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Beer: Styles, Serving and Off-Flavours

The knowledge a good bar runs on. What the styles actually are, how to keep and pour beer so it tastes as brewed, and how to spot the four faults that ruin it. Preparation for the Cicerone Certified Beer Server exam.

Skill levelSome beer knowledge helpful
Time needed4–5 hours
Starter budget£20–40 for a few example beers to taste
Step 01

The families of beer

Almost every beer on Earth belongs to one of two families, and the line between them is not colour or strength — it is yeast. Get this division clear and the bewildering wall of taps resolves into a map you can read. This is where the Cicerone Beer Server syllabus begins, because you cannot talk about a beer until you know what kind of thing it is.

Ale and lager: the fundamental split

Ale
Top-fermenting yeast working warm (15–24°C) and fast. Produces esters — fruity, sometimes spicy character. The older family: bitters, pale ales, IPAs, porters, stouts, Belgian styles, wheat beers.
Lager
Bottom-fermenting yeast working cold (7–13°C) and slow, then 'lagered' — cold-stored for weeks. The result is clean and crisp, letting malt and hops speak without yeast character. Pilsners, helles, bocks, most of the world's mass-market beer.
It is not about colour
There are pale ales and there are dark lagers (dunkel, schwarzbier). Guinness is an ale; a black Bavarian schwarzbier is a lager. Colour comes from the malt, not the family.

The four raw ingredients

Every beer is made from four things, and knowing what each contributes lets you predict a beer from its description. Malt (usually barley) gives sugar to ferment, plus colour and bready, caramel or roasted flavours. Hops give bitterness to balance the malt's sweetness, plus aroma from floral through citrus to pine. Yeast ferments the sugar to alcohol and defines the family. Water — its mineral profile shaped the classic styles, which is why Burton bitter and Pilsen lager taste of their home towns.

Read a style from its name

Once the map is in place, a name tells you the beer. 'Imperial stout' — a dark, strong ale, roasty and full. 'Dry-hopped pale ale' — an ale with extra late hops for aroma, not bitterness. 'Czech dark lager' — a clean, cold-fermented beer coloured and flavoured by dark malt. The Beer Server exam tests exactly this ability to place a beer from its description.

Part ofKeep & Serve Beer·Course 1 of 1

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