There are so many beer styles

Since it is St. Patrick’s Day today, I thought I’d make a post about beer.

Me Thomas wearing a green hat, a green shirt and drinking from a large cup of beer.
Me drinking Irish Goodbye an Irish Red Ale from Peticolas Brewery Dallas, Texas, ABV 6.5%. Photo taken today.

Bland pale mass produced lagers often made with low quality ingredients are very common now a day. Examples are Corona, Bud Light, Heineken, Miller Light, etc. However, there are many other beer styles. For example, there are:

Lagers:

  • Pale Lager that is not mass produced and not containing low quality ingredients
  • Dark Lager including Schwarzbier (essentially black)
  • Red/Amber Lager
  • Pilsner
  • Adjunct Lager
  • Rice Lager
  • Vienna Lager
  • India Pale Lager

Ales:

  • Stouts
  • Porter
  • Pale Ale
  • IPA / India Pale Ale (the second most popular beer style)
  • Hefeweizen
  • Kristallweizen
  • Witbier
  • Irish Red Ale (what I am drinking above)
  • Saison
  • Wild Ale
  • Lambic
  • Geueze
  • Gose
  • Smoked beer
  • Belgian Blonde Ale
  • Steam Beer
  • Kvass
  • Gruit
  • And much more

The beer advocate counts 120 beer styles of which I’ve had 107 so far. Beer advocate features around 250,000 different beers.

Bottle of BOMB! Prairie Artisan Ales on left, glass with the beer and on the right my beer garden gnome.
The BOMB! From Prairie Artisan Ales, Tulsa, Oklahoma, ABV 13%. It is a so-called Imperial Stout, an extra strong stout and extra flavorful stout.

Generally speaking, beers are classified into two main types of beers, lagers and ales, or perhaps lagers and ales plus other beers. Steam beers are hard to classify and Lambics you don’t refer to as ales even though they technically are ales. Stouts, porters, hefeweizen, pale ales, IPAs, Wild Ales, Lambics are all ales. In the short list above, everything below Vienna Lager are ales.

Bottle of Atrial Rubicite on left, glass with the beer and on the right my beer garden gnome.
Atrial Rubicite is a world class Wild Ale from Jester King Brewery, Texas, my favorite Texas brewery. Wild Ales are fermented using wild yeast, which often gives them a fruity flavor. In this case they also added raspberries. It is considered the best raspberry Wild Ale in the world. I was once waiting for hours in a long line just to buy two bottles (the maximum allowed).

Lager beer is a relatively recent invention that originated in Bavaria. Lager beers use a special kind of yeast for the fermentation process, it is typically bottom fermented, and fermented and conditioned in cool temperatures, unlike other beer styles. Lager beers can be of many colors, pale, amber, dark, even black such as Schwarzbier. The Pale Lager originated in Pilsen in Bohemia (Western Czech Republic) in the mid-19th century. The pale lager has become the world’s most common beer style and bland tasting mass-produced pale lager beers dominate the market. In countries that are not traditional beer countries such as France, Italy, China, Japan and South America, the bland pale lager is very dominant. I’ve come across many people who think that the more tasteless the pale lager is, the better beer it is (people who love Corona).

Bottle of Taja Mahal on left, glass with the beer on the right.
An American style mass produced Adjunct Lager from India. Adjunct lager means that they used ingredients such as corn and rice, which is not typical for higher quality lager beers. It wasn’t great, it was watery, but good with very spicy food. But then, water is probably best with very spicy food.

Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer / Ale style. Sub styles include dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. It is derived from the Porter, which originated in London, England in the early 1720s. Stout is basically a stronger and more flavorful porter. However, there is no clear distinction between porter and stout. I am sure you have heard of Guinness Stout, a very Irish beer. Imperial stouts are extra strong, full bodied and flavorful stouts. Below is an imperial stout, which interestingly enough is not dark brown or black but golden/amber.

Glass with amber colored El Cuerro on left and can of El Cuerro on right.
El Cuerro is a so-called White Stout from Lone Pint Brewery, Texas, ABV 7.8%. The flavor is roasted malts, coffee and chocolate. I think it is pretty good.

IPAs, India Pale Ales is an extremely popular Ale that is typically flavorful and quite bitter. It is in a sense an anti-Lager. It is the beer style that I drink the most. The IPA is a type of Ale (fermented at warm temperatures, unlike, for example, lagers). It is typically a Pale Ale (exceptions are black IPAs). It was invented in England in the early 1800’s and became popular for exportation to India. It is characterized by its higher content of hops and the level of alcohol is often higher as well. More hops and more alcohol made it easier to preserve the beer for the trip to India.

A glass of my home brew on the left the bottle on the right
This is an India Pale Ale that I brewed at home. I call it “It’s Fine. I’m Fine. Everything is Fine.”  An artist friend of mine, Breanna, made the labels.

As I mentioned there are a lot of beer styles. One of the lesser-known ones is smoked beers. Smoked beer, or Rauchbier, is a type of beer with a distinctive smoke flavor imparted by using malted barley dried over an open flame. It goes great with barbecue. Below is an example of the style that I’ve had quite often.

Bottle of Aecht Schlenkerla on left, glass with the beer and then on the right my beer garden gnome.
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen from Braurei Heller Bamberg, ABV 5.1%. It is a so called Rauchbier. The barley malts have been kilned over a fire of beech wood logs, giving it a smokey flavor. The flavor is smokey, very smokey malts or toasted bread, maybe smoked ham. I think it is delicious.

If you are paying attention to beer, you may have heard about “Trappist beers”. This is very special category that is not referring to a beer style, but by who makes it. Trappist beer is brewed by Trappist monks. There are tens of thousands of breweries in the world but there are only 13 Trappist breweries in the world. Trappist beers are considered to be very special. The most highly praised of the Trappist beers is Westvleteren 12 from Brouwerij Westvleteren founded in 1838 at the Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus in Vleteren, Belgium. Westvleteren 12 is a so called Quadrupel Belgian Ale. It is often said that Quadrupel means that it has been re-fermented four times, but it is often not true. However, quadruple means that it is a stronger, darker and more flavorful. Westvleteren 12 is extremely difficult to buy but I have been able to get my hands on several.

Big opener on the left, the glass with Westvleteren 12 in the middle and the Westvleteren 12 bottle on the right.
Westvleteten 12 is a Belgian Ale Quadrupel ABV 10.2% (Trappist). I think the taste is like raisin bread, dark fruits, plum, raisin, and some yeast and dark bread bitterness. There is a very small hint from the alcohol that adds nicely to the overall flavor. I love this beer.

I think my favorite type of lagers are Märzen and my favorite Ales are IPAs.

Do you have a favorite Lager? Do you have a favorite Ale?

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

35 thoughts on “There are so many beer styles”

  2. Happy Patrick’s Day! Your green outfit is spot on.

    I enjoyed the pairing of glasses and beers, really well done. Corona is, by far, my favorite Lager. And I’ll take Guiness for the Ale, thank you.

    Have a great week further. Monday already! Ah, well.

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    1. Thank you so much Patricia. Guiness sounds good to me. I liked Corona when I was younger but now I like more flavor. But I know people differ. After a tornado destroyed our roof there was a Mexican guy working on our roof. I asked him if he wanted a beer and he said yes. All I had in the fridge was IPAs so I offered him one. He told me it wasn’t bad but he thought it was a bit bitter. I told him it was an IPA. He told me “man have you ever heard of Corona?”. I guess that’s what he preferred.

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  3. Hi Thomas, I shall disappoint you and say I don’t drink any kind of beer, only a little wine. My mom drinks milk stout and my dad also drinks beer. You know a lot about beer and it is very interesting. I attended a poetry club meeting on Saturday, and one member from Sweden, was busy brewing beer. He was running in and out to attend to it.

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    1. Thank you Roberta. My wife doesn’t drink beer either. It is interesting that your mom drinks milk stout. It is also interesting that you met a Swedish guy at poetry club meeting and he was brewing beer. When you boil the wort you really have to watch it. It is like boiling milk, it can just boil over any second, and then the floor will be sticky.

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  8. This has to be the definitive post on beer. I have always referred to the American lagers as carbonated defrost. I have very limited space for beer in my drinking life so what I drink has to be as near perfect to my tastes as possible. My go to brand is VooDoo Ranger Imperial IPA. It never disappoints and is a reasonable combination of hoppy flavor and a ABV strong enough to guarantee a memorable quaff. Great job, Thomas. I’ll bet the research was fun. BTW you can tell by the head that that India Adjunct Lager is weak. Looks like Miller Lite in the glass.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words John. I love VooDoo Ranger Imperial IPA as well. However, I think my go to IPA is Yellow Rose from Lone Pint, but it is milder than VooDoo Ranger Imperial IPA. Since you are from Texas you probably know Yellow Rose as well. And you are right about the Taj Mahal beer. Cheers 🍻

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  9. I usually favor darker beers over lighter ones but I don’t think I have any particular favorites (although I do like a rarely-available beer called “Flipside” from Sierra Nevada) ― I just tend to buy ones that look weird or interesting at BevMo. Sometimes this pays off and sometimes it doesn’t, like the time I bought some crazy microbrew beer where they put rocks in while it’s fermenting, and it tasted like ……. beer with rocks in it. 🤷‍♂️

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    1. I love Lambic’s too, and Geueze (blends of aged Lambics) and some Wild Ales. Wild Ales are brewed with wild yeast like Lambics and some have added fruit. Many Wild Ales are in practice the same thing as a Lambic. However, unless a beer is brewed in Pajottenland in Belgium you can’t call it a Lambic. You can only call it Wild Ale. It’s the same situation as with Champagne.

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  14. I’m quite fond of IPAs. In the darker beers, I really like a good porter, especially if they include some sweet notes. Back in my homebrewing days, I did a really interesting experiment where I made a smoked ale and then added chipotle chile peppers (smoked jalapenos). It turned out quite good and was even one of my award winners at the New Mexico State Fair. The beer got even better as it aged and the flavors blended better.

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    1. Wow that sounds really great. The BOMB! from Prairie Artisan Ales above has a little bit of pepper flavor. Also I like IPAs too. I am impressed that you won in the New Mexico State Fair. Congratulations 🏆🥇

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