Strong Ales...What are you?

Strong ale is a catch-all term for beers with high ABV that don't fit anywhere else.

In my opinion of course...

 

Interestingly enough, I would never think of a beer with a Belgian yeast as a strong ale. It's either a dubbel, tripel, quad, etc., I have always thought of strong ales as American or British beers with a heck of a lot of malt, and not enough hops to get them to be considered IPA's. Then again, there's the barleywine category, hmmmmm......

Ultimately styles classifications are, in my opinion, all arbitrary. I think it is quite plausible that a brewer brews a beer that s/he intends to be X style, then an interest group (like beer advocate) gets ahold of it and classifies it as Y style, and still you, when you drink it, believe it be Z style.

 

Quad and Belgian Dark Strong Ale are styles that can have significant overlap. The Quad originated as the Trappist/Abbey take on the BDSA. Much of what a brewer chooses to name their beer is just that, brewer's choice. I don't think anyone could drink a beer labelled a BDSA and say, no this is clearly a Quad or vice versa.

 

Think imperial pale ale. Not enough hops to be an IPA, too much ABV to be a pale ale.

 

Where'd the KBBA come from in this mix? The proverbial one of these things is not like the other.

 

Is that a thing? I always figured Imperial Pale Ale meant 'IPA that we wanted to call something different'.

 

This is pretty off base, granted the OP was a bit vague in his question. But this description doesn't work for either Belgian Strong ales (pale or dark) or American/English strong ales, which are totally different beasts than Pales or IPAs. Malt is the focus in these brews, while some can have significant hop presence, it's not standard. And the Belgians have the additional flavor dimension that Belgian yeast adds.

 

If it is made by Firestone Walker and released as a one-time-only every year, then yeah, that's a strong ale.

 

A strong ale is a beer that someone at some point classified as a strong ale. It doesnt have to be the brewer. It is just a label, I wouldnt read that much into it.

 

It just seemed odd since everything else you mentioned was Belgian or Belgian styled. KBBA is an odd one, as the base beer is essentially just a vehicle for the barrel aging. English strong ales are their own style as well, but I think you need to look to more traditional, and definitely not BBA versions to get an idea.

I think the non-Belgian strong ale most people would be familiar with is Arrogant Bastard. Gives you a good idea of what the American take on the style is.

 

In the olden days any beer over about 6% ABV was pretty much considered to be a 'strong ale'. That may seem old fashioned considering the much higher ABV of many of today's high octane beers but for me a 'strong ale' is a an old fashioned expression so the definition is appropriate.

 

BTW, grateful for the OP for this thread as it made me think of Caledonian Strong Ale which, though I've not been able to drink in about 20 years, is still vividly delicious and alive in my tasting memory.

 

Arrogant Bastard is kind of a funny one, since most people who didn't know better would call it an IPA. I always thought of a strong ale as a step below a barleywine (in the English and American sense), while Belgians are harder to pin down. I know some people don't consider "quads" to be a real style and that they're all just strong darks, but then how do you differentiate beers like Rochefort 8/10?

I guess this questions sort of segues into the debate over whether there should be a centralized overhaul of style parameters. As someone who loves categorization, I would likely vote "yes," but I fully acknowledge that there are many beers out there that intentionally don't fit into a specific style.

 

OP is a babe.

ISO of girlfriend

 

What do you have to trade????

 

I consider barley wine a type of strong ale. It's got the sweet, fruity, malty taste and reddish colour that I associate with strong ale.

As for Rochefort 8 & 10, I don't think they're different enough to really be different styles. Rochefort 6 might be though.

 

that means less money for beer tho