Ales vs. Lagers

Let’s talk about styles baby…

Most beers can be split into one of two categories, ales or lagers. What makes this distinction? It’s the yeast. There are lots of strains of yeast out there, but really only 2 categories.

Ale yeasts ferment at warmer temperatures at the top of the fermenter. That means temperatures around 64 to 71 degrees Fahrenheit. The end result also can be aromatic and have the fruity flavors you get from some ales. Additionally, the ale yeasts can tolerate higher alcohol amounts, so when you see those 10% to 13% alcohol beers, you can thank the yeast for the work they did to produce it.

Lager yeasts in comparison, ferment at colder temperature and typically towards the bottom of the fermenter. These yeast strains can handle temperatures down at 46 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit to produce lagers. You’re also going to get a cleaner, crisper flavored beer with these.

The ale family of beers cast a wide net of styles. They include:

• India Pale Ales (IPAs)
• New England IPAs (NEIPAs)
• Imperial / Double IPAs
• Pale Ales
• Stouts
• Sours
• Wheat Beers
• Gose

Lagers are the most popular beer style in the world, and when you think of the big names in the United States market, they’re lagers. These styles include:

• Pilsners
• Helles
• Mexican Lagers
• Vienna Lagers

The outlier of both these styles is the Kolsch style, it uses ale yeasts at lager temps to produce a hybrid style.

Since this is starting as a home brew blog, what does all of this mean to the average home brewer? If you’re like me, you probably don’t have a giant refrigerator you can place your fermenting bucket into, so you’ll have a difficult time keeping lagers at the temperatures they’ll need to be at for the amount of time they’ll need to ferment without buying additional equipment. But that just means you get to invest more money into your new favorite hobby, right?

So now that you know a little bit about the styles, go out and select your beer with confidence.