4 minute read
Ten (Somewhat) Unrecognized Beer Styles
BY BY DAVID NUTTALL
o to any brewery taproom or decent pub and the
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first thing you may notice is the variety of beer available. It wasn't always that way.
When tiny cottage/farmhouse operations dominated brewing, they made what they could and rarely gave it a name. As brewing moved into the industrial age, beers were given a descriptive name (pale ale, hefeweizen, pilsner, etc.) to separate the different styles, but Big Brewing concentrated on volume over variety, so options were slim.
All this began to change with the advent of craft brewing in the 1980s. Inspired by Michael James Jackson’s The World Guide to Beer and home brewing, beer started to be classified into style categories. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) and the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) both developed style descriptors and guidelines for judging competitions with brewing specifications conforming to the different elements of beer such as appearance, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel, ingredients, history, and region of origin.
Both groups initially created around a dozen categories that represented the historic styles developed almost entirely in Europe over the previous couple of centuries. Along with the subcategories, this showcased about 60 different varieties. Because brewing constantly grows and evolves, these guidelines have been updated regularly over the past couple of decades. Currently, the 2021 BJCP style guidelines contain 34 categories with over 120 subcategories. The Brewers Association (who had merged with the AHA) currently has 98 categories listed, with over 115 subcategories for their Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Needless to say, variety is now our friend.
Nonetheless, there are even more styles that get don’t get official recognition. They usually get relegated into the “Specialty” or “Experimental” categories, which are depositories for the obscure. Eventually, they may graduate
Gto their own category if they become popular (see NEIPA 2011-present), or may disappear if they don’t (see Glitter Beer 2017-2019, hopefully). Such is the nature of the game. So in amongst all these hundreds of varieties lie the interlopers; those familiar style names neither group acknowledges. In honour of Culinaire’s 10th anniversary, here are ten informal styles that aren’t officially recognized by either the BJCP or BA, with a few examples you should be able to find in Alberta.
1. Oyster Stout - As recently as 2015, this used to be mentioned as a subset of the Sweet Stout subcategory. So named because the beer pairs well with oysters, not because it is an ingredient. However, now some craft breweries have been known to add oysters or its juice into a brew kettle to create something unique.
Dandy In The Underworld (no oysters) CSPC +822587 $14 (4-pack cans)
2. Milkshake IPA - A juicy IPA with a heavy dose of lactose to create a sweeter, thicker mouthfeel, usually with added fruit.
New Level Wizard’s Revenge CSPC +811503 $5 Hell's Basement The Yard series
3. Smoothie Sour - A sour version of #2 above, maybe opening the possibility for Milkshake Sours and Smoothie IPAs too?
Valley Brewing May Day series
4. Farmhouse Ale - Technically not a style, but a whole genre of beers still made all over Europe and adopted now by North American craft breweries. Usually each beer has a distinctive yeast, diverse ingredients, and unique brewing
and conditioning methods.
Valley Brewing Prairie Icon, CSPC +826990 $17-$18 (4-pack cans) Dandy Brewing A Magnificent Seven CSPC +858530 $19 (4-pack cans)
5. Kettle Sour - More of a process than a style. Sours can be made many ways, but the quickest method is to add bacteria to the wort in a kettle, reducing the time to sour the beer from months or years to as little as a day.
Blindman’s Dry Hopped Kettle Sour CSPC +830859 $18 (4-pack cans)
6. Mexican Lager - Craft brewers jumped on the popularity of light Latin American lagers, usually partly made with corn, to create what is actually a subset of the International Lager style.
Brewsters Mexcellent Cerveza CSPC +818787 $16-17 (6-pack cans)
7. Pastry Stout - Somewhere, a brewer thought beer should taste like dessert. Either by using malts and adjuncts which evoke those flavours, or simply throwing whole desserts into the kettle (yes, they do), the result remains the same.
Town Square Brewing White Wedding White Pastry Stout CSPC +822250 $19 (4-pack cans) Dandy My Only Qualification (Is as an Eater) CSPC +865813 $24 (4-pack cans)
8. Radler/Shandy - Almost everybody now knows what these beer and fruit juice combinations are, and almost every brewery makes one, even if only for the summer season. Officially though, they reside in the humble fruit beer category.
9. Italian Pilsner - A result of a happy accident, it's only been around for a couple of decades, so it has had little exposure. Separated from other pilsners by going through a dryhopping process.
Tailgunner Brewing Bella Rosa CSPC +859704 $13-14 (4-pack cans)
10. Session beers - "Session" has become beer-speak for "lower alcohol" so it can apply to any beer variety. The GABF created a Session Beer category in 2008; the BJCP treats the word as an adjective within multiple beer styles. Numerous examples exist in Alberta.
Note: Just as beer competition organizers may create whatever categories they wish for judging, brewers are allowed to name their beers whatever they want. It helps, however, if the name resonates with the general public.
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