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What Is a Beer Style, and How Many Are There?
The quick and confusing answer is: Depends on how you count. Everybody would agree that Weissbier, for instance, the unfiltered, yeast-turbid Bavarian wheat ale, known in North America mostly as Hefeweizen, is a "style." But what about Dunkelweizen, the dark version of Hefeweizen; or Kristallweizen, the clear, filtered version of Hefeweizen? Are these styles in their own right or just variations on a style? The same applies to the ubiquitous British pale ale with its fruity, floral hop flavor. Does this brew become a different style, for example an "American" pale ale, if it is assertively spiced up with a heavy dose of piney hops from Oregon or the State of Washington, or is an American pale ale just a subcategory of the broader original style? Likewise, is Doppelbock just a strong interpretation of the traditional Bavarian Bockbier, or is it a style in itself? And when does a "triple" Bock acquire its own stylistic identity rather than being just a super-strong Doppelbock? Depending on your approach to the hierarchy of beer classification, that is, your preferred "beer-taxonomy," the count of the world's beer styles may number just a few dozen or several hundred.
In terms of popularity, however, there is much less disagreement. There are about two dozen beer styles that are clearly in a class by themselves. These are the major beer styles that have gained considerable traction over time, are known by just about every beer lover in the world, and are on the shelves under many different brand names made by many different breweries. Fittingly, roughly half of these major beer styles are ales, the other half, lagers. About half of them, mostly the lagers, were invented in Germany, the other half on the British Isles. The only major beer style that was not invented in these two regions is the Bohemian Pilsner, the golden-blond lager that was first brewed in 1842 in the city of Pilsen, in what is now the Czech Republic. But even the Pilsner has German, specifically Bavarian, roots. The brew master who created the first Pilsner, Josef Groll, was a Bavarian, and the yeast he used was a traditional Bavarian lager yeast.
Perhaps the most common ale styles from the British Isles are, alphabetically: barley wine (a very strong ale), bitter, brown ale, India pale ale (IPA), Irish red ale, mild ale, old (or "stock") ale, pale ale, porter, Scotch or Scottish ale, and stout. The most common German ale styles are, undoubtedly, Altbier, Kölsch, and the many variations of Weissbier. The most common German lager styles—mostly Bavarian—are Bockbier, Doppelbock, Dunkel, Helles, Oktoberfest/Märzen, and Pils. Interestingly, the British/Irish beer culture has not produced a single indigenous lager style. Then there are the regional beer styles found throughout the world, brewed mostly just for local consumption. These range from fairly well known to utterly obsure. To these group belong such diverse brews as the coriander-flavored Wit wheat beer, the strong Trappist ale, and the spicy Bière de saion from Belgium, as well as the golden-red Vienna lager from Austria, the Finnish juniper-berry flavored Sahti ale, the Belgian cherry-flavored sour Kriek ale, the smoke-flavored Bavarian Rauchbier lager, and the sour and salty tasting Gose ale from Leipzig.
By far the most popular beer style in the world nowadays is the Pils or Pilsener lager style in all its variations. This style is now made in just about every country on earth, from China to Kenya to Costa Rice, to Canada, and even England. It is invariably golden to straw blond, well-filtered, mildly to strongly hopped, medium- to light-bodied, with a dry finish. Ninety percent of the world's beers, and virtually all mass-market beers are brewed the Pilsner way.
All of these beer styes are venerable, traditional jems of culinary culture. They have come down to us through the ages. These are classics to be emulated. Proven over time, they set the hallowed standard by which the art of brewing is judged. Modern brewers, however, especially artisanal or "craft" brewers, have added brand new beer styles to our selction. These often start out as highly experiemental beers at the creative frontier of brewing. Just as nouvelle cuisine once broke new ground in the culinary arts, "nouvelle brewing" has ventured into unexplored territory. The result is what is often called "extreme" beers—brews that are unusual by classic standards, but that push the envelope of beer-making in terms of alcoholic strength, hop-bitterness, and combinations of ingredients. Some of these "extreme" styles may rise and fall like fads, while others may some day take a firm hold and join the ranks of the classics. Who knows? After all, as with anything new, somebody had to be first!
In Germany, the most recent innovative beer style is Weissbierpils, or WeiPi for short, a new beer created by blending a traditional Pils and a traditional Weissbier partway through the fermentation process. The first release of this hybrid brew, half barley beer and half wheat beer, half ale and half lager, reached the market in 2005. Will it stand the test of time? Nobody knows.
