How to Read a Craft Brewery Menu: ABV, IBU, Body,and Flavour

Umang Nair

Sep 4

3 min read

Chalkboard beer menu in a brick brewery taproom, with patrons at the bar and warm hanging lights, listing daily pours and prices

You sit down at a brewery. The menu arrives.

Suddenly, you’re looking at words like ABV, IBU, dry-hopped, unfiltered, sour, sessionable and wondering if you accidentally opened a chemistry textbook.

Don’t worry. You’re not expected to know all of it.

A craft beer menu is basically telling you what the beer is going to taste and feel like before you order it. Once you understand a few terms, choosing a beer becomes much easier.

ABV: How Strong Is It?

Illustration of a pint of golden beer on a white background with ABV 5.5% text.

ABV means Alcohol By Volume.

If a beer is 5% ABV, roughly 5% of the liquid is alcohol. For beginners, think of it as the beer’s strength dial.

A 4% beer will generally feel lighter than an 8% beer. Higher ABV beers can also bring more warmth, sweetness and body, although brewing style matters. So if you want something easy to drink over a long lunch, 4–5% might be comfortable. If you want something richer and more powerful, look towards 7–8%.

The important bit: ABV tells you how strong the beer is, not whether it tastes good.

IBU: Is It Bitter?

Hops on a low-to-high bitterness scale beside a beer glass labeled IBU, with HOPS, BITTERNESS, LOW, and HIGH text.

IBU stands for International Bitterness Units.

It measures the bitterness contributed primarily by hops.

Higher IBU generally means more potential bitterness, but there is a catch.

A 60 IBU IPA can taste less bitter than a 30 IBU beer if the first beer also has lots of malt sweetness, body or fruit character.

So don't treat IBU like a volume knob labelled BITTERNESS.

As a rough guide:

5–20 IBU: Low bitterness
20–40 IBU: Moderate
40+ IBU: Noticeably bitter

Ale vs Lager

This is one of the most useful distinctions on a menu.

Ales are generally fermented with ale yeast at warmer temperatures. They often produce more fruity, spicy or expressive flavours.

Lagers use lager yeast and are fermented cooler, usually producing a cleaner, crisper profile.

Neither is “better.”

Think of it as choosing between expressive and crisp, although there are plenty of exceptions.

What Does “Dry-Hopped” Mean?

Dry-hopping means hops are added during or after fermentation rather than mainly during the boil.

The goal isn't primarily bitterness. It's aroma. Dry-hopped beers can smell intensely of citrus, tropical fruit, pine, flowers or herbs depending on the hops used.

If you like beers that smell almost absurdly fruity but aren't necessarily sweet, look for dry-hopped.

Unfiltered

An unfiltered beer has not been filtered to remove yeast and other suspended particles.

That can leave the beer hazy or cloudy and may contribute to a fuller, more rustic, flavorful character.

Cloudy doesn't automatically mean better. Clear doesn't automatically mean worse.

It simply tells you something about how the beer was made. Most microbreweries in India are unfiltered beers.

Fruited

A fruited beer has fruit added during brewing or fermentation. Mango, pineapple, raspberry, passionfruit and citrus are common examples.

These beers can range from subtle fruit notes to something that tastes like someone put an entire fruit bowl into the fermenter.

Sour

A sour beer is intentionally brewed to have noticeable acidity. Think of the difference between lemonade and a sweet fruit juice.

Sours can be tart, refreshing and fruity, and they're often a great choice if you don't enjoy traditional bitter beers.

Session Beer

A session beer is designed to be relatively lower in alcohol and easy to drink.

Usually, you're looking at something around 3–5% ABV, although the exact range varies.

The idea is simple: more refreshment, less alcohol intensity.

Strong Ale

A strong ale is, unsurprisingly, an ale with higher alcohol.

These beers can be richer, warmer and more complex, with flavours such as caramel, dried fruit, spice or toasted malt.

They're generally better approached slowly rather than treated like a race.

And Then There Are Tasting Flights

Still can't decide?

Order a tasting flight.

Four beer samples from pale gold to dark stout sit on a wooden board in a warm, rustic brewery bar.

A flight gives you several smaller pours, allowing you to compare different styles side by side. Try a lager, wheat beer, pale ale, IPA and stout. Suddenly, the menu stops being a list and becomes a small experiment.

And that's really the trick to understanding craft beer. You don't need to memorise every beer style.

Just look at the ABV for strength, IBU for bitterness, style for the general character, and words like dry-hopped, fruited, sour or hazy for clues about flavour and texture.

Then order the beer that sounds interesting. Worst case, you've discovered something you don't like. Best case, you've found your new favourite beer.

And that, conveniently, is a pretty good reason to order another flight.