Whilst visiting the in-laws in Canberra, we were sitting at the Bent Spoke brewpub in Braddon. I was enjoying a pint of the “big nut” strong dark ale.
And I was asked about the beer that converted me from mainstream beer drinker to craft beer drinker (or as my father in law phrased it, a beer wanker).
I mumbled something about James Squire and Little Creatures, a few names that I thought he’d recognize.
But it got me thinking, what was my craft beer converter, or “epiphany beer”? That lightbulb moment when you realized what the craft beer scene was all about.
I had tried many different craft beers, Matilda bay and the above mentioned JS and LC. But it was only when I joined the Adam Cusick inspired beer club in the mid-late 00s that I really got stuck into some real craft beer. And it was the very first beer club meeting when I tried the Kooinda Pale Ale. At the time, I thought the hops were massive and didn’t find it that easy to drink (i.e. I couldn’t imagine drinking a dozen over a session), I remember it being very different from anything I’d tried, and I remember it challenging my taste buds. But I also remember loving it and wanting more.
So what was your epiphany beer?