What beer styles should be retired?

An example: Epic's Brainless Belgian-Style Golden Ale is categorized (rightly) as a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. Brainless on Peaches (the same beer with peaches added) gets put in the Fruit/Vegetable beer category. So far this follows a logic, even if it means putting wildly different beers together in the same style. But then, replace the peaches with cherries, and Brainless on Cherries is now a BSPA! There's no rhyme or reason when it comes to the Fruit/Vegetable style.

 

This is more for competitions. You enter the beer into SVH or Fruit category with a declared base style and the beer is judged on the balance struck between the two aspects.

 

I think it has more to do with user submitted info than the style itself.

 

Good analogy.

 

As I expressed many times before:
I think the concept of "beer style", as shown on this (and other famous) rating site(s) does only really work in the context of the culture it was born in, the US-craft culture, with all its quirks and concepts.
In other beer cultures, it just makes no sense. Just take two european "styles" from this very site: Kellerbier/Zwickelbier and czech pilsner. The former term is used in its natives regions very differently, the latter just is not really used in its supposed native country.... so... I'd say just...make them go away?.. or at least respect that in their respective countries of origin, these terms may refer to something rather different than in an US craft context...

 

That was my point... IOW, how would this work if there were NO styles!

 

:-)

Gotcha. I did misread a bit what your point was.

BTW, some might say that having any competitions at all is not a good idea, then we'd have another reason to eliminate styles.

 

Only because I don't like them, Gose and Session IPAs

 

Two that always irked me and should be combined in my opinion...

1) Belgian Strong Dark Ale and Quadrupels

2) American Double/Imperial Stout (I think this one used to be just "American Double Stout") and Russian Imperial Stout

And this is sort of the reverse topic of this thread (probably belongs in the "New Beer Styles" thread), but I'd like to see Marzen/Oktoberfest split into something defining an amber and a pale style.

 

Lites, lights

 

Not an ipa fan?

 

Is there some sort of official list of beer styles?

I guess folks that make such lists can differentiate styles how ever they like.

I favor as simplified list as possible, like those that post combining porters and stouts.

 

The eradication of a beer style is in a way eradicating it's history and out of respect, should not be done. Only additions should be added. Like Patersbier

 

Yes, several of them. (The following is believed to be correct, but not guaranteed...)

"That other" beer rating site lists 78 styles
This site lists 104 styles
BJCP lists 118 styles

and, the Grand Prize Gold Medal Winner :
GABF lists 158 styles

 

Easy-peasy!

1. Lagers
2. Ales other than Stouts and
3. Stouts

Done!

 

You'd combine Imperial Porters with Russian Imperial Stouts and Imperial Stouts? Or just Porters?

Interesting points. If we're on a site dedicated for reviewing and rating beer, shouldn't we maintain a style list to provide a baseline with which to rate or compare against?

At the end of the day, beer is my favorite alcohol style

 

Imperial Porters, Imperial Stouts, and Russian Imperial Stouts all one happy of family of dark strong beer.

 

That's quite the jump you made there

 

I could dig it. I just don't think stand-alone Porters should be lumped into that group, but that is not the case.

 

What about Roggenbier?

I think pumpkin and chile should be merged with fruit/vegetable beers.

Otherwise, I think we should have more styles. Smoked beers could be broken down because what Schlenkerla does is worlds from Grodziskie, not to mention smoked porters, etc. IPAs should be broken down into English, West Coast, East Coast, and maybe even a non-committal Third Coast (it is distinct from the others for sure). RIS and American Imperial Stouts are distinct, in my opinion.

I am a huge fan of genre and classifications as concepts, so I don't really want to pare the list down at all besides the redundancies mentioned above.