I'm talking about your friends who do not care about beer and reach for a BMC almost every time. I have seen a lot of people drinking Green Zebra by Founders this Summer and posting about it on Facebook. I've gotten a few messages from people asking me for similar beers. I guess the gose is an accessible style?
I have two good buddies that will drink IPA's, DIPA's, sours, big stouts etc...they'll go beer for beer with me and they comment on beers they really like. But if it's just the two of them? They'll choose Coors Light every time. I don't get it.
Sure was for my wife. She is way into goses, browns, and sours. But she is a recovering white wine drinker, so two of those styles make sense. On a side note, this year's Green Zebra is a little more sweet and balanced than 2017's. I am fairly sure they tweaked the recipe.
I've honestly never tried GZ. I don't know why because I'm a gose fan. I just prefer Victory Kirsch as my go to.
Worth a try for sure. The watermelon works in that beer in my opinion. Like a said, it's a little sweeter this year, but you won't know the difference.
Not sure why this thread reminds me of this, but I live out in the country and I jog on the side of the roads. I used to see just BMC bottles discarded along my route. Now I see Lagunitas and Flying Dog and stuff like that. Waiting to see a KBS or BCBS or something. That'd be a trip.
I could be wrong, but I really do not ever see your every day beer drinker reaching for a huge barrel aged Imperial Stout. I think they will try IPA's out of the novelty of them, but a stout/quad is way too much for just a casual tasting.
A lot of my Macro drinking friends like the hazy, New England Juice bomb IPA's. Probably because they're like juice lol. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the hell out of those too, but I see those as a reason why more and more people are getting into "craft". For example, last year my buddy had a mixed case of Other Half beers, and all my budlight/heinken light drinking friends loved the Other Half IPA's. At first I was shocked, then realized it's cause there is barely any bitterness whatsoever.
I work in a college town and take a morning walk every day. There is a campus and student housing all around the office. The "craziest" bottle I have seen was a bottle of Sierra Nevada. The dilly dilly is big, as well as Michelob Ultra. I see tons of that. The college kids love that stuff.
I see the standard crap on my walking route through ODU on the weekends, and occasionally I'll see local brew discards like O Connor and Smartmouth and smile. Then I realize its all litter and get pissed off again. Once I came across a Bruery bottle (8 Maids a Milking I think) and I seriously wanted to knock on his/her door and ask to be friends.
My trivia mates will try something other than Coors Light when there's a mini tour going on at the Old Chicago AND the prize is something that they'd care to acquire. Only then. Unless I order something and say "man, that's good". They might give it a shot then. Funny ...Casper was out of draught Coors Light for over a week! Scramble scramble, take that gamble!! Oh, what I've seen them drink?(try) New Belgium Bicycle Kick, Upslope Craft Lager, Sam '76.
It's either that or they'll start with a Boston Lager or a porter or something like that, and then say it's too "heavy" to keep drinking all night, before switching to something 'lite'.
I got bmc drinking coworker to drink whatever I was drinking on a work trip. Now since he's been back he won't get off the Melvin 2x4 and rotating ipas. It's nice to see people find love.
I find many non-craft drinkers really like Victory Golden Monkey. This being Pennsylvania, there's a lot of Yuengling about, which is craft according to the Brewer's Association, if you ascribe to their definition... I think this is fairly common. I have a buddy who stocks his fridge with lots of great IPAs, stouts, and Miller Lite. He usually starts an evening with a few craft beers, then switches to Miller Lite. Sometimes it's just Miller Lite depending the company or his mood. The average person doesn't care enough to be dedicated to craft beer like people on this forum, but they can still enjoy craft beer from time to time.
I have a friend who is a big bud lite drinker, he helped demo my in laws place after the Harvey flood so we gave him a beer club membership. I have been gradually breaking him in, but he is always down for a good pilsner. When it comes to IPA's he isn't quite there for the west coast style. What he will drink is Sumpin Easy, he loves that beer. He will also drink his weight in Shiners Sea Salt and Lime.
I run along one of the roads that goes to the dump and there's a bunch of misc crap but mostly all are high gravity 32oz cans, weird flavored bud-a-ritas and repulsive stuff like that. This is a pretty rural area... The people that say Guiness is to heavy crack me up!
The majority of people on the planet always associated dark beer as being high ABV/heavy. Edjucate them!
Founders has seemed to make its way into mainstream beer consumption due to the affordable 15 packs, I would assume
Yeah, I'd say solid gold is probably a big one for converting lite beer drinkers. People I know that tried craft and like it usually try lighter, fruity ipas. (NE style or not) My dad tried Black butte xxix and liked it, but he still drinks bud lite. Probably just an anomaly there.
My brother-in-law goes through 36 packs of Natty Light like it's water. However, when I visit we go to the local brewery and he fills a growler with their IPA.
On vacation in Charlotte, I gave my non craft drinking buddy a Citrus Jammer and he liked it so well he went out the next day and got his own sixpack. Gose, when not overly tart, are a good choice for the hot summer months. They're not bitter, there fairly light in body, and the extra salinity is good for those days when your sweating by the pool or in your backyard.
I have to fight them to pay. I'm fortunate to have generous friends. On the suggestion that they're humoring me, I'm definitely not that cool.
Around me, it’s gotta be Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold. It’s been around here for 30 years, and it’s pretty much a standard. Even in your sketchiest spots, you’ll have your 3 or so BMC handles, then there’s a 90% chance Dortmunder will always take one of the taps. If not draft, they’ve got bottles of it. A lotta devoted fans out there for it.
I think you just explained why BMC drinkers prefer those beers, because they're basically water with a little alcohol and beer flavored chemicals tossed in. It's more about thirst than flavor.
Most of the the macro beer fans I know who drink usually enjoy Blue Moon thinking it’s real craft, but they also seem to wax poetic about Sam Adams. The closest thing to craft they enjoy consistently is Harpoon.
I'm not talking about Solid Gold. That one hasn't really resonated, from my observations here in NY. I am talking about All Day being absolutely EVERYWHERE. I also do not believe that Solid Gold is a good gateway beer for "non-craft" beer drinkers. Founders ha simply lowered their standards, IMO. This very much differs from my initial response to that beer, which was positive - but having them since, and trying them side by side with Budweiser and Miller, I don't really see an added value.
That's a fair assessment. I don't drink much lager, I assumed solid gold was doing well because I see it in a lot of stores. I do see all day on more tap handles though (and probably more stores) I prefer all day of the two by far.
Oktoberfests are my favorite style after IPA's and Stouts. They're so tasty and easy to drink, and they go perfect with football IMO.
Actually, I have seen Heady Topper pop up quite a bit among crowds of people you would otherwise expect to drink Stella/Blue Moon etc.
Also I once found an empty Lawson's sip of sunshine (and this was two or three years ago) in a port a potty at an NFL game. To answer the op question endless leinenkugel summer shandy. We had a huge party last summer and my wife insisted we get a keg and I fought her on it but eventually relented (surprising, I know). It kicked astonishingly quickly.
