A review of my beers by a non-craft drinker

[Kealia]

This should be interesting. My mother sent me a note a few weeks ago saying that my uncle has started going to local breweries to sample beers. She mentioned that I brewed so he mentioned in passing that he'd like to taste some of my beer at some point. So, being a good nephew I boxed up 4 beers and sent them off to him with a description of each explaining what to expect when he drank them.

I sent him:
- Mosaic Pale Ale
- Levitation clone (amber, session)
- Fresh Squeezed IPA clone
- Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale

Last night I got a nice email from him thanking me for the wonderful surprise and that he had read my write up and was looking forward to trying them. He said he'd let me know his thoughts when he got to them and then said that he normally drank Corona and would use that as a basis for comparison. I'm not here to bash on Corona because I drank more than my fair share of them in college, but I *thought* I recalled that he drank Red Hook ESB normally. I guess I was wrong and that he's in for a surprise here.

In any case, I thought it would be interesting to see how he reacts to these and as I get any feedback I'll post it here. I gave him the requisite, "Don't worry about not liking them because there are so many styles, I brew to my own tastes...blah blah blah" so I'm hoping he doesn't just give me a blanket "they were good" response but really let's me know what he tasted and if he likes them or not.

[Inkleg]

That's pretty cool Ron. I'm sure he will enjoy them. Here's hoping that he does give you more than the "they were good" response.

That was one of the reasons I started entering competitions.
Me: How's that beer?
My friends: It's good.
Me: Why?
My friends: It just is.
Me:

On a sharing beer note.
My wife has "slightly" gotten into photography.
She was on the phone last week with someone she's never met who was helping clean up her computer photography wise. I could tell by her tone that he had found the problem and really helped her. I slipped her a note reading "what beer does he drink", she knew what this meant.

She got a thank you email from him tonight.
Eric received
Sue Smoked Porter
Negro Model clone
Octoberfest
4 Kilts Clueless Belgian Strong and
Big Fuzzy RIS
I hope he enjoys them.

[Kealia]

Eric received
Sue Smoked Porter

So you don't like this guy? I know that's a solid beer based on Swen's review and how much you guys raved about it. That's cool, too.

I think my uncle is a wine drinker, too. If that's the case I'm hoping his palette transfers over to beer.

[Inkleg]

Eric received
Sue Smoked Porter

So you don't like this guy?

Eric said he like the darker beers. So naturally I like him already.

My normal question for first time visitors to Naked Cat Brewery are "If I opened the fridge at your house. What beer would I find?". That gives me the information I need on what beer to pour them.

[Inkleg]

Love the new avatar btw. That's a goober looking dog if I've ever seen one.

[BigPapaG]

My normal question for first time visitors to Naked Cat Brewery are "If I opened the fridge at your house. What beer would I find?". That gives me the information I need on what beer to pour them.

I like to start with that approach as well... And generally have something that will suffice, albeit a notch or two up usually, yet still to their liking.

However, I also like to pull a Monty Python on 'em after the first one or two...

You know, 'And now for something completely different...'

Sometimes with good results... Sometimes ehhh... Not so much.

[BlackDuck]

Really cool. My neighbor used to be a Coors lite guy. After tasting a few of mine last year, he's been converted. Now he likes Ranger IPA, Fresh Squeezed IPA and a few others. So you never know, even if he's a BMC fan now, your beers may open up a new world of beer for him.


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[John Sand]

You never can tell. I would generally try a pale or blonde ale on a non craft drinker. Yet my biggest hits have been Irish Red, Christmas Red, Belgian Strong and Pumpkin Ale.

[The_Professor]

Gotta get some feedback.

I have a few people that I will give samples of my home brew to and they all have different tastes. I find reactions/comments about various brews interesting.

I was quite surprised when I handed out a Roggenbier that everyone thought it was wonderful. I was disappointed when a Rachbier w/jalapeno that I thought turned out really nice (milder than a Schlenkerla) got thumbs down from almost everyone with many pouring it out.

One taster shocked me by telling me my beer was as good as a Budweiser. What he meant was that it did not have any "off flavors" so it was as good as a "commercial beer". In other words, he liked it.

That same taster brought me a bottle of Negra Modelo saying how much he liked it and that I should brew a batch of it. I did, but it was more my take on that sort of beer than a clone. Everyone that tried it thought it was great.

I've always found feedback to be interesting.

[Kealia]

While not lengthy, the first two reviews are in from my uncle....

Sons of Sauvin Pale Ale:
"The Sons of Sauvin Ale was very mild, fruity, cloudy with a watered down bitter taste. Drinkable but not to my liking"

First off, I love the honesty that it wasn't to his liking. That lets me know he isn't going to blow smoke up my ass. I agree with it being mild, fruity and cloudy (I swear no beer I brew with NS ever clears), but I don't get the "watered down bitter taste" part. Again, he's a Corona drinker so I wouldn't expect anything to taste watered down in comparison. That's not a knock against Corona, mind you. Just relatively speaking I'd be hard pressed to call anything except a Coors Light watered down. But, it's interesting to see how he perceived it.

Arrogant Amber (Levitation clone):
"The Arrogant Amber was good, very likeable but had a bitter aftertaste. Not bad though. I would prefer it to the first one."
I did kick up the bitterness just a tad from the last batch to suit my taste more. I'm not surprised that he found it bitter in comparison to his normal beer. He's just getting interested in craft beer (and was never one to talk too much) so hopefully this is fun for him and exposes him to a few styles as well.

I wonder if the Fresh Squeezed clone is going to be too bitter, too. I don't find that one bitter at all but I've had the lupulin shift so I'm sure we taste things differently.

More to come as he gets to the other two.

[The_Professor]

...watered down bitter taste...

I had a couple bottles of Stone IPA in my fridge when I got home from the hospital. After about a week I decided to have a Stone IPA with dinner. I didn't finish it because it tasted watered down and bitter. Don't know why, but it did.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I've found people's taste in beer to be all over the map. My sister in law likes Guinness Stout, she says it's a 'heavy' beer. Turns out she also likes to drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it too. Her brother told me he only likes light beer, turns out he meant 'light' in color only, go figure. Another relative can't handle any type of IPA, at all. And then there's my other brother in laws who like every beer style I've ever had with them. Maybe that's why breweries offer soo many styles of beer, like the actor said, you never know what you're gonna get.

[FedoraDave]

Love the new avatar btw. That's a goober looking dog if I've ever seen one.

So says the guy whose avatar is a naked cat sitting on a kitchen counter licking its butt.

[FedoraDave]

I agree totally with Vince. So many peoples' tastes vary so widely, even among more sophisticated beer drinkers. My brother, for instance, knows quality beer, but he also knows he just doesn't like highly-hopped beers. And naturally, that's going to shift his perception of any beer he samples. What may not be hoppy enough for me may be too bitter for him. The important thing is being able to recognize a quality beer, or a good example of a certain beer style, even if it's not to your personal liking, taste-wise.

As far as getting feedback from non-craft beer drinkers (or beer drinkers who limit their consumption basically to one beer or one style), it's important to take their lack of range into consideration. One of the beers I brewed for my daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner was a saison. After the event, one of the guests came up to me and complimented the saison, telling me his favorite beer was Blue Moon, and my saison reminded him of that. Nothing against Blue Moon, but some homebrewers might have taken it as a left-handed compliment and been offended. But I figured that, stylistically, the two weren't all that different, and my recipe calls for wheat extract and coriander seed to lend a citrus note. So, in comparing the two, he may not have been too far wrong. And he was comparing it favorable to what he knew.

Keep us updated on the rest of the reviews.

[Beer-lord]

Well, what have we here? Something very, very delicious. When I opened the bottle, the aroma was so good, Charlie's nose started his sniffing. While the head lasted thru the beer, the aroma did wane a bit.
I'm not too familiar with Nelson Sauvin but I have a lb waiting for me to do something with it. The nose was fruity and much like some type of grape after awhile. It did not pour perfectly clear but do I care? Nope!
It was bittered perfectly so that it did not get in the way of the flavor. I've rarely used Magnum or Warrior for bittering but understand that they don't impart too much flavor but give the beer a small zing that I like. Not sure what the recipe is and this is not a complaint but this beer is not complicated, just tasty. It doesn't fool you but gives you (me) what you (me) want. One might think this is not a pale but a mild IPA and that is a compliment in my book.
To your uncles critique, I did not get a 'watery' taste from this beer at all. Not even close. Bitter? Certainly not overly bitter and if I had to be critical at all, maybe it lingered just a tad to long and if the bittering hops were reduced slightly, maybe more flavor would have come out though I can't say I'd change anything except for making more of this beer.
Thanks again for sharing this.