Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

The 7 Best Beers for People Who Don’t Like Beer

Moody Tongue Beers
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The advent of hard seltzers has not helped craft beer lovers convince their friends who say they don’t like beer that there’s still some real beer out there they’ll enjoy. That’s why most big name domestic breweries have taken the “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach and produced their own fruity, spicy water.

Yet those who champion beer should not stop fighting the good fight. For plenty of people, beer still means the watery industrial lagers so many of us guzzled down in college. For those who don’t like beer in the classic American commoditized sense, a citrusy IPA, a coffee-like stout, or a nutty brown ale is all it takes for an ah-ha! moment. There are plenty out there, however, who find even those beers too unpalatable and have sworn off beer forever.

Related Reading:

BUT! That’s the beauty of how far craft beer has come, so much so that the nerdiest of beer nerds have turned to beers like hazy IPAs that look and often taste almost like orange juice and pastry stouts that taste like pie. Breweries are even harnessing the power of hops to alter the flavor of IPAs to barely taste like beer. Then there are the milkshake IPAs that use lactose for an enhanced mouthfeel.

There’s a whole world of beer that doesn’t taste remotely like beer to help convince those who’ve sworn off the brewed beverage for good that there is, in fact, a beer for them.

For your convenience, here are some of the best beers that don’t taste like beer. We’ve also tried to include beers that are at least available regionally, but to be sure, there are plenty of awesome local brewers experimenting with beers and making them taste like they’re not, well, beer.

UFO Georgia Peach

UFO Georgia Peach
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you hate beer so much you can’t stand to think you’ll ever taste it, UFO Georgia Peach is the brew for you — especially if you’re a peach lover.

The brewery, spun off from Boston-based Harpoon, promises “right-off-the-peach-tree” flavor, and it essentially tastes like a bite into a ripe peach. While it’s a hefeweizen base, none of the classic hefeweizen flavors — such as banana or clove — shine through, leaving a refreshing, peachy drink. Not a peach fan? That’s OK, there’s a whole line of other UFO beers that come in variety packs, including pineapple, mango limeade, watermelon lemonade, and blood orange lemonade.

Sixpoint Jammers

Sixpoint Jammers
Image used with permission by copyright holder

When talking to beer novices, a word we often steer away from is sour, but they can be some of the best beers to introduce a hater to the category. Specifically for our “beers that don’t taste like beer” theme, take a look at Sixpoint’s Jammer series. The base beer, Jammer, is a gose, a lightly soured beer originating from northern Germany that is reminiscent of lemonade. Sixpoint expands this beer with plenty of real fruit juice flavorings, and the “Jammer Pack” includes Citrus Jammer, Ruby Jammer, Tropical Jammer, and Berry Jammer.

Learn More

Elysian Brewing Raspy Whisper

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Washington-based Elysian Brewing is plenty experimental with its beers, once making a pumpkin peach beer — famous for a Budweiser ad that made fun of pumpkin peach beers shortly before Bud’s parent acquired the brand (because who doesn’t like a good pint of irony). Elysian hasn’t strayed from its ways and is making Raspy Whisper, a raspberry and chocolate gose. Each barrel of the beer has 20 pounds of raspberries and five pounds of cocoa nibs. Clocking in 3.6% alcohol by volume, this fruity, sweet, and tangy beer has plenty going for it.

Learn More

Schlafly Raspberry Hefeweizen

Elysian Brewing Raspy Whisper
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Staying true to the raspberry theme as it’s a powerful and often refreshing flavor, is St. Louis-based Schlafly’s Raspberry Hefeweizen. Schlafly uses plenty of real raspberries during the fermentation process to ensure plenty of bright fruit flavors and a nice pink color. Like a fresh raspberry in the summer, the hefeweizen is clean and tart, yet refreshing.

Learn More

Moody Tongue Beers

Moody Tongue Beers
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Moody Tongue is a Chicago-based brewery that’s small but pretty widely distributed. The brewery was started by Jared Rouben, a chef-turned brewer who brought his culinary mindset to the beer world. His beers include Peeled Grapefruit Pilsner, Caramelized Chocolate Churro Baltic Porter, and Steeped Emperor’s Lemon Saison — all of which are more reminiscent of their foodie namesakes than beer.

Learn More

Prairie Artisan Ales Prairie Bomb!

Prairie Artisan Ales

This might be a stretch, but why not try to go big? Prairie Artisan Ales’ Prairie Bomb! Clocks in at a massive 13% ABV, so it’s not gonna drink like a beer. Beer lovers rave about this beer, but so long as one has an adventurous palate, so will non-beer-lovers. It also has loads of chocolate, vanilla beans, coffee, and chili peppers, so there’s plenty of flavor going on to keep a picky drinker from proclaiming, “This tastes like beer!”

Learn More

Short’s Soft Parade

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Short’s Brewery is well known in Michigan for its eclectic beers with distinct flavors. The Soft Parade fruit ale is one of Short’s five flagship beers that have made it out of Michigan to other states. They brew it with pureed strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It sounds like the makings of a wine cooler, but fruitiness doesn’t overwhelm the beer’s overall balance. Its low IBA content gives it a dry and smooth finish, making this beer an excellent choice to try and convert your anti-beer buddies. Be careful, though. Its drinkability combined with its high ABV (7.5%) will sneak up on you.

Learn More

Editors' Recommendations

Steven Johnson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven Johnson is a chef-turned-content strategist. He now helps companies attract and retain more customers through content…
Forget wine — Beer and cheese is an unbeatable combination
Put the corkscrew away and crack open a cold one
Beer and cheese

When one hears the term cheese pairings, wine is the beverage that most often comes to mind, we'd wager. Because, of course, it is. The pairing of wine and cheese is as classic a coupling as peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, or chocolate and strawberries. They're meant to be together. But that certainly doesn't mean that wine is the only adult beverage that can dance an alluring tango alongside everyone's favorite dairy product. Beer, as humble as its reputation can be, is also a beautiful balance to cheese's immense offering of flavors. While some may think of beer as not being as multi-dimensional and varied in its palate-pleasing capabilities as wine, this is not the case - especially now that we live in a world with so many exquisite craft beers, stouts, and lagers.
Of course, another classic accompaniment to cheese is bread or crackers. Why might that be, one might ask. Is it because we're simply in need of a starchy vessel to usher the cheese into our mouths? The answer is actually a bit deeper than that. Starches like bread and crackers are made from the same yeasty ingredients as beer, so their pairing makes perfect culinary sense.
This isn't to say, though, that one can simply pick up a hunk of cheddar and crack open a Budweiser and expect culinary artistry. The science is a bit more nuanced than that, so we're here to help you find the best pairings for your favorite beers and cheeses.

How to pair beer and cheese

Read more
Mijenta has a new cristalino tequila — here’s why bourbon fans will love it
Mijenta has a cristalino tequila perfect for bourbon drinkers
Mijenta Cristalino

If you’re new to tequila, you might not know all the terms. Even if you’re just a beginner, you probably know all about blanco, reposado, añejo, and maybe even joven. But chances are, you’re not familiar with Cristalino tequila. This reasonably contemporary style is simply añejo tequila that’s been charcoal filtered to remove its natural caramel color and various impurities.

The style is more than just a little popular. It’s actually the fastest growing style of tequila according to Nielsen data. The newest brand to get in on the Cristalino trend is Mijenta.

Read more
You may not dislike IPAs as much as you think — you’ve just tried the wrong type
There's much more to the IPA than bitter hop bombs
Beer

The IPA has been described as the cilantro of the beer world. It’s assumed by some novice drinkers that you either love it or hate it. On one hand, it’s one of the most popular beer styles in the American craft world. It’s loved by many drinkers for its liberal use of hops and fresh, crushable flavor profile.

But haters of the style dislike it because they have an assumption that all IPA beers are aggressively hopped and uncomfortably bitter. While there are IPAs that fit that criterion (and fans of that style can’t get enough of them), there are also a handful of other types of IPAs to fit any palate.
The IPA stigma

Read more