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Homebrew Beer Styles for the Unconverted

You probably know some poor souls—bless them—who have yet to discover the flavor and freshness of homemade beer.

Dave Carpenter Jul 29, 2014 - 3 min read

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Maybe they’re a little scared: Homebrew does, after all, enjoy a not-undeserved reputation for potency. Or perhaps after decades of drinking lifeless lite lagers, their taste buds have atrophied like unused muscles. Either way, it’s your job as a homebrewer to bring them into the fold, so here are some suggestions that might just get them hooked.

If ever there is an award for the most poorly named beer style, it certainly must go to cream ale. Cream ale contains no cream whatsoever, nor is it even vaguely creamy or cream-like. And cream ale is less an ale than it is an American lager that happens to have been fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ale yeast). The clean profile means lovers of lite lager are likely to lap up this low-key libation.

Golden ale or blonde ale is a sort of catch-all category for yellowish craft ales whose approachability derives from a soft malt profile balanced by just enough hop bitterness to counterpoint. While homebrewers might include some maize in cream ale, blonde ale is nearly always built exclusively on malt.

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