How to Introduce Craft Beers to New Beer Drinkers
Photograph by Becca Dilley of Heavy Table.
"What’s the best way to deliver a beer-resistant friend or family member into the warm and loving arms of craft beer?" asks James Norton of Heavy Table. As a nondrinker my answer would be, "Lie to me and tell me it's something else," but Norton has more helpful advice. He says to steer clear of lagers and hoppy craft brews and to appeal to the personal tastes of your craft-beer newbie. His group taste tests nine beers in three categories—fruit beers, wits, and stouts—for an introduction to "the joys of craft beer." Read his group's reviews to find out which ones they would most recommend.
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10 Comments:
My wife and I are serious beer hunters. Thus we tend to hang out with similarly inclined folk. We delight in the complexity of our IPA's, Imperial Stouts, Barlywines and wacky Belgium varieties. However some in our midst just don't, uh, get it at all. They would either have a "Lite" beer (why even bother!) or none at all.
Not that long ago the wife didn't care a thing for all the beers that I would swoon over so I worked on her inhibitions. I got her a wheat beer on a summer day. It didn't have the hop bitterness that I, and now she, love so much but rather a slightly fruity and bubbly sweetness. We have come to call a good wheat the "gateway to goodness".
It seems to be both hops and heavily roasted malts that initially bother beginners so we avoid giving them anything that gets near that flavor profile. A fine Scotch ale, lambic, english brown, Irish Red, Marzen or Vienna are also easily approachable because they are round and sweetish.
That usually seems to do the trick. We have turned numerous people into craft beer drinkers. If not we just leave the filthy and unworthy pseudo-humans in the woods for the wolves to devour.
Bunnyman at 7:54PM on 06/09/09
My husband drinks craft beer, but I just can't get into it (or any beer, for that matter). I will enjoy a lambic occasionally, which tastes more like candy than beer, but most of all I like ciders on those hot days.
flurie at 9:23PM on 06/09/09
Don't bother. If someone is perfectly happy not experiencing craft/specialty beers, why introduce them to something that's more expensive? Keep the good stuff for yourself.
schmonsequences at 9:31PM on 06/09/09
Oh Kriek lambics... deliciousness.
My girlfriend was a relative beer newbie when we started dating, so she got to drink what I and my friends drink - high-quality beers with actual flavor. Her reaction to a first taste of Bud Light was "it tastes like nothing!" I find that most people who "don't like beer" just don't like urinesque garbage beer that people use to get drunk.
Nickiter at 1:58AM on 06/10/09
@Nickiter: I think I might be one of the few people who just doesn't like any beer because I don't like any...alcohol. Wine, cocktails, spirits, craft beer, pretty much anything with alcohol in it makes me go "eeuhhnuhhubuh" to the point that I wonder if I'm tasting something completely different from everyone else or if my tolerance for bitterness is just that crappy. (It seems to be the latter.) But at some point maybe my taste buds will snap and I'll finally appreciate all those nice beers and such.
roboppy at 2:12AM on 06/10/09
I can't stand the smell of alcohol to begin with so I don't like beer, wine, and whiskey. It's actually a good thing since my body cannot tolerate very much alcohol (2 sips of wine and my chest tightens that I can barely breathe, my pulse races, my whole body burns), but this intolerance came after my dislike for the smell. I am pretty much all about smell when it comes to food/drink consumption.
Cassaendra at 7:36AM on 06/10/09
i love really good beer, but sometimes there's just no convincing others of it-kind of like people who like there steak well done...so i just smile, nod, and keep it to myself. i like lambic too-you can take the framboise & cut it with guiness and they round each other out really nicely.
@ nickiter:"people who "don't like beer" just don't like urinesque garbage beer that people use to get drunk." that's so funny cuz it's so true. nothing like your first taste of nati lite in college.
gastronomeg at 10:51AM on 06/10/09
love love love the peache and raspberry lambic from lindeman's. but i'm not a serious beer drinker so it could be why. tastes like a cross between beer and champagne to me. sounds oddly gross, but i like it.
foodiedani at 10:55AM on 06/10/09
Why again are we supposed to be forcing other people to embrace what we do? Is it just because we're Americans?
I love myself a hoppy ale, but there is nothing really wrong with not liking it. I suppose this is useful if someone you know is interested in expanding their beer tastes, but the "How pedestrian are your tastes? What is wrong with you?" attitude irks me.
/tries brushing chip off shoulder.
hellojodi at 3:14PM on 06/10/09
Spot on! Lindeman's Frambois and whites (Hoegaarden) are what got me to actually start liking beer. I still don't like super hoppy beers, but I have graduated on to lagers and such.
b_dub at 10:44AM on 06/11/09