ABV vs IBUs, In Chart Form

Ever wonder where your favorite brews fall in comparison to other styles in terms of bitterness (IBUs) and alcohol-by-volume (ABV)? Luckily for all of us, there’s a graph for that.

A picture tells a thousand words, but a chart never shuts up.

What stands out here? How about the light lager that lives in loserville in both ABV and IBUs? Actually, that’s not surprising at all. Notice that the dark beers are scattered all over the place, indicating that the color of your beer has nothing to do with strength, or bitterness. Notice that the American Barleywine is more bitter than the American IPA (although it should be pointed out that the British Barleywine wouldn’t be, and if that American IPA was a double or imperial IPA, it would probably out-bitter the Barleywine). Also, look at those two Belgians that are low on the bitterness scale, but high on the alcohol scale… big mash equals lots of fermentables and sweeter flavor, but not necessarily a good bitter balance.

Then again, it might just be a cool-lookin chart.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!