What are beer styles?
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You've heard people talking about IPAs, pale ales and stouts. But what about gose, lambic or sahti? These are all beer styles. Let me tell you why we have them. There is a wide range of beer styles. And why do we even have beer styles anyway? Who determines what a beer style is? Let's talk about that today.
What is a beer style?
Examples of the beer styles Weissebier
So what is a beer style? Beer styles are the way that we group different types of beer together. We do have written guidelines, but there can be some overlap in these; they are not hard and fast rules. They dictate the look, smell and taste of a beer. They can also have guidelines around what ingredients are used and how the beer is brewed. Again, these are only guidelines, so they are just to support brewers and beer creators in how to produce different types of beer. But we see lots of overlap, and lots of new things from innovation where brewers just try things out.
Why do we have beer styles?
The written guidelines are used for beer competitions so that people can judge the quality of beer; it's useful to have them for consistency. It's also helpful as beer drinkers, because if you know that you like IPAs or pale ales, then usually other beers that are labelled in this way you're probably going to like. But generally, it's because we like to have order and put labels on things.
However, you will find that there are some beer regions where beer guidelines and beer styles are just scoffed at. In particular, let's talk about the Belgians. The Belgians just like to brew beer that they enjoy. They don't get this whole beer style guidelines thing. They're just gonna brew something that they really enjoy. And let's face it, Belgian beers are pretty good.
Read about other beer styles on the blog here.
How are beer styles grouped?
A Czech Premium Pale Lager tasting
We can group beers by country and region. Often, in some of the written guidelines, you'll see them grouped as American beer styles, British and Irish beer styles, Belgian beer styles, and German and Czech beer styles. Of course, there are lots of other regions and countries that brew beer that are not included within those. They are considered the main regions from historical development. But let's not limit ourselves to just those. Sometimes beers are grouped by ingredients. Look at weisse beers that use a lot of wheat or the different yeasts that brewers can use - ales and lagers use different types of yeast. Sometimes they are grouped by brewing technique.
Who creates beer styles?
Studying for the Beer Judge Certification Program
But who decides on these style guidelines anyway? The most famous is probably the Beer Judge Certification Program – BJCP. These guidelines are used for competitions. The American Brewers Association also has guidelines that we can look at. These are obviously in America, so the UK, Belgium and Germany will all group their beers in different ways. So it's important to think about that when you go to different countries, or you look at beers from different countries.
Follow my journey tasting through all of the BJCP beer styles here.
But generally, a lot of these styles came about because brewers and consumers called them that type of beer. Let's look at the Bitter. If you look at a Best Bitter or an Extra Special Bitter from British beers, they are not as bitter as we would expect from today's standards. But back at the time when they were made, they were more bitter than the darker porters and stouts that were available. So consumers asked for the bitter beer. Brewers took this up and now we have the beer style of Bitter.
Where can you find information on beer styles?
If you need some good resources for looking at different beer styles, go to the BJCP website or the Brewers Association website. They have downloadable resources on their style guidelines. The BJCP guidelines are only periodically updated, but they were just updated in December 2021. So there are some newer styles that have been added in or styles have been moved around. So it's a good idea to have a look at the newest version if you haven't yet.
There are also books that you can look at to learn about beer styles. One of my favourites is Let Me Tell You About Beer by Melissa Cole or Beer: Taste The Evolution in 50 Styles, It's even in the name, by Natalya Watson.
A tasting lesson on Gueuze in The Beer Tent Society
If this post made you passionate about beer styles and you want to learn more, why don't you come and join me in my beer membership, The Beer Tent Society. We look at a new beer style every month, you will get history about the style and style guideline information and then we do a live tasting together as a community to see what this beer style is all about. Find out more and come join us in the Tent here.
