If You Could Brew 10,000 Liters

[jimmyjack]

If you had the opportunity to brew a beer and put it on tap and wanted it to be a success, what would you brew. Would you brew a bold beer like an imperial IPA??

Cheers, JJ

 

[Zizzle]

Define success? Commercial success (ie. it sells well), or success as judged by your own taste buds, or success in a beer competition?

What makes IPA a bold beer? I'm sure a humble APA would be a bold beer to most Australian drinkers. But without knowing your criteria, I'd still say APA for me. IPA is a good choice though too.

 

[Batz]

Interesting question for Ross ATM

Batz

 

[jimmyjack]

define success? Commercial success (ie. it sells well), or success as judged by your own taste buds, or success in a beer competition?

All of the above with emphasis more on judged by your own taste buds.

Cheers, JJ

 

[Armstrong]

Personally, I don't know if I'd want 10, 000 "LITRES" of just one type of beer.

 

[sqyre]

Make any old crap mega-swill you like... just name it "Blow Job"...
It will sell millions soley on the basis that all the boys cant wait to get down to the Pub to say to the Barmaid...
"Give us a Blow Job" :lol:

Unfortunatly, if the Publican is a bloke then it wont sell much... unless your in the Wickham Hotel... :lol:

Sqyre.. h34r:

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Would have to be a RED ALE :icon_cheers:

 

[newguy]

To be commercially successful a brewery needs to have one beer that is similar to what beer drinkers are used to having, ie a pale lager of some sort. It can be pseudo-pilsner like or can even be a kolsch or a blonde ale. That pale lager or pseudo-lager will likely form the bulk of the sales. Then a dark beer, likely malt-accented, should be part of the regular lineup. Add a hoppy beer, likely an APA, for the hop fans. A fruit beer can be extremely popular, particularly with the ladies who are accustomed to drinking coolers. Round it out by offering seasonal specialties. A barleywine for the cold months, perhaps a bock/doppelbock, the odd spiced offering.

Every successful micro I'm aware of more or less follows this formula. There are a lot of microbreweries that brew fantastic beer but end up failing because they are too stubborn to brew the bland pale beer for the masses. You can brew the best IPA, lambic, weizen, etc, but unless you swallow your pride and brew according to your market's tastes you won't succeed. There simply aren't enough dedicated beer geeks to support a micro that brews only the "exotic" (to the mass market) styles of beer.

That said, I'd brew 10,000l of kolsch for sure. I brewed all the beer for my wedding (10 kegs) and the 3 kegs of kolsch that I made were the first to go, quickly followed by the 2 kegs of weizen. I think a Vienna would also sell very well in spite of the fact that most people would look at it and say it's too dark.

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Vanilla bourbon porter... 10,000 lt = about 5years consumpion, so the last couple of kegs would be very well aged..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmBEERmmmmm

:icon_drunk:

 

[dig]

Every successful micro I'm aware of more or less follows this formula.

Pretty good assessment. The two pale beers I brew account for the bulk of sales and I have to work hard to ensure they're tasty without the mainstream drinkers finding them too challenging. I even brew a mid... yetch. IPA and Robust Porter have their diehard fans, but the volumes are pretty small.

Sqyre is right about the branding aspect. I've always wanted to do a beer brand called 'Harden', like the town in NSW, that featured big, phallic tap handles of various colours. Beers would include Harden Red, Harden Black, Harden Pils (in Pfizer blue of course) and a stumpy little tartan tap handle for Harden Wee Heavy.

 

[devo]

I'd do pre-mixed shandys

 

[newguy]

Sqyre is right about the branding aspect. I've always wanted to do a beer brand called 'Harden', like the town in NSW, that featured big, phallic tap handles of various colours. Beers would include Harden Red, Harden Black, Harden Pils (in Pfizer blue of course) and a stumpy little tartan tap handle for Harden Wee Heavy.

The name I would like to use (but probably never will because I'm a big chicken) is Huge Whore. There used to be a sitcom called (I think) The Norm Show, in which the main character, Norm MacDonald, would often use the phrase 'huge whore.' The greatest profit would be made on t-shirts, caps, etc. 'When was the last time you had a Huge Whore?' 'You'd smile too if you just had a Huge Blonde Whore' 'I have a Huge Whore in my fridge' Maybe one day.

 

[winkle]

The name I would like to use (but probably never will because I'm a big chicken) is Huge Whore. There used to be a sitcom called (I think) The Norm Show, in which the main character, Norm MacDonald, would often use the phrase 'huge whore.' The greatest profit would be made on t-shirts, caps, etc. 'When was the last time you had a Huge Whore?' 'You'd smile too if you just had a Huge Blonde Whore' 'I have a Huge Whore in my fridge' Maybe one day.

"Big Fat Hooker" brewery would sue your arse

I'd go for a special bitter, - not too challanging for the swill drinkers but appreciated by beer geeks.

Edit: If you wanted to go the pale lager path I'd go with a hoppy CAP (the last thing anyone needs is another industrial lager)

 

[Jazzafish]

I recon a high hopped style lager for my tastes. Plenty of Munich/Vienna... some carared... and add evey hop that could fit in the citrus category in a few late additions.

Awesome.

But if you want something to sell... all you need is a pretty lable, fancy bottle, pretty girls+sporting celebrities+comedic slogans featuring in saturation marketing over all possible mediums, the word "premium" to earn extra coin and that is it.

Ohh, the beer.... 60% pilsner malt 40% cane sugar, Final gravity of 1005, 4% ABV, Tetra hop to 16 IBU's during filteration, and serve at temperatures below the taste threshold!

 

[HKS]

If I wanted it to be a commercial success, that's easy I would brew VB everywhere else except QLD. For QLD I would brew XXXX Gold.

 

[Finite]

Rum, oak aged porter

 

[bonj]

Nah, I'm reasonable.... I'm willing to negotiate royalties

 

[tangent]

10,000 is a bit much. I'm currently looking at 800L batches.

 

[Mercs Own]

I would do a Kolsch. In fact that is the style I am going to do when I release my next bottling....when....

 

[brendanos]

I'm sure if you asked me this question 10 times you'd get 10 different answers, but right now I think a Munich Helles with a firm Vienna flavour and bitterness in the high end, or a balls-out wheat beer along the lines of Gulpener's Korenwolf or the Andechser Hefetrb would be something I could get behind.

Has anyone mentioned Saison yet?