BJCP 2021
Beer styles: the BJCP style guide explained
All 127 styles of the BJCP 2021 guidelines, grouped by category: what each one is like, where it comes from, its numbers (ABV, IBU, color and gravity) and how to brew it at home.
Category 1
Standard American Beer
These are the pale, light, highly refreshing beers that dominate the US market, with little bitterness and restrained flavors. They range from the most watery light lager to the classic American lager, and two clean-tasting ales round out the family: cream ale and American wheat beer.
Category 2
International Lager
This family groups the mass-market lagers brewed all over the world, distant descendants of pilsner but more neutral and often made with adjuncts such as corn, rice, or sugar. They're split by color into pale, amber, and dark, all with the same clean, smooth, easy-drinking character.
Category 3
Czech Lager
Czech lagers share very soft water, Saaz hops, Czech malts, and often decoction mashing, which gives them a rich malt flavor and rounded bitterness. They're ordered by strength and color: the light everyday pale, the premium pilsner-style pale, the amber, and the dark.
Category 4
Pale Malty European Lager
These are pale German lagers where malt, not hops, takes the lead: grainy, bready flavor, a clean finish, and bitterness only in a supporting role. The family climbs in gravity and alcohol from Munich Helles, through Festbier, up to Helles Bock.
Category 5
Pale Bitter European Beer
Pale German beers where hops and bitterness play a bigger role than in category 4, with a dry or balanced finish. It includes the low-alcohol Leichtbier, Kölsch (a cold-fermented ale from Cologne), Dortmund Export, and German Pils.
Category 6
Amber Malty European Lager
Amber to brown German lagers led by toasty Munich- and Vienna-type malts, with moderate bitterness and a clean finish. The family is made up of Märzen, Bamberg's smoked-malt Rauchbier, and the stronger, maltier Dunkles Bock.
Category 7
Amber Bitter European Beer
Two amber beers from the Central European tradition where malt and bitterness go hand in hand. Vienna Lager is a smooth, elegant lager with lightly toasted malt; Altbier is an ale from Düsseldorf, fermented cool and conditioned like a lager, with noticeably firmer bitterness.
Category 8
Dark European Lager
The German dark lagers: clean, cold-fermented, and getting their color from dark malts without tipping into burnt flavors. Munich Dunkel is the Bavarian version, rich in Munich malt with toasted-bread notes; Schwarzbier, nearly black, is drier, with a touch of dark chocolate.
Category 9
Strong European Beer
High-gravity lagers where malt, body, and alcohol take charge. Doppelbock and Eisbock are Bavaria's strongest bocks, the latter concentrated by freezing; Baltic Porter is English porter reinterpreted as a lager in the Baltic countries.
Category 10
German Wheat Beer
Bavaria's wheat beers, fermented with yeasts that give the signature banana and clove aromas. They range from the pale, refreshing Weissbier to the maltier Dunkles Weissbier and the Weizenbock, which takes the style to bock strength.
Category 11
British Bitter
English bitters, the classic pub beer, made to be served from the cask with low carbonation. They share a balance of biscuity, caramel malt, English hops, and yeast esters, and they're split by strength: Ordinary, Best, and Strong Bitter.
Category 12
Pale Commonwealth Beer
Pale ales from the British and Commonwealth tradition with a prominent hop presence. British Golden Ale is the refreshing golden summer ale, Australian Sparkling Ale is the dry, highly carbonated Australian version, and English IPA is the original IPA, maltier and earthier than the American one.
Category 13
Brown British Beer
British brown ales share a base of English malt with caramel, toast, and some chocolate, always with more malt than hops and moderate bitterness. Dark Mild is the lightest and softest, British Brown Ale lives in nutty, caramel territory, and English Porter turns up the roast without reaching the dryness of a stout.
Category 14
Scottish Ale
Scottish ales are malty, clean beers with very little hop character, fermented cooler than English ales. All three share the same profile and differ mainly in gravity and alcohol: Light, Heavy, and Export, known in Scotland as 60, 70, and 80 shilling.
Category 15
Irish Beer
The Irish family brings together Irish Red Ale, with caramel and a dry finish with a touch of roasted barley, and the country's two dry stouts. Irish Stout is the light, creamy version drunk on draft, and Irish Extra Stout is its bigger, fuller-bodied sibling.
Category 16
Dark British Beer
Here are the British and export stouts that aren't dry in the Irish style. Sweet Stout and Oatmeal Stout are medium-gravity beers that aim for smoothness, with lactose or oats, while Tropical Stout and Foreign Extra Stout are stronger: the first sweet and fruity, the second drier and roastier.
Category 17
Strong British Ale
Strong British ales range from Strong Ale, a scaled-up bitter, to English Barley Wine, by way of Old Ale with its aged character and the dense Scottish Wee Heavy with its caramelized malt. All of them have big malt body and notable alcohol, and they evolve well over time.
Category 18
Pale American Ale
Pale American ales are the easiest-drinking beers on the American side. Blonde Ale is a light, balanced beer designed to please everyone, and American Pale Ale is the one that made citrusy, piney American hops popular over a clean malt base.
Category 19
Amber and Brown American Beer
This family brings together three amber to brown American beers with more malt than the pale ones but plenty of hop presence. American Amber Ale leans on caramel, California Common is a warm-fermented lager with woody hop character, and American Brown Ale adds chocolate and roast.
Category 20
American Porter and Stout
American porters and stouts start from the English and Irish versions but bring more hops, bolder roast and clean yeast. The family runs from porter, the smoothest and most chocolatey, to American stout, more roasty and bitter, and ends with imperial stout, the biggest and most intense of them all.
Category 21
IPA
The IPA family gathers the beers where hops are in charge, with American IPA as the benchmark. Alongside it are Hazy IPA, cloudy and juicy, and Specialty IPA, which groups variants that change the color, grain or yeast without taking the spotlight off the hops: Belgian, Black, Brown, Red, Rye, White and Brut.
Category 22
Strong American Ale
Strong American ales share high alcohol, lots of malt body and plenty of American hops. They range from Double IPA, dry and hop-focused, to strong ale and barleywine, maltier and built for aging, and wheatwine rounds out the group by replacing a good share of the barley with wheat.
Category 23
European Sour Ale
Here are the classic sours of Europe: beers where lactic acidity, or a mixed fermentation with wild yeast and bacteria, is the star. On one side are the German wheat beers, light and refreshing (Berliner Weisse and Gose); on the other, the aged Flemish beers (Flanders Red and Oud Bruin) and the lambic family from Brussels, which runs from unblended lambic to gueuze and the fruit versions.
Category 24
Belgian Ale
Three Belgian and French ales of moderate strength, made for drinking rather than for impressing with their alcohol. Witbier is a spiced wheat beer; Belgian Pale Ale is an everyday amber ale, malty and understated; and Bière de Garde is the keeping beer of northern France, malty and cold-conditioned.
Category 25
Strong Belgian Ale
Belgian ales with very expressive yeast, almost always pale and well attenuated, where esters and spicy phenols take over from the malt. The family includes Belgian Blond, the gentlest; Saison, the dry, spicy farmhouse ale; and Belgian Golden Strong, strong, pale and highly carbonated.
Category 26
Monastic Ale
The family of Trappist and abbey ales, lined up almost like a ladder of strength: the Single the monks drink themselves, the dark, dried-fruit Dubbel, the strong golden Tripel and Belgian Dark Strong, the richest and most alcoholic. They all share Belgian yeast, good attenuation and the use of sugar so that, despite their strength, they don't feel heavy.
Category 27
Historical Beer
This is where styles that were once popular come together, styles that have nearly disappeared or survive thanks to a handful of breweries and homebrewers. There's a bit of everything: German and American lagers, sour and smoked ales, a very sweet English brown and the Finnish Sahti, so each one is judged against its own description.
Category 28
American Wild Ale
Beers fermented with yeast and bacteria other than regular brewer's yeast: Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus or Pediococcus. They range from beer fermented only with Brett, which doesn't have to be sour, to mixed-fermentation sours, clean sours made with Lactobacillus alone and specialty versions with fruit, spices or wood.
Category 29
Fruit Beer
Beers with fruit added to a base style, aiming for fruit you can taste without hiding the beer. 29A is the simple version, 29B adds spices, 29C allows other ingredients or processes, and 29D covers the grape ales that originated in Italy.
Category 30
Spiced Beer
Beers with spices, herbs or vegetables added to a base style. Besides the general category, there are two seasonals with their own character, an autumn one with pumpkin and a winter one, plus a specialty category for when spices are combined with other ingredients or processes.
Category 31
Alternative Fermentables Beer
Beers that use unusual grains or sugars, where that ingredient has to come through. 31A is for grains like rye, oats, buckwheat or sorghum, and 31B for sugars like honey, molasses or maple syrup.
Category 32
Smoked Beer
Beers with smoky character, usually from smoked malt. 32A takes a classic style and adds smoke, and 32B covers non-classic bases, combinations with other ingredients and smoke from unusual woods.
Category 33
Wood Beer
Beers aged in barrels or in contact with wood, without being wild or sour. 33A is for wood alone, which mostly brings oak, vanilla and tannin, and 33B is for barrels that previously held spirits, wine or other beverages, or for wood combined with other additions.
Category 34
Specialty Beer
The catchall for whatever doesn't fit any other category. 34A is for re-creating unique commercial beers, 34B for blending two existing styles and 34C for truly experimental beers.
Appendix B
Local Styles (Appendix B)
Local styles listed in Appendix B of the 2021 BJCP Guidelines: beers born in a specific region with their own identity, even though they aren't part of the main categories. Here you'll find a Brazilian fruited sour, a pilsner with New Zealand hops and two Argentine styles, a simple blonde and an IPA with wheat and local hops.
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Classification and statistics: BJCP Beer Style Guidelines, 2021 edition. The descriptions are our own.