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I remember my first local craft beer.

It was West Sixth Brewing Company’s India Pale Ale. It changed the way I viewed beer, and it probably helped change the way many Lexingtonians do, too.

Since opening almost two years ago, West Sixth and Country Boy Brewing have increased their production by about 600 percent and 1,400 percent, respectively, said the companies’ owners.

Six-month old Blue Stallion Brewing Co. is already expanding its facilities despite never paying a dime for advertising.

Wanting to visit every taproom, I began to understand why this was the case at Country Boy.

“This is really good shit,” Lori McKinnery, a regular at Country Boy, exclaimed after taking a big drink from her glass.

She pointed across the bar to me, “You should try this.”

She had mixed two Country Boy beers, the Nacho Bait (Country Boy’s blonde ale, Cougar Bait, aged with habaneros) and the Chestnut Brown Ale. And it worked.

“It’s like a brown porter (an English dark ale) with a kick,” McKinnery said before enlisting the bartender’s help in determining a name for her new favorite concoction.

After a few monikers that didn’t quite roll off the tongue as well as the beer poured down it. “Nacho Nuts,” said the bartender laughing. McKinnery giggled, nodding in agreement.

I felt like I was living in a scene from “Cheers,” only Sam Malone was wearing a trucker cap and there was a mounted deer head with a bridal veil.

Chatting with McKinnery, I learned that many, she and her husband included, felt at home at Country Boy Brewing.

“They get to know you here and learn what you like,” she said. A regular for almost five months, she said the bartenders pour her drinks “even before I have a chance to sit down.”

Check out a photo slideshow from the breweries.

Similar scenes are often played out at the other two breweries, each time with their own colorful cast.

“We’ve got several faithful regulars who when they come in we know where they want to sit … and what they want to drink. They’re the most fun,” said Kore Donnelly, co-owner of Blue Stallion.

The taprooms attract a multitude of characters from “people getting off work, to people wanting to try something new, to people who have decided to make this their bar,” Donnelly said.

Although the crowds and interactions are the same at each, I found that they all have something unique about them.

Blue Stallion brews German lagers and British style ales, and has a pool table. West Sixth shares space with a restaurant — Smithtown Seafood — and displays local art, while Country Boy has two deer mounted on the wall and beers that “push the envelope.”

But what I discovered was that while these differences partially made them who they are, it’s what they all have in common that makes Lexington love them.

It is their sense of community.

“We wanted to do two things when we started a brewery,” said Brady Barlow, one of West Sixth’s four owners. “We wanted to make really good beer and then we wanted to give back to the community.”

Both Donnelly and Daniel Harrison,  co-owner of Country Boy, echoed Barlow’s words.

The three Breweries have combined to work with more than 30 non-profits and charities, and have donated tens of thousands of dollars to them.

“We don’t make business decisions, we make beer decisions because we care about what ends up in the glass … and about the people who drink from it,” Harrison said.

Although they’ve combined to brew more than 100 beers between them, the owners of the three breweries maintain regular contact with one another, even giving each other tips and help. “It’s super cool … to have breweries working together for a common cause,” Harrison said. “People love to drink beer … giving them a good reason to makes it even better.”