I love arrogant bastard. Truly and completely. This is a delicious beer with very assertive hop bitterness that might make it a poor choice for beginners.
Typically, England and the U.S. are known for ales (quicker fermentation, top-fermenting yeast, higher temperature fermentation) and Continental Europe for Lagers (Bottom fermenting yeast, longer time, cooler fermentation temps). Both run the gamut from light to dark, and light to heavy (Wish those both didn’t contain a “light” option, it gets confusing).
For instance Guinness is a very light beer, but a very dark beer. It is the same weight (read: alcohol content) as Coors Lite. That’s why it floats on top of heavier (higher alcohol) beers when you make a black and tan.
For Ales, the progression of bitterness is something like this (regional variances are great): Mild/bitter (Old Speckled Hen is a great example. Sucks in a can, awesome on draught with a nitrogen/co2 mix), Brown ale (Smuttynose Old Brown Dog is a great American example, Sam Smiths is great, Newcastle is okay), Pale Ale (All different varieties of this, too many to mention. American Pale Ales have Cascade hops, India Pale Ales are very strong versions that could withstand a boat trip to India in the sun for 5 months crossing the equator twice). The really dark beers are stouts and porters. Stouts can tend to be very light, especially dry irish stouts, but are always near black due to the use of burnt and highly roasted malts. Porters tend to be more robust with more chocolate flavors than roasty/coffee flavors. Barleywines are not as dark, but stronger than these beers, and are meant to be enjoyed only slightly cooler than room temp, in a brandy snifter, as a nightcap and are not good accompaniments to food.
The Russians invented a style of beer for Katherine the Great called Imperial Stout. Think Stout but really strong. Americans are now “imperailizing” every kind of beer you can think of. Also, they call these beers “double _____” (insert beer style here)
Belgium is known for its lambics, which are spontaneously fermented with whatever yeast was in the air at the monastery. (True trappist beers are brewed by monks, there are 7 Belgian trappist breweries left and 1 somewhere else in Europe. Not sure where)
There’s saisons and dubbels and tripels and they’re all a bit sour and most are quite strong. The most famous spontaneous fermenting yeast is known as brettanomyces.
Lagers in Germany are either helles (light in color) or dunkel (dark). Pilsners are Czech in origin and should contain the Saaz variety of hops, and have an assertively bitter finish. Bocks are varied from maibock to doublebocks (even triple bocks) and are usually at least a medium amber/brown in color. There are eisbocks, which are ridiculously strong beers made by cooling a doublebock until ice crystals form, scooping off the ice crystals, hence practicing a form of distillation and resulting in a beer that can rival strong wines for alcohol content.
If you want specific examples of any styles that I didn’t provide, just ask, I can probably rattle off 4 or 5. Also, if you know any restaurants that are in need of a beer list design consultant, I’ll send you my business card.
