4 Flagship Must Haves Beer Styles in Breweries:
These are the opinions of The Beerded Brotha. This is not necessarily true but something to have a healthy discourse and pint over.
There are so many breweries and brews in the world but so little time to drink them all. How do you know where to go to have a good beer?!
Don’t worry, I will tell you my opinion! Outside of the obvious need to have good quality beer brewed, I think there are certain styles that can be indicators that you are in a good brewery who appreciates the art of beer.
These are the beer styles I believe to be important to have in a brewery.
Lagers
They are sweet, crisp, and easy to drink. There usually isn’t any frills to this style of beer which makes it even more important for breweries to have on tap at all times. It’s an old faithful that gets the job done every time. They are great year round with the roasty dark lagers like “Trip to Mars” from East Nashville Beer Works to the more vibrant lagers like The Vienna Lager from Nashville Brewing. Also, what I mean from vibrant is more sweet than roasty. Having a version of lager is essential to have on tap because this means you like tradition and high quality brews.
Stouts
Either you make them for dessert or you want to get people lit, even sometimes both. This style, to me, brings people from the casual sippers to the snobs out in the winter. You can do so many different things with this style. You can keep it as traditional with roasted dark chocolate notes Like “Navel Gazer” from New Heights, Coffee forward like “Mille” From Living Waters, sugar bombs like most Square One releases from Southern Grist, or the Barrel Aged monsters like “Big Pepe” for Yazoo. Either way, I think it’s important to have this style available because it warms you up in the winter and you can do so many different series with the base style that can attract anyone to the taproom.
IPAs
Everybody thinks I don’t like IPAs but that’s not the case….completely. I respect the hell out them and I even enjoy a couple of them from time to time depending on how the sun hits my head that day. I think this style has just as deep of a range as stouts from the hoppiest west coast to the cloudiest hazies and even wild milkshake IPAs. A traditional hop burner like Bearded Iris’s “Homestyle” pairs perfectly with a day party with its clean crisp finish. A hazy like Yazoo’s “Hopry” can make that jump in the pool that much more purifying. I am still working to enjoy Milkshake IPAs. Give me a minute!
Wheat Beer
To me, this style is how you can get newbies to become a fan of beer and your brewery. The light crispiness can be left with biscuity notes that can be accompanied with a fruit like raspberry or mango. I like to use these as examples for describing good beer versus those commercial beers. If these commercial beers gave a damn then they could make beer like these wheat beers from breweries. They could make something like “Love Bird” from Jackalope Brewery or my personal favorite “Opentable Hibiscus Blonde” from Harding house. These light biscuity beers that are sometimes fruited can really help open doors to new beer drinkers or beer drinkers that have deprived themselves of true happiness.
What beers do you think breweries must have? Let me know in the comments!