American-Style-X on label

But if you called it American-style Doppelbock there'd be an alert that something was different from the German-style Doppelbock or the simple Doppelbock brewed in Germany... :-)

 

yeah but the OP misses the point that throwing C-hops into a saison (or fruit like GI, or yeast/bacteria that sour the thing) *is* belgian style. belgian saisons are creative and diverse (and traditionally style doesn't matter in belgian beer anyway).

also, OP says something about "what if i put kool-aid in it?" which is stupid. it's a case by case thing. if i'm john brewer and i do some random process i learned in belgium, it makes sense for me to call something belgian style. or if what i'm doing is reminiscent of belgian brewers. i'm not doing an american take on "that", i'm trying to do "that". trying to generalize or make rules about it is both over- and under-thinking the whole thing.

like NEBCO gold stock is sort of a "german IPA" because it's hopped at IPA strength and uses german hops... and that's it. it's not an american twist on a german style, or a german/american twist on a british style; we're not trying to put an Eternal and Essential Label on this beer so we can forever know its True Being. we're just pointing out that it's hopped at IPA strength using german hops. "doesn't that make it a--" it makes it a beer. with german hops. hopped to IPA strength. that's it.

 

Belgian is not a style, it's a nationality.

I wish breweries would just leave the styles off the label; the semantics are getting annoying as hell. Describe the beer (maybe even list ingredients), say where it was brewed, and add a packaging date. I will make up a cool style name for it in my head. BelgoMerican?

If I were king.

 

the point of styles is just to give people a general gist of what they're about to buy / drink. people take it strangely too far.

 

Yeah, some do take it to seriously, but as a good friend of my used to say, "There are two kinds of people in the world, those who put everything into two categories and those who don't."

Personally I think what the OP is after is some sort of balanced approach that works for both extremes--those who don't want categories at all and those who want everything neatly fitting into little boxes. As you recognize, neither extreme fits a case such as beer. (pun intended :-) )

 

I just feel there could be a simple graphic/text interface on the back label describing SRM, Bitterness, Adjuncts, etc.

Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale tells me very little except that it will probably have a spicy yeast character.

Are there any breweries in Belgium brewing American-style beers? That would be confusing. I guess a west-coast IPA brewed in Belgium would be a Belgian American-Style IPA, whereas Stone's Cali-Belgique is an American Belgian-Style IPA.

Let's just leave national origin out of our beers, please. The brewing location is bound to be on the label somewhere.

 

I thought it was "There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary code and those who don't."

 

Nice!

 

Oh boy, another ‘touchy’ beer thread.

@RichardMNixon , I think that your ultimate goal is to have information on a beer package which provides ‘more’ or ‘better’ information about the beer, is that correct?

Assuming that my understanding above is correct than I agree with what some other BAs have posted: having additional information on the package like: “Doppelbock brewed with Centennial hops” or maybe a list of ingredients on the bottle of Doppelbock that list “Centennial Hops”.

Using an adjective like “American” could potentially cause more confusion than clarification. Again using the Doppelbock example: if the bottle was simply labeled “American style Doppelbock”, what does that mean? Was the beer brewed with an American lager yeast strain vs. a European lager yeast strain? If that American style Doppelbock was brewed using an American lager yeast strain (e.g., Wyeast 2035) would you really notice it in that beer? Would most consumers of beer even ‘resonate’ with a label descriptor like “American style Doppelbock”?

I personally would endorse breweries providing more descriptions on the packaging but it seems to me that using the adjectives of “American style” before a recognized beer style name is counterproductive.

Just my opinion.

Cheers

 

In French, no less. As a native speaker of Weisenheimer dialect, I appreciate that.

 

I wonder how the description on the Pretty Things site will fly here:

 

Well, I have already drank some bottle do Jack D’Or so I have familiarity with what Saison Americain means but for the uninitiated what does that label mean? Is it a beer on the order of a Saison brewed with California Ale yeast? How would you know?

Cheers!

 

“How does a style gain the "American" epithet?” You got me.

“At what point did the BJCP decide "You know what? American and English barleywines are different." You got me there too!

I just think that a broad scale ‘change’ to using American-style xyz beer will add tons of confusion. I can state this with certitude: it would confuse me.

Cheers!

 

I don't think it's all that difficult to determine- all it takes is time and numerous examples with clear cut differences.

There should definitely be an American Style Oktoberfest by now, for example.

 

“American Style Oktoberfest by now, for example.”

OK, I’ll bite: is an American Style Oktoberfest a hoppier Oktoberfest like the one from Milwaukee Brewing Company or perhaps the Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest?

Is it like to one from Sly Fox which is solely brewed with Vienna malt?

Or is it like the one from Sam Adams which is very different from the versions mentioned above?

Or maybe it is just like Yuengling Oktoberfest which is unlike all of the beers mentioned above?

Or are there 4 types (or more) of American style Oktoberfest beers?

Maybe you understand all of this but I sure don’t.

Cheers!

 

Do you currently understand all of these to be German-style beers? If so, on what basis?

 

Not Sly Fox, for sure! I believe they have made a solid effort to stick to the German essence of the style.

I'd make Samuel Adams the flag bearer, if you will. Flavor dominated by caramel and/or roast malts, hopped at a higher level than the traditional amber marzen, with a moderate touch of Munich malt optional.

In any event, it could be drawn broadly enough to include the remainder of those beers and many, many others.

 

Don't focus on the within country variety issue, focus on the nature of the major deviation from the variants brewed in Germany.

For example, if C hops and only C hops were used I'd say American style O-fest since customarily Noble Hops are used (as far as I know).

Also remember that virtually all classification systems are fiction and have fuzzy boundaries.