Party Beer??

Hey Everyone!

As being someone who just got into home brew and not very knowledgeable about it, I was wondering if it is possible to make a party beer (ie keystone-type) and if so is it easier than making a more flavorful craft beer? And is there a certain name (besides CRAP) for those types of beers.

I mentioned to one of my buddies that i was starting to toss around the idea of starting to make my own beer, and being the party animals they are asked if i could make "cheap" beer. My friends will not drink craft beer, they say its not something to get hammered on. I tell them its meant to be "enjoyed", not pummeled down your throat.
So once i got a couple batches in i wanted to try and make a "easy to drink party beer" coors light, and natural ice.

any information would be great
thank you for your time!!

drinkmybeeryo said:

Hey Everyone!

As being someone who just got into home brew and not very knowledgeable about it, I was wondering if it is possible to make a party beer (ie keystone-type) and if so is it easier than making a more flavorful craft beer? And is there a certain name (besides CRAP) for those types of beers.

I mentioned to one of my buddies that i was starting to toss around the idea of starting to make my own beer, and being the party animals they are asked if i could make "cheap" beer. My friends will not drink craft beer, they say its not something to get hammered on. I tell them its meant to be "enjoyed", not pummeled down your throat.
So once i got a couple batches in i wanted to try and make a "easy to drink party beer" coors light, and natural ice.

any information would be great
thank you for your time!!

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Hehe! Hopefully your buddies tastes will improve with time To answer your question, given you just started it is possible to come CLOSE to an easy to drink coors light by making an american ale. You want a recipe that has no character malts, very few hops, and very little esters from the yeast. Judging from your post, I am assuming you currently know nothing about brewing beer... if I am correct you want to do the following first:

Get the book "How To Brew" by John Palmer. Read it, maybe twice. Understand it. Follow the directions and try to make a few beers in the book. Basically, you will get better at it from there and will begin to understand what it takes to make a coors style beer.

Truthfully, making an exact beer like a coors is hard for the homebrewer, as it is a lager and every off taste shows through given it has very little in it. However, I personally have made a beer that comes close in the Light Amercian Ale genre. Hope that helps.

I was a Labatts drinker for years. I cannot stand to drink more than one or two of them. I make beer for me, if my friends want to get hammered on foul swill they can make it. I drink good homebrew and they can get hammered on that.

Could you make a easy to drink swill? yes! adjuncts such as rice will help. There are some beer sites that have kits for commercial beers. Ausitn homebrew is a site.

Good luck1

Those beers are actually the hardest to make, and often require more equipment than you might need for a craft-style beer. There are plenty of styles you can make easily that have a bit more flavor than the macros, but are still easy to drink. I always like to push people towards California Common as a beer to give to folks who are wary of craft beers, but I'm sure the people on this site can give you plenty of other suggestions.

It is always worth pointing out that, unless you just want to do it for the fun and challenge of doing it, you are probably going to have a hard time making your own batch of this for any cheaper than buying a couple cases from the store.

Hoppin_Mad said:

It is always worth pointing out that, unless you just want to do it for the fun and challenge of doing it, you are probably going to have a hard time making your own batch of this for any cheaper than buying a couple cases from the store.

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That's an issue. Lager yeast is what? $8/pack? And you may need three packs unless you're making a starter. That doesn't include the price of extract (which is very expensive) if you're not an all-grain brewer. So, for two cases of a light lager, you're looking at spending $50 or so. You can buy a 30 pack for under $15. So, making cheap swill isn't as cheap as buying it.

Not to mention that lagers need tight temperature control, and about 12 weeks of your time. They ferment at 50 degrees (need a fridge or another way to keep it steady) and then are moved to a carboy to age at 34 degrees for about 8 weeks. It's a lot of work but very gratifying.

If your friends want cheap free beer, though, it'd be way better to buy two 30 packs.

Go all grain, buy grain and hops in bulk (50lb sacks of grain, 1lb bags of hops), re-use yeast. You can make 5gal batches for less than $10 even if you count the cost of Nottingham yeast or something. Just make a cream or amber ale. If they learned to like ****ty beer, they can learn to like good beer. If they complain, tell them to quit whining that the beer isn't "light" enough. If that's all that's there, they will drink it. If not, more for you. I would recommend kegging if you plan to brew party beer. You will need to brew a lot and keep a steady pipeline. I've had much success in doing this. I fill 1/2 barrel (full size) kegs occasionally.