Transition to Craft

Highland Gaelic Ale, Bells Amber Ale, Victory Prima Pils and Foothills Torch Pilsner are what I tell people are gateway craft beers...Sam Adams and their seasonal varieties also work well

 

Seems like brown and amber ales have always been "drinkable" for my BMC friends, some are even full blown craft beer drinkers now.

 

Have them try Bells Two Hearted Ale. It's my go to for new craft drinkers and was my "gateway" beer

 

I find that hefeweizens and witbiers go over well with people who don't normally drink craft beer

 

I've had some luck with non-craft drinkers when giving them Sixpoint The Crisp and Oskar Blues Mamas Little Yella Pils. They are pretty light and easy to drink when you aren't used to beer with flavor.

Maybe a good discussion thread would be converting people to craft success stories. I haven't been able to get anyone to change teams, but there must be some good stories out there.

 

AAL drinkers have varied taste just like we do. There have been many good beers given in this thread that they might like. I thought a nice hefe would be good too. It went over like a big banana balloon. My one brother in law that hates bitter dark beer somehow loves Old Chubb. Go figure.

 

Best gateway beers for BMC drinkers -

Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Samuel Adams Cream Stout

Brooklyn Lager

Brooklyn Brown Ale

Anchor California Lager

Anchor Steam Beer

for the most part, I would stick to craft lagers. They're used to drinking lagers... stick with it.

 

Love Child Number 2 did it to me.

 

Guinness was my 'marijuana' beer into craft. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale played a role as well.

 

I'm with yemenmocha. I have no desire to proselytize. I'll give you a coupla ounces to try my weird beer, just in case you don't like it and wanna spew. Or even worse, drainpour it. I can't really afford to waste expensive beer.

 

I've never heard this expression before and for a second thought "big banana balloon" was the name of a beer. Haha

 

Picking beers for not-as-yet craft beer drinkers seems like the hard way to go about introducing friends to craft. Ever good beer bar I've ever been to will let customers have a taste before they buy... when you tell your average BMC drinkers they can sample before they buy, all they'll hear is, "free beer." Pick a bar with plenty of taps and a good crowd, and it can become an adventure. One of the great features of craft beer is the endless variety.

 

The banana was a poor attempt at humor referring to the banana flavor of the Hefeweisen. Probably would have worked better as "lead banana".

 

I had some friends who don't drink much craft beer get together this past Friday. One gal who said she likes stouts didnt believe me when I said there were some heavier stouts than Guinness. I opened a New Holland Dragons Milk and she was impressed with the flavors. Several others tried it and liked it as well. Sharing some good things without overwhelming them is a good place to start. As mentioned earlier, encouraging them to try a one oz sample at the local bar is also a good way to explore.

 

I think it varies from person to person, which you can see by reading this thread and similar ones. Some people say they try an IPA or pale ale and love it from the start, but I was on the other end of the spectrum. IPAs and Pale Ales were too much flavor for me. When I first started trying to get into craft beer I would buy random mixed six packs, several of them would get poured. I remember liking Vanilla Java Porter from Atwater, I liked the coffee flavor. Basically I just kept getting all kinds of beers and trying them. Most of them I wouldn't like, but eventually I would find myself craving different flavors. I think for me, trying lots of different styles helped develop my palette. I didn't like a lot of the beers at the time, but love them now.

 

Not sure why, but a lot of people i know that only dabble in craft beer seem to think this is the best thing since sliced pizza:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2137/27800/

 

This can get tricky because a lot of people will think you should jump into the hoppy end of the pool and your people will very likely be turned off by that kind of experience, or need to be guided in.
I'm personally leary of beer proselytization.
Brown Ales, ESB's Cos they not about in your face drinking like beers that demand to be called things like Arrogant, or have skulls, juvenile drawings and 3 eyed cats and so forth.
Lagers, cos good beer producers are learning to do these quite well.
Porters, cos some people just don't like big amounts of hop bitterness and it actually gives them a headache.
Dessert beers, i.e. extreme and mostly dark beers with other ingredients like spices, cacao, vanilla etc. The "novelty" (of holy shit they can do this with beer?) factor in these beers when well produced are another gateway.
I remember at one time my first love in good beer was Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, and after developing my palate more. I found it to be dreck, and haven't touched it in eons.

 

Here's some widely available brews that I have seen BMC drinkers take a shit too:

Brooklyn lager
Alagash White
Anchor Steam
21st American Bitter American
Long Trail Ale

 

I just drank what there was all around me . Good beer from small local breweries. Luckily the dreaded keg beers hardly reached us.It's apparently called "craft" beer nowadays though I'm far from convinced that "craft" means anything.

 

While I love IPAs I feel the hops can be off-putting to most uninitiated. Stick with something malty like a bock or yeasty like a witbier. Usually sweeter beers are easier for BMC drinkers to get into from my experiences.
Lagers are approachable but I think it might be playing it a little too safe. Just my opinion.