Imbibe's Beer Categories

Over the past several days, Imbibe Magazine has been throwing out teaser tweets to lure followers into picking up their latest copy, which touts the world's 99 best beers (the link takes you to just nine). Of course, any such endeavor requires a certain amount of sorting, and I am somewhat intrigued by the categories they came up with:

• Beers to drink with a burger
• Hop monsters
• Different but good
• Small beers
• Beers to serve your friend who claims to be a beer snob
• Beers to drink with dessert
• Organic beers
• Barrel-aged beers
• Beers to cellar
• Seasonals

They've selected an admixture of functions in their categories: general type (barrel-aged beers, hop monsters), beers for specific occasions (beers to accompany food), and beers that serve certain functions (impressing beer geeks, cellaring). The idea of using all three types of categories is misguided--they become non-exclusive, and don't dictate where you'd put, say, Roots' heather ale. Different but good? Organic? (It would be fun to see if you can find a beer that fits every category--though a hop monster dessert beer would be a challenge to locate). But I do like the categories themselves, which escape the general-type trap.

One day, in the not-too-distant future, someone will hold a beer competition with radically different categories, and it will be a hoot for everyone who enters. And some brewery will be able to say, "Voted best beer to drink with breakfast," or somesuch.