A question of style

[timbo41]

Oh dear sorry!
Had a pint in a pub today....nothing ready! Green king ipa on draught. Ok pint nothing special. Only 3.6%iirc, which I thought odd at time. Checked bcjp, should be 4%+ ? And was available..get this...with a northern or southern head! WTF?

[Hanglow]

BJCP guidlines are for american homebrew competitions, they aren't meant for classifying commercial beers

As for the strength, once the british brewing industry got its arse ripped out over WW2 and rationing to 1956 or whenever, the strengths reduced and stuck low as people got a taste for session beers. IPA was used interchangeably for bitter. Deuchars is another that's low

I assume the head thing is for with or without a sparkler?

[Barley Water]

For some reason, the BJCP guidelines for English IPA's reflect more what the beer was like maybe as much as 100 years ago rather than what it is currently. I couldn't begin to tell you why that is; maybe the person writing the guidelines just wanted the beers that way because it reflected his personal preference rather than paying attention to what they actually are but I'm just guessing because I really don't know. For whatever it's worth though, if you brew the beer to conform to the guidelines it's pretty good stuff and I bet a bit stronger than you are used to.

[timbo41]

Kind of how I was thinking...that ipa and bitter are pretty inter changeable now. Thanks for clarifying bjcp..wasn't aware it was only an American thing! So is there a u.k equivalent? And yeah,the different heads were via an adjustable sprinkler I guess ...but the font uses it as a big selling point

[boingy]

It's not really very accurate to state that BJCP is an American-only thing given that the UK National Homebrew Competition, organised by the CBA, uses BJCP judges and BJCP rules.

The style guidelines aren't perfect but they are by far the best attempt at defining beer categories. Of course, having been created by Americans they do get a certain amount of stick from some UK brewers...

Outside of competitions, I think it's pointless worrying about styles. Styles have changed over the years and plenty of commercial brewers have misnamed their beers to make them sound more interesting and/or more exotic. Of course, the great thing about brewing your own beer is that you can call it what you like. If you want to brew a hoppy golden stout then go for it.

[timbo41]

Now that's an experiment! I do look at the styles guide as a reference really, lots of info there about malts, carbing etc

[Rookie]

Outside of competitions, I think it's pointless worrying about styles. Styles have changed over the years and plenty of commercial brewers have misnamed their beers to make them sound more interesting and/or more exotic.

I agree, don't sweat the style unless it's going into a compitition.
If I buy a beer based on the brewery description and it's different I don't buy that beer again, or any other beer from that brewery.

[devexwarrior]

In my teens (early 80s) GK IPA was wonderful stuff. I wouldn't touch it nowadays with the longest malting paddle.

[Hanglow]

In my teens (early 80s) GK IPA was wonderful stuff. I wouldn't touch it nowadays with the longest malting paddle.

How was it different out of interest? I've read that Boddingtons was also very different to the rubbish it is now, did you ever drink that?

[DaveyT]

In my teens (early 80s) GK IPA was wonderful stuff. I wouldn't touch it nowadays with the longest malting paddle.

How was it different out of interest? I've read that Boddingtons was also very different to the rubbish it is now, did you ever drink that?

I had Boddies in the Lakes (was it in the Lamplugh Tip? The Stork?) in the early 90s and it was sublime. Perfectly balanced texture - creamy yet dry - and superbly balanced malt and hop. Quite a small beer, too.

[devexwarrior]

Sadly the GK in my Dad's Northampton local tastes processed and has a smoothflow type head. I went on a nostalgic crawl in Bedford last year and it was the same there though there was plenty of good independent beer to be had. Interestingly enough Abbott is still much the same.