Help! No One Likes Beer!

I don’t mean no one likes YOUR beer.  What do you do when most of your family/friends aren’t beer drinkers?

Besides the obvious “get new family/friends” answer, you could also try brainwashing.  But, in seriousness, there actually are compromises that will allow you to keep brewing and please the masses.

Maybe you just brew for yourself and don’t care if others like what you make.  Personally, I enjoy brewing so much that I tend to have more beer around than any one person should drink.  My options are to stop brewing as much (no way!) or give it away.  Surprisingly, I’ve found beer isn’t so easy to give away.  Who knew??  My family leans more toward wine, some friends prefer hard liquor or mixed drinks, some are devout Bud/Miller/Coors drinkers, etc.

Know  your audience

Start by finding out what people like to drink and what they are willing to drink.  For example, my sister really dislikes beer.  Aside from wine, she likes hard cider and mixed drinks.  But she is willing to drink Blue Moon.  I’ve attempted some Blue Moon clone recipes and she has actually asked me to brew more.  My next step is to segue that small victory for beer into other recipes that she might enjoy, like another citrus or apple-flavored ale.  I’ll convert her yet!

Another example are the hard lemonade drinkers in my family.  No, it’s not as awesome as brewing beer, but I still had fun putting together a batch of “Skeeter Pee” that I split into smaller batches and added different flavors.  FYI, the blueberry flavoring turned out disgusting.  It does not work with lemonade (I think lemonade is to acidic for it?).  That’s the first and only “brew” I’ve dumped and it was painful to do.  If anyone has had success mixing blueberry with lemonade, please let me know.  The cherry lemonade was good enough that even I liked it.

I’m branching out a little further by doing some wine batches.  I’m trying out a wine cooler in August that should go over really well.  The most requested beverage I’ve made so far has been Apfelwein (German style apple wine); even my beer drinking friends like it.  I know I can give away wine.  If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.