The title 'Beer' runs the gamut from dark, hearty ales to tangy, spritzy gueuzes. The myriad different tastes, colours, flavours and aromas can, to some extent, be squeezed into groupings with similar characteristics and methods of production.

Newspapers and magazines have had tasteful columns about the mysteries of wine for many years, but it is only recently that writers have begun to discuss beer in the same way. Beer is much more complex than wine. Wine is based on a single ingredient - grapes. Beer is a fine balance between two - malt and hops. The variety of hops is as great as the variety of grapes and there are many different styles of malt and different cereals. In addition, there is an exotic store of extra spices for the more adventurous brewer. Today, interest in local styles and different qualities has never been greater. Drinkers increasingly appreciate that there is a rich variety of beer tastes to explore around the world.

The following are just a few of the styles of beers available worldwide:

Ale
Nowadays this is a vague term meaning any top-fermented beer. It is one of the two main branches of the beer family, the other being lager. Of the two, ale is the older, dating back thousands of years. England is the country where ales are now most commonly brewed.

Bitter
The distinctive style of draught ale in England and Wales is generally served in pubs. It is usually dry and hoppy with an alcohol content of 3-5%. Traditionally reddish amber in colour, paler varieties are now proving popular in England. Stronger versions used to be called Best or Special.

Bock
A strong, malty, warming German beer of about 6.5% alcohol, bock was originally brewed for the colder months. Traditionally dark in colour, today it is more likely to be golden-bronze. This powerful smooth brew originated in Einbeck in Lower Saxony, but is now more associated with Bavaria. Bock is also produced in Austria, the Netherlands and other countries surrounding Germany. The word bock means 'billy goat', and a goat's head often features on the label. The brew is sometimes linked with seasonal festivities, such as Maibock which celebrates the arrival of spring. Extra-potent versions are called doppelbocks (and are chiefly associated with Bavaria), with more than 7% alcohol, such as Paulaner Salvator, Eisbocks, in which frozen water is removed from the beer, are even more powerful. This brew (10%) is the speciality of Reichelbrau of Kulmbach.

Cream Ale
A sweetish, smooth, golden ale from the United States, cream ale was originally introduced by ale brewers trying to copy the Pilsner style. Some cream ales are made by blending ales with bottom-fermenting beers.

Export
This term was originally used to denote a better-quality beer, worth selling abroad. In Scotland, the term export is widely adopted for premium ales.

Ginger Beer
Despite its name, this is a refreshing, low or no-alcohol soft drink flavoured with root ginger. However, long before the hop appeared, ginger was used in beer and some pioneering micro-brewers are trying it again: Salopian in England adds ginger to its dark wheat beer, Gingersnap.

Gueuze
This is a ripe blend of old and new Belgian lambics. By blending young and old lambics, a secondary fermentation is triggered. The resulting distinctive, sparkling beer, often sold in corked bottles like champagne to withstand the pressure, packs a fruity, sour, dry taste. Blending is such an art that some producers do not brew, but buy in their wort. Often this beer is matured for many more months in the bottle. In some cases the secondary fermentation is triggered by the addition of various fruits. Traditionally gueuze should not be filtered, pasteurised or sweetened, though some more commercial brands do all three.

Lager
Lager is one of the two main branches of the beer family. The word lager is derived from the German word 'to store'. In Britain it refers to any golden, bottom-fermented beer, but elsewhere it has little meaning, apart from a general word for beer.

Pale Ale
An English bottled beer, pale ale is stronger than light ale and is usually based on the brewery's best bitter.

Pilsner
Strictly speaking, Pilsner is a golden, hoppy, aromatic lager from the Bohemian Czech town of Plzen (Pilsen in Germany), where this classic style was first produced in 1842. The original Pilsner Urquell (original source) is still brewed here. Czech Pilsner has a complex character with a flowery hop aroma and a dry finish. This golden classic has spawned a thousand imitators, some excellent, others pale, lacklustre imitations of the original. Variations on the style now dominate the world beer market. Pilsner is now the predominant lager beer of Germany. German Pilsners are dry and hoppy with a light, golden colour. They contain around 5% alcohol and often lack the smooth maltiness of the original Czech version.

Root Beer
An American temperance soft drink, not a beer, it was originally flavoured with sassafras root bark. Root beer is boiled but not fermented.

Stout
One of the classic styles of ale, originally a stout porter, stout has survived and prospered thanks to its sharp contrast in taste and colour to the popular Pilsner - and also to the determined marketing and enterprise of on brewer, Guinness of Ireland. This dry, black brew is made with a proportion of dark roasted barley in the mash head is heavily hopped to give its distinctive taste. Draught stout tends to be much creamier and smoother that the more distinctive bottled beer, because it uses nitrogen gas in its dispenser. Guinness also produce a much heavier Foreign Extra Stout for export. Some other countries also produce dry stout, notably Australia, with fine examples from Cooper's of Adelaide and Tooth's of Sydney.

Milk or Sweet Stout
This is a much weaker and smoother bottled English stout, originally called Milk Stout because of the use of lactose (milk sugar). The name was banned in Britain in 1946 because of the implication that milk is added to the brew, though it is still used in some countries such as South Africa and Malta. The leading brand, Whitbread's Mackeson, still maintains a creamy connection through the sketch of a milk churn on the label. The Boston Beer Company in America produces a Samuel Adams Cream Stout. In addition, there are stronger tropical sweet stouts, notably Dragon brewed in Jamaica and Lion which comes from Sri Lanka.

Excerpt taken from 'The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Wine, Beers, Spirits & Liqueurs'