Ale vs Lager

Because it's being asked on a BA thread.
Lager.
They don't get chased. No one forms a line outside a business that isn't open for several hours, and people typically don't act like douche canoes about them.

About the buzz factor. Hops are a mild sedative, and have been used for that potential for a lot longer than they've been used in beer.
You want a good nights sleep? Grab some fresh hops and make a pillow with them.

 

Tough one but I will go with Lagers, love the crisp and clean "snap" of them and in some ways I find them to be rounder and fuller than Ales because of this profile. Pilsners, Vienna, Helles, Marzens would give me enough variety where I wouldn't be bored and they are already some of my favorite styles.

But I would miss Ales for sure and I love having one after I am on one of my Lager binges, it's sometimes striking how different they can be.

 

People have differing definitions and divisions when it comes to ale and lager... so this question will be interpreted differently to different people.

For me, I don't view the entire beer world as being divided into either ale or lager. I don't think of Belgian beers, porters, or Kolsch beers as ales.

Having said that, I'd pick lager for this question. I would miss English cask ale tremendously, but my practical opportunities to drink that are so much lower when compared to drinking German and America lager that it becomes a no-brainer.

 

I am a BIG fan of lagers (of varying styles) but...

If somebody pointed a gun to my head and yelled choose I would have to pick ales. There is just so much more variety there and I really could not give up on drinking Belgian Trappist/Abbey Ales, Saisons, cask Bitter Ales,...

Thank goodness we don't have to choose in real life.

It's all good!!

Cheers!

 

This reminds me that I was reading a mystery from the 1940s or early 50s, and the PI goes out for dinner and is offered the choice of ale or lager. One of our beer historians here might know, was that a common choice back when the world was in black and white?

 

Ales. I would miss Belgians, stouts, ipas. I could always get my fix for clean beer with a cream ale I suppose.

 

If I had to choose I'd choose to flip a coin. I'm beer-idextrous and could live with either. Most recently I've been into lagers.

As for the buzz, I don't do that anymore. And I can't recall whether I ever noticed any difference in buzzed feelings that was caused by its origin.

 

I'm not a beer technician, but I'd suppose the sedative effect might be because generally speaking the abv is higher with ales. Obviously not always as always encompasses a lot. I love both but I'd opt for Lagers, nothing like a well made Pils to make my day, if there's one beer forever a cold Pils Urquell is it. A year or so I'd of said Heady hands down, but that's second,I love HT too.

 

I'm a big fan of many if not all lager styles, but for me ales win by a landslide.

I'd bet 80%+ of beer advocates would vote ale as well. If I need a "close to lager" fix, then a standard non-coffee cream ale and Kolsch ales (lets not debate its a lager again) are there for that lighter cleaner option.

 

"Ale or lager" would be unusual - more common would be simply "Beer or ale" - "Beer" understood in the US at the time to mean "lager beer".

But the US beer market was still pretty regional (though it would rapidly be changing in that post-WWII period - many ex-GIs having experienced other beers - and with the coming of mass advertising via television).

Ale still had a pretty good - but shrinking - share of the market in some regions, particularly the Northeast and especially New England (pre-war, the industry estimated that, save for CT., ale accounted for 85% (!) of the NE beer market - and was one of the few regions in which asking for "beer ≠ lager"...).

Ballantine (among the top 4 brewers in the country in that 1947-1956 period) shipped its ales coast-to-coast and Pabst (another of the Top 4) also had a nationally-distributed ale. Most every large regional brewer in the northeast offered an ale.

Also ales were often marketed to a more upscale group in urban areas - so a PI walking into a swanky joint in LA might be offered an ale (Ballantine's XXX Ale or Pabst Old Tankard, or Black Horse from Canada, or even west coast ales from Rainier, Acme or Lucky) even if they weren't drinking them at the blue collar gin mill across the street from the airplane factory.

 

Life would then suck.

 

No. They are generally thought of in this way but it is not as simple as this. Germans for example regard Ale as a uniquely British beer style and have their own names for top fermented beers.In fact Kolsch is officially a "top fermented lager beer" or "obergarige lagerbier" , lager simply refers to the fact that it has undergone the lagering period.

Stouts and Porters were the products of separate brewing industries from Ale brewing. Guinness began his career as an Ale brewer, failed and then brought in the Purser family from London to brew his Porters and stouts.
Practically every pub in the UK has brewery posters proclaiming the availability of Ales and Stouts.

or Porter and Ales (This is actually from a US brewery)

 

@marquis points out well that there are some fundamental problems with the question, but if I don my American-viewpoint-blinders I can understand what the OP is asking. However, it seems like a silly Sophie's choice... You may as well ask me if I prefer to stay alive with oxygen or water. The question doesn't help anyone or further any understanding, although the side-discussions here are filling in with some nice facts and understandings. I'm glad that in the real world I don't have to decide and I'll leave it at that.

You are using the word "quality" incorrectly, which is probably causing @beertunes' confusion above. What you really mean is "my tastes" or "in my opinion," but [consciously or unconsciously] you are switching words to make your taste/opinion appear more authoritative, universal, or intrinsically true. Switching-up your language in this manner may go unnoticed in most situations because most people don't know what beer quality is, but members of this forum have a much higher level of beer knowledge (like @beertunes) and using terms incorrectly can cause confusion. Furthermore incorrect use of language may cause some to perceive that you have less knowledge/experience and they may disregard your opinion. That would be a shame. It's perfectly fine to have an opinion or taste preference... we all have them... we won't all agree... we can discuss the differences... it's all good... but text is our only means of communication on this forum and we all need to be careful with our words, definitions, and what we really mean to say.

Agreed. More alcohol, more of alcohol's sedative effects. It seems pretty simple to me.

 

Thanks - now that I think of it it probably was a choice of beer or ale offered.

 

OP why do you do this to me. I was dead set on ales, started reading the comments and now I don't know if that's the right choice.

Why can't I have both?

 

I’m gonna go ahead and say lagers. Almost all of beers I come back to the most are lagers, and there’s still a lot of versatility with them. There are still so many good styles; IPLs, Märzens, Schwarzbiers, Bocks, Baltic Porters, Pilsners, Kolsches...they all taste so clean and satisfying with balanced depth. I think I could do without ales if I was given the choice.

 

After a bit of thinking about this, if I have to choose I'll go with lagers. There's a wide variety of flavors within each style and they are a better indicator of the skills of the brewer. For example, in SEPA we five locally brewed Pils beers that are outstanding and each is noticably different from the other 4. In addition, as many pro brewers have commented, there's no place to hid your errors when brewing a Pils.

 

I think it comes down to 2 camps:
If you like to throw back multiple beers daily, you may lean towards lagers.

If you lean more towards enjoying vast variety of flavors and aromas from beer and are more 1 & done daily, you may lean more towards ales.

Exceptions....ESBs & lighter stout drinkers like to session ales.