"Ale, Lager, or an IPA?"

I realize we can get into a big discussion about the various types of ales and at times those discussions are important and necessary, however I believe his friend simply wanted to know if the beer being offered to him was hoppy, malty or a lager. Under the circumstances which the question was put, I believe a very simple answer was warranted.

 

And for over 100 years there have been IPAs which aren't either particularly malty or hoppy.Until the present resurgence of the "style" it had become just another word for Bitter.
All of 28 IBUs. A typical 20th century IPA though still brewed today.

 

I've had my dad try a bunch of different beers lately, having him attend beer fests with me etc. So he is getting more into it, but he still like lighter, malty options. So we were at their house and he picked up something while I did a router install for him. He opened it up, tasted it, and was like "hmmm that's pretty bitter". I took a look at it, and I was like "yeah, it's an APA." His response was "I thought IPAs were bitter...?" Had to explain the acronym what the similarities were etc.

 

If he asked me, "Is it an ale, lager, or an IPA?" or asked, "Is it hoppy, malty, or a lager?" I still wouldn't know what to tell him.

At that point I would simply throw out a few common beers in certain styles, asked if he's tried them, and then compare my home brew to whichever beers he was familiar with.

 

Malty or Hoppy? ( or both?)

 

Exactly. This is what happens when breweries start slapping "IPA" on every hopped-up beer they make.

 

I bet 1/2 the people who drink IPA's don't know what it stands for. We live in this weird beer bubble on this site. My first IPA I liked was Dogfish 90 minute and while I'm not sure I'm going to guess I drank it without knowing what IPA stood for. And if someone asked me if it was an ale or a lager I would have had no idea. The real question is why BBQ is short for barbecue.

 

This still makes no sense. What does "or a lager" even mean, when compared to "hoppy or malty"?

Since those two words as adjectives essentially mean "highlighting X out of the four main ingredients of beer"... is the implication "hoppy, malty, or watery"?

 

This is true, this situation does occur often.

My solution is to ask what the person means by the words they're using, and then find something that fits their explanation, but I don't just take completely, obviously, misused terms and assume I know what someone is asking, nor do I take them at face value.

 

Phoenetics.

 

Obviously but it's no easier to say bbq then barbecue. We don't call a picnic, pnk

 

That's why people don't say BBQ. They just type it that way. It's a typing shortcut, not a verbal one.

 

Why is this thread so long?

 

because barbecue is a longer word...

 

A lot of people are over thinking this. The guy just wanted to know what kind of beer it was.

 

I'm not surprised that somebody would see IPAs as a category of their own so much as I am surprised that they think the other two categories are 'Ale' and 'Lager'. I doubt most people who have never somehow been professionally involved with beer could taste a beer and tell you whether it is an ale or a lager unless it's a specific beer they recognize. And those who could tell the difference would know that an IPA is an ale.

 

Ale

 

This is common. There are plenty of beer drinkers (craft included) that are completely clueless when it comes to style type categorization. I sometimes try to "inform" them when they get ale/lager styles confused, but I've come across a lot of people that think I'm wrong or whatever... so I usually just let them talk out of their ass now, even if they don't know what they're talking about. Too many fucking know-it-alls out there nowadays. Oh well.. as long as it tastes good.

 

Not all Americans do that, though. A lot of us will use the terms differently depending on the surrounding context. So, I will talk that way at times but also use the terms differently if discussing ales and porters as separate types of beer is called for (as marquis disucsses).

That is a very good analogy, especially since I have known people who will talk about whiskey (mostly meaning rye, bourbon, maybe Canadian whisky) and then talk about scotch as though it is a separate thing, not included in the broader term.

Personally, I wouldn't use the word watery, but I'd say the answer is yes. People who use lager that way generally are referring to relatively mild flavored pilsner-type beers, including but not necessarily limited to BMC.

 

But that can be a useful distinction. Scotch and bourbon are straight-forward; whiskey can be a catch-all category for world whiskies (Irish, American, Canadian, Japanese, Indian). Of course, this is provided the person asking the question knows the divisions between each and can further extrapolate.