Beer Fundamentals: Basics of Beer Classification

Welcome to the first in a periodic series of short articles on the basics of beer. I've entitled this series "Beer Fundamentals." These articles are designed to be brief, easy to understand installments on the basics of what makes beer ...beer. They're designed to heighten the reader's enjoyment of this great beverage and make discovering new flavors and styles much easier and more rewarding. We'll look at the different styles of beer, beer and food pairings and some of what goes into the brewing process itself. My hope is that these fundamentals will help guide those who are just discovering better beer into a deeper, more fulfilling (and filling) experience all the way around. Let's get started, shall we? In this installment, we'll look at the basic classifications of beer.

Basically, there are two classifications for beer - ales and lagers. Most every beer you'll come across falls into one of these two classifications. Contrary to semi-popular belief, both ales and lagers are indeed beer. This may sound overly simplistic, but you'd be surprised how many times I've heard, "oh, I didn't realize that ale is the same as beer." An ale is a beer and a lager is a beer. But as we'll see next, they really can be quite different.

Both ales and lagers are defined by the type of yeast used in the brewing process. Ales use strains of yeast that are active at warmer temperatures and rise to the top of the wort (the pre-fermented liquid made from boiling malts, hops and any other ingredients that might be in the beer recipe) during the fermentation process. The time it takes for ale to ferment is only a matter of days.

Lagers, on the other hand, use strains of yeast that are active at colder temperatures and the yeast resides at the bottom of the tank. These beers take a longer time to ferment - sometimes a month or more. The word "lager," is the German word meaning "to store" or "lay aside."

Easy enough, huh?