Beer Styles Have Finally Been Updated!

Exactly. If a brewer had an 8.5% ABV Pumpkin Porter with chilis and raspberries (!), they would have a choice of about six different styles. To me it is clearly a porter. Why does it need to be anything else due to ABV or add-junks. It's a waste of time to talk about eliminating styles when most others are hell-bent on working towards every beer being it's own unique style. Why not just let the brewers make up whatever style name they want?

 

Sometimes I think that's exactly what they're doing.

 

aw man...

There's no top beer by style anymore I assume right?

Oh well, that was always interesting to look at once in awhile.. or did I miss it somewhere?

 

Click on your style of choice, then click on top rated.

Or go to Top Rated Beers, and click on drop down Top Rated Beers (by Style)

Ugh...which led me to click on Belgian Saison, which was utterly dominated by American Saisons. When will it end?!?!

 

Apparently one new style category that should be added is "American Saison" to segregate the impostors from the true ones.

 

DOH!... ok got it! I guess the red coloring threw me.

Ah style and drinking categories.. the debate and shuffling continues!

 

That's all well and good if you believe that saisons or farmhouse ales were reigned in by the imaginary line that is a country's border. I believe that farmhouse ales were brewed all over Europe, but for what we're talking about specifically in northern France and Southern Belgium. There may be an actual border between the two countries but I doubt that the farmers there didn't share yeasts, or had different styles on one side or the other. And most certainly they both brewed beers for their seasonal farm hands, which would have been saisons.

 

The one I had by Jester King was certainly beer.

 

Then it's not Kvass. Because Kvass is not beer.

 

How a bout Shandy? I'd argue for a separate style just for that, but by the historical 'definition' and service of the beverage, as well as some of the older examples still around, it'd also likely not really be considered "beer." But America has pretty much made it a widely available and popular seasonal, packaged beer style.

 

Isn't Shandy: hefeweizen + lemonade (50/50)? If so, it contains beer. Calling Kvass a beer is like calling Kombucha, Apple Cider and other fermented drinks beer. And the decsription is wrong. Kvass is never made from grains. The real deal homemade stuff is made from stale (hard and old) dark rye bread, sugar, yeast and some raisins (optional). All the stuff in plastic bottles and aluminum cans is mass produced, made from extracts with caramel color added. This one has a pretty good description. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16991/42484/

 

As I stated, in the past, Shandy may have been served and (technically) blended differently, and as such not really a style unto itself (just as Black & Tan never deserved to be a style), but brewers are making their own shandies now, whether it's an American wheat base or something lighter, it's become a beer.

By extension, a lot of the Kvass out there in America has derived from the tradition you mention, but evolved into beer. I'm not making an argument Kvass should stick around as a style but it's been on this site a long time. If not many breweries are going to make it though, then yeah it's about as relevant as Brut IPA.

Let us not forget both mead and beer did not originate with a very high alcohol content at all.

 

Wow, that's a pretty low ABV.

So what you're saying is if I drink 10 of them I won't become a huge Kvasshole?

 

re: Kvass, is it a beer? ... RB says this:

Traditional Ale
A catch-all category used to classify ancient or resurrected styles of antiquity that are appearing more in brewing today. Heather ale, spruce beer, sorghum beer, gruit, and beers like Adam, Russian Kvass and Midas Touch are all included in this category. These ales will vary tremendously in character from one another. Many are unhopped, strength can vary, but all are a glimpse into brewing's past.

So, they are classifying Kvass as a "Traditional Ale."

 

Midas Touch? lol...couldn't they have left that out or mentioned Ancient Ales? Seems odd to call out a specific brewery's beer...