Beer Style Question

Definitely. There is certainly a point of utter inaccuracy or absurdity, where the name has little to nothing to do with what most people will generally conceive of what a certain name represents. Like, oh, say Cranberry Lambic.

It's all about context, in my opinion. Yes, there are good reasons. If you're looking for objective evaluation, or you're running a competition, there are enormously good reasons to define things pretty firmly. But even then, it's important to realize that there will always be a degree of arbitrariness, such as very fine subdivisions of popular styles so as to avoid having one category have 200 entries instead of a more typical 50 (to make numbers up).

I do think that beer makers, home or commercial, should find names that are in the right neighborhood of what they made. I'd be dismayed if I bought something labeled hefeweizen and got a copper-colored hop bomb that smacked me upside the head with centennials, even if the beer was brewed with wheat and was bottle conditioned. But if someone gave me something they called a bitter and it tasted to me more like a pale ale? Eh. Those two are so close together that there's no good dividing line. And that occurs with a lot of the style categories that are out there.

I think you've come up with an excellent example of where context becomes really important. If someone did go out of their way to point out that their beer was an English IPA, and that's what I got, I might be a little disappointed. If someone just gave me an IPA, and I found it to be one or the other, frankly, that's fine with me. Unless I were judging or something like that. Then the distinction matters more.

When I say just brew what's good, don't worry too much about what style it fits, I'm talking in the context of everyday drinking, when you just want to enjoy a good product. And I think in most cases, that's what people are looking for commercially as well. Give me a name that gives me a reasonably good expectation of what I'm going to get, and I'll decide from there whether I like it or not. The real fine-tuned distinctions, and the honest-to-god discussions I've heard from people who will say "well, it tastes fine but I don't like it because it's not really a proper ____" frankly gets in the way of simply appreciating a well-crafted beer.

Totally agreed. The devil's in the details of how precise one needs to get to achieve that.

And I agree with that. Where I differ not necessarily with you, but with those I've run into who think that these distinctions should apply in all circumstances, is that it's necessary to define and evaluate things that precisely all the time. I went through a stage of that when I first started exploring good beer and when I started brewing my own. I don't know if it's because I stopped brewing, or other factors, but most of the time now, I just want to enjoy a good beer. And as long as you're not steering me wrong by giving me something dramatically different than what the label says, as long as you're giving me a good beer, I'll be happy.

-Steve

Reply to
Steve Jackson
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I guess I feel that the sites I have found to be vague is that there are so many types of malt, etc. out there to choose from how do you know what and how much to use to use. None of the sites state the type of malt, etc. that is best for a particular style. Do you just ignore the ingredients and worry about the starting and ending S.G.'s?

This is where I am most confused. Too many ingredients to choose from and I guess not enough knowledge.

Walter

Reply to
Walter Venables

You need to look up actual brewing recipes. Also, some breweries give brewing info. See Sierra Nevada Brewing.

nb

Reply to
notbob

You probably need a good recipe resource.

Dick

Reply to
Dick Adams

There are a lot of potential ingredients. My advice is to start simple, and use ingredients from the country the recipe comes from. E.g., use something like a nice Maris Otter, a touch of British crystal, East Kent Goldings, and a British-style yeast for a bitter. Use German pilsner malt, a touch of German light crystal, and a good lager yeast for a German pils. Use the style guidelines for O.G., BU, and some idea of additional ingredients that may be needed. Start simple. Brew as often as reasonable. You'll soon learn enough about the ingredients to get comfortable. Also, buy a book or two. Don't just get a recipe book, get something like Ray Daniels' _Designing Great Beers_. You'll learn how to design your own recipes in whatever style you like (except Belgians; for that get the recent series of three books from the AHA, by Markowski, Hieronymus, and Sparrow).

Reply to
Joel

I think you probably want a book with actual recipes. I like a number of the Classic Styles books (all of which have recipes), although some of these books are really better than others.

Reply to
The Artist Formerly Known as K

The Ray Daniels book "Designing Great Beers" would be really good for this. That's pretty much the kind of stuff he talks about.

John.

Reply to
John 'Shaggy' Kolesar

In article , Walter Venables writes

I can sympathise completely. My recommendation is to do that which many of us have had to do: a quarter of a century of devoted, focussed and determined quaffing of ales, beers, lagers, stouts, etc. from draught, bottled, and cash-conditioned in pubs, bars, at home, in the homes of others, at home and abroad.

I feel that with such intense and thorough research, I am starting to get the hang of what names people tend to use for what drinks. I still have a few questions, though, so my quest continues...

(And the only conclusion I have come to so far is that if it comes from a large brewery, I probably won't enjoy it very much.)

Reply to
Simon Reed

Get yourself some good recipe books, or Ray Daniels "Designing Great Beers". Look through the BJCP guidelenes, and when you see a beer style that looks interesting, go gte some of the commercial examples of it listed in the style guidelines. Drink the beer while you read the guidelines and try to see if you can taste what's mentioned there. Then, look up various recipes for the style and see what components contribute the flavors you tasted.

----------->Denny

-- Life begins at 60...1.060, that is.

Reply to
Denny Conn

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