Pilsner
Crisp, snappy, bitter in the politest way. Nowhere to hide a mistake, which is why brewers get nervous about them.
Pilsner flutesAnnonsThe styles guide
Beer styles, in plain words
Every beer answers one question: drink it now, or let it sit? Here are 28 styles and where each one lands.
The fridge
Drink these fresh
Hop aroma starts fading the day the can is sealed. Keep these cold and keep them moving.
Lager
The big friendly family: helles, märzen, festbier. Made to be drunk by the half-litre, not sniffed at.
Pale Ale
Hops with the volume at seven instead of ten. The one you order when nothing else jumps out.
IPA glassesAnnonsIPA
The volume at ten. Bold, bitter, and fading fast: an IPA’s best day was probably yesterday.
IPA glassesAnnonsHazy IPA
Looks like juice, smells like a fruit stand. Time destroys exactly that, so drink it.
IPA glassesAnnonsSession IPA
IPA flavour with the alcohol dialled down, usually under 5%. All the taste, none of the nap.
IPA glassesAnnonsDouble IPA
More hops, more malt, more everything. Strong, but strength won’t stop the aroma leaving on schedule.
IPA glassesAnnonsWheat Beer
Hefeweizen, witbier and their cousins. Soft and cloudy: banana if it’s German, orange peel if it’s Belgian.
Wheat beer glassesAnnonsKölsch
Cologne’s answer to the pilsner. Pale, delicate, and served in a 200 ml glass so it never goes warm.
Kölsch stange, 200 mlAnnonsGose
Tart, salty, oddly refreshing. The salt is in there on purpose. Sounds like a dare, drinks like lemonade.
Teku tasting glassAnnonsKettle Sour
Soured in a day, not years in oak. Clean and quick, usually with fruit doing the talking.
Teku tasting glassAnnonsAlcohol-free
The good ones stopped tasting like a compromise years ago. Check the date the way you would milk. Not in the catalogue here, which starts at 3.6%.
The cellar
Let these sit
Ten styles that get better with years: big, dark, strong or wild. These are the ones that get a vintage field.
Imperial Stout
Black, heavy, often north of 10%. A few years turns the burn into chocolate and leather.
Stout sniftersAnnonsBarleywine
Barely a wine, and nobody’s idea of a session beer. Sweet, strong, built like furniture.
Stout sniftersAnnonsLambic & Gueuze
Belgium’s wild-fermented originals: sour, funky, still working. The bottle keeps changing after you buy it.
Teku tasting glassAnnonsFlanders Red / Oud Bruin
Sour brown beers aged in oak. Somewhere between beer and balsamic, in the best way.
Teku tasting glassAnnonsWild Ale
Anything the brewer let the wild yeast loose on. Cellar a few and see where they end up.
Belgian tulip glassesAnnonsQuadrupel
The biggest of the abbey beers: dark fruit, caramel, and a strength that sneaks up on you. Monks were cellaring these long before anyone reviewed them.
Belgian tulip glassesAnnonsOld Ale & Wee Heavy
The clue is in the name. Rich, malty, made for sipping next to something burning.
Stout sniftersAnnonsBaltic Porter
A porter fermented cold with lager yeast. Smoother than a beer that strong has any right to be.
Stout sniftersAnnonsEisbock
A bock made stronger by freezing the water out. Intense, syrupy, in no hurry. The strongest beer in the Swedish retail range is one of these, at 28%.
Stout sniftersAnnonsBarrel-aged anything
Bourbon, whisky, wine, rum. If it slept in a barrel it is used to waiting. Also the most expensive row on the shelf.
Stout sniftersAnnonsThe honest answer
It depends
Six names that cover both a Tuesday beer and a ten-year project. Strength breaks the tie: 8% and up goes to the cellar, under that to the fridge.
Stout & Porter
A dry stout is a fridge beer. A 12% barrel monster with the same word on it wants years. Read the small print.
Stout sniftersAnnonsSaison
The farmhouse style: dry, peppery, a little wild. Lighter ones now, funkier ones later.
Belgian tulip glassesAnnonsTripel & Dubbel
Abbey beers in the middle weights. Lovely fresh, fine after a few years. Hard to get wrong.
Belgian tulip glassesAnnonsBock & Doppelbock
Strong German lagers, bready and dark. The doppels hold up. The rest is best inside a year.
Sour
Covers everything from quick kettle sours to oak-aged wild things. The word on its own tells you nothing. Sorry.
Teku tasting glassAnnonsAle
Bitters, browns, ambers, reds: the whole comfortable middle of beer. The Swedish retail catalogue files nearly half its range under this one word. Drink it soon.
Teku tasting glassAnnonsThe app does this sorting for you. Scan a can and it lands on the right shelf. In TestFlight.
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