I've limited myself to using Ratebeer as my source, the style that is registered on the site is the style I used. This is a limitation in the data due to the chance of mistakes during registry but also that some beers don't fit just one style. For instance some beer are labelled as 'Smoked' even though they can be a lager, stout or anything in between. I also decided to skip the annual beers if they where where of the same style as previous years.
I've gathered data from 27 Swedish micro breweries who in total brew 623 different beers. First thing I looked at was which style that was the most popular:
| Top by Style | ||
| Style | Quantity | % of tot. |
| IPA | 45 | 7,22% |
| Porter | 42 | 6,74% |
| American Pale Ale | 33 | 5,30% |
| Premium Bitter/ESB | 32 | 5,14% |
| Premium Lager | 29 | 4,65% |
| English Pale Ale | 29 | 4,65% |
| Bitter | 26 | 4,17% |
| Golden Ale/Blond Ale | 23 | 3,69% |
| English Strong Ale | 22 | 3,53% |
| Pale Lager | 21 | 3,37% |
| Vienna | 19 | 3,05% |
| Dunkel | 18 | 2,89% |
| Belgian Ale | 18 | 2,89% |
| Low Alcohol | 18 | 2,89% |
| Pilsener | 17 | 2,73% |
| German Hefeweizen | 14 | 2,25% |
| Stout | 14 | 2,25% |
| Spice/Herb/Vegetable | 14 | 2,25% |
| Imperial Stout | 13 | 2,09% |
| Brown Ale | 11 | 1,77% |
| Oktoberfest/Märzen | 10 | 1,61% |
| Schwarzbier | 10 | 1,61% |
| Scottish Ale | 9 | 1,44% |
| Smoked | 9 | 1,44% |
| Belgian Strong Ale | 9 | 1,44% |
| Bohemian Pilsener | 7 | 1,12% |
| Heller bock | 6 | 0,96% |
| Mild Ale | 6 | 0,96% |
| Imperial/Double IPA | 6 | 0,96% |
| Dry Stout | 6 | 0,96% |
| Altbier | 5 | 0,80% |
| Irish Ale | 5 | 0,80% |
| Amber Ale | 5 | 0,80% |
| Barley Wine | 5 | 0,80% |
| Imperial/Strong Porter | 5 | 0,80% |
| Sweet Stout | 5 | 0,80% |
| Fruit Beer | 5 | 0,80% |
| Mead | 5 | 0,80% |
| Traditional Ale | 5 | 0,80% |
| Old Ale | 4 | 0,64% |
| Belgian White (Witbier) | 4 | 0,64% |
| Saison | 4 | 0,64% |
| Kölsch | 3 | 0,48% |
| Doppelbock | 3 | 0,48% |
| Weizen Bock | 3 | 0,48% |
| Baltic Porter | 3 | 0,48% |
| Classic German Pilsener | 2 | 0,32% |
| Dunkler Bock | 2 | 0,32% |
| Wheat Ale | 2 | 0,32% |
| Foreign Stout | 2 | 0,32% |
| Abbey Dubble | 2 | 0,32% |
| Abbey Tripple | 2 | 0,32% |
| Dortmunder/Helles | 1 | 0,16% |
| Eisbock | 1 | 0,16% |
| American Strong Ale | 1 | 0,16% |
| Abt/Quadrupel | 1 | 0,16% |
| Lambic - Fruit | 1 | 0,16% |
| Perry | 1 | 0,16% |
IPA contains both American and English stype IPAs. The high number can be explained by a few breweries brewing several different IPAs, Monks (11), Nynäshamn (6) and Dugges (5) account for almost half of the different types of IPA. Noticable in this table is that all of the styles I mentioned in the beginning are all very low, with the exception of German Hefe-weizen that is surprisingly high up.
It might be hard to get a closer look at the above table and it is not really reader friendly. But I wanted the whole list for those that want to get a closer look. In the below table I've tried to group most of the styles into bigger categories. I have separated Stout, Porter, Wheat, and Barley Wine since I wanted to take a closer look at them. Also didn't put Smoked or IPA into a category as I wasn't sure where to put them.
| Top by category | ||
| Category | Quantity | % of tot. |
| Brittish | 177 | 28,41% |
| German | 78 | 12,52% |
| Lager | 76 | 12,20% |
| Porter | 50 | 8,03% |
| Belgian | 46 | 7,38% |
| IPA | 45 | 7,22% |
| American | 40 | 6,42% |
| Stout | 40 | 6,42% |
| Misc | 38 | 6,10% |
| Wheat | 19 | 3,05% |
| Smoked | 9 | 1,44% |
| Barley Wine | 5 | 0,80% |
The British styles are very popular and there is no competition for the top spot. I wonder how that is, could it be the close relations Sweden have with England. We can deal with the why question later. Among the German styles most of them could have ended up in the lager category, which gives a picture of how popular different styles of lagers is even among micro brewers. The Belgian category is higher then I expected and can largely be explained by the number of Belgian Ale and Belgian Strong Ales. The rest of the Belgian styles are very uncommon. Wheat and Barley Wine end up at the bottom of the list. Only a few breweries brew this style of beer.
As you notice the numbers can be a bit off if there is one brewery that brews allot of the same style. That seems to be a trend amongst the microbreweries to brew the same style of beer. For instance Pale Lager that mostly is brewed by Slottskällans and Grebbestads. So to get a better picture lets look at how many breweries brew each style of beer. I will publish my results tomorrow.
A very interesting compilation indeed.
ReplyDeleteI am a bit curious about what beers are included in the statistics:
Are the beers included the beers that are available today, or are they all beers brewed by the breweries since the start?
Are experimental and/or beers that are not available to the general public included (for example the brew-your-own-beer-nights at Monks or beers that are brewed once for special events)?
Are beers that are brewed by phantom/walk around breweries included? Examples: Galatea brews a beer at Jämtlands. Mohawk brews a beer at Sigtuna? Grebbestads brews a beer at Åbro?
Just curious!
Hey Bark!
ReplyDeleteI have included all beers that where registered at Ratebeer as being brewed by the brewery. I have even included Retired beers, however I haven't recorded annual beers if they are all the same style. But if the style change from say the 2006 to the 2007 version I have included both.
Brew-your-own at Monks isn't included since they aren't on ratebeer, same thing with Mohawk.
Regarding beers brewed at different breweries as far as I could see there where none registered. I used the brewer section at Ratebeer to gather the data. For instance this page: http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/grebbestad-bryggeri/1767/
Glad you found it interesting.