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darrenbrews

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Most of the friends I have are Coors Light / Miller Lite drinkers who always drink from the can, think hoppy beers are skunky, and can't stand black beers because they taste too much like coffee. I'd like to brew a beer one day that changes the minds of those commercial beer lovers and makes them come begging for more of my brew.

If any, what styles of beer did you brew that impressed nearly everyone who drank it and changed their mind about home brews and craft beers?

-DZ :mug:
 
I done a chinook IPA and a dry Irish stout that two of my pals loved. They loved them so
Much that they have now become brewers.
 
Kölschs can be good ways to break the ice. An ale that thinks it's a lager.
 
lewishowardm3 said:
I done a chinook IPA and a dry Irish stout that two of my pals loved. They loved them so Much that they have now become brewers.
Click to expand...

Yeah... IPAs and stouts are the last beers I would recommend to ease BMC drinkers into craft beer. Don't get me wrong, they're fantastic styles that most of us will have an obsessive phase about after acquiring the taste, but a good Kolsch or Oktoberfest is probably a better place to start.
 
Caribou slobber, phat tyre and Irish draught from northern brewer were all crowd pleasers. I recommend something with a tendency towards malt and not hops.
 
^^ this. Go with an octoberfest, maybe a nice mild amber. I hear the cream ale is a great gateway beer too, but for whatever reason I dont have a lot of experience with those.
 
I like a very hoppy yet balanced IPA.
I've only used small amounts of Maris Otter but recently did my first created recipe. It has 90% MO, a little 2 row (only had 10 lbs of MO) and lots of hops. It came out awesome!
I call it Assilepsy Ale. It will be made again. Only 1 week in the keg and it's a winner. Hope it sticks around another few weeks so I can see it mature.
I've also been a fan of Green Flash West Coast IPA and their double so I made a Red Flash still in the 'waiting for kegerator space' line.
 
For me it was Saisons--light, interesting, fruity, and dry on the finish to make you want another.

Also, Christmas spice, West Coast Red, pumpkin ale, pale ale, and rye mild.
 
Citrusy Summer Ale, Kolsch, Witbier, Hefes, or anything lite and or lagered. Both of my stouts went over very well as have all my brews. Buuut, when giving something to a BMC drinker I have just given the lightest stuff I happen to have on-hand.
 
For me it was my Bog Myrtle Elderberry Pale Ale but my friends are craft beer lovers. If I were going to make a style to impress the BMC crowd I'd brew a fruit beer, Blonde, or a malty sweet Amber ale.
 
My friends like free beer. If they come over, they don't have to pay.
 
I have an Amber that everyone likes, my friends are a at opposite ends of the beer spectrum some drink craft beer and others love PBR but the Amber makes them both happy.
 
I question the premise...why bother? My best brews are exactly what they don't like (a nice coffee Porter and a hoppy APA - hoppy enough to better fit the IPA style guidelines).

If they don't appreciate the flavor of the various malts and hops, replicating BMC isn't accomplishing much, besides more homebrew for you.
 
I get rave reviews from non-beer drinkers and Coors light fans on by German hefeweizens and lower gravity Belgian saisons. They have nice fresh flavors they've never tasted without being heavily hopped or overly malty. Stouts, IPAs and bigger, malt forward brews generally turn off the Coors light fan. Kolsh is a good call too, but I like to push their boundries at least a bit!
 
strambo said:
I question the premise...why bother? My best brews are exactly what they don't like (a nice coffee Porter and a hoppy APA - hoppy enough to better fit the IPA style guidelines).

If they don't appreciate the flavor of the various malts and hops, replicating BMC isn't accomplishing much, besides more homebrew for you.
Click to expand...

I think it's that when people find out that you make beer they are excited to try some, you want to keep that same excitement going. I have never made a beer to make someone else happy but it's nice when they are as pleased as you. My BIL was over for the holidays and is a High Life drinker and does try what I offer him but the best compliment was when he told me my Amber was "the best and well balanced beer you have made" coming from a BMC drinker I'll take that "Wow" factor.
 
strambo said:
I question the premise...why bother? My best brews are exactly what they don't like .
Click to expand...

What I was trying to get at wasn't how to please commercial beer drinkers with your best beer, but what beer did you brew that they liked. I'm relatively new to craft beers, and it was only a few years ago I thought a hoppy beer sucked, but now I'm learning to home brew and would someday like to share my knowledge with others. And what better way to boost my ego than to have a loyal Coors Light drinker ask me for another of my home brews. When it comes to home brew I want to be "The Man".
 
I was a BMC brewery rep for 20+ years. Hefeweizen got me out of fizzy yellow...Belgian Wit interested me in flavors...and the milder pale ales built my interest in hops. It is a gradual process, but once the journey begins there is no turning back. IMHO, that was the process that turned me. If you rush it, you will not get a favorable response. Just like building a tolerance to spicy food. A little hotter is ok.

Now that I am no longer with BMC, I don't have to pretend to hate those craft styles for being unbalanced. Had 5 Deschutes IPAs tonight at a wedding and loved every one of them...would not have happened 2 years ago. Meanwhile, the Redhook IPAs that seemed strong in my BMC days had a disappointingly weak hop character last night. How things change!

I've been saved...
 
Brew a true English Mild it is about 3.5 percent and has no Redeemable qualities. Just like the beer they drink now. :mug:
 
Darkness said:
Brew a true English Mild it is about 3.5 percent and has no Redeemable qualities. Just like the beer they drink now. :mug:
Click to expand...

No redeemable qualities? Why? Not strong enough? Not hoppy enough?
 
I would say to go with baby steps, ease them from light American lagers to munich helles to Dortmund exports and then onto kolsch and Oktoberfest

and for their first dark bier ignore English or irish stouts, too bitter they will regect it immedietly, start with a schwarzbier.
 
Edwort's haus pale ale. Leave it in the keg with gelatin fining for about a month. They'll see that beer has flavor too. It'll be crystal clear and light so they won't have the apprehensions of haze and color. Then move them to a mildly hopped blonde (could do both at the same time). Then on to an oatmeal stout if they are over their apprehensions. From there they will probably be able to at least mildly appreciate a larger variety and can start developing their own tastes.
 
Darkness said:
Brew a true English Mild it is about 3.5 percent and has no Redeemable qualities. Just like the beer they drink now. :mug:
Click to expand...

Drinking a English mild is nothing like drinking BMC.
 
Yooper's Hoppy American Amber, a simple Maris Otter/Centennial SMASH, and a wheat made with bottle-harvested yeast from Bell's Winter White Ale. Planning on bringing a keg of EdWort's Bee Cave Kolsch to a party, so we'll see if the list expands.
 
darrenbrews said:
What I was trying to get at wasn't how to please commercial beer drinkers with your best beer, but what beer did you brew that they liked. I'm relatively new to craft beers, and it was only a few years ago I thought a hoppy beer sucked, but now I'm learning to home brew and would someday like to share my knowledge with others. And what better way to boost my ego than to have a loyal Coors Light drinker ask me for another of my home brews. When it comes to home brew I want to be "The Man".
Click to expand...

I'm in the "why bother?" camp! My dad calls my beer "that homebrewed ****" and always has. He knows it's craft beer, but he doesn't care to try it or develop a taste for it. He loves two beers- Budweiser and Genny Cream Ale.

About 3 years ago, he drove to my house with my brother and his family. (14 hours in a hot car). It was over 90 degrees, and when he got out of the car, I handed him a cream ale. He said, "That's not that homebrewed **** is it?" I told him hello, and to drink the damn beer! :D He loved it- it was very similar to Biermuncher's Cream of Three Crops. He and my brother drank that keg in one day.

When that keg was gone, they didn't even TRY the other beers. They went to town and bought Bud.

That's why I don't even try to convince people to change their minds about craft beer or homebrew. People like what they like- or rather, what they believe that they like. It would only frustrate me to continue to please them.
 
I'm pretty new to brewing but most of my friends are open minded and will try my beers. My first brew was a Red Ale kit and everybody who has had that beer has enjoyed it. Even the BMC only crowd. The other brew everybody has enjoyed is the White House Honey Ale I made. I didn't care for that one at first, but the longer it's in the bottle, the better it gets. But, there is still that swill drinking group who say - ugh, that's too dark - I don't like dark beers. Whatever. I really like giving beer away - I could never drink all I make - but you have to accept that that not everybody will like them and just move on. Make some less complicated ones for those friends, and save the delicious big beers for yourself!
 
Yooper said:
I'm in the "why bother?" camp! My dad calls my beer "that homebrewed ****" and always has. He knows it's craft beer, but he doesn't care to try it or develop a taste for it. He loves two beers- Budweiser and Genny Cream Ale.

About 3 years ago, he drove to my house with my brother and his family. (14 hours in a hot car). It was over 90 degrees, and when he got out of the car, I handed him a cream ale. He said, "That's not that homebrewed **** is it?" I told him hello, and to drink the damn beer! :D He loved it- it was very similar to Biermuncher's Cream of Three Crops. He and my brother drank that keg in one day.

When that keg was gone, they didn't even TRY the other beers. They went to town and bought Bud.

That's why I don't even try to convince people to change their minds about craft beer or homebrew. People like what they like- or rather, what they believe that they like. It would only frustrate me to continue to please them.
Click to expand...

most of the beers I like to brew are not beers that most anyone wants to drink, let alone try. Horehound Belgian Strong, Soured Imperial Stout, Dill Ale... I'm really not in the game of trying to get people to like craft off my own beer anymore. and too many people have it in their heads that home brew is rocket fuel. I still try to get people to expand their horizons. I am planning on putting on a home brew class in our local community education center to help show people what they can do.
 
Agreed. People like what they like, and they're either set in their was about what a "real beer" is supposed to taste like, or they are open to trying new flavors. Every year, I bring a PET bottle filled with my homebrew to a new years eve party filled with friends and family, and two or three of them may actually try it. Usually, they politely nurse a small cup of whatever I bring and then switch to something else because it doesn't taste like a BMC product. This is actually just fine with me, because it means there's more for my Wife and I to enjoy at the party.

If you want to try your hand at bridging the gap between BMC and craft, brew up something with a nice light clean flavor profile easy on the hops bitterness. A Belgian wit, a maibock/hellesbock, a cream ale or even a simple pilsner would be my choices.
 
Yooper said:
He loves two beers- Budweiser and Genny Cream Ale.
Click to expand...

I know the beer drinker you are talking about. I have friends dedicated to drinking Budweiser, Genny, Rolling Rock, Schlitz for the past 30 years, and there is no convincing them there are other alternatives. They wouldn't even try a Yingling or Corona, would never even drink a decent glass of wine. There is no convincing these old school dedicated drinkers.

I did find that the Coors Light / Miller Lite camp seem to be more adventurous & open to trying new things.
 
I would say Red Ale, a Hefe, or pale ale, In that order have, the broadest appeal among my friends.

Also, I agree with the why bother crowd. I would be much more interested in all you HBTers opinions than my friends. I don't have many craft drinking friends. Keep meaning to join a club but I'm a weird hermit that spends all day lurking on HBT.
 
Krovitz said:
I would say Red Ale, a Hefe, or pale ale, In that order have, the broadest appeal among my friends.

Also, I agree with the why bother crowd. I would be much more interested in all you HBTers opinions than my friends. I don't have many craft drinking friends. Keep meaning to join a club but I'm a weird hermit that spends all day lurking on HBT.
Click to expand...

That would have converted me. Don't give up on BMC drinkers...they (we) just didn't know any better. It's a journey, not a race. Once you discover that you appreciate other flavors and aromas, it's a never-ending journey. That is exactly why I am here now.
 
No one style for me. My wow moment for craft beer came with Victory's Hop Wallup. That was at an early beerfest after I turned 21 and it solidified for me that most beers I drank before were crap (up to that point I was mainly drinking Yuengling, Sam Adams, and stuff like that)
 
twalte said:
That would have converted me. Don't give up on BMC drinkers...they (we) just didn't know any better. It's a journey, not a race. Once you discover that you appreciate other flavors and aromas, it's a never-ending journey. That is exactly why I am here now.
Click to expand...

Very true. I didn't mean to sound dickish. I used to pound miller lites and thought fosters was craft beer. I've just found in general, when I try to make a crowd pleaser, no one really likes it, including me. Make beers you want to drink and you'll always find a friend or 2 that likes it.
 
Bud Miller Coors,or what I like to call BCB's...Big Corporate Brews. The wow beer for me was left hand brewing's milk stout. Their nitro stout was even better.
 
Ok I get it, learn somethin new everyday in England it would be CFS Carlesberg Foster Stella lol happy days
 

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