Talk:Bitter (beer)

Beer Start‑class Top‑importance

	Beer portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Beer, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Beer, Brewery, and Pub related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BeerWikipedia:WikiProject BeerTemplate:WikiProject BeerBeer
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Use of hops

"Historically, the difference between ale and beer is that beer has hops added for flavour and bitterness." - does anyone have a source for this? The words 'ale' and 'beer' were both used in Anglo-Saxon, which to my understanding is several centuries before British brewers started using hops. I had heard the difference was that 'ale' is top-fermented. Harry R

Ale is top-fermented as opposed to lager which is bottom-fermented; both are beer. The quoted statement, however, conflicts with the information presented on the beer page (that beer's historical usage was for cider, or perhaps any mildly-alcoholic fermented beverage), so I've removed it. VermillionBird 18:43, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Session bitter

Where does the term "session bitter" come from? Is it because they were/are drunk at music "jam" sessions? Badagnani 20:22, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No - it means you can have a drinking session on it and not fall over - the stronger beers are too much to drink all night - I can vouch for that! Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! ^(Whisper...) 15:01, 30 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Regional differences in taste

I think the statement that people in the North of England prefer sweeter, less well hopped, beers is too much of a generalisation. Holt's in Manchester is one of the most bitter beers in Britain, and Boddington's (when it was brewed there) was also very hoppy before Whitbread got hold of it. Last time I looked, Manchester was in the North. Rodparkes 09:18, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Top or bottom fermented?

I suppose bottom-fermentation, but this information is really missing from the article. Maikel 23:30, 17 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Notable Bitters

Is this section a joke? The 3 listed may be popular, but I don't believe they're notable! A bit like the "Restaurants" article listing McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Burger King as the only 3 "Notable Restaurants"! (Boddies was notable, until its takeover and transformation.) This section would be better called "Popular Bitters".