A Guide To Beer Styles
A Guide To Beer Styles
There are four main types of beer; 1) Ales, 2) Lagers,
3) Hybrids and 4) Specialty
Beers. Ales and Lagers are the main two types and Hybrids are beers that
combine elements of Ales and Lagers. Specialty Beers employ more unusual
ingredients and offer almost limitless possibilities of beer flavors.
Ales
& Lagers ComparedThere are two main types of beer; Ales and Lagers. The chart below highlights and compares the main differences between these two types:
|
Characteristic |
Ale |
Lager |
|
Fermentation |
Top-fermented |
Bottom-fermented |
Ale is the older of the two types and was the only beer available for centuries.
It is a top-fermented beer that needs specific conditions to produce a
consistent brew.
Lager is a bottom-fermenting beer that became the more popular of the two main
types in the 1800's. It was invented by Bavarian Monks about 500 years ago when
they found they could produce a clearer brew by storing it during the summer in
wooden casks in cold subterranean caves. The word itself comes from the German lagern,
which means to store.
Ales and Lagers can be further subdivided, but the differences between the two
are more difficult to taste today. This is because of high-tech methods of
production as well as the American beer industries overall push to make beer
blander, regardless of the method of production.
Each of these two types of beer have many sub-groups which have their own unique
characteristics. Below is an overview of the most common types of these
sub-groups. After each type, in brackets, are examples of each style.
AlesAles are top-fermenting beers that use the yeast strain known as Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. Ales can be produced at warmer temperatures, and are faster fermenting. Also the byproducts of ales are usually more noticeable and when esters and fruit define the character, they tend to have a somewhat pronounced palate.
Abbey Beers can be either Ales or Lagers, but most often are Abbey or Abbaye Ales and are beers made either by Monasteries or under license from Monasteries. See: Dubbels, Trappist Ales, and Tripels. If a commercial brewery makes a beer similar to these styles, they usually call them Biere d'Abbaye (literally "Abbey Beer"), Klosterbrau, or Stiftsbrau.
Alt literally means old. Alt Bier, or Altbier, are not very common in the United States. They can be found mostly in Germany in the areas of Dusseldorf and Munster. Alts are usually reddish-brown and have a hoppy flavor with medium malt. See also: German-Styles Ales and Düsseldorf-Style Altbier. (try St. Stan's Amber Alt).
See Amber Beers
American hops give these pale ales their unique character. They are highly hopped and medium-bodied. Aroma may be strong and rich with esters.
See Wheat Beer
Despite its name, this is a dark brown or tawny, bitter-sweet beer with a high alcohol content. Hops may be hardly noticeable at all or very noticeable. The overall complexity of this beer is characterized by its high alcohol (7-15%) content along with its bitterness, which may be either minimal or quite strong. (try Old Nick's, Old Foghorn Barley Wine, or the unique Thomas Hardy's Ale).
In Belgian-Style Pale Ales, you should be barely able to taste the hop bitterness, flavor and aroma. The color should be deep amber or gold and light or medium-bodied with low malt aroma. The aroma and taste may also include a hint of fruity or caramel or toasty malt flavor. (try Celis Grand Cru or New Belgium Abbey Trappist Style Ale).
Belgian Golden Ales, or Duvel (for "Devil"), is a brilliant gold colored style characterized by having high alcohol content. The Belgian Moortgat Brewery invented this bottle-conditioned ale.
Belgian Strong Ales, or biere speciale (special beer), is a darker style characterized by being vinous with low hops. These strong ales are usually made by adding dark sugar candy. The bitterness can vary widely and these beers are high in alcohol content but are medium-bodied.
A French-style beer that tends to improve with age, often having an earthy or musty aroma. Biere de Garde is mildly bitter, with light or medium hops and is copper or light brown in color. It is characterized by the frequent use of lager yeast. It may also have hint of fruit and/or esters. (try Brasseurs Biere de Paris or Jenlain).
Dubbels are slightly more full-bodied than Flanders Brown Ales, and are likewise darker in color tending toward dark amber or brown. They are sweet and nutty, with a chocolate, roast malt aroma and almost no hint of hops. They are often estered with bananas or other fruits. Also, Dubbels retain a sizeable head. A type of Abbey Beer
Flanders Brown Ales are generally light to medium-bodied and have a color of deep copper or brown. They are characterized by a slight vinegar or sour taste and may also have a hint of spice. Hops are not usually noticeable but the fruit esters will be. They also tend to not be very bitter.
Tripels often have a hint of clove or spice flavor, and like Dubbels, banana esters are not uncommon. These beers tend to have a sweet finish and are pale or light colored. The hop and malt balance is even and the beer is usually medium or full-bodied. You should also be able to taste the alcohol. A type of Abbey Beer (try Grimbergen Tripel or Pacific Coast Belgian Triple).
Brewed in the spring to be ready in time for the summer season, Saisons have medium hops and alcohol content with a tinge of bitterness and esters in the flavor. Their color ranges from very light to a richer amber.
Belgian White Ales are usually spiced with coriander and/or orange peel and tend to look cloudy. They use unmalted and/or malted wheat and malted barley and are dry and not very bitter. (try Thomas Kemper's White or Celis White).
Bitters, also known as English Bitters or Traditional Bitters, are ales with bitter flavor due to a large content of hops, which is what gives this beer its bitterness. It is low in carbonation but can produce an impressive head. When bottled, bitter is called Pale Ale. The real ale (cask-conditioned) have almost no carbonation. They are golden or copper colored and well attenuated. (try Left Hand Brewing's Sawtooth Ale or Mishawaka's Four Horsemen Ale).
English Ordinary Bitter is distinguished by being not terribly bitter when compared with other, stronger bitters and is likewise the malt is not very sweet. (try Fuller's London Pride).
Also known as Best Bitter, this is more vigorous and bitter than English Ordinary Bitter, has more hops, and the malt is often a little sweeter.
Also known as English Strong Bitter, but most commonly known as ESB, this is even bitterer than either English Ordinary Bitter or English Special Bitter. ESB's also have more malt sweetness and overall it is more full-bodied. (try Red Hook ESB or Young's RamRod).
See Black Beers
See Golden Ale
Brown Ales generally come in two varieties; 1) American Brown Ale, and 2) English Brown Ale.
English Brown Ales are similar to English Mild Ale, English Brown Ales have strong, sweet malt with almost no hops, range from dry to sweet, and are medium-bodied. Their color is usually deep copper or, of course, brown in color. (try Newcastle Brown Ale, Crokked River Irish Red, or Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale).
American Brown Ales are distinct from their English cousins in the higher amount of hops and bitterness present. (try Pyramid Best Brown, Golden Gate Original Ale, Seabright's Naughty Monkey Brown Ale, or Pete's Wicked Ale).
This flavorful German-Style Ale has high hops and may use a variety of malts, including wheat. They range in color from copper to brown and have a crisp and clean taste. (try Carolina Mill's Hornet Tail Ale or Widmer Alt). See German-Style Ales.
Technically hybrids, these German-Style Ales are listed in the Ales section primarily because of the use of ale yeast and for convenience. See also, German-Style Ales.
Golden Ales, or Blonde Ales, are similar to Pale Ales but are less bitter and have lower alcohol content. They are, of course, usually gold in color. (try Full Sail Golden Ale, Oregon Honey Beer, or Summit Extra Pale Ale).
See Pale Ale
See Pale Ales
Kölsch is a brass colored, tart mild German-Style Ale brewed in the Bonn-Cologne area of Germany. It is warm-fermented and aged at cold temperatures, is gold colored and tastes about as much like wine as a beer can in sweetness, dryness and light-bodiedness. (try Gaffel Kolsch). See German-Style Ales
A wheat beer brewed in and around Brussels, Belgium. This beer is like no other. It is naturally fermented by wild yeast found in the air nearby. As a result, true lambics can only come from Belgium, although Belgian-Style Lambics are made in many other places. This also means, of course, that since there are often hundreds of kinds of yeast in the air at any given time, these beers vary a great deal from batch to batch. They tend to be full-bodied. They are often aged for up to two years in wooden casks. (try Cottonwood's Belgian Amber Framboise).
Often cloudy, and unblended, lambics are naturally fermented and tend to be dry, sour, acetic, and ester flavored. They have a consistency closer to wine in terms of absence of carbonation and thickness. Lambics use unmalted wheat and malted barley and hops are generally not noticeable.
Faro Lambics add sugar for sweetness and ocassionally caramel for color but are otherwise similar to other Lambics.
Along with the characteristics of other Belgian-Style Lambics, Gueuze Lambics are unflavored until blending and secondary fermentations. They range from the very dry to the mildly sweet and have strong fruit or other flavors.
Fruit Lambics are what most of us think of when discussing Lambics. These are the ones known as "Framboise, Kriek, Pêche, etc." They are unmistakable for their fruit flavors and aromas. The individual beer's flavor is revealed by its strong color and while often sour, they may also be dry or sweet. (try Faro Lambic or Lindeman's Lambics, especially the Framboise and the Kriek).
Low in alcohol, Mild Ales, sometimes referred to as English Mild, come in two varieties; 1) Light and 2) Dark. The Light Mild can be light amber or light brown in color. Its flavor is heavily malted but tastes primarily sweet with only a trace of hops. These beers are more thirst quenchers than flavorful. The Dark Mild is a deeper copper color or dark brown, and sometimes has a reddish hue. Like the Light, it is also sweet and taste a bit like licorice, caramel, or roasted. This is one of three staples of the English pub, these beers are very similar to Brown Ales. (try Grant's Celtic Ale for Light, Highgate Mild for Dark).
Also known as Burton (from where it originated in England), essentially, it is a bottled bitter. It is amber or copper in color and, naturally, somewhat bitter in taste. It should be highly hopped with low or medium malt. Pale Ales generally are made with mineral water. (try Bass Ale, or Boulder Pale Ale). See also, Golden Ales
Weaker than English Pale Ale with a lighter color. (try Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Red Nectar, or Post Road Pale Ale).
Stronger than American Pale Ale with a deeper color. (try Saranac Pale Ale or Pullman Pale Ale).
Originally made for export to Britain's troops and civil servants in their colony in India, where it was quite a bit warmer than England. Mineral water is often used making a dry and crisp beer. (try Labatt's IPA, Anchor Liberty Ale, or Ballantine IPA).
Essentially, these are Pale Ales with a bit more malt and often a redder color. They are sometimes called Irish Red Ales for that reason. They are also similar to Scotch Ales but are more pale and lighter-bodied. See also, Red Beers. (try McGuire's Irish Red Ale or Smithwick's Export).
Scottish Ale differs from Pale Ale by its sweeter malts and smoky character. These ales are also generally similar but lighter than Scotch Ales. (try Portland McTarnahan Ale, Bristol Brewing's Laughing Lab Scottish Ale, or Grant's Scottish Ale).
A mild, low-bodied ale with low hops and almost no bitterness.
Heavier, of course, than the Light Ale, Scottish Heavy Ales have a sweet malt flavor, are smooth, and are medium in strength.
Sweeter still than other Scottish Ales, slightly more bitter and any esters may be more noticeable.
Porters are very dark, strong full-bodied ales. Originally, it was ale mixed with two other beers. Porter’s use well-roasted barley, which gives them an almost chocolaty, bittersweet flavor. Color ranges from a medium to a dark brown and occasionally has a red tint. The aroma is very strong but balanced proportionally.(try Anchor Porter, Black Hook Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter, or D.G. Yuengling's Porter).
See Amber Beers
Rye Ales use a malt of rye grain and typically uses 30-40% rye in US Ryes while classic Bavarian ryes use about 60% rye malt. These beers are made in a manner similar to wheat beers. (try Red Hook Rye, Steelhead's Harvest Rye, or Tugboat Rye Ale).
Similar to, but stronger than, Scottish Ale, this is a strong, dark ale which is richly bittersweet in flavor and almost chewy and often contain a hint of caramel or smokiness. There are a few sub-types and they typically range from gold or amber to a deep brown color. (try Traquair House Ale or MacEwan's Scotch Ale).
Sometimes known as English Strong Ale, Stock Ale, or American Stock Ale, Old Ales are usually copper or amber in color with sweet malt. The esters or fruit underlying should be most evident. You should also be able to taste caramel and this beer's bitterness. (try Samuel Adams Boston Stock Ale, Rogue Old Crustacean, or Theakston's Old Peculiar).
Like English Old Ale, esters and caramel taste is present though the color tends to be slightly darker. Strong Scotch Ale is very, very full-bodied and high in malt flavor. (try Hubcap Hubscotch Ale).
Similar to Porter, but Stout is even darker and heavier. Most use roasted barley to achieve their characteristic dryness and bitter taste. There are several well known kinds, of which the dry or Irish subtype popularized by Guinness is best known. (try Guinness or Sierra Nevada stouts).
Also known as Irish-Style Dry Stout, this is what most people think of when the talk about Stouts, of which Guinness is the most recognizable brand. They are characterized by a thick, caramel flavor and bitterness, which is dry-roasted, and are usually medium-bodied. Stouts are often dark brown or even black in color with a large, creamy head. (try Guinness, Butterfield Irish Stout, or Mishawaka's Founder's Stout).
Foreign-style stouts are a little sweeter than the Classic Stout and they also tend to be a bit more full-bodied. (try Kinninkinick Old Scout Stout).
Cream Stouts are also known as Sweet Stouts, and are not nearly as bitter as Classic or Foreign-Style Stouts. They also tend to be full-bodied and often use lactose, or milk sugar, to add sweetness and as a result sometimes taste chocolaty.
Sometimes known as Russian Imperial Stout, Imperial Stouts are even darker in color than their stout cousins and are also higher in alcohol content. Aroma varies widely but should have a balanced but still rich malt flavor. (try Grant's Imperial Stout or Samuel Smith Imperial Stout).
Oatmeal Stouts use, naturally, oatmeal to make a very rich and full-bodied stout. You should almost always be able to taste chocolate and caramel and very little, if any, bitterness. (try Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout or Seabright Oatmeal Stout).
See Cream Stout
These are cloudy, dark, and strong ales brewed primarily in Belgium, but they are also found in Holland and Austria. They are also known as Abbey, Abbaye or Monastery Ales and are characterized by their multiple fermentations and long aging periods. Today, only six Benedictine monasteries are authorized to use the word "Trappiste" on their labels. A type of Abbey Beer (try Chimay Red or White, Orval, or Grimbergen).
LagersLagers are bottom-fermenting beers that use the yeast strain known as Saccharomyces Uvarum, which is also known as S. Carlsbergensis. Lagers are produced at colder temperatures, and ferment more slowly than ales. Colder temperatures frustrate the growth of esters and other byproducts producing a beer that is often "cleaner."
There are essentially three Amber Lagers:
See also, Amber Beers
American Lagers, or American Standards, are extremely light
colored, highly carbonated, and, like water, are crisp and clean. Adjuncts,
unfortunately, like rice, corn, or sugar are often used. Good examples of this
type of beer are not bitter and mildly sweet.
90% of all beer consumed in the United States is this type of pilsner.
Budweiser, Coors, and Miller are the most well known bad examples of this style.
With the exception of low-calorie light beers, it is the blandest,
lightest-bodied, lightest-colored, most carbonated beer available. There is
almost no difference in taste from brand to brand, especially after five or six.
This was not always the case, but over the last few decades the large American
beer companies have been evolving their beer to be more palatable to more people
at the expense of their individuality. High-tech methods of production (such as
too much pasteurization and micro filtering) and cost cutting (such as cutting
the barley with adjuncts like corn or rice) have robbed these beers of much of
their distinctive flavor. (try Rolling Rock, Samuel Adams, Old Style Lager, or
Red Dog).
See Steam Beer
Like American Lager, but better. Premium Lagers generally do not use adjuncts and have more flavor, higher alcohol content, and are deeper colored. Many Microbreweries and Brewpubs name their lagers "Premium" to distance them from the bland American Lagers often made by larger breweries. (try Stevens Point Point Special or Pearl Premium Lager).
Primarily a gimmick, dry lagers originated in Japan and are similar to American Light Lagers but are not as sweet with almost no hops present. However, they have even less flavor because the idea is to remove all aftertaste. (try Asashi Super Dry Draught, Olympia Dry, or Holsten Dry).
Darker in color, American Dark Lagers retain a light taste and have little malt or hops flavor or aroma. They are usually more carbonated than European Dark Lagers. (try Saxer Hefe Dunkel or Michelob Classic Dark).
Thirst quenching and perhaps a bit stronger, Australian Lagers are nonetheless similar to the American-Style Lager. (try Foster's)
See Black Beers
Bocks are heavy, dark-brown German lagers with a high alcohol content. They are full-bodied and very malty and hoppy. Bock is the German word for goat and there is almost always a goat on the label of a bock beer.
Traditional bocks are very malty, full-bodied beers with low hops. They tend to be dark copper or brown. (try Einbecker Bock or Stoudt's Bock).
Doppelbock so named because they're double the content of regular bocks. They are amber or brown in color, usually strongly hued. Their high in alcohol content with no astringency or noticeable hops. (try Eku, Paulaner Salvator, or Celebrator Double Bock).
Eisbocks range from dark copper to black in color and have even more alcoholic content than Doppelbocks. The technique used to make Eisbocks is to freeze a Doppelbock and removing the ice eliminating the water thereby increasing the alcohol content. (try Reichelbrau Eisbock Bayrisch G'frorns).
One of the strongest beers ever made. The suffix -ator indicates a strong Dopplebock beer. (try EKU Kulminator or Samuel Adams Triple Bock).
Maibocks are light-colored with strong aroma and malts but with more hops than Traditional Bocks and are sometimes known as German-Style Helles Bock. (try Stoudt's Honey Double Mai-Bock). See also, Helles Lagers.
See Pilsners
These pilsners come from the Bremen and Hamburg area of Northern Germany. This type of lager is usually very dry and hoppy with little malt flavor. (try Beck's).
Dark, rich, full-bodied lager. Often sweet and malty as well. Usually too harsh for anyone accustomed to American beer. It is an acquired taste which is well worth acquiring. (try Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager, Red Wolf, or Pigs Eye Red Amber).
Munich Dark Beer, Munich Dunkel, or simply Dunkel is the classic Dark Lager and is made with roasted barley. It was originally brewed exclusively for the German Oktoberfest and it is sometimes known as Oktoberfest Beer. They have strong hops and malt with fragrant aromas like that of bread or chocolate. Sometimes roast or chocolate malt is used.
One of the Black Beers, these lagers are medium-bodied, using roasted malt, Schwarzbiers are slightly sweet and not too bitter. Their color can be dark brown or black.
A pilsner style beer from the northern German city of Dortmunder. These lagers have a distinctive flowery aroma but have a higher alcohol content and are more bitter than Helles. They also tend to be a bit darker color. One of the six kinds of pale lagers. (try Dortmunder Union or Gordon Biersch Export).
Also known as Munich Pale Lager or Munich Helles. Literally translated, it means light, which refers to the pale color or hue of the beer. This is another one of the six kinds of pale lagers; these are brewed primarily in Munich and surrounding Bavarian Germany. They are heavily malted and lightly hopped but also should be well balanced. Well known brands are Spaten, Hofbrauhaus, and Lowenbrau. The Lowenbrau available here is not an example of a helles lager because the name is licensed to Miller who brews it here and then slaps the Lowenbrau label on, fooling countless numbers into thinking they're spending more for an imported beer. If you want to try a true Helles Lager, try Spaten on tap. (try Spaten, Liberty St. Hellcat, or Paulaner No. 1).
One of the most popular of the beers exported into the United States. This type of lager is similar to a Pilsner that varies a great deal from brand to brand, but is usually mild-bodied. They also tend to be more flavorful than their American counterparts. They usually come from countries other than England, Germany, and the Slavic nations of middle Europe. (try Heineken from Holland, Carlsberg from Denmark, Harp Lager from Ireland, Kirin from Japan, Molson from Canada, and Foster's from Australia).
When foreign beer manufacturers refer to light beer they mean that the color (or hue) is lighter than that of other lagers produced. Beck's Light, for example, is not low-calorie but is lighter in color than Beck's Dark. Unlike the American low-calorie lights, these beers can be very flavorful and medium to full-bodied. (try Beck's Light or Brewski Brew Pub Light).
This designation is used on primarily American beers to indicate the beer has a lower number of calories than the average beer, and by law must have at least 25 percent fewer calories than the non-"light" version of the same beer. The difference, however, is only slight but there is an enormous loss in taste. Consequently, these are the blandest, most flavorless beers available anywhere and should be avoided. Essentially they are carbonated water with just a little flavor thrown in so they can be called beers. This less filling vs. tastes great is just an advertising scam. They have almost no flavor when compared to any other type of beer. The most contemptible side of this is that beer companies charge the same for light beers as their other beers, but since they use more water and use fewer other ingredients they cost less to make. Accordingly, they make more profit on every light beer they sell. (try none of these; but if you have to, try Pabst Genuine Draft Light or Lone Star Light).
Similar to the Vienna Style and Oktoberfest, Märzenbiers are medium-bodied, amber in color with a malty taste and strong flavor. It means, literally, March beer, which is when it was originally brewed in Germany. Dos Equis (which means literally double X's) is a March beer. (try Dos Equis).
See Helles
Similar to the Vienna Style and Märzenbier, Oktoberfest are more golden or ruddy-brown whose malt flavor is slightly sweet. (try Spaten Ur-Marzen Oktoberfest, Samuel Adams Oktoberfest or Capital Gartenbrau Oktoberfest).
There are several basic types of Pale Lagers:
Real Pilsner comes from Czechoslovakia in the Bohemian town of Plzen. It is known outside of Czechoslovakia as Urquell. Pilsners are also sometimes referred to as Bohemian Beer, particularly those in the Bohemian Style Pilsner. Only pilsners from Czechoslovakia may use this spelling. All other pilsner type beers use Pilsner or Pils on their label. The Czechoslovakia pilsners are all excellent. They are dry, crisp and have a medium malt flavor. (Try Urquell Pilsner, Stoudt's Pils, Sudwerk Hubsch Pilsner, or Grölsch Pilsner).
Classic German Pilsners are highly hopped and hops should be obvious. These beers are carry only a hint of malt. They are gold in color and should produce a good head. (try Bitburger Pils).
More full-bodied and slightly darker than German Pilsners, Bohemian Pilsners slightly sweet with only a little bitterness.
See Amber Beers
Similar to Märzenbier and Oktoberfest, Vienna style lagers are ruddy-brown or copper in color. Their malt flavor is slightly sweet with clean tasting hops. (try Michael Shea's Irish Amber, Red Bone Red Lager, Ambier Genuine Vienna Style Lager or Dos Equis Amber).
HybridsAmazon Black Beers are native to Brazil and were discovered being made by native tribeswomen and improved upon by explorers. It is very dark in color and uses roast cereal grains which were produced over wood fires. This process gives these hybrids a smoky flavor but is closest to a lager in overall taste but has a sweetness reminiscent of sweet stouts. (try Xingu Black Beer).
Lagales are a hybrid created by mixing bottom-fermenting yeast with top-fermenting yeast. Cream ale is the most common of the Lagales. It is almost sweet and very easy to drink if you are new to beer or don't usually like beer's bitterness. I drank a lot of Genesee Cream Ale in my early teens before discovering heartier beers.
Cream Ales generally employ a warm ferment and cold lager using top and bottom fermenting yeasts. Very light and smooth, Cream Ales are rarely bitter and no hops should be noticeable. They are sometimes referred to as American Lager/Ales. (try Genesee Cream Ale, Yellow Rose Cream Ale, or Watney's Cream Ale).
German-Style Ales are technically hybrids because although they use top-fermenting yeast, they are produced by a lager process. They are listed in the Ales section primarily because of the use of ale yeast and for convenience. See:
1. Alt
3. Kölsch
Another type of Lagale is Malt Liquor. This is, of course, a beer and not a liquor because it is not distilled after the fermentation step. These beers are labelled this way in the United States because their alcohol content is higher than that of regular beer. They can be pale or dark and are sold not so much for their quality, which is dubious at best, but for the so-called kick they give. (try Olde English 800, Colt 45, Mickey's Big Mouth, or Schlitz Malt Liquor).
Specialty
BeersA beer in this category uses an adjunct of fruit or vegetable in fermentation giving the flavor of the beer the unmistakable aroma and taste of that fruit or vegetable without overtaking the beer itself. You should be able to discern the fruit or vegetable flavor at once but despite this the beer should retain its own individual characteristics, which should work together nicely to produce a unique combination of taste sensations. (try Portland WheatBerry Brew, Pyramid Apricot Ale, Pacific Tap Brewberry Pale, or Oregon Raspberry).
These beers are similar to Fruit & Vegetable Beers, but with the use of herbs or spices, which are defined as coming from roots, seeds, fruits, vegetables, flowers, and the like. Common spices used are Anise, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Coriander, Fennel, Ginger, and Nutmeg. These beers usually have low hops to allow the herb or spice flavor to come out. (try Grant's Spiced Ale, Crazy Ed's Cave Creek Chili Beer, Arctic Wheat, Redwood Coast Yule-Tied, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale, Marin Blueberry Wheat, or Rogue Mexicali Chili Beer). Also, many breweries make a Christmas or holiday beer with spices.
Any beer adding an ingredient not covered by any other specialty beer. Some examples of other specialty beers are honey Pilsener, maple porter, sorghum stout, or pumpkin pale ale.
Any beer can be smoked. To make a good Smoked Beer, the smokiness and the special style of beer smoked should strike a balance of taste. (try Alaskan Smoked Porter, Rhino Chasers Smoked Chocolate Porter, or Vermont Smoked Porter).
Rauchbiers are toasty in flavor and aroma. You should be able to smell and taste its smokiness. They are medium-bodied and with medium hops. (try Kaiserdom Rauchbier).
Known most often as Weizenbier in its home of Bavaria, wheat beers are top-fermented, high in malt and low in hops. Wheat is used in a 2 to 1 ratio with barley to give it a distinctive flavor that is hard to describe. The Tied House has a Doppelweizen beer (literally Double Wheat), which is a fine example of this uncommonly flavorful beer. I highly recommend it. (try any of the many available German Weizen beers or the Tied House Wheat).
American Wheat Beers use either ale or lager yeast with 30% to 50% wheat. They have more hops but less carbonation than German-style Wheat Beers. They are often cloudy and golden or amber in color. (try Saranac Golden or Breckenridge's Mountain Wheat).
A very light-bodied beer with high carbonation and low hops. Fruit esters should definitely be noticeable. (try Berliner Kindl Weisse).
Hefe, literally "with yeast" is an unfiltered wheat beer with strong hops. It has a tangy bitterness that many people cut by adding a slice of lemon. (try Pyramid Hefeweizen or Empire Hefeweizen).
Also known as Weissbier, these beers have noticeable fruit flavor with a hint of spices like cloves or nutmeg. Weizens use about 50% wheat with low hops but high carbonation. They are high in alcohol content and tend to be fairly full-bodied.
Dunkelweizens are similar to Weizens but are chocolaty and sweet. They can be copper or dark brown in color from the use of dark barley malt.
Weizenbocks are also similar to Weizens, but have a higher alcohol content and their color can be pale or dark. Banana esters are common in this aromatic wheat beer.
Other
BeersBeers with the word Amber in their names are so-named for the beer's color, which is usually copper or brass, and are not a specific style of beer, with the exception of three Amber Lager styles. They may be either an Ale or a Lager. Usually Amber Beers are simply a marketing strategy aimed at upscale customers. Amber Beers are often Pale Ale or Vienna Style. (try Dos Equis Amber Lager, Newman's Albany Amber Ale, Tied House Amber).
The darkest beers, such as Porters, Stouts, or Schwarzbiers are sometimes known as Black Beers. Schwarzbier is a german-style lager which means literally "black beer". (try Kostritzer or Sapporo Black Beer).
Cask-Conditioned Ale, or Real Ale, is an ale which is naturally carbonated and has no carbon dixoide artificially added. This method of production produces a smoother, fresher, less gassy brew. The beer is not kegged in the conventional way and is hand-pumped from the wooden cask, usually kept in a cool cellar below the bar. Only a few real ales can be found in the United States; the bulk of them are in the British Isles where CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) is trying to keep them alive there. They are without question the best-tasting ales to be found anywhere. Since they're essentially made in the cask, they are a bit fragile and do not travel well. As a result, you can only find them near a brewery that makes them. (try Humboldt Brewing Company in Arcata, California).
Draft beer can be either an ale or a lager. What makes it a
draft is being naturally carbonated, unpasteurized, filtered only a little, if
at all, and served directly from the wooden barrel. When your local American
bartender offers you a draft, he is often giving you a beer from a metal keg
which has been highly filtered and artificially carbonated. Notwithstanding,
these are still better than most American bottled beers.
Bottles which claim to be draft beer never are because they are almost always
highly filtered and are not stored at any time in any keg, let alone a wooden
keg.
The word Export on the label of a German beer,
especially a Dortmunder, means that it has a higher alcohol content. These beers
are made specifically to be purchased (exported) in other areas. (try Stoudt's
Export or Special Export Light).
More often, unfortunately, this general term is applied to any beer brewed to be
sold in another country. This is unfortunate because in the United States many exports
we can buy from other countries are often toned down by reducing the alcohol
content and producing a blander Americanized version of their beer.
Canadian beers, for example, were once like their heavier European counterparts
and so were a welcome relief from the weaker American beers. Unfortunately, to
maximize profits, many Canadian beer makers have been following the American
tradition and watering down their beers to compete in this market.
Ice Beer is supposed to concentrate the beer flavor by freezing the beer and removing the ice, which should also produce a beer with higher alcohol content. Canada's Labatt's Brewery introduced this style in 1992. To avoid this being illegal in the United States and raising the alcohol level (it's too close to distillation) the missing water is put in at the end of the beer-making process. (try Ranier Ice or Colt Ice).
Beers with the word Red in their names are so-named for the beer's color and are not a specific style of beer. They may be either Ale or a Lager. Usually Red Beers are simply a marketing strategy aimed at upscale customers. (try Leinenkeugal Red Lager, George Killian's Irish Red).
Made in Africa from a variety of grasses but consisting primarily of sorghum, this beer is thick and their taste has been described as raisons in cider. These beers are sold exclusively in Africa and often come in waxed cartons like juice boxes. They are also known as Bantu or Kaffir beers.
An extremely rare tribal beer made from rice in the Sudan and Egypt.
An excellent, but weird, beer popular in America and Canada around the time of the American Revolution. It has an oddly "air-freshener" boquet but a hearty taste. (try Anchor Steam's Spruce Beer, if you can find it).
This is an original and
exclusive process and, until recently, was the only truly American beer.
It is said to have originated in the San Francisco area and was developed
because of a shortage of ice. When the original 49ers came looking for gold they
brought with them a thirst for lagers which had become very popular in the east
and midwest. Lagers, however, require temperatures near freezing and ice was
either non-existent or prohibitively expensive. The wily San Franciscan brewers
came with a practical way of getting around this problem; they brewed lager at a
higher temperature (around 60 degrees). Since this allowed the carbonation to
escape, the beer produced was flat. This flat beer was then pumped into kegs
where it continued to ferment and produce natural carbonation. When the kegs
were tapped, the excess carbonation built up shot out in a cloud of steam, which
is where the process takes its name from.
This type of beer flourished in San Francisco for years until it gradually died
out after refrigeration became more practical and lager could be produced by
more conventional methods. There were, however, many steam breweries in San
Francisco prior to Prohibition but the exact recipe of steam beer was lost and
only one brewery reopened thirteen years later when Prohibition was repealed,
Anchor Steam Brewery.
It is not certain exactly what the old steam beers tasted like, but the silicon
valley newspaper, The San Jose Mercury-News, in a Sunday Supplement
article from the 1950's (reprinting themselves from before Prohibition) compared
Old Joe's Steam Beer (their motto: It's Pure That's Sure) to lagers. They
reported that lagers took four months to produce while steam beer took only six
weeks and further characterized steam beer as heavier and containing more hops
than lager beers. So while the Anchor Steam of today may not be the same as the
steam beer of the 1800's, it is painstakingly recreated, adhering to rigid
quality control standards few other beer companies impose on themselves. In
addition to many other beers and special brews, the Anchor Steam Brewery
produces a fine quality beer which may be the only truly original American beer.
(try Anchor Steam).
Today, a beer made in this or similar style is known as California Common Beer.
California Common Beer uses lager yeast, is amber or copper in color,
medium-bodied, with a hint of caramel and medium or high hops.
Thomas Hardy's Ale is unique among beers. It is one of the only beers that actually improves with age and a Thomas Hardy's Ale can live up to 25 years because live yeast is placed into the bottle during production. All of these ales are dated and should be aged for at least a few years before drinking.
