Differences between Ale and Lager.

People keep on asking "What is the difference between Beer and Lager"?
or "What is the difference between Beer and Ale"?
Ale and Lager refer to different methods of making what we all now call "Beer"

All beer falls into two main categories. Ale and Lager. What exactly is the difference between the two?

From a technical point of view there is just one main difference between them. Ale uses a strain of yeast which ferments from the top of the brewing vessel down towards the bottom.

It needs a warmer temperature to do it's best work and it finishes it's fermentation fairly quickly.

Lager, on the other hand, uses yeast which sinks to the bottom of the "wort". It requires cooler temperatures to do it's work and takes a longer time to complete.

Most North American "mainstream" beers are lagers but lagers don't have to be the tasteless fizzy yellow water that most mainstream beers have become.

A good lager has a crisp clean and bright taste with a variety of flavours such as citrus, flowers, spices, and biscuits (or bread dough). The taste tends to be fairly subtle and the feel is usually sparkling and smooth.

A good lager is extremely refreshing on a warm day. The colours can range the spectrum from very pale yellow to dark reddish brown and they usually have a light to medium white head.

Ales tend toward darker colours though they can also be very light in colour. There is a very wide range of tastes and flavours available, from almost sickly sweet to heavily bitter, highly hopped IPA's.

It is difficult to describe a "typical" ale taste or aroma profile since they do vary so much. As a general rule the flavours are sweeter than lagers and they tend to feel heavier than lagers. Ales often have a depth of flavours blending together while lagers tend to be dominated by one flavour at a time.

Ales can present tastes of citrus, flower, honey, spice, chocolate, roasted coffee, etc.

Because ales ferment quickly they are usually not stored for long periods of time however bottle conditioned ale can be aged for years with ever changing, and improving, results.

Ale styles are a topic unto themselves ranging from Dark Porters and Stouts with roasted malt through to light Pale Ale and heavily hopped IPA's.

Over the years more experimentation has been done with changing ingredients in ales than in lagers, perhaps because of the German purity laws restricting the ingredients allowed in beer. German beer is, traditionally, a lager style.

Beers should be enjoyed at temperatures relating to the temperatures they are brewed at. Ales tend to release their flavours and aromas best at temperature ranges from 10 to 15 C. while lagers are best served cooler, say 5 to 10 C.

In terms of alcohol content both ale and lager can run the gammut from 2 or 3 percent up to (in extreme cases) 20 to 25 percent.

The average ABV for both ale and lager tends to be between 4 and 6 percent.