Crisp & refreshing

A pale lager produced at or near zero alcohol, now the largest and most refined part of the no-alcohol category.

A low-strength Polish wheat beer brewed entirely from oak-smoked malt: light, sharply hopped, very fizzy and unmistakably smoky.

The Czech everyday lager: lower in strength than the premium version but keeping the soft bready malt and generous Saaz hopping.

A very light, highly attenuated pale lager brewed with a substantial proportion of maize or rice, prioritising drinkability and cold service.

Dry, peppery and highly carbonated, with a bracing finish — the most refreshing thing strong beer does.

A low-strength Walloon farmhouse ale, historically brewed for miners — dry, wheaty and gently peppery.

A modern British cask style: pale, crisp and citrus-hopped, developed to win drinkers back from lager.

A gentle, approachable pale ale with soft malt sweetness and restrained hopping — often a brewery’s entry-level beer.

The global mainstream lager: pale, clean, lightly hopped and built for consistency and refreshment above flavour intensity.

A commercially-produced dark lager, light in body and gently sweet, with colour contributing more than flavour.

A wheat beer fermented with clean American yeast: soft body and lasting head, without the banana and clove.

A lightly sour German wheat beer with added salt and coriander — tart, savoury and unusually thirst-quenching.

The original pale lager: rich bready malt, generous Saaz hopping and a rounded bitterness that soft Bohemian water makes possible.

A light, commercially-produced amber lager, most familiar in its Mexican form, with gentle caramel over a crisp body.

An American hybrid: ale-fermented then cold-conditioned, producing a smooth pale beer close to a lager in character.

A filtered Weissbier: the same banana-and-clove character in a brilliantly clear beer with a lighter, crisper body.

Pale, dry and firmly bitter, with a crisp finish and a spicy-floral noble hop character — Germany’s answer to the Bohemian original.

Nearly black but remarkably light on the palate: smooth roast, clean lager finish and none of the heaviness the colour suggests.

Cologne’s pale hybrid beer: ale-fermented then lagered, giving lager clarity and crispness with a whisper of fruit.

An amber lager built on gently kilned Vienna malt: toasty and lightly sweet, but finishing clean and dry.

A reconstruction of the American lager brewed before Prohibition: fuller, more bitter and more characterful than what replaced it.

The beer that defined American craft brewing: clean pale malt under bright citrus and pine hop character, balanced rather than extreme.

A highly carbonated, bottle-conditioned Australian pale ale, fruity and dry, traditionally poured to rouse its yeast.

A Belgian wheat beer brewed with unmalted wheat, coriander and orange peel — soft, hazy, citrusy and lightly spiced.

Lager yeast fermented warm in the Californian manner, producing a clean amber beer with woody, minty hop character.

Unfiltered, gently carbonated lager served young from the cellar, with a soft yeasty fullness filtration removes.

Bavaria’s everyday pale lager: soft, bready and malt-forward, with just enough hop to balance and nothing to distract.

A pale lager sitting between Helles and Pils: fuller and firmer than the first, softer and less bitter than the second.

A lager hopped at IPA intensity: clean cold fermentation carrying bright American hop aroma and firm bitterness.

The golden, stronger lager actually served at modern Oktoberfest — malt-forward and smooth, but pale rather than amber.

A lean, dry IPA fermented with lager yeast at higher temperature, using maize or rice to strip body and expose hop aroma.