Ale

This article is about the beer style. For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation).

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste. Most ales contain hops, which help preserve the beer and impart a bitter herbal flavour that balances the sweetness of the malt.

History of ale

Historically the terms beer and ale respectively referred to drinks brewed with and without hops.

The former Anchor Brewhouse in Bermondsey, South London, bought by John Courage in 1787.

Ale has often now come to mean a bitter-tasting barley beverage fermented at room temperature. In some British usage, however, in homage to the original distinction, the term is only used in compounds (such as "pale ale" (see below)) or as "real ale", a term adopted to differentiate these products from the pressurised beers developed by industrial brewers in the 1960s, and used of warm-fermented unpasteurised ales served from a cask (though not stout or porter).

Ale typically has bittering agent(s) to balance the sweetness of the malt and to act as a preservative. Ale was originally bittered with gruit, a mixture of herbs (sometimes spices) which was boiled in the wort prior to fermentation. Later, hops replaced the gruit blend in common usage as the sole bittering agent.

Ale, along with bread, was an important source of nutrition in the medieval world, particularly small beer, also known as table beer or mild beer, which was highly nutritious, contained just enough alcohol to act as a preservative, and provided hydration without intoxicating effects. Small beer would have been consumed daily by almost everyone, including children, in the medieval world, with higher-alcohol ales served for recreational purposes. The lower cost for proprietors combined with the lower taxes levied on small beer led to the selling of beer labeled "strong beer" that had actually been diluted with small beer. In medieval times, ale was safer to drink than most water, as the germ theory of disease was unheard of, and the sterilizing properties of boiling unknown. The alcohol, hops, and some ingredients in gruit used to preserve some ales may have contributed to their lower load of pathogens, when compared to water. However, ale was largely safer due to the hours of boiling required in production, not the alcoholic content of the finished beverage.

Brewing ale in the Middle Ages was a local industry primarily pursued by women. “Brewsters,” or "Alewives" as they were called, would brew in the homestead for both domestic consumption and small scale commercial sale. Brewsters provided a substantial supplemental income for families; however, only in select few cases, as was the case for widows, was brewing considered the primary income of the household.

The word 'ale' is native English, in Old English alu or ealu, but aloth, ealoth in the genitive and dative. It is believed to stem from Proto-Indo-European root *alu-, through Proto-Germanic *aluth-. This is a cognate of Old Saxon alo, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Old Norse öl/øl, Finnish olut, Estonian õlu, Old Bulgarian olu cider, Slovenian ol, Old Prussian alu, Lithuanian alus, Latvian alus.

Modern ale

Ale is typically fermented at temperatures between 15 and 24 °C (60 and 75°F). At temperatures above 24 °C (75 °F) the yeast can produce significant amounts of esters and other secondary flavour and aroma products, and the result is often a beer with slightly "fruity" compounds resembling but not limited to apple, pear, pineapple, banana, plum, cherry, or prune.

Varieties of ale

Cask ale handpumps

Brown ale

Main article: Brown ale

Brown ales tend to be lightly hopped, and fairly mildly flavoured, often with a nutty taste. In the south of England they are dark brown, around 3-3.5% alcohol and quite sweet; in the north they are red-brown, 4.5-5% and drier. English brown ales first appeared in the early 1900s, with Manns Brown Ale and Newcastle Brown Ale as the best-known examples. The style became popular with homebrewers in North America in the early 1980s; Pete's Wicked Ale is an example, similar to the English original but substantially hoppier.

Pale ale

Main article: Pale ale

Pale ale was a term used for beers made from malt dried with coke. Coke had been first used for roasting malt in 1642, but it wasn't until around 1703 that the term pale ale was first used. By 1784 advertisements were appearing in the Calcutta Gazette for "light and excellent" pale ale. By 1830 onward the expressions bitter and pale ale were synonymous. Breweries would tend to designate beers as pale ale, though customers would commonly refer to the same beers as bitter. It is thought that customers used the term bitter to differentiate these pale ales from other less noticeably hopped beers such as porter and mild. By the mid to late 20th century, while brewers were still labelling bottled beers as pale ale, they had begun identifying cask beers as bitter, except those from Burton on Trent, which tend to be referred to as pale ales regardless of the method of dispatch.

Golden ale

Developed in hope of winning the younger people away from drinking lager in favour of cask ales. In a way quite similar to pale ale yet there are some notable differences- it is paler, brewed with lager or low temperature ale malts and they are served in colder temperatures. The strength of Golden ales varies from 3.5% to 5.3%.

Scotch ales

Main article: Scotch ale

While the full range of ales are produced in Scotland, the term "Scotch Ale" is used internationally to denote a malty, strong ale amber-to-dark red in colouration. The malt may be slightly caramelised to impart toffee notes; generally, Scottish beers tend to be rather sweeter, darker and less hoppy than English ones which might be due to a colder climate.Though the main brewing centres of Burton and Edinburgh in fact have very similar climates. The classic styles are Light, Heavy and Export also referred to as 60/-, 70/- and 80/- respectively dating back to 19th century method of invoicing beers according to their strength.

Barley wine

Main article: Barley wine

Dates back to 18th and 19th century when England and France have been waging wars and the Englishmen were expected to drink ales instead of French claret. Barley wine was quite strong ranging from 10% to 12%, moreover it had to be stored for long periods of time- about 18 to 24 months. While drinking barley wine one should be prepared to taste ‘massive sweet malt and ripe fruit of the pear drop, orange and lemon type, with darker fruits, chocolate and coffee if darker malts are used. Hop rates are generous and produce bitterness and peppery, grassy and floral notes'.

Mild ale

Main article: Mild ale

Mild ale originally meant unaged ale, the opposite of old ale. It can be any strength or colour, although most are dark brown and low in strength, typically between 3-3.5%. An example of a lighter coloured mild is Banks's Mild.

Burton Ale

Burton Ale is a strong, dark, somewhat sweet ale sometimes used as a 'stock ale' for blending with younger beers. Bass No.1 was a classic example of Burton Ale, and in modern times Fullers 1845 Celebration Ale is often considered by some to be a rare modern example of a Burton Ale.

Old ale

Main article: Old ale

In England, old ale was strong beer traditionally kept for about a year, gaining sharp, acetic flavours as it did so. The term is now applied to medium-strong dark beers, some of which are treated to resemble the traditional old ales. In Australia, the term is used even less discriminately, and is a general name for any dark beer.

Belgian ales

Main article: Belgian beer

Belgium produces a wide variety of speciality ales that elude easy classification. Virtually all Trappist beers and Abbey beers are high in alcoholic content but light in body due to the addition of large amounts of sucrose, which provides an alcohol boost with an essentially neutral flavour.

See also

• Beer measurement, information on measuring the colour, strength, and bitterness of beer
• Beer style
• Cask ale
• Copper ale
• Lager
• Stout
• Wheat beer