BEER 101

Saison

Dry, crisp, and complex with plenty of fruitiness, hints of earth, and often refreshing hop aroma and bitterness. Many are very fruity in the aroma and flavor. Look for earthy yeast tones, mild to moderate tartness. Lots of spice and with a medium bitterness. They tend to be semi-dry with many only having touch of sweetness.

Abbey Dubbel

A strong, lightly hopped, deep amber ale with a dry to modest body. Complex caramel, raisin, fruity flavors. Crisp finish.

Abbey Tripel

Strong golden ales with sugar added for drinkability. Lightly to moderately hopped, with fruity, honeyish aromas.

Witbier (White) Ale

Witbier is light, but elegantly fruity, with a creamy milkshake texture. Spiced with coriander, orange peel and other spices. Low bitterness.

Pale Ale

Brisk English hop nose with some fruitiness on top of malt that may be bready, nutty or lightly caramelly. Bitter, with dry, crisp often minerally finish.

India Pale Ale (IPA)

Moderately to massively hoppy. Bready, caramelly malt character with fruity and/or nutty flavors. Crisp, bitter finish. Think Pale Ale but basically with more hops, malt and alcohol content

Porter

Dark-coloured beer brewed with dark malts. Soft roastiness in nose. Lightly or firmly hopped, dryish or slightly rich. Paler than stout.

Stout

No matter the substyle, roasted malt always dominates the nose. Flavor may be sweet, creamy, dryand/or bitter. A Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley,hops, water, and yeast.

Czech Pilsner

Fresh maltiness, hints of caramel, plus plenty of aroma and bitterness from the spicy Czech hop, Saaz. They’re smooth and crisp with a clean malty palate, many are grassy.

German Pilsner

Classic German Pilsners are very light straw to golden in color. Head should appear dense and rich. They are also well-hopped, brewed using Noble hops

American Pale Ale

Lightly to strongly malty (toasted caramel), more than counter balanced by the citrusy, resiny, floral character of American hops. Expect a good balance of malt and hops.

American India Pale Ale

Light to moderate maltiness, nearly overwhelmed by resiny, grapefruity American hops.

The American IPA is a different style from the reincarnated IPA style. Color can range from very pale golden to reddish amber. Hops are typically American with a big herbal and / or citric character, bitterness is high as well. Moderate to medium bodied with a balancing malt backbone.

Amber Ale

Usually a fair amount of a caramelly maltiness. May be lightly to moderately hopped, usually with American hop varieties. They range from bland, vaguelly caramelly beers to products with a fairly healthy malt and hop balance. Often the differentiation between a quality amber and an American Pale is that the amber might have more dark malt character, or a less assertive hop rate.

Red Ale

Usually a burnt sugar quality, from crystal malt, which may be balanced with discreet or enthusiastic amounts of hops. The character of hops can range from low to high. Expect a balanced beer from this, with toasted malt characters and a light fruitiness in most samples