[anje]

When you first began drinking beer, what was the first one that became your favorite? 
What then superceded it?

____

Born a Wisconsinite, I started out liking Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss.
Somewhere thereafter, I switched to Leinenkugel's Big Butt Doppelbock.

[Hokerer]

The first was probably in 1975 or '76 when I developed a taste for Schlitz, got superseded a few years later when I got introduced to "fire brewed" Stroh's

[tonyp]

When i was underage i remember really enjoying lowenbrau and mickey's, then later coors extra gold and finally guinness before getting into craft beer and homebrewing.

[euge]

I'll skip all the lagers like Pearl, Lonestar, Busch light and Miller etc that I drank because that's what everyone else drank. And what was available mind you.

MY first favorite was a Paulaner Hefe-weizen. The second was Fuller's ESB.

[morticaixavier]

Guinness, then a small brewery in Vermont called Trout River.

[majorvices]

This is kind of like the "what beer opened you eyes" thread for me so I will give a different answer. My "favorite" beer is probably Orval. I find it both refreshing enough to sit down with as a quaff and complex enough to satisfy the beer aficionado inside me.

My second favorite beer is whatever I happen to be drinking at any given moment. Usually a good IPA and most likely mine.

[anje]

Actually, I can totally see this being a "what beer did you like/typically buy before you knew any better" sort of thead. I just happened to start out early with some not-quite-so-macros (this is easier in Wisconsin than in some parts of the US), helped by the fact that I was married to someone older whose then-favorite was Sprecher's Black Bavarian.

[rbclay]

I recall Coors Extra Gold was the "good stuff". But Rolling Rock was my first favorite. I grew up less than an hour from Latrobe. As a matter of principle I stopped drinking it when Bud bought them, put good people out of work, and moved production to Jersey. If it wasn't for that I would be drinking some today during the Steelers play off game...
I remember visiting friends in State College when Rolling Rock would park their truck outside the Rathskeller. You could buy your own case of pony bottles at the bar!

Actually, my first favorite was likely when I was too young to appreciate it. I went to West Germany when I was 16 in 1987. In Bavaria. I recall a birthday party for someone's grandmother. She tapped a special keg. I think it was a Dinkel Acker. And we drank a lot of weiss' at the local pub. "drei mas bier, bitte!" I do recall having a light bulb moment as I was drinking while urinating, that we really don't buy beer, we are only renting it! prost!!

[johnnyb]

First beer of choice was Budweiser... 

Then when I wanted something fancy it was Molsen Export Ale... 

First really good beers I started enjoying where hefeweizen's. My rock climbing partner started insisting we finish climbing days at the bar of a German restaurant, and they always had 5 or 6 types in the beer cooler and a couple on tap.

We still go there once or twice a year.

[theoman]

Probably Mickey's for me. Under "plans for the future" (or some such thing) in my high school yearbook, it says "music and Mickey's" next to my name. I gave up on both. Second is more difficult. After my first trip to Belgium (I was 18, so it wasn't long after the yearbook quote), I would seek out Grimbergen Dubbel or Gordon's Highland Scotch Ale, so I guess it would have to be one of those. Interestingly, I still enjoy an occasional Gordon's, but I haven't been able to take a Grimbergen in years.

[weithman5]

busch followed by schlitz bull.

[Jimmy K]

I'd drink Michelob with my dad in high school. The first beers I remember having in college were red dog and killians red. But Boston lager was the usual go to. My friend kept in in his truck box during the winter (Maine) so it was like liquid nitrogen cold, which we thought was good.  After college I drank mostly corona. Then I moved to Delaware and saw something called Dogfish Head at the store.  Having studied marine biology, I bought it for the shark logo and liked it (don't remember which one). Then, knowing nothing about beer styles, I bought a case of 60 minute IPA -- trial by fire.

[ibru]

Spending the first part of my life in Minnesota my first favorite beer was what our buyer at the time liked (Grain Belt, Hamms or Schmidt).

The last 20 plus years I agree with Keith...

 

[rjharper]

I'll admit Budweiser was my first go to beer (ah, the power of mass marketing).  Then I stumbled onto Yuengling, and that became my usual selection before I moved to Oklahoma, and decided I'd just have to make it myself...

[Joe Sr.]

First: Extra Gold when we were buying it.  Old Style when we could filch it for free from the neighbors fridge (often).

Second: Grolsch.  Maybe because of the swing top bottles?  Haven't had it in years.

We also drank a fair amount of Beck's and Guinness, because we knew it was better, but at that young age I don't think I appreciated it as I should have.

I still have a yearning to find a case of Extra Gold for old-times sake.  I'm sure that yearning would fade with the first can, but alas all I can find is Coor's Original Banquet Beer.