Beer 101: What's The Difference Between Varieties?

Craft beer has been experiencing a renaissance for quite some time now. And while we certainly aren't complaining about this, there's one issue that keeps coming up. Every day there are more and more beer options at the store. This is fun and exciting for beer lovers, but it's making it harder and harder to know which beer to choose (not exactly the worst problem to have, we know).

This is especially challenging if you're still a little unclear on the difference between a pilsner and a pale ale, a porter or a stout. Not long ago, you could walk into a store and, even if you didn't know the flavor profiles of different types of beer, you at least knew which brand you liked and what the label looked like.

There are so many fun beer options to choose from; and new breweries are popping up at the liquor store everyday featuring unique brews with names like Heart of Darkness and Founder's Double Trouble. Don't let your beer ignorance hold you back from enjoying beer's revival. Click through the slideshow below for a quick tutorial on the different types of beer.

What's your favorite beer variety? Leave a comment.

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Comments

[Pam Matthews]

05:22 PM on 05/05/2012

Someone forgot about LAGER? Dear gawd, when we were drinking real ales in the UK, because we could, all the folks there were drinking lagers, because it was summer.

[eyedunno11]

10:28 AM on 01/20/2013

Nobody forgot about lager. Pilsners and bocks are lagers, just as pale ales and porters are ales. Lager and ale aren't styles of beer, they're categories of fermentation depending on whether it's a top-fermenting yeast (ale) or a bottom-fermenting yeast (lager).

[MuchMadness]

09:55 PM on 04/29/2012

Just because the Brits used lots of hops (and lots of lashes) to keep their sailors from staging too many mutinies is no reason to make unbalanced beers today. Down with IPAs and overly hopped American pale ales. I'm glad to see that the more subtle pleasures of hefeweizen and brown ale are mentioned.

[Pam Matthews]

05:26 PM on 05/05/2012

Like you, I'm not enamored of the over-hopping practiced by most American microbreweries. A perfectly balanced brown ale, like Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewing, is satisfying and savory. A witbier, like Shock Top, hits the spot on hot summer days. I don't need to tie my salivary glands in a strangle hold by subjecting them to something with 80 bitterness units, thank you very much!

[The Evolutionary]

06:44 PM on 04/27/2012

Best Ales ever > Stone Brewery's(San Diego) "Arrogant Bastard", Rogue's (Bend, Ore.) "Dead Guy Ale", Mendocino's (Mendocino, Ca.) "Eye of the Hawk"

[Gronkie]

09:58 AM on 04/27/2012

When Seaworld was owned by Anheuser Busch their Orlando location had a free "beer school." It was essentially a one hour class on the history and making of beer (focusing strongly on AB products of course) and it was really enlightening. One of the things that I learned was that you should keep a few glasses that are only for beer, nothing else, because other drinks can be absorbed by the glass and alter the taste. If bubbles are grabbing onto the inside walls of the glass, then you have a tainted glass. The other thing that was interesting was they gave us two samples of the same beer - one was extremely fresh (made in the last few days, and stored properly) and the other was aged, as if it had sat in a warm warehouse for a few weeks. The difference in taste was extremely noticeable.

[Gronkie]

09:50 AM on 04/27/2012

I was very pleased to see Great Lakes Brewing Company representing Porter. I'm not big on the super dark beers, although I can handle GLBC's Edmund Fitzgerald. They have lots of other great beers that I prefer. Of all the beer I've ever experienced, I still think Great Lakes is the best ever. I moved from Cleveland 10 years ago and it one of the few things I miss. Whenever I get up to the Northeast, I can usually find it in a local grocery and I indulge in a six pack or two. Nothing like drinking it fresh in the place though.

[MissFrijole]

08:29 AM on 04/27/2012

I'm a bit of a picky drinker. I don't like bitter beers, nor do I care for watery beers. My favorite beer of all time is Newcastle. It has that perfect taste. When that is too "thick" I go for something like Heineken. I have also been drinking Tecate, but that's because my husband grew up there. It's just kind of like an homage type drink. It's not the best tasting beer, by no means.

[thefighting39th]

09:50 PM on 04/26/2012

I am lucky enough to live in San Diego -- Micro Brew Capital of the world -- you have to try damm hard to find a bad beer here -- and if you live in a land far far away -- that would more than 250 miles from here -- and -- if you are a hophead -- then I invite you come out and tour our playground someday -- one of my very favs is Stone Brewery -- I'm fond of saying 'there is Stone and other beer'. I go through 3 to 5 six packs of Stone IPA in a given week -- I highly recommend it!

[MissFrijole]

08:30 AM on 04/27/2012

I'm from SD and can't wait to move back. I haven't had a chance to experience the beer scene. I left there before I turned 21.

[jonclong]

09:15 PM on 04/26/2012

A couple of tips for folks trying to expand their beer experience. If you're lucky to live in an area that has a micro brewery, try different types there. Don't go to a liquor store and buy a specialty beer that has been sitting on the shelf for months and expect it to taste any better than a skunk's butt. Heat and light are the enemy of good beer, so fast turnover and dark bottle glass are your friend). Avoid "cutsie" names, normally the beer isn't worth it (sorry, the Monte Python Holy (gr)ale was one of the worst beers I've ever had). If you can't find exactly what you like, consider getting into home brewing. For about $100 in equipment and around $16 per case in materials, you can brew what you want, how you want, and be the envy of all your friends and neighbors.

[mrroosey]

07:19 PM on 04/26/2012

False. Most beers' flavor is brought out best by pouring it straight into the glass. Pouring down the side of a glass is solely an American thing.....

[MissFrijole]

08:31 AM on 04/27/2012

Not everyone likes a lot of "head" on their beer. I find it annoying ot have to bury my nose in the foam just to get a sip of beer.

[mrroosey]

07:15 PM on 04/26/2012

Beer is much like it's cousin pizza.......a really great beer for some is horrible for others, as a really great pizza is terrible to someone who is used to Pizza Hut and Papa John's. KUDOS to the USA for finally legalizing micro-breweries which have been competing nicely with imported brews.
If you're ever here in Nashville, go to Blackstone Brewery for their St. CHarles Porter or their Nut Brown Ale......you'll thank me. You really will. They are as good as nearly every import I've tried.

[jonclong]

09:05 PM on 04/26/2012

Nah! Fat Squirrel from New Glarus (WI) brewery. I hate that it's soo good that they can't make enough of it to export out of the state.

[jerrypatterson48]

06:54 PM on 04/26/2012

I like to add salt with my beer.

[Alex Xelasc]

06:54 PM on 04/26/2012

I like beer....................................

[etonkinson]

06:47 PM on 04/26/2012

I prefer Keystone.

[chuckl4826]

06:43 PM on 04/26/2012

BEER makes you smart...It made Bud Wiser......:>)

[ndtovent]

06:37 PM on 04/26/2012

I know beer connoisseurs like the ales, the thick, dark beers, but while some of them have a good flavor, they are either too bitter or too pungent for me, or both. That's why I stick to more mild lagers or the pale ale types. However, if anyone knows of a darker, thicker beer that doesn't have a bitter aftertaste and is light on the pungency scale, please suggest. I'd like to expand my beer horizons.

[jonclong]

08:58 PM on 04/26/2012

Drink what you like! Beer "connoisseurs" (otherwise known as beer snobs) like to tout the overy "hopped" IPA's and dark beers (that's why they're affectionately called hop heads).
From your request, I would recommend a German Alt (alt means "old") traditional recipie. I don't know of any commercial breweries in the U.S. that make a true "alt". I brew my own, which I recommend to all. If you can cook anything at all, you can brew beer. If you have patience (it takes 6 months to brew, ferment and age a great alt) you can get the pricy microbrew taste just the way you like it for the price of grocery store beer. If you're interested, post me back and I'll send you my recipie. I also have a killer recipie for a blueberry flavored stout. Just remember the monk's statement from the middle ages: " Beer is proof that God loves us!)

[MissFrijole]

08:35 AM on 04/27/2012

Try to find a Yardhouse restaurant near you. They have over a hundred beers on tap for you to try. They let you taste before you buy. They even have two different types of samplers you can order. They each have six samples of beers that are loosely related to each other in some form.