Craft Beer 101- Beer Styles Part 1
While this may seem elementary, beer styles are extremely important for many reasons. The first being that a lot of time people will just order a pale ale thinking that is what they are getting, a pale colored ale. Which is true, but if they had a little more understanding, you would realize that you ordered a very mild, almost IPA. A pale ale, in definition is a beer made from lightly roasted malts that ends up making the beer light in color but the hops are still present, but we will go into more detail about that below. I have to give you a fair warning though, because there are many more styles of beer that I won’t go over, but hopefully this “beginner’s guide” will help you understand what is on the menu!
The first thing you need to understand is that there are two main styles of beer, a lager and an ale. The difference between them is the way they are brewed and what they are brewed with. In simple terms, ale is brewed with yeast that floats at the top of the vat and a lager is going to be brewed with yeast that sits at the bottom and is brewed at a much lower temperature.
Starting out our beer adventure, I want to start with the all too familiar Pilsner and Pale
Lager/Pilsner: This is what I like to call the light beer category, this is where your Coors Lights, Bud Lights, and Keystones fall in the beer scale. You should be careful here because a Pilsner at a craft beer spot might mean something different than a Pilsner you find at a sports bar. If you are looking for something like a Bud Light or Coors Light you can use words like light, easy drinking, mild, and not hoppy. We have a beer that we have on tap called a Rodeo Cold, out of New Mexico and it is what all the old folks want to drink because everything else is too “foo-fooey”. I always get a kick out of that! On the other side of the Pilsner spectrum is something like the Warsteiner Premium Verum out of Warstein, Germany. This is also considered a Pilsner, but has very present hops in its flavor. The description of this beer has terms like European Hops and an herbal bite. This is not a beer I would recommend for a light beer drinker!
Pale Ale: Note the style change here, we aren’t talking about a lager anymore, we are talking about an ale, which is brewed with yeast that sits at the bottom of a vat and ferments at a lower temperature. You are going to get a lot more flavor with this style of beer and by flavor I mean, mild hops. It is almost like a baby IPA, you aren’t going to any crazy notes of pine or grapefruit, but it was definitely be more than what you are used to if you are a light beer drinker. Some personal Pale Ale favorites would include the Deschutes Mirror Pond, from the brewery’s description it is a crisp, single-hop pale ale with floral and citrus notes from 100% Cascade hops and a smooth caramel malt character. In plain English, this is about what I mentioned earlier, by hitting those hoppier notes but not being overwhelming.
Make sure to stay tuned for the next part in this great series! More to come!
