Reading about it can’t replace sitting in a pub drinking it, I know, but I hope that readers will find this interesting, all the same.
The European Beer Consumers Union, of which CAMRA is a member, has produced a comprehensive guide to the ever growing range of beer styles that are to be found across Europe and beyond. It covers their origins, differences and how to recognise the best. The lead author and curator is the well known beer writer, Tim Webb. The guide is completely independent and does not rely on any financial assistance through sponsorship or advertising.
European brewing methods dominated global brewing before the outbreak of war in 1914, but by 1975 most heritage brewing had become a thing of the past. As industrial combines took over the beer trade, the focus shifted from brewing flavoursome local beers to mass producing cheaply made ‘national’ brands. However, over the last twenty years, against the odds and led by consumer demand, we have seen the creation of independent, smaller scale breweries all around the world. By spring 2020, there were nearly 30,000 of them, of which around a third are in Europe. This revival has brought about innovations in both styles and ingredients, as well as a return to authentic traditional beer styles.
The EBCU guide has been compiled with the consumer in mind. Tim Webb makes the point that the descriptions may vary from CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain guidelines, as well as the two main international listings of global beer styles, because these are compiled with brewers and beer judges in mind. He adds that he hopes to generate more traffic through the EBCU website and maintain the progress that has been made over last three decades. The continuation of the range of beer styles is, in some ways, more important than the numbers of breweries or beers because this is what the mega-brewers find hardest to mimic.
The guide is website-based and is too long to reproduce here, so you need to go to www.ebcu.org/the-beer-styles-of-europe-and-beyond/.
All texts and images are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). EBCU is happy to license brief direct quotes from this website (up to 500 words) provided that these are attributed clearly to Beer Styles of Europe and Beyond (ebcu.org).
With thanks to Tim Webb