Translation please?

I was working with a client several years ago who hailed from England. Worcestershire, to be exact. I spent two straight weeks with him travelling across the state, finding potential suppliers for his business.  Without fail, at dinner, when asked what he’d like to drink, he would say “I’ll have a beer, please.” And every time the waiter would ask the obvious follow-up question, wondering if he could be more specific. But this speaks to the shift in the grand world of beer. In days of yore, when saddling up at the local pub in England, that was the order … “I’ll have a beer, please.” But in today’s world, the choices are seemingly infinite. Shandy, farmhouse, doppelbock, quadrupel, Kolsch … what does it all mean?

With huge thanks to Beer Advocate and Wikipedia, from whom I pilfered a lot of this content, here is a quick and simple guide to beer terminology. So, next time you see something like the Rock Bottom Cask Conditioned Bourbon Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, you don’t have to fret. Below is a handy guide with definitions and in some cases, a quick history lesson on some common beer terms and/or titles. Using this guide, you can hopefully translate beer names into something that makes more sense.

• ABBEY. A variety of strong ales, similar to the Trappist beers, but not made in monasteries although, in some cases, they have been at one time. The term “Abbey ale” refers more to a relationship with a monastery than it does with a specific beer style. 
• ABV. Alcohol By Volume. The relative alcohol strength of a beer, listed as a percentage.
• AGED. Generally speaking, exactly as it sounds. Beer that has been aged – often in barrels that
  

  previously held other liquids, like bourbon. Aging by itself will change the flavors and aromas in beer, even more so when taking on the flavors of the barrel and it’s previous contents.

• ALE. Warm-fermented beer that typically gives a sweet & full-bodied product. (FYI – the beer isn’t warm – the brewing process is called warm-fermenting.)
• AMBER. Catch-all term for ales that have a deeper color; lighter than truly dark ales. Amber color is generally created by using amber malt, which gives this style it’s stereotypical malty flavor.
• BARLEY WINE. With the strength of wine and the complexity of cognac, these beers show extraordinary richness, depth, and alcoholic warmth. Like fine wines, they benefit from aging, which allows their intense flavors to marry and deepen. Barley wines are very similar to English strong ales, but are usually set apart by more assertive hop bitterness and a high residual malty sweetness.
• BIÈRE de GARDE. Often bronze or amber. Originally a strong, top-fermenting, bottle-conditioned brew intended for cellaring. May have caramel flavors from long boil. Today, they are often bottom-fermented and filtered. 4.4%-7.5% ABV. The Frensh version of a “Saison” or “Farmhouse.”
• BITTER. Basically, a pale ale. This term was created as a way to diffentiate these slightly (to sometimes significantly) hoppy ales from other mild beers.
• BLONDE. Often aromatic and fruity-tasting, some of these are at a conventional alcohol content of 4%-5% ABV. Others are stronger. The most famous are the very strong ones like the deceptively drinkable Duvel, at 8.5% ABV. 
• BOCK. Bockbiers are strong beers that can be traced to the town of Einbeck Germany, circa 1250. They were originally spontaneously top-fermented dark beers primarily made of wheat. They usually have more than 6.25% ABV, and may be golden, tawny or dark brown. Outside Germany, strengths vary, and a bock is usually dark.
• BOHEMIAN. Czech-style pilsner. Generally light in color and with hoppy undertones. 
• BROWN. This classic style from Flanders Belgium combines malty sweetness with a sourness gained from several months of maturation (usually in metal tanks). The most complex examples have a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Oudenaarde is the most famous producing town, located in East Flanders. 
• CASK-CONDITIONED. An unfiltered beer which is conditioned in a cask without adding CO2 or nitrogen pressure. Often cloudy and much lighter on the carbonation.
• CREAM STOUT. A style which has only about 3.75% ABV in its domestic market but more than 5% in the Americas. Sweet stout usually contains milk sugars (lactose), and is a soothing restorative. Very low hops (15-25 IBU).
• DOUBLE. Double usually notes just ‘more’. More of the prevailing flavor in the beer. A Double Chocolate is going to be dessert in a cup. A Double IPA will be very hoppy.
• DUBBEL. Both dubbels and quadruppels tend to be darker in color, but vary in strength and flavor profile. Dubbels are largely malt forward, with roasty qualities. They typically range from 6.5% to 8% ABV.
• DUNKEL. Pronounced malty aroma and flavor that dominates over a clean crisp moderate hop bitterness. They can be chocolatey, chewy, and often exhibit a bread-like aroma, from the use of Munich malt. Colors range from light brown to dark brown.
• ESB. Characterized by medium to strong hop aroma, bitterness (30-55 IBU), and a richer maltiness than special bitter. The combination of both the stronger malt (4.8%-5.8% ABV) and the higher hop value make ESBs the most complex and full-flavored bitter style.
• FARMHOUSE. See “Saison” and “Biere de Garde”
• GOSE. Lighter colored unfiltered wheat beer that is quite lemony!  Very lemon-y!
• HEFEWEIZEN. “Hefe” means “unfiltered” or “with yeast”. German style wheat beers are highly carbonated, have low hop character and are brewed using at least 50% malted wheat. Sometimes they are called “Weissbiers”, or white beer. 
• HONEY. Really just means it’s brewed with honey. This term doesn’t characterize the style of beer at all – it’s really just an ingredient that can be in any range of beers.
• IBU. International Bitterness Units. A quantitative description of the relative hoppiness of a beer. 0-20 means that there is virtually no discernible hop bitterness; 20-50 means it will be more pronounced; 50+ will be the ‘spicier’ beers i.e. IPAs.
• ICE. Brewers reduce the temperature of the beer to the point ice crystals form. They filter that out which artificially increases the alcohol content. Typically weak flavored and very light in appearance.
• IMPERIAL. Similar to the ‘I’ in IPA. These originally were beers that were brewed in England and shipped to Russia. They were pumped full of ingredients to survive the voyage. Imperial is now just an indication that the beer is very big and bold – in flavor and in ABV.
• IPA. The stars of the hop world. As with a number of brewing styles, IPA was born out of necessity. When the British were colonizing India, the beers they sent down to their troops kept spoiling during the long sea voyage. With an extra healthy dose of hops and alcohol (40-65 IBU and 5% -7.5% ABV respectively), both having great preservative value, their problems were solved, and the world had another distinctive beer style. 
• KÖLSCH. Originally, this was only brewed in Cologne, Germany. This is usually light in appearance, quite dry and surprisingly hoppy.
• LAGER. Lager is cold fermeted and then allowed to mature in cold storage.
• LAMBIC. Lambics represent the oldest style of beer (and beer making) found in the modern world. Specific to the Brussels area, this style resembles wine and champagne more than any other beer in the world. They gain their tartness from a content of at least 30% raw wheat in addition to malted barley, but their defining characteristic is the use of wild yeast, or “spontaneous” fermentation. It is not uncommon for Lambics to have a fermentation period of two or three years, and much of that time in wooden casks. Most of these beers have a conventional alcohol content, in the range of 3%-6% ABV.
• LIGHT. Lower alcohol, lighter flavor, lower taste profile. These are generally just a watered-down version of a breweries staple. Think Budweiser becomes Bud Light.
• MAIBOCK (Helles bock). Lighter in color (“helles” means light in German), with an average strength of 6% -7.5%. Hop bitterness is low, yet noble hop aroma may be at medium levels. (20-35 IBU).
• MÄRZEN. See also ‘Oktoberfest’. Originally, Bavarian law stated that beer could only be brewed between September 29 and April 23. Marzen was brewed in the month of March (Marz, in German.) Full-bodied, rich and toasty!
• OATMEAL. Medium roasted malt and caramel/chocolate character, moderate bitterness, and generally a mild oatmeal flavor. The addition of oatmeal to a stout sometimes produces a silky texture. 4%-6% ABV on average.
• OKTOBERFEST. Ur-Marzen, meaning “original of March”, are beers that were brewed in March, and made stronger to remain preserved over the summer months, prior to the help of modern refrigeration. Ur-Marzens are full-bodied lagers that are amber in color and usually weigh in at around 6% ABV, with bitterness at about 18-25 IBU.
• PALE. Traditionally golden to copper in color, pale ales have low to medium maltiness, with English hop varieties providing flavor and bitterness. Pale ales are not really “pale”. The term was originally used to distinguish these ales from porters and stouts. They tend to have a bit more assertive flavors than most beers in the “Bitters” category.
• PATERSBIER. www.homebrewersassociation.org calls this the “Lawnmower Beer of Trappist Monks.” Perfect, PERFECT description! When Trappist monks brew beer, they typically brew a lighter beer and call it a ‘patersbier’ of “Father’s beer.” There is no distinct style associated with this name, just that it is a weaker version of one of their regular beers.
• PILSNER. A pale lager that originated in the city of Pilsen. Pilsner Urquell is the gold standard and is the inspiration for most pilsners. Light blond lager.
• PORTER. Porters were the first beer style in the world to achieve national distribution, due to the industrial revolution. The style can be dated to the early 1700’s. It has been argued that porter takes its name from the train porters who used to sell their beer throughout the early British rail system. The darkness of the beer covered up cloudiness and the roasty full flavor helped mask flavor defects. These were helpful beer style characteristics during a period when problems with consistency in brewing were commonplace. Today, porters range from 4% -6.5% ABV, and 20-40 IBU. See also “Stout.”
• QUADRUPEL. As one might guess, quads are the darkest and the strongest of the Trappist/ Abbey-style beers, with an emphasis on the malt. They tend to be a little harder to find.
• RADLER. Same as “Shandy”
• RED. Mainly from West Flanders, they are the more sharply acidic, reddish, half-brothers to the Brown Beers of East Flanders, with the additional difference that they are often filtered and pasteurized. The sharp acidity and some of the color is derived from aging in large wooden tuns.
• SAISON. Seasonal beers for the summer, but available all year round. It was once a poor-man’s blend of several beers, designed to be a thirst-quencher for local farm workers. At 5% – 7% ABV, Saisons are regarded as “light” summer specialties. They are usually amber to orange in color, and often quite dry, with a citric, peppery, quenching quality. This can be attributed to hard water, heavy hopping, spicing, or deliberate souring. 
• SCOTCH. Fairly high in alcohol (6%-8% ABV) and flavor intensity. Scotch ales are overwhelmingly malty and full-bodied, with a clean and balanced alcohol flavor, and very low hop profile (25-35 IBU). They are often peaty or smoky in character and may have a fruity aroma or flavor.
• SHANDY. Beer mixed with another beverage, such as ginger ale, carbonated lemonade, etc. Or, you can say almost anything Leinenkugel makes these days.
• STOUT. The term ‘stout’ is basically interchangeable with ‘porter.’ The only slight variation is that stouts can be seen as stronger than porters.
• STRONG. Often referred to as old ales due to a long aging process that smooths the alcohol flavors and maltiness. Strong ales range from amber to brown in color, and can reach potencies of 11% ABV.
• TRAPPIST. This term is properly applied only to a brewery in a monastery of the Trappists, one of the most severe orders of monks. This order was established at La Trappe, in Normandy. The Trappists have the only monastic breweries in Belgium, all making strong ales with a re-fermentation in the bottle. Some gain a distinctly rummy character from the use of candy-sugar in the brew-kettle. They do not represent a style, but they are very much a family of beers.
• TRIPEL. Probably the most pervasive style of the Trappist/ Abbey-style beers, tripels are lighter in color, yet higher in strength, usually over 8% ABV. It has been written that tripels use three times the normal amount of malt, dubbels twice as much, etc. True or not, tripels are fine examples of a light color/high strength beer style. Tripels can be very dry to very sweet, showing more range within their category than the other sub-styles.
• WEISSBIER. Same as “Hefeweizen.”
• WHEAT. Beer brewed with a lot more wheat than malted barley. Two main varieties weissbier (aka Hefeweizen) and witbier.
• WIT. Witbier was originally popularized in Hoegaarden, a small town in a wheat-growing region east of Brussels and Leuven. This style is usually made from equal portions of raw wheat and malted barley, spiced with ground coriander seeds and dried orange peels. The fruitiness imparted by the wheat blends well with the orange and coriander. Wheat beers can be filtered, but less easily than those made from barley malt. They usually tip the scale around 5% ABV.