Crossing the line?

As you all may know by now, I work one shift a week at a local brewery. My official title is beertender, and my duties include pouring beers, helping customers choose a beer, washing glasses, taking payment for beers, and occasionally selling our other merchandise. One of my favorite things about the job (besides the shift beer) is the opportunity to talk to people. Especially when I get to talk about beer. It's definitely one of my passions. I love sharing what I know and learning from others.

One Saturday afternoon last month, I was washing glasses while we had a somewhat full taproom. Because of where our washing station is positioned, I'm usually right in front of customers sitting at the bar. I try not to eavesdrop or impede on conversations, but sometimes I'm invited in, so I join. On this particular day, there were two men sitting in those seats. I'd guess they were in their early to mid 40s, but it's hard to tell sometimes. One of the men was kind of picky from the start, annoyed that we didn't have any dark beers on tap, and the other was just very loud and boisterous. But they were paying customers, and I figured they really weren't hurting anyone.

Since the one man expressed an interest in darker beers, I advised him that our stout would probably be back in the next month or so. I also told him we'd be releasing a special peanut butter porter in a few weeks. I gave him the date and told him what I knew about the new beer. This launched into a discussion about the differences between stouts and porters. Naturally, I shared my opinion

Me: "I always think of porters as having a thinner mouthfeel, while I expect stouts to be thicker."  

Man #2: "So you're saying you like thick things in your mouth?"

I honestly didn't know how to respond to that. I'm not really even sure what I did at that moment, but my expression must have conveyed that I was uncomfortable. They joked that they'd crossed the line but did not apologize at all.

Those men remained for another hour or so, polishing off a few beers while I continued washing dishes. I stopped talking with them except to refill their beers and take their money.  I was so relieved when they finally left.

After they were gone, my taproom manager thanked me for taking care of the dishes and the noisy customers (their volume was hard to ignore). I told him it wasn't a problem except that they probably wouldn't have said to him what they said to me.  When I told him about the comment the one man had made, my manager became furious. He told me I should have come and gotten him to handle the situation.  I responded that it wasn't a big deal, that I didn't want to make a scene, and that I should expect some of that working in a brewery.  He said, "No. You never have to deal with that. No one here does."

The following week, he sent out a staff email and included a tidbit about the sexual harassment I'd encountered along with instructions on how to handle it in the future. Even though I'd been uncomfortable in the moment of the comment, I hadn't really thought about what it really meant. But his label is correct.

As I shared my story with friends, I received a myriad of responses:

-- [Laughter] You walked into that one.
-- You probably hear stuff like that a lot.
-- Men can be that way.

I don't think any of them meant to imply that the comment was normal and innocuous, but that was certainly the prevailing theme in responses. Then again, it'd been my initial reaction as well. I was shocked and uncomfortable, but until my taproom manager got upset, I didn't think it was a huge deal.

Ultimately, I think I did the best I could in just ignoring the men.  Their comment wasn't appropriate in the least, but I didn't want to make a scene. However, I'm very grateful to know my taproom manager has my back and aims to promote a safe and comfortable environment for the staff. 

What do you think? 
Was my reaction normal?  
What should I have done differently?
Have you ever encountered something like this?