Classic Beers

[davebullivant]

Hello,

My brother-in-law Phil and I have just started brewing beer at home. The first was an American pale ale, and went fairly well. The second was an IPA, and was a vast improvement on the first. Totally clear, and tasted really really good. We are now raring to go in the new year, and aim to have a brew on the go every 2 weeks.

We are trying to taste as many beers as possible (it's a hard life) to try and distinguish between say an IPA and an English bitter. Some of the differences are easy to spot, but some aren't.

So, I wanted to ask for peoples opinion on what beers are known to be the quintessential examples of the following;

IPA
APA
English Bitter
Porter
Brown Ale

I know this is a totally subjective question, but we want to know how to brew a classic, rather than an extreme example.

Once we know what is known as a classic Porter for example, we would love to try and brew it and then have a taste test to see how close our process gets us.

Thanks a lot!

Dave

[richc]

The BJCP style guidelines might interest you

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/

These are US descriptions of beer styles used in judging homebrew competitions.

[davebullivant]

That's great thanks.

Would that be pretty much the same for English beers as well? Or do Americans have different definitions?

[Barley Water]

Oh, we define stuff whatever way suits us. I know from posting on this board for awhile that folks on your side of the pond view things quite differently. Belgian styles for instance seem like they are more dissimilar than alike but that is an extreme example. Also, the style guidelines change over time, new styles or born (someday soon you will see a style call Cascadian ale for instance) and old styles morph over time. I can not tell the difference between some APA and IPA's for example because there is overlap and some APA's are actually more bitter than some of the older IPA's out there. Americans just love to classify everything, anyhow, here is one Texan's idea of classics:
IPA - Dogfish Head 60
APA - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
English Bitter - Fuller's London Pride
Porter - Fuller's London Porter
Brown Ale - Newcastle Brown Ale

Now, I am sure that this post will cause an argument as everybody has their favorites. Also, as you can tell, I am a big fan of all Fuller's products and I use the Fuller's yeast exensively when making my own beers. By the way, there are other styles out there that are really good you have not listed, Abbey Dubbel, Heffeweizen, Belgian Pale Ale and of course all the lagers. That would be why I have been in this hobby for over a quarter of a century (that and I just like to drink good beer).

[richc]

I think they are fairly good guidelines, they are the ones that you will find used in almost all brew design software. Personally I use them as a guide to see if my recipe is in the right sort of area for the style I am aiming for rather than as absolute rules.

[WishboneBrewery]

I recently did a take on the London Porter and its a cracker viewtopic.php?f=24&t=37300 getting better every week it gets older (7 weeks bottled)

(My Vague interpretations)
IPA (essentially a beer made with Pale malt with a high bitterness using English hops like Goldings & Fuggles)
APA (The American Pale Ale, Hopped with American hops, Cascade, Centenial etc, a more varied style to the IPA)
English Bitter (Standard Pale Malt & Crystal Malt with generally English hops)
Porter (Could be a Stout or a Porter, a many and varied style using Dark malts, Roasted barley, Chocolate malt, Black malt, Dark Crystal, Amber malt, Brown malt)
Brown Ale (Brewed with a portion of Brown Malt, more of a malty beer than hoppy)

[mysterio]

I think Barley Water's classic examples are the ones I would pick too. Although 'classic' can differ from 'best' I would say. Classic I would take to mean that it stands the test of time and isn't too pronounced in any direction.

English IPA is different to American IPA remember, and has a bit of an identity crisis here. If I say IPA to my friends they will think I'm talking about a low gravity, blonde session bitter with some hop aroma, like Deuchars IPA. The BJCP guidelines give these as the classic examples of English IPA, they put what they consider to be the best ones first. Oddly they still have Goose Island as an English style IPA though. Careful the earlier link is 2004, it has since been updated.

Meantime India Pale Ale, Freeminer Trafalgar IPA, Fuller's IPA, Ridgeway Bad Elf, Summit India Pale Ale, Samuel Smith's India Ale, Hampshire Pride of Romsey IPA, Burton Bridge Empire IPA,Middle Ages ImPailed Ale, Goose Island IPA,Brooklyn East India Pale

I would agree Meantime IPA is a good classic example even though it's a fairly new beer. Although I had it recently and it was stale.

[Rookie]

I think they are fairly good guidelines, they are the ones that you will find used in almost all brew design software. Personally I use them as a guide to see if my recipe is in the right sort of area for the style I am aiming for rather than as absolute rules.

I only worry about style guidelines when I am brewing a beer to enter a compitition.

[garwatts]

I would agree Meantime IPA is a good classic example even though it's a fairly new beer. Although I had it recently and it was stale.

Yes - I had some for Christmas and was underwhelmed

[mysterio]

Yes, the Meantime brewery have serious problems with consistency. I even trekked out the Greenwich to visit their pub and one of their bottles was sour. It's a shame because when I tried the IPA a couple of years ago it was brilliant.

[TC2642]

I've never understood why American's seem to think that IPA should contain crystal malt. The best IPA's i'v ever made have been pale with a bit of wheat.

[davebullivant]

Hello again,

Thanks so much for all the feedback. Will be very useful. We did another brew today (a Brown Ale) so we shall see if it turns out well.

Sad to hear the negative views about Meantime. We are going to visit them in a few weeks to do a tour of the brewery, so will report back on any staleness then.

In fact, we are going to do a South East London brewery tour, by visiting the Kernal Brewery before we head to Meantime. Anyone else been to see Evin at the Kernal? Quite excited to see his set up as it seems like it is a proper micro-brewery.

[smdjoachim]

Sad to hear the negative views about Meantime. We are going to visit them in a few weeks to do a tour of the brewery, so will report back on any staleness then.

In fact, we are going to do a South East London brewery tour, by visiting the Kernal Brewery before we head to Meantime. Anyone else been to see Evin at the Kernal? Quite excited to see his set up as it seems like it is a proper micro-brewery.

Try http://www.microbreweryvinopolis.com/ in Southwark.Also visit the Market porter http://www.markettaverns.co.uk/The-Market-Porter/ best pub in the area.

[Lewy]

In fact, we are going to do a South East London brewery tour, by visiting the Kernal Brewery before we head to Meantime. Anyone else been to see Evin at the Kernal? Quite excited to see his set up as it seems like it is a proper micro-brewery.

Not been to the Kernal Brewery (yet), but treated myself to a bottle of their India Pale Ale (S.C.A.NS version) on Saturday. An incredible beer!