Opinions on beer styles

Given your emphasis on commercial viability and the specifics of your business model, anyone telling you not to carry some sort of IPA (even if it's a New England-style pseudo-IPA) is giving you bad advice. That said, you could utilize one of the guest taps for that purpose, although, since a good chunk of your customers only will want to drink your own product ("when in Rome"), I suggest you do make one yourself.

I'll note that the style variations I mentioned (NEIPA, pastry stout, and fruited kettle sour) are very widely produced, extraordinarily accessible to wide audiences, and definitely are not experimental or envelope-pushing anymore, but they have the marketing benefit of hipness and (falsely) appearing intriguingly experimental and envelope-pushing to the mainstream customers you seem to be seeking. I'm telling you, despite the common misconception of them as beers for beer geeks, these absolutely are beers for the masses, both in their taste and marketing potential.

Good luck!

 

Really good thread because it requires thought and not just a “what’s your fav style” response.

 

You will need a hop forward beer of some kind. Just make sure you have all of your recipes dialed in before you open your doors. In these saturated markets you won't have time to figure things out. You'll have an initial rush of customers drawn by the newness. You will need to impress them to retain their business.

 

I agree - you have to have IPA represented because there is a substantial demand/expectation. You need to read your market, not a poll on a worldwide forum such as this. I'd advise that you keep an open mind on styles, and not fall into the trap that some upstart breweries do; assuming that customers only want IPAs and sours. It's almost a given with some breweries - surprise, another new IPA, particularly when the brewery has an arsenal of them already.

Hit local and regional taprooms and see what's selling best around you. Then make sure those beers are in your arsenal, and once that's covered try a few styles that are not represented locally to see if there is any interest. One local upstart has done well here doing exactly that. I'm not a brewer, but I've been to breweries

 

I'd brew a scotch ale but I'd call it something else. Maybe a S(cotch)NEIPA. I'd name it Mad Fucking Angus's Hairy Red Scrotum but the artwork on the can would be so intricate that nobody would be able to read it. I'd give it a 'best by' date of 12/2019 but the ink would be smudged and it could stay on the shelf basically forever and only need to be dusted now and then.

 

*1 - Hoppy, Belgian Golden Strong (perhaps, with oak)
3 - Belgian Imperial Stout
4 - American Black IPA (of the Imperial nature)
5 - Belgian Abbey Single

*Rotate that with a Belgian Tripel.

All beers brewed with a huge focus on the use of whole-leaf hops.

 

The styles you make depend alot on your brewing abilities. I'm breaking the rules and going with 4 to represent 1 from each classically represented country:
American IPA (NEIPA preferred if you can make a good one)
Belgian Saison
English Bitter or Mild (serve it properly on cask for bonus points)
German Pilsner or a Helles Lager...if you want to avoid lager brewing, then go with a Kolsch.

1 standard classic beer from each of the 4 countries, all are very approachable for craft beer novices and geeks alike, different variety of flavors to enjoy at a great place to hang out.

 

Dark lagers for sure. A good schwarzbier or really any black lager is not common for most breweries. But when someone gets one right, boyyyy is it dangerous. And delicious.

Also agreeing 100% on a feasible ABV west coast ipa and gose, for the record

 

I'd do an ipa at 6-6.5%. Juicy and light, not really thick like some of the ne style beers. A barrel aged coffee stout around 8.5-9%, drinkable but with solid flavor. Third would be a fruited sour, not for me but the masses.

 

NEweizen

 

These are basically my thoughts:

1) Belgian Enkel (Patersbier/Table Beer)
2) Belgian Tripel
3) Belgian Quad

Almost nobody makes these types of beers and less than that make them well. It'll set you apart.

 

I’m curious about this one. What would the grain and hops bill look like? And would it use the Bavarian yeast strain?

 

What styles do you think you brew the best that are not too crazy in abv, ie somewhat accessible. That would be my advice. Good beer is good beer.

 

1. Very drinkable Pilsner.
2. Coffee Stout but with a lower ABV.
3. A solid ESB.

Cheers

 

It would definitely set them apart. Not sure that it would bring a bunch of people in to realize that they were so set apart though.

If you are trying to operate in a retail environment, you are going to get a wide variety of beer drinkers in there. I think an ipa, stout, something sour and a rotating tap in addition to a few guest taps would cover most of the folks that you'll have coming through the doors. It doesn't really sound like you want to be niche beer bar so you've got to work to please many different pallets

 

If you can sell other people's beers, why not put a stamp on what you're doing instead of just doing what everyone else is?