Why no listing for Grisette?

If you can find a canned / bottled Brut IPA, let me know. I've looked high and low in four states and counting (and I'm only slightly exaggerating ).

 

No, by my logic, if the can says Grisette then tell yourself it is a Grisette when drinking it....if that helps you.

 

But can't you say the same thing about IPA or stout or doppelbock or whatever?

I'm genuinely interested in the way people think about this - apart from in the context of competitions, I tend to think of styles as basically a quick way to refer to a bunch of similar beers, and hence I don't think it's that big a deal to refer to some tendency as a style. Other people seem to treat it as a much more significant thing with much more stringent requirements, and I've never entirely grokked why...

 

I accomplished that one a few weeks ago at Monk's in Sioux Falls the day after their Beervana fest, and I had two to choose from! One was Surly Brut IPA and the other was Monk's/Gandy Dancer Belgian Brut Double Brainless Wonder (not to be confused with several other beers they've named Brainless Wonder). I chose the Surly. Sorry to say, but both are long gone, tap only, and probably one-off experiments. Your best bet is to watch the taplist at Monk's and watch for the Surly elsewhere since they certainly made more.

 

I know you're looking for canned/bottled but try to find Fair State The Brut Squad, tap only. They also have Brut Fruit IPA, though unclear what style that is - not on BA yet.

 

But there isn't a distinction... or I mean, not that I know of. Any distinction put in place would be a work of fabrication.

Personally, I'd like to see things like this incorporated into the BeerAdvocate description of a style. In other words, the description of the "smoke beer" category here should include styles like Lichtenhainer. That's a way of acknowledging the existence of something without needing to make a special category for it.