My Gateway Beer
One of my favorite terms in the world of craft brewing is “gateway beer.” The fact is, despite being beer geeks, most of us haven’t always been in love with beer. Let’s face it – a pint of Budweiser, Miller or any other readily available beer that’s typically an American kid’s first doesn’t exactly inspire love in the craft. It takes a special beer to inspire confidence in brewers and make you want to try even more of the good stuff. For me, this ended up being a little beer from Kilkenny, drank at an Irish pub in a German city by an American kid.
Until this first enjoyable pint, my experience with beer had been more than enough to turn me off to the libation. At age 19, all my drinking had been illicit cans of Natural Ice, Rolling Rock and other schlock at college parties. As far as I knew, this flavor was all that beer had to offer. Pale, headless, super-carbonated and tasting of rice and corn – this was beer to me. The best stuff I’d seen to the contrary was the upperclassman that would bring sixer of Shipyard or Geary’s to a party, but having never tasted it, it looked just like all the other macro lagers.
This all changed when I met my girlfriend, who convinced me to fly to Berlin, Germany at age 19 to visit with her family. This, I figured, would be the thing to turn me on to beer if anything ever did. This was Germany, one of the beer-drinkingest nations on earth. Germany, one of the homes of jokes about how awful American beer was to their national beverage. Germany, land of Reinheitsgebot. If beer from the country with (arguably) the best beer in the world wasn’t going to turn me on to the stuff, I was ready to write off beer and stick to cocktails.
The trip didn’t start off great in terms of changing my mind. On the flight over I had a bottle of Heineken, the one non-American beer the airline had. Clear and bland, the only different between a Heine and what I’d drank before was a new skunky odor and flavor. This was it, then. Rum and whiskey for me from then on.
Luckily, my aforementioned girlfriend – already a beer-lover from a beer-loving family – labored to get me to give beer another chance. A few days into our trip, we were aching for a bit of familiar language and found our way to an English bar. Despite being in the center of Germany’s largest city, this round with beer was going to have a decidedly Allied feel. Katy ordered a Guinness, which was still a bit on the intimidating end for a newbie like me. I went for the lighter Kilkenny.
This beer was the one. I finally got it. I can’t remember enough about the beer to do a full review, but it tasted like the opposite of every beer I’d tried before. Served on a nitro tap, the ale was creamy and super-smooth. The color was a rich ruby-brown, not translucent or urine-colored like the beer I’d had before. And the flavor … there was flavor! Not rice and corn, but toffee and toasted grain and caramel and even some grassy hop bitterness at the end. British jabs at the flavorless nature of American beer finally made sense to me.
As you might expect, this turned me around on trying beer in Germany. With an excellent guide (pro tip – if you want to get into beer, date a German girl), I discovered the Schneider & Sohn beers, Guinness and Harp, and an entire beer style in Berliner Weisse. This was all in Germany, mind you. After getting home to the states, I found Stone, Rogue, Dogfish Head, Allagash, and basically the world of craft beer as a whole. I started homebrewing. I started going to beer festivals. And, of course, I started writing about beer.
What was your gateway beer? Did you have it halfway around the world, or right in your backyard? Was it a brew that you’re still in love with, or something you look at as average or not so special now that you’re a serious beer geek? Let’s hear the beers and the stories behind them in the comments.
In the interest of offering an alternate opinion, here’s a smart and well-written post from Erik at Top Fermented that basically discounts the idea that “gateway beers” exist. Though we’re really talking about different things (the beer that turns you onto good beer vs. a mythical beer that’ll turn anyone on to craft), his post is still necessary reading.
8 Comments to “My Gateway Beer”
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Stone IRS made me realize beer was more than just something to get you drunk. It’s still one of my favorites. Getting to drink a vintage bourbon barrel version and meet greg koch was a bit of a culminating moment at my first beer fest!
For me it was a trip to Boston in 1998 where I tried Sam Adams Boston Lager. I could never go back to macros.
I still love Boston Lager and, actually, use it to convert people from Heineken to craft beers (one should not start converting macro drinkers by giving them an Imperial stout.) So far I was able to “save” 4 souls this way:).
Boston Lager was ‘it’ for me as well, turning me away from Coors Light and causing me to actively seek out real beer. My regret is that it took so long (close to my fortieth birthday) before I bade farewell to the macros.
Now, more than ten years later, I’m discovering ‘new’ beers from ‘new’ breweries and loving every pint.
Ditto mike67, and great post, Josh! My gateway was a trip to Boston with my dad in 1988, and we both tried Sam Adams Boston Lager for the first time when it was recommended by our server in a restaurant. A shared gateway experience, our eyes were opened simultaneously. We were amazed! On our return to CA, we got into Anchor Steam, and we were off and running. I still really love Sam Adams Boston Lager. It will always hold a special place on my beer list.
It’s a little shameful, but I never like beer until I tried Tsingtao. I still Like TsingTao.
My gateway story is somewhat similar to yours.
As an 18 year American kid I took a senior class trip to England. 10 days of sightseeing in London and surrounding areas gave me memories that are fresh 25+ years later.
But the spark that was ignited on that trip was visiting London pubs and tasting wonderful stuff called “Bitter” and “Stout”. These magical elixirs beat the hell out of the Schlitz and Bud that friends and family drank when I was a kid.
I was now “enlightened” but the craft revolution in the USA was in its infancy and it was many years later before I returned to much beer drinking at all. But I will never forget those first sips in London!
Murphy’s irish stout introduced me to the beer world. Until now, Murphy’s still has a special place in my heart.
Umm the first beer I remember liking (not loving) was Pyramid Hef (not the Haywire they sell now). This was maybe 2005? Sounds about right. I tried it and thought “Hey, this doesn’t taste like piss!” and would order that when I could. I remember the first beer I LOVED was Chimay. I drank it on special occasion. My love for micro-brew is much different. I was a Jesuit Volunteer in San Diego so we had little money to spend to go out (simple living stipend). When we did we could only get one drink. So I would go and get the most bitter nasty thing I could get and sip on that so I wouldn’t down my drink too fast. I eventually started to like the bitter and grew fond of it.