Beer Styles Have Finally Been Updated!

Pumpkin beers were historically a thing

 

If a style like California Common is under the "Hybrid Beers" category does it make sense to move Kölsch and Altbier into that category as well?

Thanks for all of the hard work put into updating the styles!

 

Yeah that probably makes more sense for both of them, and fits the description given here on the BA style page:

 

A welcome and very needed update, although I do miss the American Session IPA style.

A question: Why is German Roggenbier listed under Dark Lagers? It is most common brewed with hefeweissen yeasts and should be listed under Wheat Beers (like BJCP did), or perhaps Hybrid Beers as they tend to be fermented under lower temperatures.

 

I concur that the Pumpkin Beer style is unnecessary. The pumpkin and/or spice is an add-junk and doesn't warrant a style any more than S'mores beers or coffee beers do. What about bourbon barrel beers? There is the historical argument for pumpkin, but still each and every pumpkin beer is some other base style, but not Fruit and Field since that's another that should go for the same reason. How long does a beer have to be around before it can be called historical and earn a style?

 

I don’t think that was ever a style on Beeradvocate.

 

Yes... I missed it in the update.

 

Agree absolutely as most "oktoberfest bier" is not dark at all.

 

You've gotta homebrew the sahti to get anywhere close lmao

 

Got an example of a commercial pumpkin beer pre-Buffalo Bill's mid-1980s one, or even one home-brewed after the Colonial period in the US?

According to Baron's Brewed in America [1962] this "Receipt (sic) for Pompion Ale" dated 1771, originated in Buckingham County VA, is in the papers of the American Philosophical Society:

That recipe would not even be legally considered beer today (since it lacks any barley malt or other grain) and, of course, it was not spiced like a pumpkin pie. Some claim there was also a recipe used by George Washington, but I've never seen a reproduction of it.

Baron also later notes that "Brewing from pumpkins...had never been popular...".

 

I just discovered the new style listing today and I am very pleased with the new style adds. Great work and love it! Very nice job. Just some ideas to kick around for styles:

Pastry Stouts (just because they are so popular and widespread now and that seems to be the name that has caught on...and these high ABV treats are alot different than the more roasty/bitter classi RIS or American Imperials from the past

Grisette

Not sure what they would be properly called but if funky/sour saisons like what Suarez, HF and Prairie do really well could be in a seperate category than the classic Saisons (i.e. Dupont style), that would be nice differentiation. I love them both but would love to know that difference when seeking out and buying (of course reading reviews are helpful for that but anyway).

 

Yeah but I didn't say Pumpkin Pie beer, I said Pumpkin beer, which is also the name of the style, although they don't always use pumpkin, favoring various squashes, and aren't required to.

https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2014/09/early-american-beer/

https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011...y-to-seasonal-treat-beer-history-brewing.html

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/pumpkin-beer/

 

Also, per the article below, a squash related to the butternut squash is used in 85% of the pumpkin pie fillings instead of actual pumpkins.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/08/canned-pumpkin-pie-filling_n_5941122.html

 

Nice lol!

And let's be honest, pumpkin has almost no flavor to it whatsoever. Hell, many squashes have more unique, identifiable flavors than straight pumpkin.

 

But not a "style" of beer - a malt beverage - as the term is universally understood today, centuries later, just as ginger ale, root beer, birch beer, spruce beer, etc., are not legally or even recognized by the industry or consumers as "beers", despite their names.

If an alcoholic beverage uses fruit or vegetable - rather than grain - as the fermentable it is a wine - just as cider or perry, etc, are. Because some of these "home brew" recipes from the 18th century call for hops as a flavoring, does not make these beverages "beer".

 

Where did you read, again, that Pumpkin Beer was like root beer? Everything that I have read is that Pumpkin Beer of the colonial period was beer beer. Reinheitsgebot, or TTB, doesn't apply to definitions of colonial American beer.

If they were obsessed with beer, wanting to make beer on the cheap using alternative 'malt', and still felt it was beery enough to call beer, I say leave it up to a historian to tell us whether it was beer, not your opinion.

Especially since this history lead to many of today's pumpkin beer brewers taking that spirit and applying modern capabilities and access to higher quality brewing products to increase abv and flavor. I know Thirsty Dog locally waits until local squash crops are accessible and uses an insane amount of it in the boil, and R Shea has made a variety of pumpkin beers, some in the vein of colonial America with as minimal modern technique and flavoring additives as possible and trying to stay as true to the roots as possible.

I mean, if you want to get into low abv beverages from historical eras not being legally considered "beer" if warped into the year of 2018, you could apply that logic to literally any alcoholic beverage at infinite points of time in history during their evolution. Take mead, for example. Vikings would not recognize the mead of today by any stretch of imagination.

 

No. Check the history of the style.

It was, according to the style histories I've read, (e.g. the ever 100% reliable wikipedia... ) a strong stout that was brewed in the 18th century by Thrale's brewery in London for export to the Russian Imperial Court of Catherine II.

I suspect most other so-called "Imperial" beers name their beers such due to the fact that the original IRS was a strong stout, thinking the word "Imperial" meant a strong beer, when, in fact, it referred to the Czar.

I'm sure more competent historians than I will correct me if this is wrong.

@Todd, unfortunately, your "origin" naming convention does not follow with RIS, since the origin of the beer is England, not Russia. Just a curiosity...