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girl friend doesn't like my Beer

plab

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ok so I've tried the lightest thing I could find in a true brew kit (german style light)
and its to strong for my lady. she's a bud drinker..  I know... I'm trying..  but even the light true brew kit wasn't "light" enough ..
anybody got a recipe for something real light ....
I know..... I should just go buy some bud light and  put it in one of my bottles :)

thanks plab
 
That would be no fun, i got the same problem the only thing she likes is my pumpkin ale but i only make it in the fall.And it aint light
 
Brews like Bud are actually very difficult to make.  Since with there is so little flavor, having anything the slightest bit out of balance will screw it up.  Unlike an IPA where there is so much flavor that being a little out of balance is hard to notice.

To come up with anything close to an American pilsner, you're going to need to go the all-grain route.  And even then, a heavier but similarly tasting version is as best as you can hope for. 

I'm not saying it's impossible.  My neighbor is a Bud drinker, but he's not averse to homebrew.  We compared one of my last pilseners to Bud, side by side, and it was fairly close.  It was heavier and stronger, but the balance and finish were similar.

As far as her liking your beer goes, don't despair. I'm happily married to a pretty lady who will politely taste my new brews, but I can't recall her ever having a whole glass.
I'd make her her whiskey, except that certain men with guns and the power to lock me in a cage happen to frown upon it.  So I go to the store instead.
 
My wife didn't like beer until she tried porter and stout.  She loved the mouthfeel and roast that these bring.  A good thick oatmeal stout is one of her favorites.  Maybe get her to try something like that, with not a lot of hop, and see what she thinks.  Oktoberfest or Belgian Strong Dark could be some other possibilities.  If that doesn't work, I have done a pilsner with lemon and lime zest in the secondary that bud drinkers seem to love.
 
  Replace the barley with 30% "rice solids", 30% "Corn Extract", 20% Dried Diaper Snot, stir and serve.  Works everytime.
 
Buy a 6 pack of Killian's Red (Coors Product) if she likes that, get a Irish Red kit from Midwest Supply and start making that for her. Then slowly progress to others.
My wife hated stouts when we met (Her first experience was an American made Guinness), I make an Irish Stout and she loves it and Porters too. 
 
  Last night my neighbor brought his son over for a variety tasting.  His son used to hate beer, until last night!  We started of with my Rasberry Octoberfest, then my last bottle of IPA  :'(, my Danish Lager, the 2xIPA, a Irish Stout and finished up with the Kitchen Sink Coffee Stout.  He had never tried anything other than Bud!  He decided the Raspberry was his favorite and had a few more!
  Do a taste testing of a variety of GOOD craft brews.  My wife still does not care for lagers or ales, but loves my Elderberry Mead!
 
Homebrewers date Bud drinkers?    ???
 
As stated earlier, unless you are all-grain it is very hard to approximate a light American style pilsner. In the past, I have brewed a 1.060 OG American lager and diluted the finished beer with distilled water to lighten it before I force carbonated in the kegs. Came out very clean and nice, but not something I would ever brew for myself on a regular basis.
 
This is a riot! My wife was the same way until I finally created something she liked ... which is usually anything less than 25 IBUs. Let's face it. When you grow up on Bud and Miller Lite, it's a bit of a shock to taste something that actually has flavor. When was the last time you saw a beer commercial that actually emphasized taste? Always a party scene. Ha!
 
LOL.....so true Mike!  I have seen a few craft brew commercials up here in the NW that are more aimed at the beer itself, but as a general rule you are so correct.
 
First, give up on making bud.  There are decades of refinements and hundreds of millions of dollars in technology to make that simple of a beer.  Plus, there is no reason to triple the cost trying to make a beer kinda like bud.  Just buy it.

I can't tell you the number of times I heard this same statement.  They THINK they only want bud because that is all they know.  I can tell you the last time, which was a weekend ago at our brew day.  A young 20's woman was asking which of the 30 or so beers to try.  she only likes coors or maybe stella.  I start her out with an alt beer which was just OK to her.  I worked my way through the list and when she tried the Mongo IPA, she lit up.  Turns out this light beer drinker loves hops.  Malty and really hoppy.  Luckily we had a great selection of IPA and Imperial IPA. 

My Point?  take your girlfriend through the styles with good examples of commercial beers.  Don't explain them to her, just let her try them. If she finds something she likes great, if not, it's not like your are married or anything.
 
My wife likes very little that I make.  She's a trooper and is willing try everything though.  She has learned that they change sometimes as they age, and asks if something I'm drinking has changed enough for her to give it another try.

I can't remember the last time she drank an entire glass of my homebrew.

We have learned a few things about her tastes from trying mine and going to tap houses and microbreweries.

She likes some wheat beers.  She likes brown ales, but they give her a headache.  She loves sours.  Thus, I'm staring to make sours now.  First one will be in the next weekend or two.
 
Styles that generally work as bridge beers:

1. Kolsch (must be fermented correctly, <62F).  A hot fermented Kolsch is not the same. 
2. Heffewiezen (maybe err more on the bannana side than the clove, fermented at 66F or so).
3. American Wheat
4. Witbier. 
5.  Fruit Lambics can be pretty easy drinking (NOT Llindeman's style...ugh).  The acidity and the fruit backbone can be very wine like. 

I've probably had the best luck with a well-made Kolsch.  I'm a fan of a touch of munich malt in the recipe.  At a few percent of the grist it adds just that "something" extra beyond the all-pilsner version. 

But, as Jomebrew said, I've had some really "odd" experiences with non-beer drinkers.  Styles that we generally think of as being "acquired tastes", sometimes just hit exactly the right spot.  So, you never know.  I've had the same "non-beer-drinker" who "only likes stella" light-up over both Kolsch and Pliny The Elder----go figure. 
 
A few comments now have been offering one of my suggestions:  try a variety of good craft beers to find alternatives to Bud.  The other is:  if her tastes stay similar to Bud, try Dortmunder Export, Munich Helles, Kolsch, or Classic American Pilsner.
 
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