Trying to design a beer that is like wine

As the title says, I am trying to design a beer that tastes like wine, or in that ballpark anyway. The purpose is an olive branch, or one might say a gateway beer, to wine drinkers who scoff at beer as a lesser drink. If I can't get my wine drinking family to enjoy IPAs with me, at least I might be able to win them over with a beer whose profile is a little closer to their palate preferences.

Question is, how do I do it? Anybody have any ideas for me?

 

Is barleywine too obvious?

 

I'd say some sort of barleywine. Also if you're ever fortunate enough to come across Nelson sauvin hops scoop them up. Never used or seen them but apparently they have a grape like characteristic to them. If you do find a place to get them please let me know, would live to give them a shot

 

Rodenbach Grand Cru to me seems very wine-like. I like it.

 

http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/product_p/hopsnznlesonsauvin1.htm

 

I've never though a barleywine tasted anything like wine; sweet, thick, rich, no tannic bite. A grand cru is more along the lines of the two. Honestly, I've never thought a beer had any resemblance to wine.......

.......and then as soon as I said that I take it back.

Two times I've thought of wine while drinking a beer:
1) 17 years ago I brewed a lightweight american wheat beer using fresh raspberries in a 5 gallon batch. i think I used along the lines of 4-6 lbs of fresh raspberries in the primary. The yeast ate through those like sugar and left the brew dry and tart, with a big time "fruit wine" character.

2) DFH has put out a couple beers that incorporate muscat must (in one) and syrah must (in another), and they both give the dual impression of beer with a wine aspect. My recollection is that the muscat beer was good with some sweet while the syrah beer was okay and semi-dry. They syrah was more red wine-like of the two.

 

Got my wine drinking father in law hooked on La Folie. A kriek or other lambic would be my suggestion. Roddenbach if they like sonething with a little more bite. But you probably should look towards Belgian and French styles.

 

Yes, if they crave tannins, you'll need to add some berries.

 

belgian and french beers would be the ticket. the trick is that the ones that remind me the most of wine entail lengthy aging in wood barrels.

make a basic tripel or SWMBO slayer and give it very little carbonation. let it sit for 8 weeks or so to mellow. should get you in the ballpark.

 

Cool beans. Been nonchalantly searching for a long while. Wish you could get 1oz but $20 for .5lb might just have to buy and store. Thanks for the heads up man!

 

A lambic or a fruit ale would be my suggestion. New Glarus Brewery makes a couple phenomenal fruit ales that are like a sparkling wine, but they only sell in Wisconsin.

 

The only time I have really thought wine while drinking a beer was the one and only time I had Duchesse De Bourgogne, a Flander's Red Ale. You might look into that style.

 

Flanders Reds get too sour, at least the ones I've made. Lambics are as close as you're gonna get to the fruitiness of wine.

Napoleon called Berliner Weisse the "Champagne of the North". I don't think so, but they are very light and flavorful.

 

Duchess isn't that sour. Not compared to rodenbach's grand cru.

 

Why ever would you want to do that. Next thing you know you'll come home and they will be drinking your beer without you! Don't say I didn't warn you.....

First I would have to ask what kind of wines they like. Are they the robust reds or the fruity whites drinkers. Then go from there.

Cheers
Jay

 

Yea, I like the Duchess a lot.

 

Btw my buddy's wife who hates beer in every other form and loves wine liked the Duchess.

 

As someone previously posted, Nelson Sauvin can make a beer taste like white wine. It can also make it taste like a cat peed in your white wine.

I made a pale ale with a small cascade bittering charge of 10ibu and a 30ibu 20 minute Nelson addition. No late hops or dry hops. It was white grapey and tasted pretty good. The yeast was s05. The malt bill was 2row and 4oz of honey malt. FG was around 1.010. The abv was around 8%.

In other beers with Nelson late hops and dry hops, it was catty.

 

The only time I've ever had a beer similar to wine was the 5-Rabbit ale. I'd swear it was white wine by the smell, and tasted like it too. Sorry I don't know details about the yeast, but here's their description:
http://www.5rabbitbrewery.com/5-rabbit/

Might at least give you some ideas.

 

Age something fruity on oak?

 

Exactly what I was going to say. Remind me of a cross between beer and wine. I've used New Glarus 'beers' like this to hook some people that normally aren't beer drinkers. It's a good route as opposed to going with something like a Berryweise. Cheers!

 

Why make a beer to be like a wine? If you want to convince someone that beer isn't a pedestrian drink, just brew anything with some complexity. Sadly, in most cases, that means a bigger beer, with longer aging times (wait a minute, this is starting to sound like wine).

If you want some string complexity and layers of flavor in a shorter period of time, look towards saisons, English bitters and October beers, and the smaller Trappist style ales (dubbels, etc.). If you have a year or three to make something ageworthy, you can then get into lambics, RISs, barley wines, quads, Eisbocks, and the like.

If you really want to make the winos squirm, serve something laced with brett. Not only can it get you awesome flavors with some time, but it'll scare any barrel-using winemaker to death. They avoid that stuff like the plague.