Move Over IPAs. These 6 Classic Beers Deserve a Spot in Your Fridge, Says a Certified Cicerone

Key points

• Certified Cicerone Anne Becerra recommends revisiting six classic beer categories that helped shape modern brewing, including Trappist ales, wheat beers, saisons, dark lagers, Flemish red ales, and distinctive styles like weizenbock.

• Her picks offer a wide range of flavors and textures, from refreshing, low-bitterness wheat beers to rich, malty dark lagers and complex, wine-like sour ales.

• Start with classics such as Westmalle Dubbel, St. Bernardus Wit, Saison Dupont, and Rodenbach Grand Cru, then use her tasting notes and food pairings to find your next favorite.

American brewers have spent decades pushing beer in every imaginable direction. So why does the average beer cooler seem to offer endless variations on the same few styles? Meanwhile, Belgian farmhouse ales, German dark lagers, and sours are getting harder to find. Certified Cicerone Anne Becerra , who is speaking at the third annual Food & Wine Classic in Charleston , thinks it's time to revisit them.

When Becerra started working at Manhattan's legendary Ginger Man beer bar, she learned there was a beer for practically every palate, occasion, and dish. "If someone 'didn't like beer,' they simply hadn't found 'their beer' yet," she says. "With the right context, a little knowledge and good presentation, I could find anyone a beer they loved."

Becerra selected six categories that demonstrate everything from Champagne-like farmhouse ales to rich, wine-adjacent sours. "First, I wanted to highlight flavors that people might not automatically think of or associate with beer," she explains. "It was also really important to select styles that appeal to a wide range of palates, including those that don't love bitterness."

Revisiting these beers also offers a chance to understand the traditions that influenced today's brewers. As Becerra puts it: "If you find out your favorite song in the world is based on a sample of an older recording, doesn't it make you want to hear the original?"

Trappist ales

The classics : Westmalle Dubbel and Westmalle Tripel (Belgium)

Trappist describes a beer's connection to a monastic community, rather than a single style. The Authentic Trappist Product label carries requirements governing where and under whose supervision a product is made, as well as how its proceeds are used.

Westmalle helped establish two of its most influential modern expressions: dubbel, a rich, dark ale, and tripel, a strong, golden one. Becerra says Trappist ales typically showcase prominent yeast character, which contributes "explosive fruity notes, and lovely spicy, peppery aromatics." Many are bottle-conditioned, undergoing a second fermentation that produces the fine bubbles Becerra likens to Champagne.

Related: Beer Is the Secret to Better Food Pairings. Here's How to Match It With Everything You Eat

Westmalle's Dubbel offers raisin, cocoa, dark cherry, and nutty banana bread flavors, but "nothing about it is overly sweet, sticky or cloying." Becerra has an easy recommendation for Westmalle Dubbel: Thanksgiving dinner. "I've paired Dubbels with every item on a Thanksgiving table, and it works," she says.

Its golden sibling, often called the Mother of All Tripels, features notes of orange zest, white fruit, fresh thyme, cracked pepper, and baked pastries, with lively carbonation. "It's so effervescent, so complex, and even at a whopping 9.5% ABV, still dangerously easy to drink," she says.

Try next : Chimay Blue , Rochefort 10 , La Trappe Tripel

Wheat beers: German hefeweizen and Belgian witbier

The classic : St. Bernardus Wit (Belgium)

When someone tells Becerra they don't like beer, wheat beer is often her first suggestion. "They're incredibly refreshing, there's very little bitterness, there's a lovely creamy texture, zippy carbonation, and a gentle spiciness," she says. German hefeweizens derive their banana and clove notes from a specific yeast, while Belgian witbiers traditionally incorporate actual spices, like coriander and Curaçao orange peel. For a classic hefeweizen, Becerra recommends Weihenstephaner .

Belgian witbier nearly disappeared before brewer Pierre Celis revived the centuries-old style in Hoegaarden during the 1960s. Decades later, he helped develop St. Bernardus Wit . For Becerra, St. Bernardus Wit comes closest to the beer that originally brought Celis's style back into fashion. She describes its flavor as "electric citrus peel, creamy vanilla, aromatic coriander, with just a touch of elderflower and melon." Celis's revival also helped inspire American brewers, including Allagash founder Rob Tod. Allagash White has since become so closely associated with Maine that it basically demands to be paired with a lobster roll. St. Bernardus Wit pours equally well alongside ceviche, creamy risotto, or cheesecake.

Try next : Allagash White , Hitachino Nest White Ale , Baladin Isaac

Saison

The classic : Saison Dupont (Belgium)

Saison means "season" in French, a reference to the seasonal farmworkers who historically drank these ales in the French-speaking regions of Belgium. Their recipes varied considerably depending on the brewer — usually a farmer — and available ingredients. "I think of them like the family meal of beers in that they weren't necessarily made to sell, but as part of the employees' wages— a certain allotment of beer per day," Becerra explains.

Related: Meet the Centuries-Old Belgian Beer Style That's a Warm-Weather Refresher

Saison remains a loosely defined category, but ask brewers to name its finest example and Saison Dupont is likely to come up. "This is my desert island beer because it hits every spot," Becerra says. Brewed in Tourpes, Belgium, the 6.5% ABV classic has stone fruit, grapefruit rind, baked bread, flowers, and subtle spice with an exceptionally dry finish. "It's drinkable and refreshing enough for a hot day but structured and robust enough for a cold one. It's gentle enough to have with poached scallops but full enough for a fatty cassoulet."

Try next : Oxbow Farmhouse Pale Ale , Ommegang Hennepin , Fantôme Saison

Dark lagers

The classics : Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel and Celebrator Doppelbock (Germany)

Dunkel in German means "dark," but not stout-level dark. Bavarian dunkels predate the rise of pale pilsners, while the stronger doppelbock has its own monastic history, earning the nickname "liquid bread" for its association with Lenten fasting. "I'm obsessed with dark lagers, and I've always felt that they don't get nearly enough love," Becerra says. "If you're looking for beers that really showcase the wonderful flavors of malt, these are for you." Ayinger makes outstanding examples of both.

Its Altbairisch Dunkel reminds Becerra of "really great multigrain bread with some toasted nuttiness and hints of lightly roasted coffee." Celebrator Doppelbock goes darker and richer, with molasses, spicy rye, dates, and chocolate. "You can almost chew it, but then that clean, lagered finish comes up like the period at the end of a sentence," she says. At this year's Food & Wine Classic in Aspen , Becerra paired Von Trapp Dunkel with spicy New Orleans boudin, a combination whose roasted, cocoa-like flavors reminded her of dark gumbo roux. "Absolutely fantastic," she recalls.

Try next : Von Trapp Dunkel , Jack's Abby Smoke & Dagger , Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel

Flemish red ale

The classics : Rodenbach Grand Cru and Duchesse de Bourgogne (Belgium)

Often called the Burgundies of Belgium, Flemish red ales have a fair amount in common with fine wine. Developed in West Flanders, these beers rely on mixed fermentation, oak-barrel aging, and blending to produce layered acidity and fruit complexity. Oenophiles, your beer is here.

Related: A Certified Cicerone's Guide to Beer for Wine Lovers

"Both Rodenbach Grand Cru and Duchesse de Bourgogne have produced more visceral, 'game changer' reactions in my career than just about any other beer," Becerra says. With a bright ruby color, their sweet-and-sour flavors evoke vermouth, passion fruit, sour cherry, and young oloroso sherry. But they're balanced: "Sourness is a component of the beer, not its entire personality." Becerra considers the style especially food-friendly, pairing it with everything "from the fanciest pâté to your favorite Chinese takeout dish, to the funkiest cheese."

Try next : Russian River Supplication , Crooked Stave Origins , Jester King's barrel-aged sour releases

The rule breakers: Weizenbock and Orval

The classics : Schneider Aventinus and Orval (Germany and Belgium)

"These two beers stand out amongst anything even remotely similar and are too wonderful to miss," Becerra says. Schneider Aventinus, introduced in 1907 by Mathilde Schneider, combined the strength and richness of a bock with the fruity, spicy character of a wheat beer, helping establish the weizenbock tradition. Schneider managed the family brewery after her husband's death at a time when women were rarely permitted to lead such businesses openly. "It's an outrageous combination of the plummy, red grape, mocha-tinged, vinous, Port-like notes of a rich bock alongside this wonderfully effervescent, gentle peppery, spicy, refreshing backdrop," Becerra says.

Orval is a Belgian Trappist ale that employs extra dry hopping and Brettanomyces, a yeast that changes the beer's flavor as it ages in the bottle. Becerra describes flavors ranging "from unripe pineapple to lime zest to juicy red apples to new leather to hay." How its character changes in the bottle over time inspires drinkers to compare different vintages side by side. "To say it has a cult following would be putting it mildly," she says. "This beer really is in a class all its own."

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