The average beer drinker can probably name dozens of different beer brand names but is likely at a loss to name just a half dozen different beer styles.
One might be surprised to find that 90% of all the beer produced in the United States, including Budweiser, Michelob, Busch, Old Milwaukee, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Coors, Old Style, Pabst, Hamm’s and Schlitz, among other lesser brands, are all in the same beer style category: pale lagers.
Within the spectrum of world beer styles, however, the pale lager style represents less than 2% of the choices available to beer drinkers. For the record, there are about 70 known, recognized and categorized beer styles around the world.
Comparing Apples to Apples
For added perspective, consider this simple analogy: think of pale lagers as apples. Yes, there is a handful of apple varieties, each with its own size, color, flavor, etc., but in the end, they are all still just apples. Imagine if your opinion of all fruits was influenced solely by your experience with apples.
Consider that for just about every fruit that exists, there is also a beer style that exists. If fully appreciating the world of fruit compels you to try oranges, bananas, grapefruits and kiwis, then fully appreciating the world of beer obligates you to try weissbier, Scotch ale, saison and Kolsch.
The Essentials of Beer Style
The world of beer is most easily separated into two basic types: ales and lagers. Falling in line under those two headings are about 20 or so major beer style headings, with another 50 or so sub-styles. Here are a couple of simple outlines to illustrate two particular major beer style categories and their sub-styles:
ALE
Stout
- Irish dry stout
- London sweet stout
- Oatmeal stout
- Foreign stout
- Russian Imperial stout
LAGER
Bock
- Traditional Bock
- Helles bock / Maibock
- Doppelbock
- Eisbock
- Weizenbock
The preceding ales are all stouts and the preceding lagers are all bock beers, but each has its own identifying features that make it different from the others, even within its own major style heading. These features are identifiable by simply measuring the beers’ color, bitterness and gravity.
Color
The color of beer is determined primarily by the grain used to make the beer. Light colored grain will result in a pale colored beer; conversely, dark roasted grains will produce dark beers. The spectrum of beer color ranges from straw to black and almost every earth tone in between.
Bitterness
Bitterness is imbued in beer primarily by hop acids during the boiling process. Hop bitterness in beer can be controlled by the brewer by using different varieties of hops, and by using higher or lower quantities of hops in the brew.
Gravity
The term “gravity” refers to the density of beer which is determined by the amount of soluble sugars in the beer. The primary soluble sugar in beer is derived from the malted grain, which is called maltose. The gravity reading in a fermenting beverage will lower as the yeast converts the available sugar in solution to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Yeast: The Final Factor
A fourth variable in beer style determination is in the yeast used for fermentation. Yeast varieties are either top-fermenting (ale) or bottom-fermenting (lager). Therefore, a single beer brewed according to a single recipe, using the same ingredients, producing identical color, bitterness and gravity, can be made into two entirely different beer styles by simply changing the yeast type and fermentation temperature.
Equipped with helpful information, beer consumers can now drink in style.
