Belgian ale as a specific style

What specifically do you see lacking @Brutaltruth ? I see most of the styles there, and most are clearly labeled, so I am trying to see what exactly is the problem you are trying to get addressed.

 

Why do you hit Return as though you are writing a poem?

 

This is more an issue of sorting and searching. Sure, certainly their are styles that share distinct characteristics, and within these styles some share distinctive characteristics within a specific region. However many brewers within these regions also make beer, to style, that do not share these distinctions.

With a couple of exceptions, e.g. Lambic, Trappist; these differentiations are simply a matter of how finely one draws a line. I think most, and likely the vast majority, of people will struggle to observe these differences. Expanding styles to capture these and all the other fine line distinctions will cause confusion and relegate style distinctions to irrelevance. Meanwhile, those who easily recognize the differences can just as easily find them via the existing sort and search functionality.

 

Welp, glad someone likes them, even if they do not make liberal use of the Return

 

This was always a pet peeve of mine as I have listed my favorite style in the past as "belgian strong pale ale". This category, to me, has been a catch all for all the belgians that are "pale" that aren't clearly defined as triple, single, saison, gueze, belgian IPA...etc. my issue has been that that both amber and blonde ales have been included in this and both have completely different flavor profiles.

I definitely prefer the blondes but have had an issue when a reviewer uses the word "golden" or "copper" when describing it.

I would argue that we either lump them all (including dark ales) into "belgian ale" and "belgian strong ale" that wouldn't meet the criterion for another belgian style, like quad, or that we separate them into dark, amber, and blonde and assume that most of the beers in the other styles are being sorted appropriately.

 

Yup. We need more Belgian styles. I was adding 2nd Shift Brewing's Grisette tonight and had to just settle on Saison, because Grisette or even Table Beer don't exist.