Beer types & why knowing them matters

The craft beer scene today is buzzing with with names, styles, techniques, colours and categories, and together with its people and history - from ancient to very modern - these are the the things that make it so fantastically rich, diverse and rewarding, as well as delicious.But perhaps with all this variety it’s possible for a thirsty soul to get a bit lost - even if you’re not totally new to our world? It occurred to us that if we’re going to really succeed in helping celebrate great beer and provide local breweries, taprooms and stockists better visibility for their community of consumers, it might be useful to help people with a few signposts.A little knowledge can go a long way, so we’ve kept it brief, and haven’t delved into more technical things like yeast types, or production techniques, that’s another conversation for another day. But included below are the key styles you’ll come across on any beer adventure worth the name. There are many others, but we’ve decided to start with just six main ones, and they’ll probably be familiar to you to varying degrees, in name at least.So take a look, it might just make narrowing down your new favourite quicker and easier. Of course our advice would be to check them all out yourselves, and work out which ones suit you, and which would fit all those different moments in life which only a beer can enhance.And if craft beer is new to you, then perhaps our list might steer you away from a Porter on a hot summers day, or a Lager by a log fire (Both of these are totally fine, but maybe not everyone would choose them…). And just a quick shout out here to the late great British beer writer and journalist Michael James Jackson, the actual father of beer writing. He was central to the reviving interest in craft beer in the 1970s, and it was he who first came up with the simple but genius notion of categorising and promoting beers styles, so he absolutely deserved a mention here. Cheers Michael, we beer drinkers salute you!Right let’s go in…

What are the main types of beer?

What's a Lager?

What’s lager? You’re kidding, right? No? OK, well, a pint of lager is what the average person in the UK would bring to mind when we talk about beer. Of Czech and German origin, lagers are golden, with lighter flavours, and lower alcohol and higher carbonation than their category cousins. These properties make them really approachable and refreshing, and lagers are a typical and important entry point for new beer drinkers. It might not be a darling of the ‘beer community’, but clean tasting and with easy flavours, the popularity and sales of lager are absolutely staggering. And we’re including pilsners in this category.ABV 3.2 - 5.0%

What's a Pale Ale?

Like an ale, only paler. With a name deriving from the lightly roasted pale malts used in the brewing, pale ales - an ale is a beer brewed using warm fermentation - are typically light, balanced, highly drinkable beers. In this family you’ll find things like the stone cold British classic ‘a pint of bitter’, but also bier blonde, and American pale ale. Varying between gold and amber colour, different brewing techniques and ingredient levels mean that there are a range of tastes and strengths classed as pale ale, but in general they tend to exist in a very zen beer place - carefully hoppy meets nicely malty, well balanced, with a moderate alcohol content, and very very easy to drink.ABV: 4.5 - 6.2%

What's an IPA?

IPA stands for ‘India Pale Ale’, and is a stronger pale ale, with the hops dialled up - often by a lot. Today IPAs are many people’s introduction to the world of craft beer, with their strong, heavily hopped bitterness, citrus and floral flavours, and high alcohol content. And this is a beer that’s been on a journey. No, really, IPA was the answer to the ‘problem’ of supplying beer for the British Empire in the east, where it was too hot to brew. So in the late 1700s IPA was a created as a beer that could survive the six-month journey from England. Some IPAs taste like straight-up citrus, while others are strong and bitter, depending on the type of hops.ABV: 4.5 - 7.5%

What's a DIPA?

Make mine a double. A DIPA is a ‘Double IPA’, so as you might expect from the name, this is a modern IPA style dialled up to the max - so stronger flavour, even bolder hoppy bitterness, and a higher alcohol content: Boom. Sometimes also known as Imperial, or American IPA, this big, loud style originated in California in the 1990s. With more hops, and more malt - not necessarily double, sometimes triple - a DIPA leads with hoppy punch, first to the nose and then the mouth. But the increased malt also gives rich depth, and along with the high strength, the result is a beer of super-high intensity, but balance.ABV: 7.5 - 14.0%

What's a Porter?

The noble porter is a beer legend, pure and simple. Balanced and hearty, this dark style was developed in London in the early eighteenth century, with the name said to have been derived from its popularity with street and river porters, and it went on become the first beer type to be made around the world. Porters are well-hopped and are known for their deepest ruby colour, imparted by dark roasted brown malts, and its flavours are typically chocolate, caramel, and coffee. There aren’t huge distinctions between porter and stout, but porter leads with a chocolatey feel, whereas stout is more about coffee notes. Take a bow.ABV 4 - 12%

What's a Stout?

Those who think a stout is a woodland animal a little bit like a weasel, listen up, tune in, and show some respect: Stouts are dark beers, similar to porters (see above), but with more intensely roasted flavours. The category includes ‘Irish, ‘Milk’ and ‘American’, and can pack mid-range to high alcohol levels, with the taste varying hugely depending on its style and origin. The colour of some examples - almost black at times - could give the impression that these beers might be hard work, but a slight sweetness offsets bitterness, giving mellow, roasted, coffee and cream properties. At this point it’s impossible not to namecheck Guinness, the best known stout in the universe.ABV 3.8 - 12.0%

So, who fancies a beer?

Privacy Policy

Krafted Beer LTD – an app celebrating the best of British brewing and founded on the core principle that by enabling the beer industry to communicate more effectively with its community, the industry as a whole will be stronger. With our unique curated trails, the Krafted app provides beer enthusiasts with the opportunity to discover new brands and their stories along the way. [www.krafted.beer]((https://www.krafted.beer), “Krafted”, “we”, “us” or “our”).This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and disclose information about you when you use our mobile application (the "App"), our website (the "Site"). By using the Service, you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this privacy policy.The Service allows users to explore locations by using our location-aware audio, text, image, video and Augmented Reality services. We may change this privacy policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we will provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you an email notification). We encourage you to review the privacy policy periodically to stay informed about our practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.

USE OF INFORMATION

Information You Provide to Us:We collect information you directly give us. For example, we collect information about you when you sign up for our Service, participate in any interactive features of the Service, fill out a form, give feedback, ideas or submissions about the Service, communicate with us via third party social media sites, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us. The types of information we may collect include your email address, location information and any other information you choose to provide. For information as to how to restrict the collection of contact information, please see the "Your Choices" section below. If you choose not to provide certain information, we may not be able to provide the Service to you or certain features of the Service may be unavailable or work differently.Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Service:When you access or use our Service, we automatically collect certain information about you. This information includes:Log Information: We log information about your use of the Service, including the type of device you use, access times, IP address, pages viewed, and the page you visited before navigating to our Service. We use this information for analytic and product improvement purposes.Device Information: We collect information about the mobile device you use to access our Service, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information. We use this information for analytic and product improvement purposes.Location Information: We collect information about the location of your device each time you access or use the App. For more details, please see "Your Choices" below.Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies:We use various technologies to collect information, and this may include cookies and web beacons. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory. Web beacons (also known as "tracking pixels") are non-visible electronic images. These technologies are used for analytic and product improvement purposes, such as seeing which areas and features of our Service are popular and determining whether an email has been opened and acted upon. For more information about cookies, and how to disable them, please see "Your Choices" below.Information We Collect From Other Sources:We may also obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Service. For example, if you create or log into your account through a social media site like Facebook or Twitter, we will have access to certain information from that site, such as your name, account information and friends lists, in accordance with the authorisation procedures determined by these social media sites.

USE OF INFORMATION

We may use information about you for various purposes, including to:Provide, deliver, maintain, test and improve our Service;Send you technical notices, updates, confirmations, security alerts and support and administrative messages;Respond to your comments, questions and requests and provide customer service;Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, rewards and events offered by Krafted and others, and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you;Monitor and analyse trends, usage and activities in connection with our Service and improve and personalise the Service;Detect, investigate and prevent any suspected breaches of our Terms of Service; andLink or combine with information we get from others to help understand your needs and provide you with better service.Krafted is based in the United Kingdom, and the information we collect is governed by UK law. By accessing or using the Service or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing and transfer of information in and to the UK and other countries.

SHARING OF INFORMATION

We may share information about you as follows or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:With vendors, consultants and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf;In response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, or as otherwise required by any applicable law, rule or regulation;If we believe your actions are inconsistent with the spirit or language of our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of Krafted or others;In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Krafted's assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company; andWith your consent or at your direction, including if we notify you through the Service that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide such information.We may also share aggregated or anonymised information that does not directly identify you.

ANALYTICS SERVICES

We may allow others to provide analytics services in connection with the Service. These entities may use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Service and other websites, including your IP address, web browser, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked and conversion information. We and others may use this information to, among other things, analyse and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, personalise the user experience, and better understand your activity.

YOUR CHOICES

Location Information:When you first launch the App, you will be asked to consent to our collection of location information. We require this location information in order for the App to function as designed.If you consent to our collection of location information, you may subsequently stop the collection of this location information at any time by pausing location tracking from within the application’s settings menu, or by changing the location preferences on your mobile device. However, if you stop the collection of this location information, the App can no longer function as intended.If you consent to our collection of location information and you do not subsequently stop the collection of this location information, the App will continue to collect this location information.If you consent to our collection of location information, subsequently stop the collection of this location information and later consent to the collection of this location information, the App will resume the collection of location information.You may also stop our collection of location information by following the standard uninstall process to remove the App from your device.Account Information:If you wish to delete your account, contact us at info@krafted.beer. Note that we may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes as may be necessary to fulfil the purposes identified in the privacy policy. We may also retain cached or archived copies of information (including, location information) about you for a certain period of time.Cookies:Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of the Service.Push Notifications and Alerts:With your consent, we may send push notifications or alerts to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device.Promotional Communications:You may opt-out of receiving promotional communications from Krafted by following the instructions in those communications or by changing your notification settings in the application’s settings menu. If you opt-out, we may still send you non-promotional communications, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations.Contact us:If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or any privacy issues, please contact us at info@krafted.beer.