It's high time that we update Beer Styles!

That is some excellent data, thank you. That winds up being what...50ish more styles than we have here? Stylistically, some of those are a tad niche (example: white stouts), but, a lot of good style data there. Is it possible to work backwards from there? Like, cross referencing our list to that and removing those. Then left with the differences and whittling down from there what here on BA might be 'missing'. Like you, there are styles on that list I disagree with but that is an excellent reference point especially if comparing to say, BJCP acknowledged styles.

 

Artificially flavored beer. Might cover 15% of the beer added to the database the last couple of years (hyperbolic).

 

That was my last one too, and it came in a trade.

 

Could call it Add-junk beer (playing off all the people that call them adjuncts)

 

I think they are unique enough to warrant their own subcategory but I don't think they necessarily require it. If we are getting specific enough about categories that we are separating NEIPA versus NEIIPA and adding things like MIPA like suggested in the OP I think there is just as much variation in the fruited kettle sour category as the IPA category.

 

IPL is obviously needed.

American kettle sour is all that's needed to cover kettle soured beers that aren't made solely with traditional german ingredients and processes like berliner weisse.

American pilsner as well would be good to cover all the hoppy pale lagers made with non traditional pilsner ingredients like potent US or South pacific hops or fruits/spices.

Radler/Shandy is obviously needed.

Belgian grisette might be good, but breweries rarely use that word, so a lot of low alcohol saisons might not be placed there.

American (wild?) farmhouse ale might be good to place all the sour, funky, and/or barrel-aged saison that are nothing like typical Belgian saison. This is where Side Project, De Garde, Hill Farmstead, Logsdon, and Jolly Pumpkin should be. There might be a lot that needs to be recategorized, though...

Yay, go Gratzer!

I'm not sure about the others because it would be messy recategorizing, or they are such rare/obscure styles.

 

Too much changes in one time.Too much job for moderators.
Will be enough for this summer:

• American India Pale Lager (IPL)
• American Kettle Sour
• American Pastry Stout
• New England Imperial India Pale Ale (NEIIPA)
• New England Pale Ale (NEPA)
• Radler / Shandy

 

I couldn't edit my former comment after 15 minutes so....

Session IPA!! I didn't realize there was no category for it, even though there are soooo many examples. Call it Session/light IPA if you really want to.

People are all about the fruited sour thing, but american kettle sour would catch all of that. If we had AKS and fruited AKS there would be little to no AKS entries. Almost all unflavored kettle sours would fit under berliner weisse. How many all barley, unflavored kettle sours exist? My bet is that with both, the AKS category would have mostly dry-hopped sours. Is that necessary? I don't know.

 

I like the idea of expanding.

The only thing I don’t see, that would now be a fruit and field beer I suppose is the beer/wine hybrid (10% or more wine in the bottle). It is a pretty big thing up here.

 

Wouldn’t they all have to be called American Saison then? I could be totally wrong, but it was my understanding that Saison/Farmhouse Ale was a somewhat broadly defined rustic ale brewed for the seasonal workers and varied by region in Belgium. It was my understanding that it fell by the wayside and rejuvenated by the American Craft Beer movement. Do they still make Saison in Belgium?

 

I like that idea. It is a very broadly defined and hard to categorize style.

 

Yes to IPL, American Kettle Sour and Grissette. On the fence about Milkshake IPA. I don’t like them and tend to give them poor reviews, but defining the style might improve their scores.
I’m pretty much ok with all other suggestions although I haven’t heard of many of these.

 

Me too, it was my last one, before the most recent style reorg - thankfully I worked with a dude who was really into Japanese culture, and would travel there on vacation. He brought me back two cans of Happoshu, and I offered to pay him, and he just said 'they were like 50 cents each out of a vending machine'. Ok, then.

 

1. With BA and Untappd owned by the same folks, should you not consider just standardizing on the same beer styles to be listed for both now?
2. For new styles, would be nice to put it to the members as a chance to vote on.
3. I'm ok with new styles, but they should have a measurable % of the total beer list count. Otherwise, just seems another variant of another style and of less value or need.

 

Not sure about this - at least, what I'd call Golden Ale is basically pale n hoppy - pale, bitter, very little midrange / crystal malt character - but with the aroma hops being too restrained or old-world to start pushing into American Pale / Session IPA territory. To me this seems like definitely a thing, and definitely not the same as "pale bitter".

If you don't want to take my word for it, you can ask Martyn Cornell, who gives Golden Ale a chapter in Amber, Gold and Black - pretty much the definitive history of British beer styles - or CAMRA, who give it a category in the Champion Beer of Britain.