Beers in disguise

Similar requirements absolutely apply to US wine. Rather than summarize all the rules, here is a link if you’re interested:

https://www.ttb.gov/wine/wine-labeling.shtml

 

I have found a few beers that were not listed under the correct style and used Beer Tools to suggest and edit. Recently I found an AIPA that was clearly a NEIPA and BA agreed.
Good news for the beer because now it is ranked #1,791 as a NE style as opposed to #3,878 as an AIPA.
Easy to spot those turbid juice bombs.

 

And that goes double when a Schwarzbier is classified as a Stout.

 

I thought I'd found a nice new shwarzbier to try the other day and after purchase realized it was a 'shwarzer abt' which is apparently german for 3.9% lager that tastes like coca cola

 

This one?

https://www.klosterbrauerei.com/shop/Produkte/Schwarzer-Abt/68

Brewer says it is a Schwartzbier, so....

 

Examples?

 

There's a beer local to me that's classified as a Schwarzbier but every time I've had it I thought it was a chocolate stout.

 

That's the one. Kinda weird that the brewer calls it a shwarzbier on the website but the label didn't have it anywhere on it. In any case it was way too sweet for me, and for a shwarzbier in my limited experience. But if anyone wants a mildly alcoholic cola this could be the beer you seek

 

There is no "rule" but it goes against decades of tradition. Also, for" fest" beer I personally would want a clean ,crisp, lager. The difference between bottom fermenting warm and top fermenting cold is huge. I would not want an Oktoberfest ale, it would also be cheaper and easier to produce but at the cost of Tradition and deliciousness-

 

And to be specific, it's only 6 breweries within Munich that can call their beers Oktoberfest.

 

Huh? Why is it clearly an ale? I agree that to be an Oktoberfest if should technically be a dark lager. Just curious if they stated their production methods somewhere?

 

Hmm. Ales and Lagers are categorically different by process. Mainly to my knowledge the yeasts and temperatures used in fermentation.
I have always understood the Oktoberfest or Märzenbier to be a lager.

And I’ll cite the following sources;
https://www.craftbeering.com/oktoberfest-vs-marzen-oktoberfest-style-beer/
http://allaboutbeer.com/article/oktoberfest-style/
https://www.americancraftbeer.com/what-the-hell-is-a-maerzen/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/styles/29/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Märzen

I’m confident there are folks here who know more and better than us both!

 

Sorry it took me a few days to dig these examples up. I knew I had had at least one or two recently: Floating in the Night, a collab (almost autocorrected to Cola) between Andean Brewing Co and Nap Time Liquid Creations and Sexy MF Stout, Eastern Front.

In fairness, I can only state that they looked, smelled, tasted, and presented the light mouthfeel of a Schwarzbier rather than a Stout, I cannot say they are dark lagers as opposed to dark ales and no information on their composition is available.

 

Thanks. I think we can probably treat those two as unexplained anomalies given how little information is available about/from the brewery, etc.

 

I was at a taproom in upstate NY last weekend and there was beer titled "Cream Ale" with style listed as Blonde Ale. I asked if it was a Cream ale or a Blonde Ale, and he said, its a Blonde Cream Ale. I shook my head and just told him to pour it, I just needed a low ABV beer. It was decent (and listed as a cream ale here on BA for those keeping score so they just decided to call it a Blonde Ale in style I guess for sales/marketing reasons).

Manor Hill canned a beer called Mild Manor'd Amber Ale. I wasn't too thrilled about buying an Amber Ale (thinking about the standard American Amber's that were popular in the 90's and early 2000's, but it turned out to actual be an amazing and very authentic English Dark Mild. So glad I took a random gamble.

 

That's fair. Both fairly obscure brews. And no disrespect meant to Schwarzbiers (which I like). For me, it's a mental thing: you're ready for a stout and what you get just doesn't fit in bill.

 

There's a Korean beer that's exactly like that (really a Schwartzbier at heart, despite what the label says):
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1472/48476/?ba=getalife2k5

Although I see now that it's at least categorized correctly here on BA: props to the team for that one.

 

Not your father's root beer is no more a beer than Mike's hard lemonade is