What's in a beer you ask...
A slightly heavier bodied, colored version of a pale lager. The beer's darkness is sometimes the result of roasted malts, it is often artificial and made with dark caramel syrups. The taste may include mild sweetness from caramel. This style has low to medium hop bitterness levels. Alcohol usually ranges from 3.5% - 5.1%.They are deep copper to dark brown in color, often having a red tint from the Munich malts that are used.
Examples:
Specialty beers are typically regular beers brewed to a classic style (such as Porter, Stout, or Pale Ale) but with some new flavor added. Others beers in this category are made from unusual fermented foods. The addition of fruits, herbs and spices, miscellaneous flavorings (such as licorice, smoke, and hot pepper), and odd fermentables turn an ordinary beer into a specialty beer. In many ways, specialty beers are the most fun to try.
Examples:
Born out of necessity, tradition, or creativity, Hybrid Beers are half lagers, half ales. Sometimes half ales, half lagers. Either way, they are a unique category that straddles the line separating the two worlds of beer. Hybrid beers can be a good choice for brewers who don’t have the ability to lager, which usually requires refrigeration during secondary. Some hybrid style yeasts can ferment well into the ale yeast temperature.
Examples:
Wheat beer is a beer, usually top-fermented, which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are Weissbier and Witbier; minor types include Lambic, Berliner Weisse and Gose. Two common varieties of wheat beer are Weißbier (German – "white beer") based on the German tradition of mixing at least 50% wheat to barley malt to make a light coloured top-fermenting beer.
Examples:
The BJCP describes this beer's flavor as "Moderate to moderately high maltiness. Slight grainy, corn-like sweetness from the use of maize with substantial offsetting hop bitterness.Medium to high hop flavor from noble hops (either late addition or first-wort hopped).No fruitiness or diacetyl. Should be smooth and well-lagered." Beers of this style generally range between 4.5%-6% ABV and 25-40 IBUs.
Examples:
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery. "Porter may be divided into two classes, namely brown-stout and porter properly so called … Brown-stout is only a fuller-bodied kind of porter than that which serves for ordinary drinking. A great deal of this is exported to America."
Examples:
Belgian brewers often supplement the balance of malt sweetness and hop bitterness you find in every beer with fruity, spicy, floral and herbal aromas. Some Belgian beers are like running through a hayfield at harvest and others explode with a whole orchard of fruit flavours. You can sometimes find earthiness, a savoury, mushroomy umami taste, and you can sometimes find sourness, ranging from a light tartness to a mouth-puckering acidity.
Examples:
Strong ales are sometimes referred to as old ales, stock ales or winter warmers. These beers are higher alcohol versions (typically between 5.5-7 percent ABV) of pale ales, though not as robust or alcoholic as barley wines. Usually a deep amber color, these brews generally have a sweet malty palate and a degree of fruitiness. If bottle conditioned, strong ales can improve for several years, in some cases eventually obtaining sherry-like notes.
Examples:
Wild Ales are beers that are introduced to "wild" yeast or bacteria, such as: Brettanomyces or Pediococcus. This introduction may occur from oak barrels that have been previously inoculated or gained from various "sour mash" techniques. Regardless of which and how, these little creatures often leave a funky calling card that can be quite strange, interesting, pleasing to many, but also often deemed as undesirable by many.
Examples: