I recently attended new beer tapping at one of my local brewpubs. As usual, I had a great time at the event and did my write up a day or so later. The brewmaster wrote back to me commenting on how I compared this beer to the BJCP guideline for the style. Long story short, he purposely doesn’t brew that specific beer to “style” but instead brews it to the palettes of his consumers. It’s one of his best selling beers so it’s a justifiable change. So that got me thinking about beer style guidelines; how useful they are, how limiting they can be and most of all, how divisive they are in the beer community.
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
The beer style guidelines I most refer to are those from the BJCP. As a BJCP judge, these form the backbone of the work we do. Part of the BJCP’s Mission Statement is to promote beer literacy and these guidelines help to do so.
The other set of guidelines I refer to less but are no less useful come from the Brewers Association. While the BA style guidelines are very similar those from the BJCP, there are major differences. The BA guidelines are more succinct; they are also organized with a greater focus on country of origin and historical consideration.
When initially developed, each set of guidelines had a specific objective they wanted to fulfill. Individually they are great resources but when used together, they paint a very comprehensive portrait of the world of craft beer.
As important as I think style guidelines are in providing a common language and context for craft beer, I have met more than a handful of brewers who aren’t too keen about them. Their resistance ranges from annoyance to declarations of evil! A major criticism is that style guidelines are restricting.
What are your thoughts regarding beer styles? Do you find them useful in defining a common ground by which we can all talk about beers in-depth? Do you think they’re restrictive and killers of the imagination?
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
I like this topic as I was thinking about it myself recently. As some may already know, I am actively avoiding any BJCP certification. My reasoning is that I want to avoid honing my ability to detect flaws in the beer in front of me and simply enjoy it. Ignorance is bliss after all.
On the topic of styles, I am pro- and anti-guidelines. My problem with BJCP or BA guidelines is that it finds a way to criticize a beer that is otherwise perfectly fine. The subtle difference between a Bohemian Pilsner and a German Pilsner matters if you’re specifically trying to brew a style, or looking at beer from a historic perspective, but from a beer drinker’s point of view it simply needs to taste good.
The use of guidelines reminds me of my time working at a music store through high school and college. At first, you had a handful of sections: Rock, R&B, Classical, Jazz, Country. Then there was a section for Rap; then Electronica, then the Jazz section was split, and so on and so forth. Eventually, there were so many sections and sub-sections that order was lost. Some bands would belong in multiple sections, making finding anything more difficult.
Beer can be the same way. If a brewery brews a beer exactly as they intended and it’s an excellent beer, but it falls between categories, that beer is punished by the powers that be. They will not bring home GABF hardware, they will not win anything at the World Beer Cup. Does this mean a beer is a lesser beer than some that win those medals? Does it mean a gold medal is the best beer or the beer that fell in line the best?
This is where I think the guidelines can hurt the awards themselves. Every year, brewers submit for GABF and World Beer Cup with hopes of winning, but you also hear the dismissal of the awards and the judging after the fact. Brewers will be biased, but there are always surprises among the winners where you wonder how that beer beat out some of the others in the same category. Granted, no system will make everyone happy, but should the best beers win the gold medals?
So do I say get rid of styles all together? Not at all. The 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines has 23 Categories and over 70 individual styles. How about drop the sub-categories, make it simple. Sure, some categories need a split between Imperial and otherwise, but that’s simple, find a dividing line according to strength and give a little in each direction (e.g. Stouts with ABV less than 8%, Imperial Stouts with ABV of 7.5% or more)
Styles can be helpful for an everyday beer drinker as well. Hand me a beer, say it’s a pale ale, I know what to expect. Sure, it could be an English pale or an American pale, but that can be left to the brewer to describe to the customer.
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
BJCP certification really isn’t for everyone, in reality it’s not for everyone. If you want to take an active role in the homebrew scene, then it might be something to look into. Being able to recognize flaws in beers is actually a good thing. How else would be able to know what good beers are or how to fix bad ones? Trust me when I say that it’s pretty easy to shut off the “beer analysis” part of the brain and just enjoy a beer. That being said, I think having a lexicon by which to describe beers goes a long way toward appreciation. I’d rather someone be specific when describing a beer as opposed to telling me, “It’s a’ight.” or “Meh.” or “Hella good!”. Why is the beer lackluster? Why is it good? I don’t need to know what the “original gravity” is or what the “apparent extract” or even what “SRM” the beer is at to enjoy it. A little too much information. That being said…
The whole reason we have beer styles today is because beer, like many other food products, are regional. They are a direct result of the ingredients available to local brewers and the techniques they’ve been taught and incorporate. A few insightful people in the craft beer community noticed this, drank a lot of beer, took detailed notes, drank more beer, refined those notes and did their best to categorize a vast body of information. If anything, blame the late Michael Jackson for this quagmire because it is through his notes that many of these beer style guidelines have been developed from. 
I’m glad you brought up the issue of competition and awards. I have to respectfully disagree with you in this matter. It is in these specific instances that style guidelines were developed. While I like your analogy of the record store as it relates to the organization of beer styles, I think a dog show analogy would better represent what goes on during a competition. Beers are not necessarily judged against each other, at least not in the beginning. When judges receives beers, they are “blind” in that they have no idea who brewed this beer or where it came from. Judges then have to compare the beer in front of them against a “standard”. In this case, the “standard” is taken from a style guideline. In the Best of Show rounds, beers are then judged against one another. I think this is a fair system. I think the BJCP says it best:
Without beer styles, competitions would be nearly impossible to conduct. Judging would simply become a hedonistic event, where judges would simply pick beers according to their preference. The outcome would be totally arbitrary and would depend on the background and preferences of those who judge their beers. This is not a desirable situation.
With regards to beers that don’t fit a particular category, there are “catch-all” categories in both the BA and BJCP guidelines in which these beers can be entered. The BJCP has Category 23: Specialty Beers, which was designed just for this purpose. The BA has Specialty Beers, Experimental Beers and Out of Category - Traditionally Brewed Beer categories for tweener beers. Entering your beers in any of these categories gives you just as good a chance to medal as the traditional categories. Take the Sam Adams Longshot homebrew competition. In the short time I’ve been involved in the craft beer scene, I’ve noticed just as many non-traditional beer recipes win as traditional. Grape Pale Ale? Not my favorite but it won.
One thing to remember is that there is no super-secret Craft Beer Illuminati trying to push their agenda on the populace. Beer style guidelines are just that - guidelines. They should not be seen as hard and fast rules but as a point of reference. They are living documents; constantly evolving and being updated as brewers push the boundaries of current styles and in many cases, develop entirely new ones.
Going back to the original reason I chose this topic, a local brewmaster decided to brew one of his best selling beers slightly out of style. His customers demanded it and he’d have been a fool not to listen. That being said, what are some notable non-traditional beers you’ve had? I found the Orange Kush from Ale Industries, an American-style Witbier I suppose, to have been surprisingly good. The Hades Habañero from Devils Canyon remains one of the few chili beers I actually enjoy. Hell, most of what The Bruery or Lost Abbey brews can be considered non-traditional.
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
I wasn’t suggesting a free for all-category free competition. I just thought less specialization would be nice. I like the analogy of the dog show. We need less best of breeds and more of the best of groups.
For me, I live in the heart of non-traditional brewing. Lagunitas makes an excellent pilsner that doesn’t fall into categories as it’s their own interpretation of the broader style. Or take their most recent release, A Little Sumpin’ Wild, a highly hopped, wheat ale that comes in at over 7% and is fermented using Belgian yeast. What style would that beer fall into?
This actually reminds me of a conversation I had at the bar a few weeks back. A man was sipping a Scrimshaw pilsner and complaining about the Lagunitas pint night going on. According to him, Lagunitas needs to use less hops. He wondered why Lagunitas couldn’t brew a pils like Scrimshaw, to which I replied “because North Coast already brews it, why do we need two of the same beers?”
The point of this is that I love style bending. I love when a brewer take a style, sees room for improvement (in his or her opinion) and executes it. That’s how we see changes in the brewing industry. Racer 5 calls itself an IPA, but how does this compare to an IPA of 15 years ago? In terms of IPA, one of my favorites right now is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle. This was an IPA brewed by a Scottish brewery specifically for the American market.It’s incredibly fragrant, but not bitter and still in the 5% range. It’s not an English IPA and definitely not an American IPA, but it’s own style.
This conversation has me thirsty. I think I’ll go dig through my fridge and find a style bending beer and raise a toast to the BJCP. In the end, as long as good beer continues to make it’s way to my glass, I can’t complain. Styles do a great job of reminding us where we should be and also let’s all of us, home brewers and professionals, to feel like a rebel when we break out of the mold.
