Saturday, April 25, 2009

What Type of Beer are You Drinking?

In general with beer there are 2 main categories, Ales and Lagers. Between the two there is one major difference, Ales are made at room temperature (65F-75F) and lagers are made at refrigerated temperatures (45F-55F). The difference between these two main categories are that lagers tend to be smoother and easier to drink, while ales tend to be stronger and have more of a bite. Most commercial cheap beers are lagers, such as Miller, Bud, and Coors. These are brewed as lagers because that way they can be made in massive batches and still be drinkable to an average person.

I will also mention briefly one other type of beer, though you will rarely come across this one which is a Lambic beer. Ales and Lagers are fermented using a commercial, specially designed yeast that is controlled in brewing. Lambics on the other hand use wild yeast which occur naturally which can cause a much different flavor and also makes the beer much harder to make successfully, this is the reason you will rarely see a true lambic outside of Belgium, where the style was invented.

Within each of the styles as you may know though there are many different types and for the scope of this article I will only cover some of the main types and as an illustration to show how many different types exist I will include a chart at the bottom of the page that only shows many of the different types of ales.

For ales the most common types you may encounter are Wheat, Pale, Dark, and Amber. Wheat beers are made with wheat instead of barley which causes a softer and lighter beer with a unique flavor that is great in the summer, my recommendation for this style would be Bell's Oberon. A Pale ale is a beer that is brewed with a high level of Hops, which causes a more bitter and aromatic flavor, very tasty, for this I would recommend Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Dark beers have many different styles such as Stout and Porter, these beers are heavy and are more of sipping beers, an example of this is Guinness, but only Guinness that is in Europe or if elsewhere in the world is draft from a nitrogen capped keg, only then will you actually taste the true beer flavor of it. Amber beers are hopped with a smooth and full body and have a slightly sweet flavor, for this I would recommend Bass Amber Ale.

Common types of lagers are Bock, and Pale. Bocks are complex and malty beers, good for drinking for a while, not a speed beer, good example is Shiner Bock. Pale lagers cover the majority of American domestics such as lagers, a good example is Yuengling.

And there you have it the basic type of beers below is the chart I promised. Click to see it better

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