Ale

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 impart a bitter herbal flavour that helps to balance the sweetness of the malt and preserve the beer.

History of ale

In Norse Mythology, Ægir, Rán and their nine daughters brew mead or ale in a large pot

The term "beer" was initially used to describe a drink brewed with hops, unlike "ale". This distinction no longer applies in Modern English, and "ale" as a term is now usually used to indicate the type of yeast used in brewing, in contrast to Lager. Beer generally needs a bittering agent to balance the sweetness of the malt and to act as a preservative. Ale was typically bittered with gruit, a mixture of herbs and/or spices which was boiled in the wort in place of hops. Ale, along with bread, was an important source of nutrition in the medieval world, particularly Small 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 in the medieval world, with higher-alcohol ales served for recreational purposes.

The word 'ale' is native English, in Old English alu or ealu, but aloth, ealoth in the genitive and dative. This is a cognate of Old Saxon alo, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Old Norse öl/øl, Old Bulgarian olu cider, Slovenian ol, Old Prussian alu, Lithuanian alus, Latvian alus (whence, Finnish olut).

Modern ale

Ale is typically fermented at temperatures between 15 and 24 °C (60 and 75°F). At these temperatures, yeast produces 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 or prune. Typical ales have a sweeter, fuller mouthfeel than lagers.

In a number of U.S. states, especially in the western United States, "ale" is the term mandated by state law for any beverage fermented from grain with an alcoholic strength above that which can legally be named "beer," without regard to the method of fermentation or the yeast used.

Varieties of ale

Cask ale handpumps

Brown ale

Main article: Brown ale

A darker barley malt is used to produce brown ales. They 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. Belgian oud bruin is a sour brown ale.

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 labeling 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.

Scotch ales

Main article: Scotch ale

While the full range of ales is produced in Scotland, the term "Scotch Ale" is used internationally to denote a malty, strong dark ale. The malt may be slightly caramelised to impart toffee 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. An example of a light-coloured mild is Banks's Original.

Hobgoblin, a Kentish cask-conditioned ale

Burton Ale

Burton Ale was a strong, dark, somewhat sweet ale brewed to good strength and vatted at the brewery for a year or more. Sometimes used as a 'stock ale' for blending into younger beers, these comparatively strong ales were also enjoyed on their own. Bass No.1 was a classic example of Burton Ale, and in modern times Fullers Golden Pride is often considered by some to be a rare remaining example of a classic Burton style ale. Sometimes Burton ales are considered comparable to Barleywines.

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 specialty 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.

Trappist beers are brewed under direct control of the monks themselves. Of the 171 Trappist monasteries throughout the world, only seven brew beer, of which there are six in Belgium. The seventh is in the Netherlands. Abbey beer is brewed by commercial breweries in the style of a trappist beer, sometimes using the name of a monastery, often one that no longer exists or in some cases one that has licensed its name to a brewery.

See also

• Cask ale
• Beer style
• Lager
• Wheat beer

External links

• Michael Jackson on Ale and Porter

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)