Novice craft beer drinking progression...

So my SWMBO drinks coors light and always has, i recently got into hombrewing and love it...She's excited for me but the 2 brews I've made have been a bit harsh for her tastes (nut brow ale and irish stout). She's always up to sample the craft brews that I drink when out or what I bring home from the store, but I usually bring home darker ales and lagers and she's not much of a fan. As a big fan of wine as well, I know there's typically a pathway you would put a virgin wine drinker on to help them enjoy wines (sweet whites first and gradually moving dryer whites, then sweeter reds to dryer, more tannic reds).

My question is there a pathway I can put her on with beer. One that I can both brew and buy to help her eventually get to enjoying some of the bolder beers??

I've been looking for craft brews the wife will drink. She is also a Miller Lite drunker who enjoys wine. I brought home a six of New Belgium Abbey style Dubbel and she liked it. Not my thing, but it was a start.

My SWMBO is now as much of a fan of craft beer as I am, which is great. And surprising!

I got her started on wheat beers and things (she always liked Hoegaarden for example), then got her to try a Saison and so on, now she tends to go for pretty much whatever I'm drinking except hand pull bitters in the pub (says they taste like drip tray).

The problem will come when she starts drinking all my homebrew when I'm not there...

Lagunitas Czech Pils is a great entry beer for BMC fans.

A cream ale might be one to brew that she'd like. Or a light colored hybrid lager. I'm still tweaking both my light & dark versions,but the WL029 German ale/kolsh yeast on the last 2 batches looks promissing.
Or one of the lighter offerings in the recipe section,like cream of three crops.

I'd say a Blonde, a Kolsch, or a Cream Ale would work. Why don't you buy a few commercial versions to see what she prefers, then try to make one.

After that I'd go Oatmeal, Milk, or Sweet Stout. The Chocolate and Coffee flavors are usually a big hit for most people. That'll get her to the 'dark side'.

Oh yeah! For me,especially is the Left Hand Brewing's Nitro Stout. It tastes like their Milk Stout with more chocolate malt. Smooth & tasty,not roasty bitter like regular stouts. Or my recipe for a dark ale I called Moonwind in my recipes. You leave out the oaking/bourbon part,& it tastes like a dark cream ale.

How about starting one one of the lighter (in color) belgian styles? Something like a blonde? Maybe a Wit? In fact, any wheat beer could be a good start.

Start her on a lighter colored beer. I know, I know, color means diddly... but darker beer scares BMC drinkers.

Revvy's Belgian Blonde is a superb beer - light in color, has some sweetness to it, a little fruitiness thanks to the Belgian yeast, but is very drinkable. Downright delicious beer, makes a great gateway.

The linked recipe is all grain, but I've done a partial mash, if you'd like it.

Try a Cal Common, I made an extract batch to share with family, made it with ultralight LME and did a late addition (1/2 of it at flameout) it looks like a BMC but tastes 1000X better.....

Blondes, Hefes and Pilsners would be my suggestion to start out with then slip in an Amber or a lighter brown...once she gets there it won't be long for porters and stouts or even IPAs which may take a bit to appreciate. After you have covered the basics she will easily be convinced to try and appreciate more "exotic" styles.

Make hard cider with plenty of back sweetening to start. After that move into the low hopped varieties; hefes are always a good starter. Porters are good way to go as well but stick with the lighter hopped varieties. After that you can open up her taste. My wife will drink hefes and Guiness but hates IPAs and any overhopped variety.

My wif always drank Michelob Ultra until we went down and visited Tallgrass brewery. Somehow she really enjoys Buffalo Sweat and Pub Ale from them.


I call that a win!

Also, I have no idea how she jumped from Mich Ultra to those.....I do have her try everything I drink/brew so I must be converting her....lol

Not sure why everyone wants to try to force their wives to drink what they drink. You'll save yourself a lot of heartache and arguments if you just respect each others preferences and not try to change them.

If your wife actually wants to get into craft beer for her own enjoyment, then the progression would go like any other novel experience - most familiar to least familiar. eg if she is used to light lagers, a light and low hop ale is pretty similar.

Find a bar with a good selection of Belgians on draft, get a flight. If someone likes wine, they almost always enjoy belgians.

Also if they're really into Miller or Coors you could start them on a Bavarian Pilsner, it will be more of an assault to their palate cause there's no rice or corn to dry it up and make it cheap and "light" but it has the same basic notes, light, clean, slightly bitter, etc.

From my experience with women, a lot of the ones who claim to not like beers will go for Blue Moon or a Hefeweizen. Or if they're really into fruits and esters, Lambics, lots of people I know who're not that into beer love So a light belgian or german is usually a great starting point.

Can't vouch for it it's available in your area, but can't go wrong with Allagash White and Victory Prima Pils.

And honestly, everyone's beer journey is different. I think the reason many people say to start people off light than build up has to do with their drinking pasts.

What I did with my gf on our second date was went to a beer bar and they have 14 taps so we got 2 flights covering all their beers. Some we both didn't like (Ephemere!!!) some she didn't like (stouts and I think there was a Witbier) and some she loved (APAs, IPAs, etc.)