Beer styles

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

A rich amber lager brewed in March for autumn drinking, with deep toasty malt and a clean, firm finish.

Deep brown Bavarian lager led by rich Munich malt — bready and gently chocolatey, without real roast bitterness.

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

A Bohemian amber lager balancing caramel malt against Saaz hop character, sitting between the pale and dark Czech beers.

A dark Bohemian lager richer and sweeter than its German counterparts, with caramel and light roast over a soft body.

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

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

A strong, dark, malt-dominated lager with deep bread-crust and toasty character and only enough hop to keep it from being sweet.

A pale, strong lager with the body of a bock but a brighter, more hop-balanced character — traditionally a spring beer.

Intensely malty strong lager, dense with bread crust, caramel and dark fruit, and remarkably clean for its strength.

A doppelbock concentrated by partially freezing it and removing the ice, intensifying malt, body and alcohol together.

The everyday British cask ale: low in strength, gently bitter, and built to be drunk in pints over a whole evening.

A step up from ordinary bitter in strength and depth, with more malt body while staying firmly sessionable.

The strongest of the bitters, with pronounced malt richness, firm bitterness and noticeable fruit from warm fermentation.

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

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

The bottled British pale ale tradition: biscuity malt, earthy and floral English hops, and a firm, dry, mineral finish.

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

Caramel malt depth meeting American citrus hops — the maltier counterpart to American pale ale.

An easy-drinking malt-led ale with caramel sweetness and a distinctive dry, faintly roasty finish.

An everyday Belgian ale, toasty and biscuity, with restrained yeast character compared with the stronger Belgian styles.

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

The original IPA: a strong, firmly bitter English pale ale with earthy, floral hop character and a dry, mineral finish.

The defining modern craft beer: intense citrus, tropical and resinous hop aroma over a lean malt base, finishing firmly bitter.

The dry, clear, aggressively bitter interpretation of American IPA, built on pine and grapefruit with the malt stripped right back.

Hazy, soft and intensely aromatic: tropical and stone fruit hop character with deliberately low bitterness and a full, juicy body.

IPA hop intensity at a strength you can drink several of — lean, dry and aromatic, with the malt kept minimal.

IPA scaled up: more strength, more hops and more bitterness, while staying dry enough to remain drinkable.

An IPA with dark malt for colour and a light roast edge, keeping full citrus and pine hop character.

An IPA built on caramel and amber malt, where toffee depth sits underneath full American hop character.

A hybrid of witbier and IPA: wheat and Belgian yeast spice underneath American hop aroma.

American hop intensity fermented with expressive Belgian yeast, producing pepper and fruit alongside citrus and pine.

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

A hazy IPA with lactose and fruit added for sweetness and a fuller, creamier body.

A low-strength dark British ale, gently sweet and nutty, built for drinking in quantity after physical work.

A malt-led brown ale with hazelnut and caramel character, moderate strength and a dry, clean finish.

A brown ale with American hop character: chocolate and caramel malt met by citrus and pine.

Malt-forward Scottish ales with caramel depth and very restrained hopping, traditionally graded by shilling price.

A low-strength, notably sweet dark brown ale from London, now largely extinct as a commercial style.

A quick-turnaround dark American beer brewed largely from maize, often lightly soured, extinct since Prohibition.

The original dark British beer: chocolate and light coffee over a nutty malt base, restrained rather than aggressive.

A stronger, more assertive porter with deeper roast, firmer bitterness and often American hop character.

A strong dark lager descended from exported English porter: deep roast and dark fruit, remarkably smooth for its strength.

Sharp roasted-barley bitterness over a light body and a very dry finish — much lighter to drink than its colour suggests.

A stronger, fuller dry stout with more malt depth and body while keeping the sharp roasted-barley character.

A stout sweetened with lactose, giving chocolate and cream character over a full body and gentle roast.

A stout brewed with oats for a silky, full mouthfeel, balancing roast against smoothness rather than sweetness.

A strong export stout, more intense in roast and body than a dry stout, historically brewed to travel.

A strong, sweet, fruity stout brewed for tropical markets, with less roast bite than its Irish relatives.

A bold, hop-forward stout combining strong espresso roast with American citrus and pine hop character.

The strongest stout: dense, viscous and intensely roasted, with dark fruit, chocolate and substantial alcohol warmth.

A heavily adjuncted sweet stout built to taste like dessert, using lactose, vanilla, cocoa and similar additions.

A strong, intensely malty Scottish ale with deep caramel and dried fruit and almost no hop presence.

A matured English strong ale with dried fruit, treacle and often a trace of oxidative or wild character from age.

A broad category of strong English ales, malt-led and fruity, sitting between strong bitter and barley wine.

The strongest traditional English ale: dense malt, dried fruit and marmalade, built to be kept for years.

A strong malt-dense ale with assertive American hop bitterness and citrus-pine aroma alongside the caramel depth.

Bavarian wheat beer defined by its yeast: pronounced banana and clove over a soft, cloudy, highly carbonated body.

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

A dark Bavarian wheat beer where banana and clove meet bread crust and light caramel from Munich malt.

A strong wheat beer combining Weissbier yeast character with bock malt depth — banana and clove over dark fruit and bread.

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

A German rye beer, spicy and full-bodied, fermented with Weissbier yeast for banana and clove alongside rye’s pepper.

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

A moderately strong golden Belgian ale, soft and lightly sweet, with gentle yeast fruit and spice and a dry finish.

The low-strength pale beer brewed for the monastery’s own table, dry and hoppy with full Belgian yeast character.

A dark Belgian ale rich in raisin, plum and caramel from dark candi sugar, dry-finishing despite its sweetness of flavour.

A strong pale Belgian ale that is simultaneously rich and dry, with pepper, orchard fruit and a sparkling, deceptive drinkability.

Pale, very dry and highly carbonated, with intense pepper and fruit and a strength its lightness completely conceals.

The strongest of the Belgian dark ales: raisin, fig and dark caramel over substantial warmth, with a surprisingly dry finish.

A very low-strength everyday Belgian beer, historically served with meals including in school canteens.

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 malty, rounded French farmhouse ale brewed for keeping — richer and less peppery than its Belgian saison cousin.

A Finnish farmhouse ale filtered through juniper branches and fermented with baking yeast — banana, juniper and no hops.

A very low-strength sour wheat beer: sharply lactic, bone dry, lightly sparkling and enormously refreshing.

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

Spontaneously fermented Belgian wheat beer, matured in oak for years — funky, acidic, dry and unlike any other beer.

A blend of young and old lambic, refermented in bottle — intensely complex, bone dry and Champagne-like in its carbonation.

Lambic refermented on whole fruit — traditionally sour cherry or raspberry — producing a dry, tart, intensely fruity beer.

A deep red sour ale matured for years in oak foeders, balancing sharp acidity against dark fruit and a vinous depth.

An East Flanders aged brown ale, maltier and less sharply acidic than Flanders red, with raisin and caramel depth.

A broad New World category of mixed-fermentation and barrel-aged sour beers, often fruited, with no fixed base style.

Beer soured with Lactobacillus in the kettle over hours rather than months, then boiled and fermented normally — usually fruited.

A Märzen-based lager brewed with beechwood-smoked malt — intensely smoky, often compared to bacon, over a clean malt base.

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

A historical Thuringian smoked wheat beer that is also lightly sour — an unusual combination of smoke and lactic acidity.

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

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

Düsseldorf’s copper-coloured hybrid: ale-fermented and cold-conditioned, with firm bitterness over nutty, toasty malt.

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

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

An alcohol-free wheat beer — often the most convincing of the category, because wheat body and yeast esters survive dealcoholisation well.

An alcohol-free beer built around heavy dry hopping, since hop aroma is added after fermentation and survives the process intact.

An alcohol-free dark beer where roasted grain does most of the work — one of the more successful conversions in the category.

A genuinely fermented British ale brewed at very low strength, keeping cask character without dealcoholisation.