Michael Jackson's Guide

Beer style is a term used to differentiate and categorise beers by various factors such as colour, strength, ingredients, production method or origin. The modern theory of beer style is based on the work done by Michael Jackson in his 1977 book The World Guide To Beer in which Jackson categorised a variety of beers from around the world in local style groups suggested by local customs and names. A selection of bottled beers A selection of cask beers Beer is the worlds oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. ... Michael Jackson (a. ...

History of beer style

The history of beer style would be the history of beer itself. The Alulu Tablet - a receipt for "best" ale found in Ur - shows that even in 2050 BC there was a differentiation between at least two different types or qualities of ale. While the work of Bedrich Hrozny on translating Assyrian merchants' tablets found in Hattusa, revealed that approximately 500 years later the Hittites had over 15 different types of beer. UR, Ur, or ur can refer to several things: The City of Ur Ur, the first known continent Royal Game of Ur Unreal the computer game Ur is the name of a minor Gnostic deity. ... Bedřich Hrozn (May 6, 1879 - December 12, 1952) was a Czech orientalist and linguist. ... Assyrian may refer to: List of Assyrian settlements Anything from Assyria, an ancient empire in Mesopotamia Anything from Assyria (Roman province), a province of the Roman Empire Assyrian people, a present-day Middle Eastern ethnic group Several Christian denominations: Assyrian Church of the East Assyrian Church of the Easts... The Lion Gate in the south-west Hattusa (also known as Hattusas or Khattushash) was the capital of the Hittite Empire. ... Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (Hittite URU) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century...

Documents in various countries over the years reveal comments on different local brewing methods or ingredients. Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia wrote about Celts brewing ale "in Gaul and Spain in a number of different ways, and under a number of different names; although the principle is the same." Anglo-Saxon laws reveal they identified three different ales. While the Normans mention cervisae (ale) and plena cervisia (full bodied ale) in the Domesday Book. Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ... Naturalis Historia Pliny the Elders Natural History is an encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder. ... A Celtic cross. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... The Normans (adapted from the name Northmen or Norsemen) were a mixture of the indigenous people of France and the Viking invaders under the leadership of Hrolf Ganger, who adopted the French name Rollo and swore allegiance to the king of France (Charles the Simple). ... Doomesday Book (also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester), was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William the Conqueror, that was similar to a census by a government of today. ...

By the 1400s brewers in Germany and the Low Countries were using hops to flavour and preserve their ale - this new style of ale was called beer. When this trend came to Britain and brewers of beer in Southwark, London started to take sales away from the traditional brewers of unhopped ale, there were complaints and protests. Various laws were passed favouring either beer or ale for a number of years, until hopped beer became the standard style throughout Europe. The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ... Hop flower in a Hallertau hopgarden Hops are the flowers of Humulus lupulus used as a flavouring and stability agent in beer with the first documented use in the eleventh century. ... The Borough or Southwark is an area of the London Borough of Southwark situated 1. ...

Also in the 1400s, brewers in Bavaria were storing beer in cool caves during the summer months in order to stop it spoiling. The ale yeast mutated into a slow fermenting lager yeast which allowed the beer to drop bright and remain stable. The beer became known as lager from the German name for store: lagern. This clean, light-bodied and stable lager style of beer initially became popular with brewers and drinkers in Germany and the Czech lands, then gradually spread over the globe. The Free State of Bavaria  (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... Lager is a style of beer brewed using a slow-acting lager yeast, commonly known as a bottom-fermenting yeast. ... Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia - 1892, then part of Austria-Hungary The Czech lands (in Czech: české země) is an auxiliary term used mainly for Bohemia + Moravia + Czech Silesia, today identical with the Czech Republic. ...

Although beers using malt dried naturally would have been pale, by the 1600s most malts in Europe would have been dried over a fire, and so become dark, resulting in a dark coloured beer. When coke started to be used for roasting malt in 1642, the resulting lighter coloured beers became very popular. By 1703 the term pale ale was starting to be used. In the mid 1800's Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and made the first pale lager. Malted barley Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate and then quickly dried before the plant develops. ... Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. ... Pale ale is a name given to beers using pale malts which are top fermented. ... Spaten Brewery is a Munich brewery now owned by Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe. ...

However, despite an awareness by commentators, law-makers and brewers that there were different styles of beer, it wasn't until Michael Jackson's World Guide To Beer was published in 1977 that there had been an attempt to group together and compare beers from around the world.

Jackson's book had a particular influence in North America where the writer Fred Eckhardt was also starting to explore the nature of beer styles. The wine importing company Merchant De Vin switched to importing beers mentioned in Jackson's book. Small brewers started up, producing copies and interpretations of the beer styles Jackson mentioned. And home-brewers started to construct recipes around the beers which eventually resulted in the formation in 1985 of the BJCP, an organisation originally set up to judge home-brewed beers brewed to specific styles but which eventually developed into something of a guide for American commercial brewpubs and craft brewers. The Beer Judge Certification Program or BJCP is a non-profit organization formed in 1985 to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. ... A brewpub is a combination restaurant and microbrewery that sells the majority of its beer on premises. ...

While North America developed beer styles into a serious study with fixed parameters of bitterness, colour, aroma, yeast, ingredients and strength, other counties continued to mainly categorise beers loosely by strength and colour, with much overlapping of naming conventions. Standard Reference Method or SRM is a system modern brewers use to measure color intensity or a beer. ...

Determining a beer's style

Historically the differentiation between beers produced by the same brewery or in the same locality has, from documentary evidence, been in terms of quality and strength. Traditional brewing methods involved using the first wash of the mash or grains to make a strong beer, and subsequent washings to make gradually weaker beer. Sometimes only two washes were done, but a third, mid-strength beer, could be made from mixing the strong and weak beers together.

Better quality and fresher ingredients make better quality beer, and this is a style differentiation that has remained constant from the earliest days of beer making.

The types of grain or starch based material used in making beer form the basis for another differentiation. The main grain used in Europe has been barley, though wheat is also used. In Africa beer has been made from sorghum, millet and cassava root. In South America the main grain was maize, though potato in Brazil and agave in Mexico have been used. In Japan rice is used to make sake. Russians used rye to make kvass. And so on. In modern brewing a mix of grains may be used. A barley and wheat mix is popular in Northern Europe, while a mix of barley and maize is a popular way of making pale lager in Third World countries. The American Budweiser lager is made from barley and rice. The word grain has several meanings, most being descriptive of a small piece or particle. ... Starch is a complex carbohydrate which is insoluble in water. ... Binomial name Hordeum vulgare L. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a major food and animal feed crop, a member of the grass family Poaceae. ... Species T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp. ... Species About 30 species, see text Sorghum is a genus of about 20 species of grasses, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Eastern Africa, with one species native to Mexico. ... Pearl millet in the field Ripe head of proso millet The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. ... Binomial name Manihot esculenta Crantz The cassava or manioc (Manihot esculenta) is a woody Shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrate. ... Binomial name Zea mays L. Maize (Zea mays ssp. ... Binomial name Solanum tuberosum L. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, commonly grown for its starchy tuber. ... Species Agave americana Agave fourcroydes Agave sisalana many others, see text Agaves are succulent plants of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae. ... Species Oryza glaberrima Oryza sativa Rice refers to two species (Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima) of grass, native to tropical and subtropical southeastern Asia and to Africa, which together provide more than one fifth of the calories consumed by humans. ... Sake barrels at Itsukushima Shrine Sake (é…’; pronounced IPA: ) is a Japanese alcoholic beverage, brewed from rice. ... Binomial name Secale cereale M.Bieb. ... Kvass (Russian: квас) (Ukrainian: квас) (leaven) is a fermented non-alcoholic or mildly alcoholic beverage popular in Russia, Ukraine other Eastern European countries. ... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ... The packaging plant at the Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. ...

Different flavourings, such as hops, herbs, fruit or lemonade differentiate beers, as well as the yeast, the amount of roasting or kilning the malt had, the filtering techniques used, and the packaging and serving method. In the UK a number of drinkers and commentators, influenced by CAMRA, differentiate between unfiltered beers, termed real ale, and filtered beers, often termed keg beer; additionally, beers which are force-carbonated, either in the packaging or during the serving, are classed apart from naturally carbonated beers. Hop flower in a Hallertau hopgarden Hops are the flowers of Humulus lupulus used as a flavouring and stability agent in beer with the first documented use in the eleventh century. ... This article is about the plants used in cooking and medicine. ... Fruit stall in Barcelona, Catalonia. ... This article is about the soft drink. ... Brewers yeast (also known as brewers yeast or brewing yeast) can mean any live yeast used in brewing. ... Filtered beer is beer which has been cleaned of significant contact with yeast. ... CAMRA (the CAMpaign For Real Ale) is an independent, voluntary, consumer organisation in the United Kingdom, with the main aim of promoting real ale and the traditional British pub. ... It has been suggested that Real ale brewing process be merged into this article or section. ... Filtered beer is beer which has been cleaned of significant contact with yeast. ... Keg Beer, in the United Kingdom, is a form of Bright Beer. ...

So the main differences in beer style can be summarised as strength, quality, colour and ingredients, with minor differences appplied to such matters as filtering and serving.

Pale barley-based beers

Barley ready to be kilned

The main beer style development and the overwhelming majority of beers produced globally are based on barley lightly kilned to produce a pale malt. The main flavouring ingredient for such beers is hops. The majority of such beers fall within a strength range of approximately 4% abv to 5.5% abv. When the strength of such beers starts to climb much above 6% they tend to be classed as strong, with a variety of style names to differentiate them from the average strength beers. Subject Malted (germinated) barley for Single Malt Scotch in the malting room at the Laphroaig distillery on Islay in Scotland. ... Subject Malted (germinated) barley for Single Malt Scotch in the malting room at the Laphroaig distillery on Islay in Scotland. ... Alcohol by volume (ABV) is an indication of how much alcohol (expressed as a percentage) is included in an alcoholic beverage. ...

Beers below 4% are common in North European countries where beer is consumed in large quantities, and such beers may be referred to as session beers or, in the UK, as a session bitter. Sweden has lower taxes for beer under 3.6%. Other countries have lower taxes at 2.8%, and the USA and nearly all European countries regard 0.5% as the point at which beer is regarded as a soft drink or non-alcoholic. Pale beers may be flavoured with lemonade or other soft drink to create a shandy, also known as panaché or radler, which would typically be under 2.8% for lower tax reasons or on the 0.5% borderline to be classed as both a beer and yet taxed and sold as a soft drink. Bitter is a loose term for a type of beer. ... A soft drink is a drink that contains no alcohol. ... N-alcoholic beer (NAB) is a slightly misleading term used to describe beer with very low alcohol content. ... Shandy is a cocktail drink with equal part beer and sparkling, non alcholic beverage (i. ...

Pale barley-based beers may use a mix of both lager and ale brewing techniques - Steam beer, Kölsch and some modern British Golden Summer Beers use elements of both lager and ale production. However the two main strands of these pale beers are: pale ales, produced through standard ale production methods, and pale lagers, produced through standard lager production methods. Steam beer may be defined as a highly effervescent beer made by brewing lager yeasts at ale fermentation temperatures. ... Kranz of Kölsch Kölsch Kölsch is a local beer speciality brewed in Cologne in Germany. ... Pale ale is a name given to beers using pale malts which are top fermented. ... (North) American lagers, as defined by the Association of Brewers, are a family of very pale to golden colored beers with light body and low to medium bitterness. ...

The hop flavouring of these pale beers varies considerably, and is seen by most observers as being a key indicator to differentiation. The pale lagers use aromatic hops, known as noble hops, and when such hops add significant flavour and aroma to the lagers they are normally classed as pilsener. British and Belgian pale ales mostly use earthy flavoured hop varieties such as Fuggle, Golding and Bullion. While North American pale ales mostly use citric and pine flavoured American hops such as Cascade, Columbia, and Willamette. There is, however, much cross over and blending of such hops. When the hop flavour and aroma becomes fairly intense the pale ales are normally classed as an IPA. The term Noble hops historically refers to 4 varieties of hops (specifically Humulus Lupulus) grown primarily in central Europe, especially Germany and Czechoslovakia. ... Pilsener or pilsner is a style of beer, developed in the city of Plzeň (Pilsen in German/English), Western Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ...

Pale ales

Main article: Pale ale

A modern ale is commonly defined by the strain of yeast used and the fermenting temperature. Pale ale is a name given to beers using pale malts which are top fermented. ...

A pint of ale

Strain of Yeast: An ale yeast is normally considered to be a top-fermenting yeast, though a number of British brewers, such as Fullers and Weltons, use ale yeast strains that settle at the bottom. Common features of ale yeasts regardless of top or bottom fermentation is that they ferment more quickly than lager yeasts, they convert less of the sugar into alcohol (giving a sweeter, fuller body) and they produce more esters (which give a fruity taste) and diacetyl (which gives a buttery taste). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... In its strictest sense fermentation (scientifically called zymosis) is the energy-yielding anaerobic metabolic breakdown of a nutrient molecule, such as glucose, without net oxidation. ... Fuller, Smith and Turner PLC is the full name of the brewery company better known simply as Fullers. ... Ray Welton of Weltons Brewery An independent brewery founded by Ray Welton in 1995 in Dorking. ... Magnified view of refined sugar crystals. ... In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl group (-OH) is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group. ... For the Biblical Ester, see Esther. ... Diacetyl is a natural by-product of secondary or malolactic fermentation. ...

Fermenting Temperature: Ale is typically fermented at higher temperatures than lager beer (15–23°C, 60–75°F). Ale yeasts at these temperatures produce significant amounts of esters and other secondary flavor and aroma products, and the result is a beer with slightly "fruity" compounds resembling but not limited to apple, pear, pineapple, banana, plum or prune.

Stylistic Difference to Lager: Stylistic differences between some ales and lagers can be difficult to categorize. Steam beer, Kölsch and some modern British Golden Summer Beers are seen as hybrids, using elements of both lager and ale production. While Baltic Porter and Bière de Garde may be produced by either lager or ale methods or a combination of both. However, commonly, lager is perceived to be cleaner tasting, drier and lighter in the mouth than ale. Lager is a style of beer brewed using a slow-acting lager yeast, commonly known as a bottom-fermenting yeast. ... Steam beer may be defined as a highly effervescent beer made by brewing lager yeasts at ale fermentation temperatures. ... The term Kölsch refers to: the top-fermented Kölsch beer brewed in and around Cologne, Germany the Kölsch dialect, spoken in Cologne, Germany This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Pale lagers

Main article: Pale lager

Lagers are the most commonly-consumed category of beer in the world. They are of Central European origin, taking their name from the German lagern ("to store"). (North) American lagers, as defined by the Association of Brewers, are a family of very pale to golden colored beers with light body and low to medium bitterness. ... Lager is a style of beer brewed using a slow-acting lager yeast, commonly known as a bottom-fermenting yeast. ... Regions of Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ...

A glass of lager

Lager yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast, and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7-12°C (45-55°F) (the "fermentation phase"), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0-4°C (30-40°F) (the "lagering phase"). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "crisper" tasting beer. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1029x1372, 312 KB) A lager beer in Víking glass (an Icelandic beer). ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1029x1372, 312 KB) A lager beer in Víking glass (an Icelandic beer). ... Bottom-fermenting yeast, usually of the species saccharomyces uvarum (also known as saccharomyces carlsbergensis), is one of the two types of yeast used in the brewing of beer, so called because when the fermentation process is complete it settles to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. ... General formula of an ester of a carboxylic acid. ...

Modern methods of producing lager were pioneered by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who perfected dark brown lagers at the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher, who began brewing a lager, probably of amber-red color, in Vienna in 1840–1841. With modern improved fermentation control, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically 1–3 weeks. Spaten Brewery is a Munich brewery now owned by Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe. ... The Free State of Bavaria  (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... This article lacks information on the subject matters importance. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Slovenian: Dunaj, Croatian and Serbian: Beč Romanian: Viena, Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya, Russian: Вена) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... take you to calendar). ...

Most of today's lager is based on the Pilsner style, pioneered in 1842 in the town of Plzeň, in the Czech Republic. The modern Pilsner lager is light in colour and high in carbonation, with a strong hop flavour and an alcohol content of 3–6% by volume. The Pilsner Urquell or Heineken brands of beer are typical examples of pilsner beer. Pilsener or pilsner is a type of lager beer. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Alcohol by volume (ABV) is an indication of how much alcohol (expressed as a percentage) is included in an alcoholic beverage. ... Main gate of the Pilsner Urquell brewery Pilsner Urquell in original glass Pilsner Urquell (in German) or Plzeňský prazdroj (in Czech) is a bottom-fermenting beer produced since 1842 in Plzeň, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). ... Heineken (or Heineken Brouwerijen) is a Dutch beer brewer, established in 1863 when Gerard Adriaan Heineken purchased a brewery in Amsterdam. ...

Spontaneous fermentation

Main article: Lambic

These are beers which use wild yeasts, rather than cultivated ones. All beer before the cultivation of yeast in the 19th century were closer to this style, characterised by their sour flavours. Traditional wooden Lambic barrels, the L on the barrel indicates the brewery. ... Human taste sensory organs, called taste buds or gustatory calyculi, and concentrated on the upper surface of the tongue, appear to be receptive to relatively few chemical species as tastes. ...

Bibliography

• Jackson, Michael - The World Guide To Beer 1977
• Cornell, Martyn - Beer - The Story of the Pint 2003
• Arnold, John - Origin and History of Beer and Brewing 1911
• Almqvist, Bo - The Viking Ale and the Rhine Gold 1965
• Eckhardt, Fred - The Essentials of Beer Style: A Catalog of Classic Beer Styles for Brewers and Beer Enthusiasts 1989
• Rhodes, Christine P. - The Encyclopedia of Beer 1995