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 Beer Style

Beer is a beverage made from malted grain & water, flavoured with hops & fermented with yeast. There are very many beer styles made around the world that vary from pale amber lightly flavoured watery drinks, all the way through to full bodied creamy black beers with very strong flavours.

Here are some descriptions of a good cross section of the beers of the world.

Almost all beers fall into one of these two basic beer styles.

Ales:
These are full flavoured malty beers with aromatic qualities & some fruitiness in the taste. Yeasts used to make ales ferment quickly at warm temperatures (typically above 20C) contribute to the aromatic fruitiness of ales.

Lagers:
These are smooth mellow fresh tasting beers with subtle flavours. Lager yeasts work best at lower temperatures than ale yeasts (less than 20C & typically 4C to 10C). The beer takes longer to ferment & because it was more stable than ales before the days of modern sanitation, it was allowed to mature for weeks or months before consumption. This was done in cold cellars and it allowed the beer to develop improved flavour. The name "lager" comes from the German word that means "to store".

MANY BEER TYPES:
Within the two basic styles of ale and lager, there are many variations that are generally associated with particular countries or places. Here are some of them.

Abbey beers:
Traditional Belgian strong ales made by monks in monastries. See Trappist beers

Altbier
German "old beer". Copper-colored ale from Dusseldorf originally. It is thought to be the style that came before lager.

Barleywine
Wine strength beer from England, generally between 8 & 10% alc/vol

Bitter
British ale style with plenty of hops for a dry & aromatic beer. Usually pale to coppery in colour.

Bock
A dark German lager style traditionally brewed in the Spring. Doppelbock is double strength bock which must be at least 7.5% alc/vol.

Brown ale
A mild, brown ale style which is usually in alcohol.

Doppelbock - See bock.

Dunkel
Literally, "dark". In German, this means "dark" so this is dark German ale.

Framboise
Belgian fruit ale made with raspberries. (See fruit beer below)

Fruit Beer
Fruit is added either during the primary fermentation or later. Typically berries are used but other fruits such as stone fruits & cherries are also popular.

Hefeweizen
This means "yeast wheat" in German. It is an unfiltered wheat beer that has a second fermentation in the bottle for conditioning (gassing). It is cloudy when served.

Helles
A German word for "pale", this is pale ale from Germany

Imperial stout
A very strong highly hopped style of stout originally made in England for export to Russia in the days of the Czars. See also stout.

India Pale Ale (IPA)
Another British ale made for export. The name is often shortened to IPA. It was strong and the large quantities of hops added were intended as a preservative and to mask potential off-flavors that might develop during the long voyage.

Kolsch
This is a golden ale style originally made in Cologne, Germany

Kriek
A famous fruit ale from Belgium made with cherries.

Lambic
This ia a unique Belgian ale that is fermented under the action of wild yeasts. It's taste & aroma is distinctly sour.

Marzen
This is a malty German lager named after the month in which is traditionally made, March. Marzen is made for the Oktoberfest & is sometimes called Oktoberfest as well.

Mild
An English ale that is smooth & mild in flavour, dark in colour & low in alcohol.

Milk Stout
Stout that has been sweetened with lactose, "sugar of milk". See stout below.

Munich
This is a spicey dark german lager style.

Old Ale
A British medium strong dark ale.

Pale Ale
This English ale precedes India Pale Ale (IPA) & is a fruity medium mildness ale.

Pilsner
Also called Pilsener or Pils, this most famous lager was developed in the Bohemian town of Pilsn in what is now Czechoslovakia. It has plenty of hops, a pale golden colour & is well gassed. Many commercial beers around the world have tried to copy this style.

Porter
An English-style ale that is very bitter & dark. It is named after the porters of the London docks with whom it was very popular.

Rauchbier
German for "smoke beer". It is a lager that is brewed with wood-smoked malt, which gives it a strong smoky flavour & aroma

Scotch Ale
This ale is a Scottish style strong malty ale with coppery colour.

Scottish Ale
Another ale from Scotland. It is not as strong as Scotch ale.

Steam Beer
This is an unusual style of lager that was developed during the Californian goldrush when refrigeration was not available. Made with lager yeast but fermented at ale temperatures, it has a more complex flavour that traditional lagers.

Steinbier
An unusual German lager with caramel overtones in the flavour. Very hot rocks are plunged into the wort at the boiling stage causing some of the malt sugars to caramelize. It's name comes from the the German for "stone beer".

Stout
This is a very dark, heavy Irish ale that may have been developed from the English porters. Stout is very full bodied & creamy. The use of roasted malted & unmalted barleys & plenty of hops gives it a distinctive dry bitter finish. Some stouts are sweetened with lactose to counteract this character.

Trappist Ale
Made in monasteries by Trappist monks in Belgium, these strong ales are fermented under the action of wild yeasts & are very highly regarded worldwide.

Vienna
Named after the city where it originated, this is a sweet lager with a malty flavour & a reddish colour.

Wheat Beer
Called Weizenbier in Germany, it is an ale made from a mixture of malted wheat & malted barley. It needs at least 50% wheat content to be called a wheat beer in Germany. Hefeweizen is a variation.

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