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Experimental Beer

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Category:Hybrid

Beer Style Description

This is the description of how the Experimental Beer style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the Experimental Beer beer style.

Experimental beers are beers that either 1. employ unique and unusual techniques and/or ingredients; or 2. beers that don’t meet the criteria of individual existing categories, representing a combination of two or more hybrid, specialty or classic categories. Experimental beers are primarily grain-based with a minimum of 51% of fermentable carbohydrates derived from malted grains. Beers produced using non-experimental techniques and/or ingredients are considered experimental beers if their properties overlap two or more existing categories and exhibit the distinctive characteristics of each of those categories. Uniqueness is the primary consideration when evaluating this category. Within the framework of these guidelines, field, fruit, chocolate, coffee, spice, specialty, wood-aged or other beers that fit within another individual category should not be categorized as experimental beers. When using these guidelines as the basis for evaluating entries at competitions, brewers may be asked to provide supplemental information about entries in this category to allow for accurate evaluation of diverse entries. Such information might include an underlying beer style(s) upon which the entry is based (if such style(s) is apparent), or other information unique to the entry such as ingredients or processing which influence perceived sensory outcomes. Competition organizers may create subcategories which reflect groups of entries based on color, hop varieties, microflora, fruit, spices or other ingredients, wood aging, etc.

  • Color: May vary widely with ingredients used
  • Body: May vary widely with ingredients used and brewing process
  • Malt Flavors & Aromas: May vary widely with ingredients used and brewing process
  • Hop Flavors & Aromas: May vary widely with ingredients used and brewing process
  • IBUs/Bitterness: May vary widely with ingredients used and brewing process
  • Fermentation Characteristics: Will vary widely depending on the nature of the techniques and/or ingredients used to create the beer

Brewing Properties of Experimental Beer

These are the functional brewing properties of Experimental Beer beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.

ABV
The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have.
Bitterness
The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer.
SRM
SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more »
Varies
Original Gravity
Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer.
Final Gravity
The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete.

If you see an error in our data, please let us know!

Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.

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