How To Introduce A Friend To Craft Beer

There’s something deep inside us all that makes us want to share the things we love. It’s why we convince people to watch our favourite movies, and tell them we know the best pizza place in town.

It’s also why, when a friend says, ‘I don’t like craft beer’, we can’t leave it alone. We take it as a challenge to find something they enjoy.

I’m a firm believer that there’s a beer for everyone. Beer has such a broad range of flavours and styles that there’s something to suit anyone’s taste. There are beers that taste like sweet mango and passionfruit, bitter grapefruit and pine needles, banana and bubblegum, chocolate and coffee, or sour citrus or tart berries.

With this spectrum of beer available, surely there’s a pathway in for everyone. So if your friend claims they only enjoy one brand of lager, or says they’ve never enjoyed any beer, how do you go about introducing them to something new? 

Step 1 - Build Up To Bitterness

Ten years ago, this was the most common way people came to love craft in Australia. As the craft beer movement picked up speed it brought an increase in hoppy flavours in beer, which meant an increase in bitterness. But bitterness is an acquired taste, so not many people go straight from drinking smashable lagers to punchy IPAs.

It starts with an easy drinking pale ale; something like Aether’s fruit-salady Pitstop Pale or Six String’s Tropical Pale Ale.

It moves onto a pale ale with a bit more punch; perhaps trying the pleasingly bitter Sunday Road Blackwoods Pale.

The next step is to try an easy drinking IPA that’s low in bitterness - something like Grassy Knoll’s Pacific IPA or Walcha Road IPA from Great Hops would do the trick - and before you know it, your friend isn’t put off by bitterness. They’re exploring all the nuanced flavours that hops have to offer, and their taste is forever changed. Now they’re hunting down Amanda Mandarin IPA by Yulli’s and Posso’s IPA from Bell’s Beach Brewing and keep crying for more, more, more! 

But this isn’t what everyone’s journey into craft beer looks like. Perhaps your friend needs to…

Step 2 - Embrace the Darkness

If your friend enjoys other intense flavours - they enjoy rum and whisky, they drink coffee like it’s going out of fashion, or they’ll eat a block of dark chocolate in one sitting - perhaps their way into craft beer is through dark beers. 

Dark Nebula from Interstellar Beverages lager uses the constellations to offer some coffee and nutty flavours while still being light and easy drinking. Dad & Dave’s Oak & Whiskey Porter is like a smooth chocolate bar in a glass. Or for a little more oomph, give your friend Urban Alley’s Fire In The Hole to seduce them with smoke, chocolate and dark fruits.

Still no luck? Then it’s time to turn to…

Step 3 - The Power of Sour

For some, sour beers are an acquired taste all of their own. But others - perhaps those who usually go for a cider or fruity wine - will take to fruited sour beers like a duck to water.

Sunshine Beach Mango Sour from Land & Sea captures all the sticky flavours of the Queensland icon while giving a tart touch, while Patsy Wildberry Sour from Blackman’s might suit if berries are more your friend’s thing.

Your friend is after more complexities and subtleties? Then it’s time to…

Step 4 - Take a Trip to Europe

They’ve been brewing in Europe for much longer than we have in Australia, so they’re obviously doing something right!

That’s why a sour red like Urban Alley’s The Rubinstein will bring the taste of southern Belgium and can win the hearts of Merlot drinkers, and a saison like the one by Quakers Hat will bring a perfume to bring white wine lovers on board.

Step 5 - Tastes Like Home

Is your friend a lager drinker who’s still claiming they don’t like craft beer? No problem. Put a familiar flavour into their hand - independent Australian brewers all over the country are making lovely lagers, from Hannan’s Lager by Mash Brewing out west to Golden Whistler Lager all the way out east at Lord Howe Island, and from Canecutter Lager from Hemingway’s up north to Southern Bay Lager from… well, you get the idea.

Step 6 - The Wild Card

And if all else fails, you can go all out and stick Exit’s Double IPA or Frexi’s Smokey Sour into your friend’s hand. Sometimes people need to be thrown in the deep end.