Types of Beer Classification

Within the ale and lager classifications, major beer style categories include Pale Ales and Brown Ales (in the ale family) and Pilsners and Dark Lagers (in the lager family). And the majority of major beer style categories include several different beer sub-styles.

If you inquire of the average beer geek about the differences between ale and lager, you will probably be told that ale is brewed with top-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and lager with bottom-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum).

It's light in alcohol (Guinness barely exceeds 4% ABV, but other examples range from about 3.5-5%), bitter from a dose of roasted barley, and commonly served as a nitrogenated draft beer, which gives the pour a dense, creamy foam.

Within the ale and lager classifications, major beer style categories include Pale Ales and Brown Ales (in the ale family) and Pilsners and Dark Lagers (in the lager family). And the majority of major beer style categories include several different beer sub-styles.

Brown ale is a style of beer with a dark amber or brown colour. The term was first used by London brewers in the late 17th century to describe their products, such as mild ale, though the term had a rather different meaning than it does today. 18th-century brown ales were lightly hopped and brewed from 100% brown malt.

The Belgian Dubbel is a rich malty beer with some spicy / phenolic and mild alcoholic characteristics. Not as much fruitiness as the Belgian Strong Dark Ale but some dark fruit aromas and flavors may be present.

Dunkel, or Dunkles, is a word used for several types of dark German lager. Dunkel is the German word meaning dark, and dunkel beers typically range in color from amber to dark reddish brown. They are characterized by their smooth malty flavor.

Kentucky Common Beer is a once-popular style of ale from the area in and around Louisville, Kentucky from the 1850s until Prohibition. This style is rarely brewed commercially today. It was also locally known as Dark Cream Common Beer, Cream Beer or Common Beer.

Within the ale and lager classifications, major beer style categories include Pale Ales and Brown Ales (in the ale family) and Pilsners and Dark Lagers (in the lager family). And the majority of major beer style categories include several different beer sub-styles.

Märzen and Oktoberfest are far and away the featured representatives of the amber lagers, with true Vienna lagerbier far less common. Vienna is largely brewed as a year-round beer (Sam Adams Boston Lager, Sprecher Amber and Great Lakes Eliot Ness represent the style well).

The term "mild" originally meant young beer or ale, as opposed to "stale" aged beer or ale with its resulting "tang". In more recent times, it has been interpreted as having a low gravity or being "mildly hopped". This style of beer, originated in Britain in the 17th century or earlier, has a predominantly malty palate.

Old ale is a term commonly applied to dark, malty beers in England, generally above 5% ABV, also to dark ales of any strength in Australia. Sometimes associated with stock ale or, archaically, keeping ale, in which the beer is held at the brewery.

In addition to the two major beer classifications (ales and lagers), a third beer classification that’s an amalgam (more or less) of the first two is hybrid beer. Hybrid beers cross over ale and lager style guidelines.

Quadrupel is the brand name of a strong seasonal beer La Trappe Quadrupel brewed by De Koningshoeven Brewery in the Netherlands, one of the eleven Trappist beers. In other countries, particularly the United States, quadrupel or quad has become a generic trademark.

The Saison Renaud is an unfiltered, single malt, single hop beer brewed with pilsner malt and Saaz hops. “This is your World War II–era farmhouse ale, where I think [brewers] were probably starting to steal the yeast from the pilsner makers,” says Mystic’s Bryan Greenhagen.

Dark beer is just a classification of all of these types. Here is a link to the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) that has links to what each beer type should taste/look like.

Within the ale and lager classifications, major beer style categories include Pale Ales and Brown Ales (in the ale family) and Pilsners and Dark Lagers (in the lager family). And the majority of major beer style categories include several different beer sub-styles.