Ale vs Lager

Can I just said from the sidelines that having drunk Labatt IPA and Velvet Cream Porter that they have really no right to call them IPA or Porter. Or even beer for that matter. Thanks. Carry on now.

 

Yes. Yes it is. Dear God it is beautiful.

 

I've only seen bottles of anything Uerige once in New York, and it was the Sticke. And it was incredible, really opened my eyes to the style. I'm sure it's better drank from the source- something I'd love to do someday.

The bottles are also pretty cool looking, I thought.

 

That's awesome. But I'm still going to test this out for myself, just in case.

 

Carlsberg are quick to point out on their website that the use of the swastika was unrelated to, and predated by quite some time, that other usage of the symbol .

 

Don't know the story behind it, but found this:

 

By the way, welcome to BA. Thanks for letting us get back into a regularly recurring topic and discussion. You've gained a lot of arcane beer knowledge very quickly. Just remember to take much of what you read here with a grain of salt - except my posts, of course.

 

Carlsberg used it as a logo before the ****s came to prominence. If you go to the old brewery in Copenhagen you'll see lots of swastikas as part of the decoration on the exterior of the building.

 

Swastikas were used as goodluck symbols in the West before the rise of the ****s, and continue to be used as religious symbols in the East to this day. The old Carlsberg label reflects the use before it was used by the ****s, and the Tsingtao label most certainly reflects it's Eastern usage.

No real surprises here.

After all, Charles Lindburg had a swastika painted in the nose-cone of the Spirit of St. Louis, and if you do a quick google search, you can find pre-1930s American good luck/well wishes cards full of swastikas.

 

The Swastika is an ancient symbol that did not always have the current negative association. I have seen it many times in Native American art, and Rock art in the Colorado Plareau. Those predate 1930, some by a lot of time.

 

Altbier is half ale half lager, so it doesn't count.

 

Britain is the parent of ales and stouts, Germany of many other great beers.It is surely for the parents to decide what their offspring is named.If Germany doesn't use the word ale for its top fermented beers (because they have their own separate and quite different origins) why should anybody feel they have the authority to tell them what to do?

I've read many posts in BA from Germany that Altbier is never called an ale there.

 

Britain was also the parent of our language hundreds of years ago. That doesn't mean you get to determine how it will be used in the rest of the English speaking world today. Are you going to say we all should call gasoline - petrol, trucks - lorries, car trunks - boots, etc.?

The Germans are free to use whatever term they want for their top fermenting beers within their country. When they participate in a broad discussion of beer with the rest of the world, they need to adapt to the common definitions and terminology that has evolved over time and is shared by the vast majority of beer people.

The same applies to the British.

 

this is how a lot of us remember BA and why we are still around.

which bullshit beer from some the latest hot brewery is better? don't care.

give me a good Ale vs Lager debate anytime. throw in some Swastika's too!

 

By the rest of the world you mean of course certain sections of the US. Judging by the response I get from American BAs it isn't even universally accepted there.

 

If you are drinking a beer that you enjoy do you really care if it's a lager or an ale?

 

To be honest Marquis, I have sat here and found that pretty much outside of you, Martyn and Ron, the rest of the world seems to "get it wrong". After googling beer styles for the past couple of hours, it would seem that almost every single other website contradicts you three.
Can I ask you this? Outside of Ron and Martyn's respective websites, where can one go to read about accurate information on the history and past/present nomenclature of beer (and beer styles) and the definitions of beer styles?

 

What isn't accepted? That ale is a type of beer? That porter is a style of ale? That lagers and ales are the two basic, large families of the beverage we call beer?
The only ones I've seen having a significant problem with those three statements are a few English BA's, but primarily you.

 

Some British maintain if you are drinking a beer you enjoy, it can't be an ale.

 

MaltliquorAdvocate.