In the world of brewing, there are two types of beer, each with many styles. Think of it like the AFC and NFC in the National Football League…two conferences, with a bunch of teams in each. Ales and Lagers are the two types of beer, where all styles of beer fall under.
Typically, lagers are aged over longer periods of time (usually a month) with a bottom fermenting yeast at colder temperatures (45-60 degrees). Lager fermentation produces crisp clean flavors and aromas, the beers tend to be refreshing and easy to drink.
Ales are aged much quicker than lagers, usually taking about 1-2 weeks. Ales use a top fermenting yeast which functions best around 55-70 degrees. Ale yeasts produce more intense fruity and floral flavors and aromas.
Take a look at this guide from Here’s to Beer’s website to see many of the styles of ales and lagers…
They also used to drink a whole bunch of ale back during the Medieval era, especially in England since the water was stagnant and bad for you (Death by Dysentery is not the way I’d want to go).
I knew ales aged quickly but I wasn’t sure how quick it would be. Interesting post. Makes me wonder how you would fridge the lagers at a cold temperature without any electric coolers. Or ice machines.
I drink alot of beer and never realized thaat all fall under two catagories ales and lagers. I guess I’ve seen stouts called black ales before ( i.e. 1554), but always thought they were a different catagorie. Well, you learn something new everyday, keep up the good work on spreading knowledge about beer.
I don’t know much about beer, other than knowing what I like. I’m curious where all the sub-types belong, from your description I’d wager that porters are ales. What about hefeweisens? Are all beers fairly easy to classify, or is it like music genres these days where there are 50 flavors of emo and their fans all bicker about which sucks less?