Beer Styles

This unit will beautifully culminate the previous chapters that has been discussed up to this point. The availability of ingredients such as barley, hops and water effect the final outcome of a beer. Geography impacts the contributions to these ingredients. Differences in process and technological advances has made not just in the individual brewer but on the brewing industry as a whole. Importing and exporting beer has led to demands of continuity for various styles of beer. Colonization and migrations have led to introductions of beer ingredients and processes that have impacted beer as we know it today. 
All of these factors have built up the library of beer style available to us. So with all these factors impacting the availability how do we go about describing the beer we drink? Do we want to characterize a beer? Does pigeon holing a beer style make it more or less appreciable?
As mentioned there are a lot of factors that go into making a beer. We differentiate one beer from another by taking all those factors into consideration. This is a process that has culminated over several decades and standards for this process have made inroads to developing other styles as well as popularizing styles. It all boils down to one thing. Communication. 
Definition of an element is necessary to qualify it. Why is this important to us and the brewer? When we go to a restaurant and have a fabulous meal and we want to have the same meal what do we do? The server gives us a menu and we browse through it to find the dish. When we ask for the dish and the server brings us something different how does that effect our dining experience. Stylistically speaking this is the language that is most important between brewer and consumer. Our experience has led us to expectations. 

Volumes and series have been written about beer origins. It would be impractical to compile everything ever said or written on every beer style. 

Here is a thumbnail sketch of those categories and sub categories. It cannot go without saying that the tireless dedication and hard work of the people who have developed the styles into usable formats over the year are members of the Beer Judge and Certification Program and the Brewers Association.

The standard of these programs is held to around the world by brewers and competitions around the world as the most universal and widely accepted program ever developed for the industry. The standards follow a range that allow for artistic differences by the brewer so that even a single style may have multiple variations. 

Frequently availability of ingredients may play a role in the subtle differences between the same beer brewed by different brew masters. More often than not it is the artistic license hat calls for the variations that can be discerned by a trained palate.
Expressions such as I.B.U’s ( International Bittering Units), S.R.M.’s (Standard Reference Method), O.G. (Original Gravity), F.G. (Final Gravity), and A.B.V’s ( Alcohol By Volume) are not terms that the average consumer would use to describe beer but they are very important terms to the brewers as a means to make sure that you get what you asked for.
Beer styles are classified into major groups, Ales and Lagers. The primary difference contributing to these styles is yeast. There is a smaller group of beer style referred to as the Hybrids. In this chapter we will discuss briefly the families of style. Ales will be discussed first, then hybrids then Lagers.