To understand the differences among beers and their many iterations, it helps to learn the characteristics of a few major styles and how they fit into two categories.
All beer falls into two styles: ales and lagers. The major difference between types of beer comes down to the type of yeast used to ferment it. A beer can qualify as either a lager or an ale, depending on the fermenting process. In lagers (saccharomyces pastorianus), yeast gathers at the bottom of the tank during fermentation and lagers can age for months between 32–45°F. Lagers are usually crisp, clean and refreshing. With ales (saccharomyces cerevisiae), the yeast gathers toward the top. These beers are aromatic and often fruity. Ales age for just a few weeks at around 40–55°F. The yeast in ales has a higher tolerance for alcohol than the yeast used in lagers.
The Many Ale Styles
India pale ale (IPA) is the most popular craft beer style today. Its calling card is hops, a plant related to the marijuana family, cannabaceae. It imparts aromas and flavors like citrus, spice, tropical fruits, pine and berries.
West Coast or American IPA varieties, are known for bitterness, as hops are added during the hot side of the brewing process.
New England-style IPA (NEIPA) uses hops during fermentation, as opposed to in the boil. That cuts down on bitterness and gives the hops juicier aromas. This style is often brewed with oats and wheat. They’re also unfiltered, which gives them a hazy appearance. Some are brewed with lactose and fruit purée to create a “milkshake” taste.
Imperial or Double IPAs are hopped more aggressively and have a higher alcohol-by-volume (abv) content.
Pale ales are usually lower in abv and hops than an IPA. They have a more balanced malt character, characterized like a biscuit-like flavor. Many consider Sierra Nevada Pale Ale a benchmark of the style.
Stouts are dark-colored ales made with roasted barley that impart chocolate or coffee flavors. Some are aged in Bourbon or other wood barrels for deeper and boozier character. Guinness, a dry Irish stout, is the world’s most popular stout, known for its nitro pour with cascading carbonation effect and a fuller, softer mouthfeel.
Other stouts include imperial, which is higher in alcohol and flavor; milk stouts, brewed with lactose; and pastry stouts, which include adjunct ingredients like cakes and pies as well as candy and fruit purées.
Traditional porters, which can trace their roots to the United Kingdom, are dark in color like stouts due to common ingredients like chocolate or other dark-roasted malts. Porters tend to taste less like coffee than stouts, with more of a chocolatey feel.
Sours, are ales that are tart, thanks to a dose of lactobacillus during the brewing process. Within the category are kettle sours and Berliner weisse beers, which are often blended with fruits that add a balance of sweetness.
Wheat beers, like hefeweizen, witbier, dunkelweizen and American wheat, are brewed with a generous amount of the grain, which adds body and flavor. Allagash White is a world-class example of a witbier.
A gose is a wheat ale brewed with salt, which gives it a savory character. It can also be blended with fruits.
The Many Lager Styles
Lager is the most popular beer style in the world and are a typical entry point into beer for new drinkers. Budweiser, Coors Light, Corona and Michelob Ultra are all lagers. These come from large beer producers, which accounts for roughly 87% of the beer marketplace in the U.S. Many craft brewers now create their own lagers to compete with these titans. In the early days of the craft beer movement, many brewers did not have the time, equipment or space to make lagers.
A Pilsner is an easy-drinking, highly carbonated lager that gets its slightly spicy note from hops. It’s named after the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic, which popularized the style. One of the region’s most famous exports is Pilsner Urquell.
A Helles is a malt-forward lager, with crisp, cracker-like notes. It’s not sweet, and it has a low-hop bitterness on the finish.
Mexican lagers are brewed with flaked corn, or maize. Thanks to the marketing behind Corona, the world’s most famous Mexican lager, the style is often served with lime, or flavored with it.
A Vienna lager is made with toasted malts that give it an amber color. Its clean flavor showcases that malt character, plus some hop spiciness.
One outlier is Kölsch, an ale fermented at lager temperatures. This clear, golden style hails from Cologne, Germany. It has a crisp yet fruity flavor.
We hope this helps you better understand all the differences in the beer styles. Cheers!
