Beer Basics, I

Because I'm going to go on and on about craft ale and where to drink it, I thought it might be good to include some education about the beverage itself.   It has been my observation that a lot of people think there is a difference between beer and ale, or that the latter is simply a dark-colored or heavier-tasting version of the former.  That isn't the case.  The most important distinction to be aware of is between lager and ale, both of which are beer.

Beer is a generic term for two types of alcoholic beverage, lager and ale.  In the craft brewing world, ale is king and lager tends to be overlooked.  This is probably because all of the big industrial beers – Bud, PBR, Coors/Miller, Yuengling, Stella, Beck’s, St. Pauli Girl, Heineken, Lowenbrau, Pilsner Urquell, Smithwick's, Red Stripe, Fosters, Carlsberg, Primo, Michelob, San Miguel, Singha, Tiger, Tsing-tao, Pacifico, Corona, Molson, Labatts, Kokanee, and about 1,000 others – are lagers, and even if they are good examples of their type (many would insist they are not), they are all rather light and very similar in taste.   They are also brewed in huge batches with no artistry involved at any point of the process. Lager can also be craft-brewed, and several notable microbreweries also do a lager, but ale is by far the craft brewer's choice.

The main differences between lager and ale is the type of yeast used and the temperature at which fermentation takes place.  Lager yeast sinks to the bottom of the batch of wort and does its thing down there.  You might say lager yeast is a bottom feeder.  It also is active in chilly conditions, so lager is brewed the same way it is served – cold.  Lager yeast typically converts all the sugar to alcohol, resulting in a dry, rather than a sweet, finished product.  Ale yeast, on the other hand, is top-fermenting and active in warmer conditions.  Rather than feeding on the bottom, it floats on, or rises to, the top of relatively warm wort.  Ale yeast leaves a certain amount of residual sugar in the brew, resulting in more assertive maltiness/sweetness.  Also, because ale is brewed at warmer temperatures, the production of flavorful and aromatic esters (and other byproducts) is less inhibited than in the cool conditions of lager fermentation.  As a result, an ale tends to be far more complex than a lager.  

That'll be enough for today. Wouldn't want to get carried away with this education thing.