What do I brew for my girl?

[DBhomebrew]

As far my experience goes, there is no correlation between gender and breadth of taste preferences.

Most gals don't like beer... Maybe most gals aren't as susceptible to peer pressure and pretending they enjoy BMC and overly hopped 'craft' beer. "Wow, gents, that tastes like crap. I'll take something that actually tastes good, thank you." That very same gal might be quite happy to tuck into a well-crafted beer.

 

[rallenhall]

I'd say start with a straight, low ABV American wheat beer. If that's not quite enough, you can experiment with purees and flavorings by the glass until you hit the right combination. I made a grapefruit wheat with the puree passed out by Amoretti at NHC-Providence, and it remains one of my wife's favorites.

 

[Beermeister32]

One other thing - she’s not going to end up drinking the 5-gallon corny keg you make for her. You are. So make something YOU like!

 

[gaviga]

IMHO, most generalizations based on sex are usually wrong. Best to ask, then offer options as I mentioned above.

FWIW, our homebrew club's president is female. She's been the president since the early 1990s. And she's a damn good brewer!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

FWIW, our homebrew club's president is female. She's been the president since the early 1990s. And she's a damn good brewer!

Back when I was active in my club (RIP), I saw the same thing. I've worked with excellent female engineers. I'm not convinced that the plural of anecdotal is data, but I'm a hobbyist (and not in the hobby industry).

Back on topic, consider using only true noble hops. Sours are also an option.

 

[Broken Crow]

She likes the commercial lights, Coors and Mich Ultra.

So make something like that...you never know where it will lead. My LHBS opened in the nineties and here in Ontario, Canada, beer was taxed to death around that time so when all the "Blue" and "Canadian" mass-consumers drove down one of the busiest routes in town and saw the huge lettering in the windows: "BEER! - Brew it Here!" and word spread that you could go to this place that had a row of kettles and, following the provided live instructions, make a batch of about 2 cases of beer in the style of "Blue" or "Canadian" for less than the cost of one and it actually tasted 'better', it led a number of folk to explore their own taste buds and start brewing newer styles. It broke the old "it's an acquired taste" mold for people that woildn't have given non-mainstream beers a second thought.
Just start out with some clones, but 'better'.

 

[Steveruch]

Give her a copy of the BJCP guidelines, have her read the discriptions and have her tell you if anything sounds good to her.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

Also don’t fall into the dark-beers-are-intimidating trap. Dry stout. (English) Porter. Dunkelweizen. Schwarzbier.

Agreed! My wife was never a big fan of my beer until I convinced her to try a sip of my Irish Dry Stout. Now, that’s all she wants me to brew. It’s good that it’s my favorite as well.

 

[McMullan]

Mine prefers cake.

 

[McMullan]

I wooed her with pies.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Irish Dry Stout

I'm curious as to what used for hops (type & timing)?

Anecdotally (and with a small sample), I know people who dislike the flavors that come from classic 'C' hops and especially the newer IPA hops. When I was brewing a couple of porters/stouts for those peeps, I got better 'reviews' when I bittered with Golding rather than Magnum/Warrior. For them, even in a stout, it made a difference.

 

[YeastFeast]

Every girl I know that “doesn’t like beer” likes dark beers. Definitely try stouts and porters on her. Seems opposite of what you’d think but works everytime.

 

[AmarikinBrew]

Cream of three crops

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/cream-of-three-crops-cream-ale.66503/

 

[McMullan]

Every girl I know that “doesn’t like beer” likes dark beers. Definitely try stouts and porters on her. Seems opposite of what you’d think but works everytime.

Cake.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

I'm curious as to what used for hops (type & timing)?

Anecdotally (and with a small sample), I know people who dislike the flavors that come from classic 'C' hops and especially the newer IPA hops. When I was brewing a couple of porters/stouts for those peeps, I got better 'reviews' when I bittered with Golding rather than Magnum/Warrior. For them, even in a stout, it made a difference.

I use 2.0 oz of East Kent Golding at the beginning of a 60 minute boil.
There might be a better way, but this works, so I haven’t messed with it.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I use 2.0 oz of East Kent Golding at the beginning of a 60 minute boil.
There might be a better way, but this works, so I haven’t messed with it.

classic

 

[kheart]

My wife didn't like beer much, but would drink a Corona once in a while. She tried Pacifico and really liked it, still does. Then she slowly added browns, porters, stouts. More recently has added fruited sours of all things. This all happened because I would get tasters of everything and let her try them.

 

[mashdar]

I use 2.0 oz of East Kent Golding at the beginning of a 60 minute boil.
There might be a better way, but this works, so I haven’t messed with it.

Depending on AA I often even go with 1oz fuggles or 1oz ekg. IMO the roasted barley doesn't need many IBUs to be balanced, but I've never been accused if being a hop head : )

 

[FloppyKnockers]

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Seriously though, it's nice that you want to share your passion/hobby with her. My wife wasn't into all the styles when I first started brewing. She was a Bud Light girl.

Her love for beer blossomed from me having her taste certain styles and help me distinguish certain flavors and help troubleshoot undesirable flavors. Did she like all the styles? Well, no, but she would say if it was a little more this or a little less that, it would taste better to her.

Since then, I have created a nut brown, pale ale, ESB-loving monster. Wheats and IPAs are totally not her thing, but she'll still help me tune new experiments.

Like others have said, I would start her with a low IBU, bright and crisp American lager or Kolsch.

 

[leedspointbrew]

This is an interesting chain. My wife has always enjoyed beer, and as we've tried more and different styles together, she's evolved into an IPA fan who likes either the hazy or West Coast style, flavored with Simcoe - this is the common thread in all the beers that she's particularly enjoyed lately. Troeg's Nugget Nectar is a new fave. She also enjoys dark beers, and tomorrow for St Pat's we'll be drinking half Guinness / half Lindemans Framboise.
Women can be unpredictable; that's the only generalization that I'll hazard.

 

[day_trippr]

Hook your wife up with this woman, she'll figure it out for you

Cheers!

 

[AlexKay]

Some people like beer the first time they ever have it, but for many, it’s an acquired taste. And I won’t say that anybody can learn to enjoy anything, but most people, if they can convince themselves to try a new thing enough times (I’ve heard 20 as a benchmark), will learn to appreciate it. That’s probably a survival instinct, when you think about it: if you have something 20 times and it hasn’t hurt you, your aversion to a perfectly good source of calories is likely not a useful one.

All of which is to say, if you have a partner that’s interested in trying beer because it’s a way of sharing one of your main interests, that’s a great thing, and if you approach it the right way, it has a good chance of working out. Maybe not for everyone—some people are innately intolerant of alcohol, and others hypersensitive to bitterness—but for most.

So keep an open mind. Stay low-key. Try lots of things. Think in terms of bitterness, maltiness, hoppiness, roast, esters, and phenols. Teach them to think in these terms, and encourage them to express which aspects of a beer they do or don’t like.

Most of us who are enthusiasts know that a blanket statement — “I don’t like beer” — doesn’t really make sense, because there’s so little similarity between an IPA, a Doppelbock, a Tripel, a stout, a Pilsner, or a Belgian sour. Chances are good (again, assuming no unusual aversions to alcohol or bitterness) that if you don’t put someone off and can encourage them to keep trying, the space is big enough for them to find things they like.

 

[bwible]

Every girl I know that “doesn’t like beer” likes dark beers. Definitely try stouts and porters on her. Seems opposite of what you’d think but works everytime.

This is a thing. I know lots of women, wives of homebrew club, etc who all like stouts and dark beers. Opposite of what I would have thought. My wife loves strong beers like barleywine or imperial stout, even the barrel aged ones which are my favorite. Hefeweizen - people who don’t like beer like wheat beer.

I think women or even just some people don’t care for hops or hop forward beers. Look for the styles with lower hop profiles and lower bu:gu ratios. Doppelbock, Scottish Ale, Irish ale, etc

Best thing I could suggest is buy mixed 6 packs of different things and split/try different things with her to see what she likes/doesn’t like before you brew 5 gallons of anything.

Theres also mead and cider

 

[day_trippr]

Sweet chocolate stout is definitely a non-beer-drinker-slayer...

Cheers!

 

[D the Catastrophist]

Every girl I know that “doesn’t like beer” likes dark beers. Definitely try stouts and porters on her. Seems opposite of what you’d think but works everytime.

Nope. Nothing works 'everytime'. My wife absolutely hates them. Dark beers, stout, porters anything hoppy are out. She can't even tolerate the smell (and this is someone who drinks her dark roast coffee black). Sour beers were a win though, and a pleasant surprise for both of us as we had never even heard of sour ales. Hell, we once found a coffee sour ale we loved.

The only way to find the beer style she likes, is to try a bunch. But just be prepared most are likely to be a fail. Some of the bigger liquor stores have 'build your own' 6 packs where you can grab an assortment of different beers. Ask her what flavors she doesn't like in the beer. And try to then find some that don't have that flavor. Then once you have an idea you can try making making a beer in that style.

 

[Stikius]

I agree with a few above (unfortunately a minority it seems). As far as my experience goes there's no correlation at all between gender and beer drinking. Most women I know even like more beer styles than I do. But the first post already suggests that she "likes the commercial lights, Coors and Mich Ultra". Why not try to brew a light lager? Then, as a few others have suggested as well, a beer flight or buying a few different beers from the store might have her realize that she likes beer more than she thinks.

 

[flipster]

Sorry, she’s my sweetie and I can’t exchange her.

I assume that was more a preventative measure to avoid such comments, but you're also giving yourself the best way to deal with this: you don't want to exchange her and probably you don't want to change her (taste) either. Don't go for something you want her to like, but what she likes - and personalize it.

I do not know the beers you mentioned, but from what I've found out so far, these beers
- don't seem very bitter,
- are no full meals (that's what my girlfriend says about wheat beers)
- and neither are they malt bombs.
So your best option might be a (light) lager, blonde or juicy ale with a very low haziness.

Use some maize for extra dry-ness, stay at the low side of the IBU scale, aim for a slightly fruity flavour by decent dry hopping with e.g citra, galaxy, mosaic, riwaka, nelson sauvign... just think of her favourite fruits.

 

[Thegundog]

Does she actually like them or does she just drink them because they're low in calories and carbs and don't taste like much of anything? There's a Michelob Ultra "clone" recipe on Brewer's Friend. I put clone in quotes because it has 134 calories and 13 carbs, while the real thing comes in at 95 and 2.6; it's also close to 30 IBU which is probably 3x to high. So on second thought, she'd probably hate it.

I second the idea of getting her to try some fruited beers and see if any of those tickle her fancy.

No she likes the lites, it’s not a calorie thing. I’ll have to look into the Ultra clone - thanks

 

[Thegundog]

Does she like wine or seltzer?

No she won’t touch seltzer….

I make a cider that she loves, it’s magnificent but it’s a little sweet and sometimes a beer is what is desired.