The Quadrant Theory

Alright, so you've seen my undying love of beer. I drink a lot of it, and I like to enjoy it with friends. In this time, I've slowly developed a theory on enjoying beers.

People (read: my friends) seem to really pick a favorite type of beer. This is only normal, but how to organize beers? I find it easiest to differentiate Malty (Stouts/Porters), Hoppy (Pale Ale/IPA), German (Pilsner, Bock), and Belgian (Dubbel, Saison).

I realize that using countries is both inexact and difficult as compared to malty and hoppy, but try and follow. Belgian beers, for example, tend to be fruity and use a lot of spices. German beers are tougher, but I know there's a unifying factor there as well, although it's tough to describe. My feelings on German beers is that they are pleasantly uncomplicated and kind of "clean".

Either way, it quickly became apparent that this wasn't the right idea. Too many people enjoyed more than one of those categories. But then I reformulated it as a grid. The axis are relatively unimportant, but you have malty vs. hoppy and german vs. belgian.

In my experience, people pick one side of each, and have a clear preference. It doesn't mean that someone like myself (Malty and Belgian) can't enjoy a pale ale, but I'll almost always default to a delicious stout or black lager. Whereas, my friend Stark tends to be more of a Hoppy and German person, often going for a pils or marzen, and being repulsed by my ridiculous stouts.

But obviously I have a pretty limited set. So tell me your experience. What about you? What about your friends? Do you know someone who breaks the theory?

and for the love of god, does someone who likes German beers more than me have a better description of them than "clean"?

Let me know!