If you were opening a brewery...

7.5 hoppy ipa
6.0 stout
belgian/french ale

 

When opening a brewery you have to make what will appeal to the customer. After establishing a customer base then you can expand on to more interesting/polarizing beers.

 

Pale Ale and 7.5 IPA because they SELL... and a Lager/Pilsner because they are under-represented in the craft market, and their day is coming...

 

A brewery just opened in Minnesota recently (Lake Monster) and all they offer right now is an IPA (which rocks) and a Pils (which I haven't yet tried). I think it's a smart set-up. A good pilsener is a good one to go after your curious BMC drinker as well.

 

Imperial Stout, DIPA, IPA

 

Disagree. Brew what you love and can do well - and be able to share your story with customers. Customer will drink almost any style if they understand your brand and you make them believe in it.

That's why places like SARA, rare barrel, de garde, commons, upright, logsdon, Heater Allen, Side Project, Cascade, etc. have been a great success. They have a passion for distinct styles and it shows and people get behind them for it.

I personally would rather see new breweries come in with a different take than the classic pale ale, IPA, stout, cream ale, red ale.

Of course, this all depends on how you define success.

 

You definitely have to think about your customers along with pursuing a niche that you do extremely well. If you start too broad to please everyone you could find yourself in trouble. However, if you have solid tried and tested recipes than go with your strengths.

Personally, I would go with nice juicy and drinkable pale ales...lower abv APA and higher abv IPA along with an American style farmhouse ale with some hop character. But that is just what I enjoy brewing. As the client base increases then I would widen the margin of styles into a creamy stout and crisp lager.

 

While true, especially the "how you define success" part, a brewery needs to make money. The growing market of craft beer has allowed for experimentation and expansion of beers. That does not however mean the a brewery would not need at least one or two staples that people could get year round and drink easily.

Customers will drink almost any style that they enjoy. Having an entire line up of sours/ barrel aged/ super hoppy/ etc , while IMO is awesome, does stop some customers from purchasing as they may not like that style. An example would be Lost Abbey, while know for their Belgian and sour style beers the recently made Merry Taj an IPA.

 

I still point to the ones I mentioned. None of them lean on IPAs, and most have never made one - and they are wildly successful. Breweries should have "staple" beers, but that beer can be a saison, pilsner, berlinerweiss, or another style that isnt usually associated with larger customer appeal.

Lost Abbey is a little different as they are also owned by Port Brewing who makes American styles - but to my point, they started with belgians/wilds and then branched.

 

Low abv, pale styles here in SoFL. Very few ppl want to drink thick stouts in this heat down here. Also, low abv styles have the best ROI and tend to turn over more quickly than higher alcohol styles that may need additional conditioning time.

 

Lager , IPA Stout. I voted wrong and hit enter too soon. =(

 

This really depends on your audience. If you're in an area with hardened beer geeks, you'd probably want to go big or go authentic with a particular niche.
However if you're in an area that might not be as seasoned, it's a huge risk not going with the old school amber/blonde/pale ales initially.
I said IPA, Imp Stout, and Pils as a compromise.

 

Hoppy IPA
Imperial Stout or 6% Stout (either one)
Wheat Beer

 

Pils, IPA, big Stout

 

Imperial stout, session IPA, lager/pilsner

 

Wheat
7.5% IPA
and 9% Stout

 

Hoppy IPA, Stout, and a Wheat Offering.

Wheat won't offend anyone and maybe pull in some non craft drinkers because they think Blue Moon is the BOMB!

IPA and Stout are no brainers.

 

Hoppy IPA
Imperial Stout
Berliner Weisse

 

you nailed it. Not 1 of the local micros here asked folks what type of beer they wanted before they opened. They make what THEY like to drink. If done well and the people are good and nice folks, most make it. ATM anyway.

meaning the wave is strong now, time will time.

it seems to me if you have a decent to great IPA your in biz....they dont get my biz, but I am a minority of those that dislike the hop bombs....MOST seem to love them..

judging by the poll numbers....of course most here are young also.