Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Style Profiles”
Saison is one of the main members of the farmhouse ales family, along with the similar Bière de Garde from France. When it comes up in conversation, someone is bound to say ‘of course Saison comes from the French word for season’. Which is entirely correct. They may well go on to tell you that these beers were brewed in …
Think of this as IPAs little brother if you like. It has a similar pale appearance and refreshing character with malts and hops in good balance, but it’s all pitched at a gentler level. It should pour a pale golden to light amber colour with a good head of white foam. It should range from clear to slightly hazy. Any …
Kölsch is a bit of an inbetweener. It’s an ale that thinks its a lager – or maybe that’s the other way around. Expect brilliant clarity, a golden colour and a creamy white head. So far so lager, right? But when you smell it you should find some fruitiness there. It’s brewed with an ale yeast and has the characteristic …
Smoky beers are pretty unusual these days. However before 1700 or so they would have been much more common. So what changed? It’s all to do with the malt and how it’s dried. The smoke aroma comes from the wood used to kiln the malt. Before the invention of direct-fire kilns all malt would either have been smoky or air-dried. …
If you’re reading this, the chances are I don’t need to tell you. American IPAs are perhaps the defining style of modern craft beer. New ones appear all the time, most of which shine briefly and disappear just as fast only to be replaced by another. These are brewed to be drunk fresh while the pronounced hop characters are at …
When the evenings get darker, so do the beers. And this is one of the darkest there is. Inky black, strong and indulgent. There’s plenty about an imperial stout to keep you warm on a winter’s night. Historically these beers were brewed strong for export to the Baltic States and Russia, where they were said to be popular with the …
It’s that time of year again: the summer’s over, the harvest is coming in (barley and hops included) and Oktoberfest is on the horizon. Don’t be fooled by the name though, it actually begins in mid-September and runs until early October. You should see Oktoberfest beers appear around the same time. You can probably find them year-round if you hunt …
