Wine Beers

We've talked a lot in this class about how Millennials (like ourselves) tend to favor exploring new wines to repeating the classics. But this doesn't just extend to the types of wines Millennials drink -- it also includes the number of types of alcoholic beverages we enjoy. According to a study by the IRI (a market research group), Millennials drink 3-4 different kinds of alcohol at home per month. They're not just wine or beer people.

One way I've seen this trend in action in the wine-adjacent world is in wine-beer hybrids at breweries. These can take a number of interesting forms. Here are some of my favorite examples:

Over the summer, I had Baron Corvo at Right Proper Brewery in DC, which is brewed in French Oak barrels usually used to age wine. The result is a beer with some the tangy complexity you expect in white wine. Weird, but lovely.

When I went to school in Boston, I often drank Bantam Wunderkind Cider, which is fermented with champagne yeast. I can't get my hands on it outside of MA, but the crispness and funk that comes from the champagne yeast is fantastic. It's not apple juice that someone shot CO2 through. It's like champagne that happened to made with apples.

I also finally tracked down a bottle of Midas' Touch this year by Dogfish Head. That's a beer brewed using the 2,700 year old recipe found on the tomb of King Midas. It's a beer-wine-mead made with muscat grapes and served in a white wine glass. I didn't actually enjoy it that much because it's semi-sweet and the taste is so out there that I found it difficult to focus on the food I ordered with it. But I thought it was a fascinating idea.

This is an exciting time to be a beer and/or wine enthusiast. The market is craving more complex beverages and producers are delivering. I'm excited to see what's next!