I figure that as many of us here enjoy good flavors, regardless of what medium they are delivered to us, this is where I should bring this up.
My wife and I get invited to a friends house every once in a while to have a few beers and some food. There is only beer since he doesn’t like anything else (so please no wine or whisky, or whiskey suggestions). I enjoy beer. I enjoy beer a lot. Problem is that he only drinks coors light usually, and gourmet beer for special occasions is Stella Artois. If this were for financial reasons, I would never bring this up, but it is not. I think it is about time I intervene and bring some half decent beer that I can enjoy at the same time. Only problem is I don’t even remember the last time I enjoyed coors light (probably the last time I played beer pong) so I also don’t remember what got me away from college beers. What would be a safe beer, that would introduce him to actually well-made beer without blowing up his palate. So preferably no IPAs or Pale Ales yet.
Bring and drink your beer and let him drink his. unless he has some weirdism where you can’t bring anything to his house, people bring beer all the time to get togethers regardless of size. I do it exactly for the same reason as you. Buddy is a beer dummy and i want to have something decent to drink. Also because you never know when the host may run out so better to cover yourself. Then leave the balance of the sixxer if there is any. maybe he’ll try it and start taking a broader look at the expansive world of craft beer.
Don’t know if it is available in your area, but Scrimshaw (pilsner) by North Coast Brewing Co. is a good bet - I enjoy Coors Light often in the hot summer months.
Maybe find a place that fills growlers from good beers on tap, things you can’t even find in bottles. Boddington’s is one possibility, maybe Bass, but you can find that in bottles.
Lots of good craft pilsners out there. That’s the key to getting someone to broaden his horizons: tie it in to something he already knows, in which he has a frame of reference.
(Of course, whiskey is just distilled beer, so you could go that direction as well!)
I reckon you can play it safe with something like a Samuel Adams, Brooklyn lager or maybe a Sixpoint Crisp or go for something a bit different. The Pilsner Urquell isn’t a bad suggestion.
You could go something a bit darker like a brown ale, that tend not to be too hoppy.
Or you could go something a bit more adventurous with a completely different flavour profile, but still without the hops. I’m thinking Belgian here… Rodenbach Grand Cru, Chimay Blue or some of the Krieks or Framboise. Maybe a Leffe blond if you want to keep it a bit lighter.
When I am in this situation, I normally grab a mix of different stuff and make em try a few different things.
This. If Stella is a special occasion beer European lagers/pilsner’s are a natural progression. Weihenstephaner has a great lineup and is claimed to be the oldest brewery in the word. Korbinian is my favorite doppelbock and I enjoy a couple each week.
My experience with the Coors Light crowd is they don’t want any part of the craft beer scene. You’ll hear words like hipster, and fru fru. That’s their bad. I always just bring my own and offer it to anyone to try.
Agree with the previous comments. Don’t try to convert him. He likes his crappy watery beer. Bring what you’d like. If he takes you up on your sharing, great. If not, that’s fine too.
Ended up bring about 12 bottles mixed, of Weihenstephaner, Brooklyn Summer ale, Saranac Pale Ale (timid introduction to hops) and a couple Allagash Whites.
He was surprised and enjoyed all except for the Saranc Pale. Said it was too bitter for him. I guess IPAs will not be in the near future. It was fun to have him try the Allagash white then have him try the Coors light and see that he couldn’t even taste the coors anymore. It was the Ah, Flavor moment.