had heard that Michael Jackson said that Chimay was the best in the world so we picked that, and I dug the devil on the Maudite label. Anyway, they sold it to him. We drank the Maudite outside in the parking lot. It was amazing. The Chimay we brought to his house. His Sicilian born dad grabbed it and said he wanted to try first, he basically chugged 80% of the 750ml bottle in a horrific act of manliness (to us). Sadly, we only had a few ounces of the Chimay. But anyway, that was decades ago and I still get excited by new interesting beers.
The reason it’s gone on so long is because of the stupid system that RateBeer has on the Forum pages, where you don’t get to see half the bloody posts when they start and only find something of interest by chance or luck.
To go slightly off-topic - this reminds me of the time heavy and I were doing tastings back at my old place in Split, with, of course, my mom hovering around “not liking beer” but always asking for sips. That time he brought the Westvleteren lineup, hard to get, he probably paid a ton of it. And generously shared with me. I’d already had the 12 so I took less IIRC and, not saying anything & with a pokerface, gave it to her to try.
And the stubborn, obstinate woman (the “wine is always better and above beer” mentality) - with certainly better smell than I have and, perhaps, taste, tries it and says the ultimate quote “Beer like any other beer.” We were almost on the floor laughing.
In grade 8 we skipped school and took train to another (bigger) town…Back then (early 90s) in Poland nobody cared about ID’s so we bought some beer to have some fun. I always liked history so I picked something else than local Jasne Pelnes…I bought for myself Thurn und Taxis Roggen (It is a rye beer)…rest is a history.
Pilsner Urquell right from the source in Bohemia. This beer showed me that most of the regular german beers were (are) crappy. Later several journeys to Franconia… Franconian diversity is great!
