Beer Fundamentals: Basics of Beer Styles - Ales

For the second installment of Beer Fundamentals, I thought we'd take a closer look at some common beer styles you're likely to come across at your average beer retailer or restaurant. As I stated in the first installment, Beer Classification, this is in no way meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather a simple overview of common styles and their respective characteristics in simple language. Hopefully, this overview will assist you in selecting a beer you're likely to enjoy when you're approaching a new (to you) style. The purpose of Beer Fundamentals is to help the beginner to better understand and appreciate the wonderfully wide world of better beer. If you happen to be an experienced beer aficionado, I'm sorry but this is likely to be somewhat remedial for you. But who can't use a refresher?

Let's begin with some of the basic styles of beer that fall under the ale category. Remember, ales are differentiated from lagers by the type of yeast used in brewing, the temperature at which the beer ferments, and the resulting flavor and aroma profiles in the beer itself. As you'll see, ales can be extremely dissimilar from one another in appearance, aroma, flavor and body. These are just a small sampling of the common ale styles you're likely to come across in your new journey into beer:

Amber Ale - Amber ales are generally fairly well balanced beers (balanced = malt/hop ratio), but lean toward the malty side if anything. Ambers are generally just that, "amber" in color, as you might guess. Amber ales can vary between 4.0 and 7.5% ABV (alcohol by volume). New Belgium's Fat Tire is an example of a typical amber ale.

Barleywine - A Barleywine isn't a wine at all, of course, but it is typically a very strong beer style. Barleywines are generally quite fruity and tend to be heavy on the palate. American barleywines are often also very high in bitterness (heavily hopped), while English varieties tend to be a bit more balanced or even malt dominant. Barleywines typically range between 8.0 -14.0% ABV. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is an example of an American-style barleywine.