So you’re headed to a party, and you want to bring something different for people to try. Your friends typically drink mass-produced American light lagers or green bottles. But you want to get them to venture out of their comfort zones and try something with a bit more character.

I’ve been in this situation many times, and it’s fun to watch friends’ eyes widen as they experience a new flavor. Many folks who stick to light beers have a misperception that craft beers are overly bitter. This is partly due to the fact that popular IPAs and pale ales have come to define the craft-beer scene. But with the vast choices out there, it’s easy to find a few great selections that will get friends excited about the world of beer.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts for doing just that:

Introduce a new experience: If your friends drink light lagers, don’t bring another lager or pilsner. Although many craft versions have more flavor and character than mass-produced offerings, they are still similar enough that most people won’t taste a noticeable difference.

Skip the IPAs or anything too bitter and hoppy: To an emerging palate, these flavors can be too harsh. The same goes for beers that have strong yeast characteristics. Just like hops and bitterness, flavors derived from yeast tend to be an acquired taste.

Note that many lighter Belgian styles like blondes, tripels, saisons and German hefeweizens feature pronounced yeast flavors.

Find flavors familiar to most people: Stouts and porters, especially those featuring added flavors such as vanilla, coffee, chocolate and peanut butter, are surprisingly appealing to green-bottle drinkers. It may seem counterintuitive that a fan of light lagers would enjoy the polar opposite, but stouts and porters possess a lot of flavors that many of us love. They are full-bodied with notes of chocolate, caramel, tobacco and molasses, along with light sweetness.

Belching Beaver’s Peanut Butter Latte Milk Stout is a great example of this type of beer. Yes, it really does have peanut butter, plus coffee and chocolate, and finishes with a slight milky sweetness.

All the flavors combine for a smooth beer with only 5 percent alcohol by volume.

Bring a fruited sour beer: While such an offering might not seem appealing to a new beer palate, not all sour beers are funky. Many varieties are aged on fruit, which tones down the sourness while lending a familiar taste. Some are wonderfully crisp with a tartness resembling lemon or lime. The right selection will have friends remarking on how refreshing and tasty it is.

Brouwerij Boon Framboise is a classic Belgian lambic aged on fresh raspberries for an incredibly vibrant fruit flavor. Boon is one of the few Belgian breweries that still produces lambic the traditional way, by allowing the beer to open-ferment and become inoculated with wild yeasts.

While in most cases heavy yeast isn’t the best bet for a developing palate, here the long aging process and raspberries mellow flavors tremendously. This beer has a dry finish with a lingering note of macerated raspberries. It is perfect to bring for any wine lover.

Light flavors, easy drinking: Lean toward these characteristics for friends accustomed to light beers. But don’t go super light. Instead, bring Belhaven Scottish Ale in a nitro can.

This deep, ruby-brown ale is smooth, with tiny bubbles that make it silky and creamy. Light notes of toffee, baked bread and a hint of roasted, nutty sweetness in the finish provide a lot of character while still keeping things mellow and drinkable. This one is enjoyable on warm summer evenings.

Tim Golden, a certified cicerone, shares his obsession with all things craft beer monthly. See his blog, “Beer in Hawaii,” at beerinhawaii.com.