Beer Styles

95 styles

• Altbier

  Düsseldorf's amber-copper specialty, fermented with ale yeast but conditioned cold like a lager — "alt" refers to the old, pre-lager way of brewing.

• American Adjunct Lager

  The mass-market American standard: corn or rice lighten the grain bill, hops are minimal, and cold lager fermentation keeps everything scrupulously clean.

• American Amber / Red Ale

  An American craft staple built on caramel and toasted malt, balanced by citrus-and-pine American hops.

• American Amber / Red Lager

  An amber lager in the American mold — caramel and toasted malt up front, a clean lager finish behind, modest hops throughout.

• American Barleywine

  England's biggest ale rebuilt with American hops: massive toffee-caramel malt wrestling a serious resinous, citrus hop charge at 8–12%.

• American Black Ale

  Also known as black IPA or Cascadian dark ale: IPA-level American hops poured over a dark malt base.

• American Blonde Ale

  Craft brewing's welcome mat: pale, clean, lightly grainy-sweet malt with a soft fruit note and low bitterness.

• American Brown Ale

  The English brown ale recast in American terms: the same chocolate, caramel, and nut malt core, but with more hop aroma and bitterness — often citrusy — and…

• American Cream Ale

  A pre-Prohibition American hybrid: fermented warm like an ale, finished cold like a lager, often with a share of corn.

• American Double / Imperial IPA

  The IPA turned up: more hops, firmer bitterness, and 7.5–10% strength, with just enough malt sweetness to keep the structure standing.

• American Double / Imperial Stout

  The biggest American stout: intense dark chocolate, espresso, and dark fruit at 8–12% and beyond, often hoppier than its Russian imperial ancestor.

• American IPA

  The defining American craft style.

• American Lager

  A clean, pale, light-bodied lager in the American style — crisp, gently grainy malt, low hop presence, and a neutral, refreshing finish.

• American Light Lager

  The adjunct lager engineered further down: enzymes and adjuncts push attenuation high so calories and body drop.

• American Malt Liquor

  A stronger adjunct lager, typically 6–9%, brewed with corn and sugar adjuncts that ferment out fully.

• American Pale Ale

  The beer that launched American craft brewing — Sierra Nevada's 1980 original made Cascade hops famous.

• American Pale Wheat Beer

  The American wheat beer, fermented with clean ale yeast — none of the hefeweizen's banana and clove.

• American Pilsener

  The American read on pilsner.

• American Porter

  The porter revived and amplified by American craft brewers: more roast, more chocolate-and-coffee depth, and frequently a noticeable American hop presence over…

• American Session IPA

  An IPA's hop character at sub-5% strength: light body, dry finish, and plenty of citrus-tropical aroma without the alcohol.

• American Stout

  A stout with American attitude: assertive roast — coffee, dark chocolate — joined by noticeable citrus-pine American hops and a drier finish than English sweet…

• American Strong Ale

  A loose category for big American ales — usually 7% and up — that fit neither barleywine nor double IPA, with Arrogant Bastard as a founding example.

• American Wild Ale

  The catch-all for American sour and funky beers: wild yeasts and souring bacteria — Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus — often joined by barrel aging and…

• Belgian Dubbel

  A Trappist-born dark ale, codified at Westmalle, built on dark candi sugar and expressive Belgian yeast.

• Belgian IPA

  A collision of two traditions: American hop loads fermented with expressive Belgian yeast, or a tripel re-imagined with IPA hopping.

• Belgian Pale Ale

  Belgium's everyday session ale, at home in Antwerp cafés.

• Belgian Strong Dark Ale

  The broad family of big, dark Belgian ales: dark fruit, caramel, brown sugar, and spicy yeast over a warming 8–11% frame.

• Belgian Strong Pale Ale

  Deceptively pale and deceptively strong — the Duvel model.

• Belgian Tripel

  A strong golden Trappist style defined at Westmalle: spicy, peppery yeast phenols over citrus and pear fruit, lightened with candi sugar so the body stays lean.

• Berliner Weisse

  Berlin's tart session wheat beer: sharply lactic, lemony, bone-dry, and spritzy at a modest 3–4%.

• Bière de Champagne / Bière Brut

  A niche style finished like sparkling wine — some versions undergo remuage and dégorgement in true Champagne fashion.

• Bière de Garde

  Northern France's farmhouse "beer for keeping," traditionally brewed in the cool months and cellared.

• Bock

  A strong, malty German lager with roots in medieval Einbeck, later perfected in Munich.

• California Common / Steam Beer

  A Gold Rush-era San Francisco invention: lager yeast fermented at warm ale temperatures, born of brewing without refrigeration.

• Chile Beer

  Beer brewed with chile peppers, usually on a clean lager or pale ale base.

• Czech Pilsener

  The original pale lager, born in Pilsen in 1842 as Pilsner Urquell.

• Doppelbock

  Munich's "double bock," first brewed by Paulaner monks as liquid bread for Lent — names ending in -ator honor the original Salvator.

• Dortmunder / Export Lager

  Dortmund's industrial-era lager, brewed sturdy for the city's miners and steelworkers.

• Dunkelweizen

  The dark hefeweizen: the same banana-and-clove yeast character laid over caramel and bread-crust Munich malt.

• English Barleywine

  England's strongest ale tradition: deep toffee, dried fruit, and bready malt richness with restrained earthy hops, at 8–12%.

• English Bitter

  England's pub session beer, best from a cask: low carbonation, modest strength (3.2–4.8%), and earthy, floral English hops over biscuit and light caramel malt.

• English Brown Ale

  A gentle English classic — nutty, toffee-ish malt, low bitterness, a smooth and slightly sweet palate.

• English India Pale Ale

  The original IPA: a strong English pale ale brewed with a heavy hop charge, famously associated with the export trade to India.

• English Pale Ale

  The bottled, slightly stronger cousin of bitter, with Bass as the historical archetype.

• English Porter

  The 18th-century London original, named for the city's street and river porters.

• English Strong Ale

  The territory between best bitter and barleywine: rich toffee and fruitcake malt at a noticeable but manageable 5.5–8%.

• Euro Pale Lager

  The continental mass-market pale lager — Heineken, Carlsberg, Stella Artois.

• Extra Special / Strong Bitter

  The top of the bitter family — Fuller's ESB is the namesake.

• Flanders Oud Bruin

  East Flanders' sour brown ale, aged warm in steel tanks rather than oak — Liefmans is the reference.

• Flanders Red Ale

  West Flanders' wine-like sour, aged up to two years in oak foeders — Rodenbach is the benchmark.

• Flavored Malt Beverage

  A fermented malt base stripped of most beer character, then flavored and sweetened — Smirnoff Ice and its kin.

• Foreign / Export Stout

  Stout brewed strong for the export trade — Guinness Foreign Extra is the archetype, still hugely popular in Nigeria and the Caribbean.

• Fruit and Field Beer

  The broad category for beers brewed with fruit, vegetables, herbs, or other garden ingredients, on base styles from wheat ale to stout.

• Fruit Lambic

  Lambic refermented on whole fruit — cherries for kriek, raspberries for framboise.

• German Pilsener

  Germany's leaner interpretation of the Czech original: paler, drier, and more bitter, with a crisp herbal-floral noble hop snap and brilliant clarity.

• Gose

  A revived German wheat sour from Goslar and Leipzig, brewed with coriander and a measured dose of salt.

• Gueuze

  The champagne of the lambic world: young and old spontaneously fermented lambics blended and refermented in the bottle.

• Hard Iced Tea

  A flavored malt beverage styled after iced tea: tea flavor and sweetness over a neutral fermented base, typically 4–6%.

• Hard Lemonade

  Lemonade built on a neutral fermented malt base — sweet, tart, and uncomplicated, usually 4–6%.

• Hefeweizen

  Bavaria's unfiltered wheat beer, where the banana and clove flavors come entirely from the yeast — nothing is added.

• Honey Beer

  Beer brewed with honey, which mostly ferments out — leaving a floral, delicate honey aroma rather than outright sweetness unless it's added late in the process.

• India Pale Lager

  IPA hopping on a clean lager chassis.

• Irish Cream Ale

  A smooth Irish ale built around a creamy texture, usually from a nitrogen pour — Kilkenny is the familiar example.

• Irish Dry Stout

  The Guinness template: roasted barley delivers the near-black color and a dry, coffee-like roast bite, while the body stays light and the strength modest at…

• Irish Red Ale

  An easy-drinking Irish session ale defined by caramel and toffee malt with a signature dry, faintly roasty finish from a small dose of roasted barley.

• Japanese Rice Lager

  Japan's take on the pale lager, with rice lightening the body and drying the finish — Asahi Super Dry and Sapporo set the standard.

• Kellerbier / Zwickelbier

  Franconia's "cellar beer": unfiltered, unpasteurized lager served young, in spirit straight from the lagering vessel.

• Kölsch

  Cologne's protected specialty, brewed by convention within the city: fermented with ale yeast, then lagered cold.

• Kristalweizen

  Hefeweizen, filtered bright: the same banana-and-clove yeast character in a cleaner, lighter, crisper expression with sparkling clarity.

• Lager

  The umbrella for all bottom-fermented beer.

• Lambic - Unblended

  Raw, spontaneously fermented wheat beer from Brussels and the Pajottenland, aged in barrels and served still or nearly so — traditionally young, from the cask,…

• Low Alcohol Beer

  Non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beer, from under 0.5% up to a couple of percent.

• Maibock / Helles Bock

  The pale spring bock, traditionally tapped in May.

• Märzen / Oktoberfest

  Brewed in March, lagered cold through summer, and tapped for Oktoberfest.

• Milk / Sweet Stout

  An English stout sweetened with lactose, the unfermentable milk sugar — once marketed as nourishing "milk stout." Chocolate and roast ride a rounded, creamy…

• Munich Dunkel Lager

  Munich's original lager, dark from the days before pale malting was possible.

• Munich Helles Lager

  Munich's pale everyday lager, created at Spaten in 1894 to answer the pilsner.

• New England IPA

  The hazy IPA, born in Vermont in the 2010s — The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, and Tree House set the model.

• Oatmeal Stout

  A stout smoothed with oats, which add silkiness and body more than flavor.

• Old Ale

  An English strong ale defined by age: months or years of maturation — sometimes with Brettanomyces or oak — layer vinous, leathery, dried-fruit notes over a…

• Pilsner

  The umbrella for pale, hop-forward lagers — the most imitated beer style on earth.

• Pumpkin Ale

  The American autumn seasonal, usually an amber ale base with pumpkin and pie spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove.

• Quadrupel (Quad)

  The biggest rung of the Trappist ladder at 9–13%.

• Rauchbier

  Bamberg's smoked lager, made with malt kilned over beechwood.

• Russian Imperial Stout

  The strong stout brewed in 18th-century London for export to the Russian imperial court.

• Rye Beer

  Beer with rye replacing part of the barley, lending a spicy, peppery grain bite and a slightly slick, full texture.

• Saison / Farmhouse Ale

  Wallonia's farmhouse ale, originally brewed for seasonal farm workers.

• Schwarzbier

  Germany's "black beer": as dark as a stout, as light as a lager.

• Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy

  Scotland's strong ale, the "wee heavy." Deeply malty — caramelized, toffee-rich, full-bodied — with hops barely present and a warming 6.5–10% strength.

• Scottish Ale

  Scotland's traditional session beer, historically sold by shilling ratings (60/-, 70/-, 80/-).

• Stout

  The umbrella for the dark, roasted family — from 4% Irish session stouts to 12% imperials.

• Tart Wheat Ale

  A modern catch-all for soured wheat beers that don't follow the Berliner weisse or gose templates.

• Vienna Lager

  Anton Dreher's 1841 creation: Vienna malt gives an amber-red color and an elegant toasty, bread-crust flavor with a clean, dry finish and modest noble hops.

• Weizenbock

  The wheat beer at bock strength, roughly 7–9%.

• Witbier

  The Belgian white: unmalted wheat brightened with coriander and dried orange peel.