Beer styles in Britain by Mark Sukhija

Numerous styles of beer are available and indigenous to Britain. Here, I've attempted to outline some of the major styles of beer available.

Barley Wine

Barley Wine dates from the 18th and 19th centuries when upper-class patriots saw it as their duty to drink ale rather than Claret.

Typically between 10% and 12%, Barley Wine was usually stored for between 18 months and 2 years.

Barley Wine is not usually made by the larger brewers but many micro-brewers do produce their own variations on the style.

Fullers do make a Vintage Ale which is made with different varieties of malt and hops each year.

Bass’s No 1 Barley Wine (10.5%) is brewed in Burton-on-Trent, stored in cask for 12 months. However, it is not widely available or regularly brewed.

Bitter

Bitters are a derivative of the pale ale and were developed so that brewers could serve beer in their pubs after only a few days cellaring. With the growth of the tied-estate, the move from beers stored for many months towards beers which needed to stored only for short periods of time accelerated.

Bitters also, generally, were a different colour than pale ales as they were made from different darker malts that also give a different taste to the beer.

Bitter is normally in the 3% to 3.9% range but "Best Bitter" is normally over 4%ABV. Extra or Special Strong Bitters are a development of this idea.

Familiar examples of this stronger style include Fullers ESB and Greene Kings Abbot Ale.

Golden Ales

Golden Ales are a new style of well-hopped and pale ale developed in the 1980s by brewers looking to win over and increasingly prosperous younger drinker from the lagers backed with big-brewery money.

Typically 3.5% to 5.5% ABV Golden Ales are made from pale malts which give a pale amber, golden or straw colour and are served cool.

Light Bitters

Light bitters are bitters with an ABV of under 3.4% or an original gravity of below 1034. Typically they are also lighter in colour than stronger bitters.

Recent years have seem the reduction of the number of Light Bitters in the West Country where such beers used to be prevalent.

Porters and Stout

Porter is a London style. Originally Porter was a blend of Brown Ale, Pale Ale and well-matured ale. Porter gained it's name from it's popularity with the porters that worked at the London markets of Billingsgate, Spittalfields and Smithfields markets. At the time, "Stout" was a generic term for the strongest beer in a brewery.

Large volumes of Porter and Stout were shipped to Ireland from London and Bristol that a brewer by the name of Arthur Guiness fashioned a beer in his own interpretation of the style - using unmalted roasted barley thus creating a style known as Dry Irish Stout. Restrictions on makign roasted malts in Britain during World War One left Porter and Stout brewing to the Irish.

Porters are typically 4% to 6.5% and dark brown or black while stouts can be dry or sweet and range from 4% and 8%ABV.

The difference in colour is because porters are brewed using dark malts while stouts are brewed with roasted malted barley.

Pale ales and IPA

India Pale Ale were first brewed in London and Burton-upon-Trent for export to the colonies. Hops were used to preserve the beer to help keep the beer in good condition for the long journey to it's destination.

Less hoppy and lower-alchol IPA's were produced for the domestic market and called simply Pale Ale.

IPA's are generally are upwards of 4%ABV.

Old Ale

The Old Ale Style dates from before the Industrial Revolution. Originally, the Ale would have been stored for months in tuns.

As tuns are made from unlined wood, the beer would become more sour as a result of wild yeasts, lactobacilli and tannins in the wood. The ageing in the tuns and sourness came to known as "stale" and became one of the original ingredients in Porters.

Old Ale can be brewed as lower than 4% and range up to around 6.5%. Lighter coloured ales tend to be more hoppy while the darker versions tend to more malty and can be quite malty. Lengthy maturation remains a key part of the Old Ale style - most often in bottles rather than in bulk vessels.

Mild

Mild is one of the oldest styles in the UK and is usually (but not always) a darker brown in colour as a result of the use of well-roasted hops or barley.

A mild is, basically, a beer which is less hopped than bitter.

A mild will typically be between 3% and 3.5% ABV. According to CAMRA, Milds of the 19th Century were not always made with lower ABV than regular bitters and would commonly be made to 6% to 7% is strength to cater to consumer demand for a sweeter beer.

Further reading