This category describes everyday American beers that have a wide public appeal. Containing both ales and lagers, the beers of this category are not typically complex, and have smooth, accessible flavors

International lagers are the premium mass-market lagers produced in most countries in the world. Whether developed from American or European styles, they all tend to have a fairly uniform character and are heavily marketed.

Czech lagers are generally divided by gravity class (draft, lager, special) and color (pale, amber, dark). The Czech names for these categories are světlé (pale), polotmavé (amber), and tmavé (dark)

This style category contains malty, pale, Pilsner malt-driven German lagers of vollbier to starkbier strength. While malty, they are still well-attenuated, clean lagers, as are most German beers.

This category describes everyday American beers that have a wide public appeal. Containing both ales and lagers, the beers of this category are not typically complex, and have smooth, accessible flavors.

This category groups amber-colored, German-origin, bottom-fermented lagerbiers that have a malty balance and are vollbier to starkbier in strength.

This category groups amber-colored, evenly balanced to bitter balanced beers of German or Austrian origin.

This category contains German vollbier lagers darker than amber-brown color.

This category contains more strongly flavored and higher alcohol lagers from Germany and the Baltic region. Most are dark, but some pale versions are known.

This category contains vollbier- and starkbier-strength German wheat beers without sourness, in light and dark colors.

The family of British bitters grew out of English pale ales as a draught product in the late 1800s. The use of crystal malts in bitters became more widespread after WWI. Traditionally served very fresh under no pressure (gravity or hand pump only) at cellar temperatures (i.e., “real ale”).

This category contains pale, moderately-strong, hop-forward, bitter ales from countries within the former British Empire.

They are grouped together for judging purposes only since they often have similar flavors and balance, not because of any implied common ancestry.

The original meaning of ‘schilling’ (/-) ales have been described incorrectly for years. A single style of beer was never designated as a 60/-, 70/- or 80/-.

The traditional beers of Ireland contained in this category are amber to dark, top-fermented beers of moderate to slightly strong strength, and are often widely misunderstood due to differences in export versions, or overly focusing on the specific attributes of beer produced by high-volume, well-known breweries.

This category contains average to strong, bitter to sweet, modern British and Irish stouts that originated in England even if some are now more widely associated with Ireland. In this case, “British” means the broader British Isles not Great Britain.

This category contains the stronger, non-roasty beers of the British Isles.

This category contains modern American ales of average strength and light color that are moderately malty to moderately bitter.

This category contains modern American amber and brown warm-fermented beers of standard strength that can be balanced to bitter.

These beers all evolved from their English namesakes to be wholly transformed by American craft brewers. Generally, these styles are bigger, stronger, more roast-forward, and more hop-centric than their Anglo cousins. These styles are grouped together due to a similar shared history and flavor profile.

The IPA category is for modern American IPAs and their derivatives. This does not imply that English IPAs aren’t proper IPAs or that there isn’t a relationship between them.

This category includes modern American strong ales with a varying balance of malt and hops. The category is defined mostly by alcohol strength and a lack of roast.

This category contains the traditional sour beer styles of Europe that are still produced, many (but not all) with a wheat component. Most have low bitterness, with the sourness of the beer providing the balance that hop bitterness would otherwise contribute. Some are sweetened or flavored, whether at the brewery or upon consumption.

This category contains the maltier to balanced, more highly flavored Belgian and French ales..

This category contains the pale, well-attenuated, balanced to bitter beers, often more driven by yeast character than malt flavors, with generally higher alcohol (although a range exists within styles).

Trappist is a protected legal appellation, and cannot be used commercially except by genuine Trappist monasteries that brew their own beer. However, we can use it to describe the type or styles of beer produced by those breweries and those who make beers of a similar style. Trappist type beers are all characterized by very high attenuation, high carbonation through bottle conditioning, and interesting (and often aggressive) yeast character.

The Historical Beer category contains styles that either have all but died out in modern times, or that were much more popular in past times and are known only through recreations.

The name American Wild Ale is in common use by craft brewers and homebrewers. However, the word Wild does not imply that these beers are necessarily spontaneously-fermented; rather, it indicates that they are influenced by microbes other than traditional brewer’s yeasts.

The Fruit Beer category is for beer made with any fruit or combination of fruit under the definitions of this category.

We use the common or culinary definitions of spices, herbs, and vegetables, not botanical or scientific ones

This category contains specialty beers that have some additional ingredient (grain or sugar) that adds a distinctive character.

This category contains specialty beers that have a smoke character.

This category contains specialty beers with a wood-aged character, with or without added alcohol character.

While there are many Specialty-Type Beers in these guidelines, the Specialty Beer category is intended for those beers that do not fit anywhere else.

See the Introduction to Mead Guidelines for detailed descriptions of standard mead characteristics, an explanation of standard terms, and entering instructions.

A mead made with fruit is called a Melomel, although some melomels also have other names (cyser, pyment). We are introducing category names for certain types of melomels based on the variety of fruit used; these are more entry categories than actual styles.

See the Introduction to Mead Guidelines for detailed descriptions of standard mead characteristics, an explanation of standard terms, and entering instructions.

See the Introduction to Mead Guidelines for detailed descriptions of standard mead characteristics, an explanation of standard terms, and entering instructions.

The styles represented in this category are the principal established styles. “New World” is simply a name change from the “Common” of earlier versions.

Specialty cider/perry includes beverages made with added flavorings (spices and/or other fruits), those made with substantial amounts of sugar-sources to increase starting gravities, and the beverage made from a combination of apple and pear juice (sometimes called pider).