Is Ale Beer?

[MoreBeerEh]

Is ale considered beer or is beer considered a type of ale? What is the difference?

[MoreBeerEh]

Is ale carbonated? I ask this because a colleague of mine swears that real ale is not carbonated. What's the deal?

[Stodbrew]

Beer is the broad term for both ales and lagers. Of course, there are then many substyles withing the ale and lager categories.

Real ales are corbonated, naturally, in the vessel it is dispensed in. Either bottle or cask. Granted, in cask form, it is a very light carbonation, but carbonated, nonetheless. Most
American ales are carbonated to a higher degree to satisfy those who expect some "fizz" in their beer.

[Stumptown]

I think of it this way: beer is the broad term for beverages consisting of water, hops, yeast and malted barley. An ale uses top fermenting yeast that ferments at warm temperatures. Lager uses bottom fermenting yeast that ferments at cooler temperatures. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule (steam beer being an ale fermented at room temperature with lager yeast, for example).

Your friend that said real ale is not carbonated is just plain wrong.

[fretlessman71]

Maybe what your friend means is that, unlike macroswill, real ales are not PUMPED full of CO2 right there at the tap. Which would be an accurate statement. And they certainly don't taste as "fizzy" as many beers do.

[chazwicke]

Plus the lesser degree of natural carbonation is quite pleasant and allows you to drink a few more before you feel like your a baloon pumped full of fizzy carbonation

[fretlessman71]

Yes! A taste treat like no other. Hard to deal with from the pub's POV in comparison to a keg of Bud, but much tastier!

[chazwicke]

I recommend we all traipse over to London and set this boy straight! Nothing better than a Cask Ale in a comfy English pub.

[fretlessman71]

Start warming up that credit card, chaz... I don't have that kind of money just now! :(

[BluesHarp]

Originally posted by chazwicke
I recommend we all traipse over to London and set this boy straight! Nothing better than a Cask Ale in a comfy English pub.

I've heard "traipse" before, but this may be the first time I've actually seen it in print! :D

You can write the trip off as a business expense, right Chaz???
Tell me what you do, I'll offer an opinion...bingo!! Business Meeting!!

[chazwicke]

Don't know if I spelled it correctly though. Back in the early 90s when I posted on an early beer board on the Prodigy network before the internet was widely used, There was a bunch of posters who would get together in various cities for a pub crawl. we called it an "ATTACK". There was one attack on NYC. I did not go but eventually met up with lots of the guys at some of the Stoudts Beer Fests. Lew Bryson was in that crew.

[The Beerbellian]

When I think of all the ways sugars are fermented to make an alcholic beverage, (the Amazons find a leaf, chew it and spit into a bowl, later they drink the fermented liquid) I would have to say that ale and lager ( Mostly European designs) definitly qualify as beer. Besides, what would you rather drink?
:D

[Caffinehog]

Originally posted by Stumptown
I think of it this way: beer is the broad term for beverages consisting of water, hops, yeast and malted barley. An ale uses top fermenting yeast that ferments at warm temperatures. Lager uses bottom fermenting yeast that ferments at cooler temperatures.

Hops, eh? Actually, there are beers bittered with spruce, sweet gale, nettles, and many other herbs, often using no hops.
Technically, smirnoff ice is a beer.

But yes, ale is a type of beer.
Lager is a type of beer.
Kolsch and California Common (steam) beer are hybrids between the two.
Lambics, using both yeast and bacteria, are beers.

Beer may be carbonated or uncarbonated, drunk cold, warm, or hot.
California Common beer was the first carbonated beer. It got the name "steam" beer because it hissed like steam leaving the cask. This was in the gold rush days. But beer was invented before wine... only mead is an older alcoholic beverage. So carbonation has nothing to do with it.