The most common styles of beer explained – lager

The most commons styles of beer explained – lager

Trying to find your way through all the types and styles of beer available on the market can sometimes seem endless. Recipes exist for more than 100 styles, and within these 100 styles, there are countless variations on offer. Craft breweries are known for their experiments in brewing, which blurs the defining lines of these styles and variations further still.

If you’re wondering who makes these definitions on styles like a lager, pilsner, India pale ale and stout, it’s the Beer Judge Certification Programme (BJCP). The BJCP issues guidelines for beer styles on nearly 100 types of beer, mead and cider. The majority of homebrewers out there make use of these guidelines to initiate their ideas for new recipes they’re developing.

The Brewers Association (BA) provides their version of guidelines too, which vary slightly from those of the BJCP. The BA’s definitions are what judges use at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and the World Beer Cup held twice a year. If you’re looking to increase your knowledge of the difference among popular beer styles and their numerous variations, learning the hallmarks of a few of the most common styles on the market and how they fit into particular categories will help.

Lagers and ales

All beer falls into one of two umbrella styles, those are lagers and ales. Yeast is what determines the difference between the two. In lagers, yeast collects at the bottom of the tank during the fermentation process. Lagers are usually crisp, clean and refreshing to taste. For ales, on the other hand, the yeast collects towards the top of tanks. These beers are most commonly fruity and aromatic. Other differentiating factors between lagers and ales are the temperature and timing. Ales generally age for a few weeks at approximately 40-55° Fahrenheit, while lagers age for months and usually at around 32-45° Fahrenheit.

Styles of lager

Lager is the most popular style of beer on the planet. Coors Light, Budweiser, Corona and Michelob Ultra are some household names of lagers that are familiar with non-drinkers. These beers come from large, multinational producers that make up around 87% of the beer market across the US.

Craft breweries across the country now create their unique versions of lagers and are a growing source of competition with these beer industry powerhouses. In the early days of what is considered the modern age of craft beer (the 1960s to present), most brewers didn’t have the equipment, time or space to make lagers.

Pilsners are easy drinking and highly carbonated lagers that get their slight spicy tone from the hops. They’re named after the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic, from which this style of beer originates. One of the most famous exports from the region is Pilsner Urquell.

A Helles is a malt-forward lager with crisp, cracker-like notes. They’re generally not sweet to taste and have a low-hop bitterness on their finish.

Mexican lagers are brewed with flaked corn or maize. This style of beer is most commonly served with a slice (or dash) of lime which derives from the marketing efforts of Corona that has popularised this beer style around the world.

Vienna lagers are produced with toasted malts to give the finished product an amber colour. Their clean flavours showcase this malt character and some spiciness from the hops.

Kölsch is one outlier in the lager category, which is technically an ale but fermented at typically lager temperatures. This golden, clear style originates from Cologne in Germany and has a crisp but fruity flavour.

Scratching the surface

This introductory article merely scratches the surface of the plethora of styles out there in the beer world. There are endless combinations of hops, new strains of yeast being experimented with all across the world, just about every ingredient you can think of, from herbs and spices to meat, fruit and vegetables being infused into the brewing process, and of course seasonal offerings from craft brewers almost everywhere.

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