Your favourite drink?

[Paul]

I just noticed that "ale" is a separate category from "beer" in the voting options. Paul, do you think you can change that before I accidentally give in the my beer geek tendencies and start a thread-jack on beer styles?

My classification system on many, many topics has many flaws due to my personal biases. I dont like most ales (especially modern ones), though, I like most beers

[NewEnglander]

My classification system on many, many topics has many flaws due to my personal biases. I dont like most ales (especially modern ones), though, I like most beers

By "beer" do you mean "lager"? Ales and lagers are different types of beers, categorized (in the simplest terms) by their fermentation temperatures.
It's not a big deal at all...but I'm just sayin'...

[Paul]

By "beer" do you mean "lager"? Ales and lagers are different types of beers, categorized (in the simplest terms) by their fermentation temperatures.
It's not a big deal at all...but I'm just sayin'...

I count lager as a type of beer. As far as I know lager is largely made of the same ingredients, though, brewed for longer.

[NewEnglander]

I count lager as a type of beer. As far as I know lager is largely made of the same ingredients, though, brewed for longer.

So you just moved ale to it's own category because you don't like it as much as other beers?

[Paul]

So you just moved ale to it's own category because you don't like it as much as other beers?

Well as far as I'm aware traditional ale doesn't contain hops.

[NewEnglander]

Well as far as I'm aware traditional ale doesn't contain hops.

That's something I've never heard before. Hops have been used for centuries to counteract the sweetness of malt (ie bitter the brew) and also help preserve beers. But if by "traditional" you mean ancient, proto-beers like gruit then it'd be true, though the mixture of herbs used in those beverages had the same function as hops, which hadn't been domesticted yet, I believe.

Or it this just might be another case of differences in American vs British English...

[jkane]

As an earlier beer geek wanted to say, but held his tongue ...

There are two types of beers. Ale's and Lagers. Ales are "top fermented" and Lagers are "bottom fermented". That is a description of where the yeast "flocculate" to. Ales are traditionally fermented above 65 degrees F. Lagers are fermented below 45. Ales are ready to drink sooner since the fermentation happens faster. They also will have a fuller and richer flavor profile as the yeast will leave flavor behind at higher temperatures. The word "lager" means to store and it traditionally meant to store at cool temperatures. The lower temperatures tend to leave less other flavors behind, which is why a Pilsner is the world standard description of a lager.

Beer contains 4 ingredients. Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. Any other ingredient is called an Adjunct. If it does not have one of those above ingredients, it can still be considered a beer in the modern world. Some places it would not. Just like kilts, some people accept canvas as a kilt material, some do not! The same with beer. A beer without hops is not a beer to many people. The German Brewing Law further defines Malt as only barley. There are also Belgians which use a bacteria in them in addition to the yeast. That is why they tend to have a sourness to them. But they are still considered beer!

However, in the highlands, hops were not common, and things like Heather tips and Juniper were used to bitter the beer. Hops are preferable as they also have preservative qualities. There are very few beers available that do not have hops. Brewing without hops is coming back in the past 10 years though. More so the past 2 years due to a world wide hop shortage.

Then you have things like "Romulan Ale". These things are made up by Hollywood and don't have real life meanings! To take this further, there are things like Grog and such that have a history of varied definitions, much like the stories we read on this forum about kilts!

Just to throw another wrench in this there are meads! Meads are part of the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) as it's own style of "beer" making some people confused. You would think they would be wines, and not beers! They are meads, not beers! But the wine snobs are stuck on fruit and refuse to accept that honey could be called wine. So the beer people, being the tolerant bunch they are, adopted the bastard step child that is mead and have taken it in as something they will love and raise as their own. It's not really a beer, but the same judges who judge beer get to judge mead also since the winers thumb their noses up at it!

[Paul]

That's something I've never heard before. Hops have been used for centuries to counteract the sweetness of malt (ie bitter the brew) and also help preserve beers. But if by "traditional" you mean ancient, proto-beers like gruit then it'd be true, though the mixture of herbs used in those beverages had the same function as hops, which hadn't been domesticted yet, I believe.

Or it this just might be another case of differences in American vs British English...

I'm not a great expert on alcohol. I may well have picked up on a few things in visits to breweries and distorted the facts. It was in my mind that even now-a-days "real ales" don't use hops in the process. My brain may have made that up though, as there's a small section that never gets used and needs to think of something to keep itself occupied