Today’s infographic is the second of three similar charts that Pete Slosberg created for Pete’s Wicked Ales. It also shows popular beer styles (remember this was the late 80s) and where they fell on an x/y axis spectrum, and also includes color along one additional axis. It was one of the first great educational tools for explaining the variation in different beers, something that most people didn’t know anything about back then.
Click here to see the chart full size.
Interesting, a different way to look at classification. (Interesting too that commercial websites were active as early as the late 1980’s and interactive too, I hadn’t guess they came in that soon).
Clearly the scene is more complex today with Imperial Stouts, barley wines, all the Belgian styles, spiced and barreled, etc.) but the core of what we have today is there.
I always liked the original Pete’s Wicked Ale and never really found another beer like it despite the hundreds of brown ales today. It was like a cross between a good English mild and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, say.
Gary
What I find most interesting is that Anchor Steam:
a) didn’t have a “number”;
b) wasn’t inside one one of the boxes”; &
c) was classified as “golden” (HUH?)
Anchor Steam is shown on the border of amber, so not unreasonable really although placement just on the other side would be fair too. (Sam Adams Boston lager is kind of the obverse!). I’d guess it is unnumbered because it is a hybrid style (a lager fermented warmer than normally). By the way just picked up the May AAB and a beer called Davy Brown Ale made in Buellton, CA, reviewed on p. 75 by Roger Protz and the Alstrom brothers, sounds (to me) quite similar to the original Pete’s Wicked Ale.
Gary