It's high time that we update Beer Styles!

Sorry for the delay but one more Belgian brewed Saison that is imported to the US: St. Feuillien Saison.

Cheers!

 

@bubseymour posted:

"Don't recommend:
American Pilsner - It's either "to style" as a German/Czech Pilsner or an American Lager or IPL."

I 'vote' for this. A Pale Lager that features hops like Citra, Mosaic, etc. should not be categorized as a Pilsner. Those beers should be categorized as American Pale Lager or IPL depending on their ABV level.

Cheers!

 

Also should add, because it reinforces my problems with adding nation names, "american kettle sour" and "american kettle sour with fruit" seems redundant. Isn't the "american" part of a kettle sour the addition of lots of fruit? Are there examples of kettle sours that are just malt, yeast, hops (I remember that lagunitas had one, aunt someone?)?

Is there a known style that represents a plain kettle soured beer? I am only aware of gose - I believe it is traditionally flavored with lime, coriander, and sea salt but is generally accepted as soured and flavored

And berlinerweisse - kettle soured wheat beer, traditionally with flavored syrup added.

The only thing I'm aware of that couldn't be more or less comfortably shoehorned into one of those is the smoothie level beers. So is that the "american kettle sour with fruit"? And is the " american kettle sour " more hypothetical? Is it where sour ipas go? Is it a catchall where you put things that follow the spirit but not the ingredients of a gose?

That corner of the kingdom of beer is definitely due for a good reorganizing as it seems to have hosted a whole ton of innovation lately, but there should be some effort to avoid making the whole thing more confusing.

I use "styles" as an efficient shorthand for flavors/feels that I am looking for. I appreciate the effort the staff puts in to maintain this database that helps me narrow in on beers that I might enjoy and as long as the styles are added thoughtfully and revisited/refined regularly then I'm all for it

 

The "someone" here is Sally: the beer was called Aunt Sally. I personally enjoyed drinking that beer. Unfortunately it was discontinued a number of years ago. Maybe if it was fruited it would have sold better?

As do I. In this context having more style names vs. less is beneficial since it 'fine tunes' my expectations of what the beer is and aids in my decision whether to purchase a given beer brand (or not).

Cheers!

 

I would push to remove Bohemian/Czech Pilsner and call them Czech Pale Lagers.

And I'd be all for labeling specific Czech beer styles, rather than just "Czech Pale Lager" or "Czech Dark Lager".

This would be like lumping German Pilsner, Helles, and Maibock all into one catch-all "German Pale Lager" category. And I think there's enough breweries making different Czech styles and naming them appropriately to warrant this. See locally Schilling and Notch in NH/MA respectively.

For example:

Světlé Výčepní Pivo (Light tap) - pale and low strength
Světlý Ležák (Light lager) - pale and medium strength
Tmavý ležák (Dark lager) - dark and medium strength
Polotmavý ležák (Half dark) - amber and medium strength

And so on and so forth as colors and strengths vary in the Czech Republic.

For what it's worth, what most consider "Czech/Bohemian" Pilsner would fall into the Světlý Ležák category.

Here's a great article on BA from Ron Pattison explaining these styles:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/10331/czech-beer-styles/

As an aside, I would prefer all "Americanized" Pilsners be put simply into the American Pale Lager category, rather than "American Pilsner". If they're trying to brew a proper German Pils or Czech Pale Lager, label it appropriately.

If it used new age hops that aren't traditional, call it an "American Pale Lager". And if it's stronger and hoppier, than it can go into the IPL category.

And what about a "Kölsch" category and a "Kölsch-style Ale" category to distinguish between beers brewed in Cologne and those not? Just a thought, but otherwise I'm fairly indifferent about it.

So if Notch brews a "Czech Pale Lager" should it be called an "American Pilsner"?

The whole post you were talking about Golden Ales in the traditional sense, but then you mentioned one with Citra. That would veer from the "Golden Ale" category wouldn't it?

 

I don't see how a Stout with added coffee is not flavored. A standard Imperial stout should be brewed with Grains, Water. Yeast and Hops. The grains don't have to be malted barley.

 

That's the one Jack! I, too, miss that beer. Is that the archetypal "american kettle sour"? Are there other non flavored us brewed kettle sours?

 

What about Norwegian (or Scandinavian) Kveik...?

 

I didn't say it isn't flavored. But my point is that Bourbon County Coffee Stout is nowhere near the same style as something that tastes like Tiramisu.

 

Keep in mind that beers have been categorized as being "Bohemian" for well over a hundred years. Just one example below:



Lots of worldwide historical momentum here.

Oh, one more example is the 'reconstruction' Stroh's beer:



Na Zdravi!

 

Nope, because they're not a "traditional" style - they're only around since the late 80s/early 90s, and have had US/New World hops almost from the start.

The current CAMRA Champion Golden Beer of Britain is Oakham Citra.

 

Their list looks pretty inclusive, just need to add Lager-Czech Dark, Pilsner-American, and a subcategory of flavored kolsch

 

What would be an example of "Stout - Other"?

 

I'm impressed
A long, coherent, well-written, and persuasive post at 3 o'clock in the morning

 

I have issues.