What beer styles should be retired?

Black and Tan - why does a combination of two beers constitute a style?
Pumpkin Ale - why isn't this lumped into the fruit/vegetable style?
Kvass - I was told by a Russian grocery owner that Russians don't consider this a beer, partly due to the very low alcohol content. Kids drink it, though having had it I'm not sure why anyone would drink sweet tea. This guy laughed at my explanation that it was a beer style I needed to have in my quest to try them all.

 

I am not a fan of the divisions in the IPA category that are contributing to the idea of new styles. The IPA is a style. That's just what they are ideas of a new style and not really a new style. I would eliminate the NEIPA as well as the West Coast IPA. As much as people like to say the Imperial lager is a style I also do not think so. The lager qualities, depending on the strength of the lager, are lost over 6 percent. The bock is already a style as well as the dopplebock and the IPL is just semantics for IPA or IPAish. I do not think that every style becomes a variation when you put the word American in front of it. I would remove the word American and return those innocent beers back to their own categories respectively.

 

Why not just do away with styles altogether, and just call it all "beer"? Well, the large number of beer styles help in at least two areas (and more, but these are the two I'm mentioning now... ).

First, beer competitions, whether home brew or commercial. If a judge is supposed to compare a Russian Imperial Stout vs a Kölsch side-by-side, well, what possible criteria is he going to use?

Second is consumer information. Here formal style recognition is not needed (e.g. NE IPA), but if I am buying an IPA, I would like to have a bit more information about what I can expect than it could be anything from a 19th century English recipe to a turbid dry-hopped out the wazoo beer with no bitterness at all.

 

Can we get rid of American Adjunct Lagers, just because?

 

Herbed / Spiced Beer: many beers incorporate herbs and spices and are rightly categorized under different styles (saison, IPA, stout, pumpkin beer, etc.); there's no need for a separate herb/spice style
Chile Beer: same reasoning

 

Pfft, you may as well do away with focus groups then. And where would that leave us .

 

Session IPAs.
ESBs.

 

Bottled, industrial Kvass is something very,very different to the "real deal"......its more like a weird soft drink, but proper Kvass I would consider a beer style for sure..

 

I would combine all Russian Imperial Stouts and Imperial Stouts/Porters into one group.

Blonde Ale and Golden Ale... one style

I don't see the point in differentiating Euro pale lagers from AALs. They both are generally lightened with adjuncts and there are interchangeable examples between them. It seems more like a hold-over from years ago when the US market strongly differentiated "imports" over "domestics" in their marketing/pricing of beer. Call them all Pale Adjunct Lagers maybe? While we're at it toss the Asian "rice lagers" in the same grouping; and put a stop to the current "mexican" lager trend by calling them either pale adjunct lagers or vienna lagers as appropriate.

 

Just as an FYI, you may want a different example for your First point. Brewing competitions are organized to avoid asking the same panel of judges to deal with RIS and Kolsch side-by-side. All judging takes place within a particular style category and with a single set of judges who are evaluating only examples said by their brewers to fit into the style in which those beers were competing.

 

Why that would leave us some marketing researchers who still can't be bothered with large scale collection of data and would prefer instead to slaughter a goat during the full moon so that they can read it's entrails. .

 

My list would be overlong.

 

The brewers that provide cogent/useful information on can or bottle are to be commended. Then there's Lagunitas.....

 

Why would we get rid of any beer styles? I like the fact that I know what I'm buying when I buy a new England IPA, or a West Coast IPA, or an Imperial stout, or a Gose etc.... Styles just let consumers know what they should expect from a beer. The more the merrier. To each his own... and other platitudes that apply here.

 

If "American Pale Lager" is "Sometimes referred to as "all-malt" - then call it that and get rid of the beers that are adjunct brewed, like Yuengling Premium, Molson Golden, Shiner Premium, Rolling Rock, Burger, etc.

Light Lager - Call it "Light Beer" - low carbohydrate, low calorie beer created in the late 1960s and popularized by Miller Lite. The term "light lager" predates that style and was commonly used in the US for average strength and caloric US beers of the American adjunct lager style.

"Low Alcohol Beer is also commonly known as Non Alcohol (NA) beer"
Not according to the Feds:


But I agree with @Ranbot above, many of the adjunct-brewed as well as all-malt lager styles with regional descriptors (Euro, Mexican, American, Rice) should be combined into a smaller number of "international" beer styles.

 

That is true, except for the Best of Show round where all of the First place beers in all of the styles are on the table. Often the judges then will look for defects the first round judges missed (different bottle, different palates). The beers that are defect free are then judged as to how well they hit the guidelines. If a Kölsch is a better Kölsch than the RIS is a RIS, then the Kölsch comes out on top. It comes down to the best brewed beer.

 

Good point. But just as you also nicely illustrate with the Best of Show part of the competition, the basic comparision/judgement made is still based on a judgement of each beer compared to it's own style.

 

I agree that the Fruit/Vegetable Beer, Chile Beer, and Rye Beer styles only confuse things. A rye IPA should be with the IPAs. A rye porter should be with the porters. But they shouldn't be compared to eachother just because they share an ingrediant.

 

Think of it as a dog show. Best of breed, best of show.