Beer Styles

Beers come in many different styles from around the globe so for quick referencing here is a list as published by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP):

1. LIGHT LAGER
1a. Lite American Lager
1b. Standard American Lager
1c. Premium American Lager
1d. Munich Helles
1e. Dortmunder Export

2. PILSNER
2a. German Pilsner (Pils)
2b. Bohemian Pilsener
2c. Classic American Pilsner

3. EUROPEAN AMBER LAGER
3a. Vienna Lager
3b. Oktoberfest/Märzen

4. DARK LAGER
4a. Dark American Lager
4b. Munich Dunkel
4c. Schwarzbier (Black Beer)

5. BOCK
5a. Maibock/Helles Bock
5b. Traditional Bock
5c. Doppelbock
5d. Eisbock

6. LIGHT HYBRID BEER
6a. Cream Ale
6b. Blonde Ale
6c. Kölsch
6d. American Wheat or Rye Beer

7. AMBER HYBRID BEER
7a. Northern German Altbier
7b. California Common Beer
7c. Düsseldorf Altbier

8. ENGLISH PALE ALE
8a. Standard/Ordinary Bitter
8b. Special/Best/Premium Bitter
8c. Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

9. SCOTTISH AND IRISH ALE
9a. Scottish Light 60/-
9b. Scottish Heavy 70/-
9c. Scottish Export 80/-
9d. Irish Red Ale
9e. Strong Scotch Ale

10. AMERICAN ALE
10a. American Pale Ale
10b. American Amber Ale
10c. American Brown Ale

11. ENGLISH BROWN ALE
11a. Mild
11b. Southern English Brown
11c. Northern English Brown Ale

12. PORTER
12a. Brown Porter
12b. Robust Porter
12c. Baltic Porter

13. STOUT
13a. Dry Stout
13b. Sweet Stout
13c. Oatmeal Stout
13d. Foreign Extra Stout
13e. American Stout
13f. Russian Imperial Stout

14. INDIA PALE ALE (IPA)
14a. English IPA
14b. American IPA
14c. Imperial IPA

15. GERMAN WHEAT AND RYE BEER
15a. Weizen/Weissbier
15b. Dunkelweizen
15c. Weizenbock
15d. Roggenbier (German Rye Beer)

16. BELGIAN AND FRENCH ALE
16a. Witbier
16b. Belgian Pale Ale
16c. Saison
16d. Bière de Garde
16e. Belgian Specialty Ale

17. SOUR ALE
17a. Berliner Weisse
17b. Flanders Red Ale
17c. Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin
17d. Straight (Unblended) Lambic
17e. Gueuze
17f. Fruit Lambic

18. BELGIAN STRONG ALE
18a. Belgian Blond Ale
18b. Belgian Dubbel
18c. Belgian Tripel
18d. Belgian Golden Strong Ale
18e. Belgian Dark Strong Ale

19. STRONG ALE
19a. Old Ale
19b. English Barleywine
19c. American Barleywine

20. FRUIT BEER

21. SPICE/HERB/VEGETABLE BEER
21a. Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
21b. Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer

22. SMOKE-FLAVORED/WOOD-AGED BEER
22a. Classic Rauchbier
22b. Other Smoked Beer
22c. Wood-Aged Beer

23. SPECIALTY BEER

For a more in-depth look at the style guidelines, check out the BJCP Style Guidelines where you can get information on the aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, overall impression, ingredients, as well as vital statistics and commercial examples of each style.

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A Different Era

(excerpt from my father’s memoir)

My first memories are from October 1946, but when it comes to food it starts around 1949. At this time, we were poor but rich from all that the earth was giving us.
We were eating seasonal vegetables (green beans, tomatoes, radishes, turnips, green peas, carrots, potatoes, kohlrabies, navy beans, kidney beans, cabbage and lettuce) as well as seasonal fruits (cherries, bigarreau cherries, plums, pears, apples, chestnuts, common medlar pomes and service tree pomes).
Living on a farm, we always had a supply of milk (therefore, we would make butter & cheese), eggs, poultry, rabbit and pig. We also ate goat, buck, and veal, also raised on the farm.

Food was preserved differently than it is today:
• Green beans were kept in earthenware pots with salt.
• Kohlrabies were stored in a silo with the beets reserved for the cattle.
• Navy and kidney beans were attached in a bunch and hung by their stems under a hangar. They were then shelled on demand.
• Cabbage was hung upside-down in a place near the cowshed.
• Potatoes remained in a pile but were limed (quicklime) to prevent sprouting.
(Note: Fruit preserves were made similarly to today’s techniques)

A major difference to today’s eating habits was the fact that we would eat the same food (especially vegetables) several times a day through the duration of the harvest.
For instance, green beans for lunch and dinner: as an appetizer with vinaigrette and as a main course cooked with butter or with a white sauce. This would go on for 3 months alternating with some other vegetable.

Example of daily meals for an adult in the 50’s:
Breakfast: soup (left-over from the night before), omelet or chansiau (cake cooked in a skillet), cheese, coffee, and “goutte” (digestif)
Lunch: soup or rice cooked in milk, vegetables with meat (usually chicken left-over from Sunday), cheese, and fruit
Dinner: soup, chansiau, lettuce, and cheese

A few variants of soups of this time:
Basic: Cooking juices of cabbage & kohlrabi (vegetables were removed and used in the main course) with pieces of bread. To add flavor, a fricassée of garlic was thrown in the cooking juices.
Soupe panade: boiled bread with salted water.
Soupe au vin: same as “Soupe panade” with the addition of wine.
Soupe au lait: pieces of bread added to boiled milk.

The culinary evolution slowly took place according to incomes, children’s ages, skills of my sisters (who were enrolled in a caregiver program and followed cooking classes).

After 1955, weekday meals consisted of:
Breakfast: soup, coffee with milk or hot chocolate with milk, fried eggs or fresh or cured herrings (bought in small barrels for the winter) with raw onions
Lunch: rice cooked in milk, French fries, lettuce, and cheese
Dinner: soup with tapioca or vermicelli or made with seasonal vegetables, fried eggs or chansiau with pickles, and cheese
During the summer, bread soaked in milk or wine would be served for dinner.

On the weekends we always had poultry with either mashed potatoes or pasta. Also my sisters would make cakes (biscuit de Savoie, baba au rhum, savarin, tarte…); they all had their specialty.

Around 1960 we were able to buy meat on Wednesdays (pork rind, liver and beef tripe). It was often paired with boiled potatoes (sometimes eaten lukewarm with cottage cheese or used in an omelet). The left-over potatoes were then diced and sautéed with onions the day after.

As a child, the 4pm snack often consisted of a slice of bread (pain de 4 livres) with either 2 cubes of sugar, 1 square of chocolate, some butter and chocolate shavings, fruit preserves or some cheese.

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