Beer is a beloved beverage enjoyed by many around the world. With hundreds of documented beer styles and a handful of organizations with their own unique classifications, it can be difficult to keep up with the ever-evolving beer scene. To help you better appreciate and share your knowledge and enthusiasm for drinking beer, here is an expert's guide to understanding the sensory side of craft beer. Craft beer resides at the intersection of art and science.
It's up to each individual brewer to decide whether they want to create beer within specific style guidelines or to forge a new path and break the mold of traditional styles. Craft brewers use a wide variety of ingredients to achieve the aroma, body, flavor and finish they want in their beer. They often take classic old-world styles from large brewing countries, such as England, Germany and Belgium, and add their own twists by modifying the quantity or type of ingredients or the brewing processes. Due to the popularity of craft beer in the United States, there are now multiple styles of beer accredited exclusively in the U.
S. UU. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to fully document all types of beer that are manufactured at any given time. Another factor is that new beer styles are usually established by developing a history of several breweries manufacturing the same type of beer over years and years.
In other words, it takes time before any new type of trendy beer is considered a recognized style of beer. The Beer Style Study Guide can provide more information than many beer newbies want to know. However, as your beer journey unfolds, your desire for more descriptors and resources will grow. Use this alphabetical list of triggers as a guide to describe the possible characteristics of a specific beer style.
Brewing and conditioning process, yeast, microorganisms and fermentation by-products are all important factors in understanding different beer styles. Like most amber beers, American amber beer is named after the golden to amber color exhibited by this American version of the English pale ale. The color is derived from the use of caramel and crystalline malt additions, which are roasted to provide amber beers with the color, body and flavor that many beer fans have come to appreciate. When falling under the type of ale beer, amber beers ferment at warmer temperatures for a period of time that is usually much shorter than lager beers.
American amber beer is one of the most enjoyed styles in the United States and serves as a fundamental style of the American craft beer revolution. American ambers are darker in color than their pale ale cousins, the presence of caramel and crystalline malts give it a toasted caramel flavor, along with the perception of a fuller body compared to beers without such malts. Amber beer has a medium-high to high malt character with a medium to low caramel character derived from the use of roasted crystalline malts. American amber is characterized by American variety hops, which provides notes of beer, citrus amber, fruit and pine to balance the sweetness of the malt.
As with many types of amber beer, American amber beer is a very versatile companion to American cuisine, especially foods that are cooked on the grill or on the grill, as toasted malts complement burned, charred and caramelized proteins, making this type of beer one of the favorites at al fresco dining. Like many others that are known as classic American beers, American pale ale has its roots in overseas beer styles. American pale ale was inspired by English pale ale, replacing the earthy and herbal hops of its English counterpart with generous additions of bold American varieties of citrus and pine. As one of the most popular American beer styles, pale ale is not hard to find but its diverse interpretations by many American craft brewers make it impossible to jam everything there is to know about American pale ale on one page.
Characterized by floral, fruity, citrus, pine and resinous American hops, American pale ale is a medium-bodied beer with low to medium caramel and carries with it a roasted malt flavor. American pale ale's affinity with food can be attributed to its simplicity; its ingredients include pale roasted malt, cleanly fermented ale brewer's yeast and counterweighted American hops that bring out flavor or cleanse palates. With its versatility in food pairings and its availability in small independent craft breweries or local craft focused retailers across America today being one of the best times for craft beer lovers - it's no wonder why American pale ale has become one of America's favorite beers.
