Beer Blinded Me with Science

I recently came across this categorically exhaustive graphic of the beer spectrum. Does it look like anything else you've seen before? Yeah, that's right. The periodic table of elements! If, like me, you loved 9th grade Chemistry, then this will be right up your alley.

As a visualization for beer education and appreciation, I also think it's genius. Each column represents a distinct variety of beer (e.g. Belgian ales, pale ales, Scottish ales) within one of the two major brewing styles (lagers vs. ales). And, within every column, sub-varieties are organized vertically by A.B.V., with the lowest-alcohol styles appearing at the top and highest-alcohol styles appearing at the bottom.

In case you were wondering, you can also see how common and even obscure beers compare to one another by original and final gravity, bitterness (as measured by International Bitterness Units, or IBUs), and color intensity (as measured by Standard Reference Method, or SRM). Yes, someone actually used a spectrometer to calculate how light passes through a brown porter as compared to a robust porter. And, I appreciate that. Very much.