Style guides. process explains
Beer styles did not arise to limit creativity or to simplify speech. They were born as a technical language.
For the sommelier, style is a reading tool. It guides sensory expectations and helps to understand ingredients choices, fermentation profile, body, balance and possible harmonizations. It is not a rigid rule, but a reference.
In style guides such as BJCP or Brewers Association, style is a consensual technical description. There are gathered parameters of aroma, flavor, appearance, composition, and process, based on tradition, historical repetition and sensory analysis. Guides don’t say how beer should be, but how it usually presents itself within a specific cut.
Displacement happens when this technical system finds the market. For the buyer, the style starts to function as a mental shortcut. “IPA,” “Pilsen,” and “stout” are no longer complex descriptions and become ready, quick, almost automatic ideas. They help to choose but impoverish the understanding.
The risk is not in the simplification; it is necessary. The problem arises when the shortcut replaces the content.
From a scientific point of view, styles are intervals, not closed boxes.
From a cultural point of view, they are narratives in constant adaptation.
From a market point of view, they are labels that communicate fast.
Style does not explain beer. He organizes the speech but does not reveal the process. Thinking beer is going beyond the name on the label. It is to ask about fermentation, raw material, technique, intention and context.
Perhaps the most honest question is not
“What style is this beer?” but
“What did this beer choose to be, technically and culturally?”
Style guides. process explains. culture remains.
By: Maria Anita Mendes
Discover more from Arte da Cerveja - Maria Anita Mendes
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.