How to Read a Beer Label Without Feeling Like a Fraud

In the spirit of honesty, I spent years pretending I understood beer labels on craft beers. I'd nod at "double dry-hopped", squint knowingly at "6.2% ABV, 45 IBU" and then order whatever my mate was having. I don't believe myself to be stupid... unless someone wants to tell me otherwise... But I do feel the beer industry has a vocabulary problem. We need a glossary.

This article is that glossary. Pour yourself something and settle in. By the end you will be the person at the pub who can actually translate the label, and nobody will ever again get away with charging you for a lukewarm mystery.

The four numbers that actually matter

Almost every craft beer label gives you four clues. Learn these and you're 80% of the way there.

ABV - Alcohol By Volume. This is the percentage of the liquid that is pure alcohol. A 4% session beer will treat you very differently from a 9% imperial stout, and the NHS unit calculator is a surprisingly cheerful way to keep yourself honest on a big night. Rule of thumb: if the ABV is north of 7%, treat the pint with the same respect you'd give a steep hill.

We symbolise ABV for you with a lovely little scale, as seen below. The lower the ABV, the lower it is on the scale and so on. From the sheep symbol with Alcohol-Free or Session Strength to a Wolf of a beer as Imperial strength.

IBU - International Bitterness Units. This measures, roughly, how bitter the beer is on a lab level. Roughly, because your tongue does not care about labs. A big malty stout can show 60 IBUs and taste sweet, because all that caramel is masking the bitterness. A crisp lager at 20 IBUs can taste perkier than the number suggests. Treat IBU as a rumour, not a promise. The Brewers Association has a good primer if you want to go deeper.

OG / FG - Original Gravity and Final Gravity. These are usually hidden on the back in tiny print and you can mostly ignore them, but if you've ever wondered why a beer is described as "dry," it's because the brewer fermented more of the sugars out. Low final gravity = dry finish.

SRM / EBC - The colour scale. SRM is American, EBC is European. A pale lager sits around 4 EBC. A stout can exceed 80. Worth knowing if you order a "pale ale" and get something the colour of a boot - that's a label error, politely mention it. Maybe.

Dank - the hop-forward intense aromas (reminiscent of the smell of Cannabis) which create the strong flavours we've grown to associate with many modern IPAs. 

The words that are doing real work

Here's where labels get fun, because breweries can't resist a bit of poetry. Let's strip the mystique.

Dry-hopped. All this means is the brewer chucked extra hops into the beer after the boil, usually during fermentation or conditioning. Heat destroys the delicate aroma compounds in hops, so dry-hopping preserves them. Result: big juicy grapefruit, mango, pine-needle smells. "Double dry-hopped" just means they did it twice. "Triple" means they did it thrice.

Single hop. Only one variety of hop was used. It's the brewer saying "come meet Citra on its own, no distractions." Great for learning what individual hops taste like.

We label our cans with these little hop symbols here!

The degree of how hoppy the beer is, is symbolised by the shade of the hop on this chart. Less hoppy to most from left to right.

Cask vs keg. The short version: cask ale is living, still fermenting very gently, served at cellar temperature with a gentler carbonation. Keg beer is stable, colder, fizzier. One isn't better than the other. They're different instruments.

Lager. Not a single style, contrary to what the big lager ads want you to believe. Lagers are beers fermented with a particular family of yeast at colder temperatures for longer. Pilsners, helles, dunkels, bocks; all lagers. Some of them will knock your socks off.

"Murky," "hazy," "juicy," "NEIPA." This is the New England IPA family tree. They are deliberately cloudy because of protein-hop interactions, and they taste like someone liquefied a fruit bowl. If you've never tried one, pick one up from our shop and thank us later.

Malts. These are the humble grains that are soaked and toasted to create sugars and flavours. The level of roasting is where the magic (and mischief) happens: light malts bring sweet, bready vibes, while darker ones sneak in flavours like caramel, chocolate, or even a little coffee swagger. They’re not just there for taste either, malts also provide the sugars that yeast later turns into alcohol, so without them, your beer would be… well, just sad grain water.

We label our cans with these little malt symbols here!

How malt forward a beer is, is symbolised by how shaded in the malt symbol is here. 

The words that don't mean anything

"Craft." "Artisan." "Small-batch." These have no legal definition in the UK, and a multinational can slap them on a can produced in a factory the size of a football pitch. Use them as vibes, not evidence. If you want to know who actually made your beer, look for the SIBA Assured Independent Craft Brewer logo, which is an actual, policed accreditation.

A SiWC Quick Example:

This is an example of the an Alcohol Free label we produce. With what you now know you can see this is a balanced beer with easy drinking hop and malt levels.

From this label you can see a session ABV with all the hops, this beer is hopped at every stage, including the dry hopping we talked about. A cheeky amber malt adds a little maltiness but you can expect a big hop session beer!

With the scale firmly at the wolf end of ABV full of all the and minimal hops. 

Try this at home

Next time you're in front of a fridge of unfamiliar beer, read the label out loud. Find the ABV, find the hop names if they're there, find the style word, and then pick on vibes. There's no wrong answer. The whole point of craft beer is that your palate is the final judge, not the marketing. 

Use the details as a guide - ultimately you either like it or you don't!

Most importantly, don't be afraid to ask questions! Our staff are always here to help! 

Order online at https://siwcbrewery.com or buy in store at FK15 0EW every Friday from 11am-7pm.