Beer in The United States - Beer Styles

Beer Styles

The best selling style of beer made in the US is pale lager, which is made by most large-scale brewers, including Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors. These large-scale, or "macro", companies also brew popular styles which descend from the pale lager. Light beer, which was introduced on a large scale by Miller Brewing Company in the early 1970s, is a beer made with reduced alcohol and/or carbohydrate content, and has grown to eclipse many of the original pale lager brands in sales. Bud Light, brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, is the top-selling beer in the United States. Ice beer is an example which has been partially freeze-distilled with the intention of concentrating flavor and alcohol. The technique is based on that used to make Eisbock, but the two styles share no stylistic similarities (apart from both being lagers) otherwise. Dry beer, a Japanese style based on pale lager, is also brewed by some American companies. In dry beer, the yeast is encouraged to consume more fermentables, resulting in a crisper finish and an unusually subtle hop flavor.

Malt liquor is a high-abv pale lager. It has often incited controversy due to its alcohol content, larger-sized containers, low prices, and advertising frequently targeting inner-city neighborhoods.

Other beer styles indigenous to the United States include California common beer or "steam beer", amber ale, blonde ale and cream ale. Adapted styles with distinct American variations include pale ale, India Pale Ale, red ale, brown ale, stout, and barleywine.

Belgian beer styles have also been adapted by American breweries, including saison, dubbel, tripel, and Belgian strong ale. The lighter of these (saison, golden strong ale and tripel) beers have soft malt flavors and mild to strong "spicy" characteristics that come from yeast or the addition of spices. The darker of these beers (dubbel and dark strong ale) may have flavors of dried fruit that derives from the malts, yeast and sugar used to make them. All of these beers are high in carbonation and low in hop character. Witbier, a style nearly extinct until reintroduced by Belgian brewer Pierre Celis in the 1960s, is brewed by MillerCoors as Blue Moon, and is one of the top-selling craft beer styles in the United States.