Random Beer

What this picker actually does

No gimmicks. We keep a hand-checked list of real beers, actual brands and labels you can buy, not made-up names. Press Generate and it reaches in, pulls one out at random, and shows it. Press again for a new one.

You get two simple controls:

• How many you get. Ask for one beer or a whole list. When you ask for several, it gives you that many different ones in a single draw, so there are no repeats to sort through.
• Copy. One tap copies the result into a note or a message, handy for a shopping list before a beer run.

Why your beer order gets stuck

So why do we keep ordering the same thing? Partly it is easy, and partly beer is genuinely big. There are dozens of recognised styles out there, each with its own character, and most of us only ever meet a handful of them. A lager and a stout are barely the same drink. A crisp pilsner and a juicy hazy IPA are worlds apart.

The trouble is that standing at the bar is a bad moment to go exploring. You are thirsty, the person behind you is waiting, so you fall back on the name you know. A random pick does the exploring for you, before you are under any pressure, so you turn up already knowing what you want to try.

A quick map of beer styles

It helps to know roughly where a result sits, so here is the lay of the land without the jargon.

• Lagers and pilsners. Clean, crisp, easy. The lane most everyday beers live in.
• Pale ales and IPAs. Hop-forward, from gently bitter pale ales to big, fruity, hazy IPAs.
• Wheat beers. Soft and cloudy, often with a hint of banana or citrus.
• Stouts and porters. Dark and roasty, with coffee and chocolate notes. Not as heavy as they look.
• Belgians and sours. The adventurous end, from spicy Belgian ales to tart, sharp sours.

If a result lands in a family you have never tried, that is the one worth chasing. For the full breakdown of every style, the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines are the standard reference.

Ways to put it to use

• Run a tasting. Generate four or five, grab them all, and taste them side by side with friends. A cheap night in with a bit of structure.
• Plan a bottle-shop run. Get your list before you go, so you are not just staring at the shelves again.
• Stretch your palate. Make a rule to try whatever comes up, even the styles you assume you will not like. You will be wrong sometimes, and that is the fun part.
• Stock a party. Pull a spread across styles so there is something for the lager crowd and the IPA crowd both.
• Settle the group. Nobody can agree, so let the picker call it and move on.

Narrowing the list

Wide open is the way in when you will try anything on the shelf. When you half-know what you are after, three filters tighten it up:

• Starts with. Pin the first letter of the name.
• Contains. Ask for a word in every result, like "IPA" for something hoppy or "stout" for something dark.
• Ends with. Pin the last letter.

Filter it down to nothing and the tool says so outright instead of a blank, so you ease off and go again.

Questions people ask

Is it free?

Yes. It runs in your browser, needs no signup, and there is no limit on how many times you generate.

Are these real beers or invented names?

Real ones. Every result is an actual beer you can look for at a bar or shop. This is a picker for drinking, not a name generator for homebrew labels.

Can I get several at once?

Set the number first and you get that many in one go, each a different beer, ready to copy as a list.

Can the same beer come up twice?

Within a single batch, no, you get different beers. Across separate clicks it can, since each click is a fresh independent pick.

Where does the beer list come from?

It is a list put together and checked by people, spanning popular brands and styles. We tidy it and add to it over time.

References

1. Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). Beer Style Guidelines. https://www.bjcp.org/