Is there a new American beer style?

July 26, 10:38 PMBeer ExaminerCharlie Papazian

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Photo courtesy Brewers Association

        A trend towards a new major type of beer type that will overtake light beer is not on the horizon. Light beer still rules. The old way of thinking about beer will linger for quite some time as long as images and marketing continue to convince most beer consumers that light is where it’s at.   On the other hand, I think there is a trend for more hop enhanced beers. Hop enhanced meaning, flavor of hops, aroma of hops, mouthfeel of hops, and different types of bitter sensations from hops. American craft brewers are on the forefront of this. Most of the world’s beer is hopped with hop extract or high alpha bitter hops. Brewers who use these hop derived extracts find it difficult to understand what I refer to when I talk about the extraordinary characters that can be derived from whole or pelletized hops. There is a world of uniqueness to be explored. There are unbounded opportunities that are awaiting discovery.