Ale vs Lager

But as a drinker sticking to either ales or lagers, isn’t that actually a reason to decide on ales then?

 

They are ales

Mariah, hands down

 

Only if you live in an area where you can't get a wide variety of fresh, well brewed lagers.

(Currently in my fridge there's the Sly Fox Oktoberfest, and a nice Vienna Lager from Double Nickel over in Jersey--both fresh. The Sly Fox moved into the space that was most recently occupied by their Pikeland Pils--too soon to bring in another round of Prima Pils or Sunshine Pils--and there's soon to be a six pack of the Neshaminy Creek Churchville Lager to replace the Double Nickel.)

 

Lagers. Because they are free. (Well, mine are to me.)

 

Explain

 

I brew exclusively German lagers commercially. They are already about all I drink these days.

 

Lagers.

The only reason I would have considered ales is because I LOVE saisons....but I have had a couple lagered saisons and been very pleased with the results --> I am assuming that counts and I can fit those into the lager category?

So lagers for the win.

 

Stouts and Porters are brewed in the same way as Ales but have a different history.They are lumped together these days by people who are ignorant of brewing history.And unfortunately most beer books are written by people who don't look at the subject in depth,just regurgitating what others before have written.

 

Now, or 1990?

 

I would exclusively drink California Common, Cream Ale, Altbier, and Kolsch just to piss off everyone.

 

Yup, you are indeed consistent!

Cheers!

 

Not if you actually had to talk to her afterwards.

And Lagers because all you fucks are going to be drinking all the ales.

 

Probably lagers, but there would have to be some caveats. I'd either need a fresh source coming from central Europe or I'd need some more local breweries making a variety of good examples.

 

Think I'd rather just have a wank. And then drink a lager.

 

I see no conflict in liking both.

 

Considering I like about 99% of all beer styles, I would still choose lagers over ales if I had to make a choice. I've noticed over the years my taste buds have largely swayed more towards lagers, compared to when I first got into craft beer and it was all ales. Just my $0.02.

 

I'll join the people saying lagers. They're already most of what I drink.

The definitions of Porter has changed so much over the centuries, why can't it change again?

It used to have its own distinct definition so you could look at a beverage or it's production method or brewery and declare if it was a beer or ale.

In the past the distinction was whether hops were used or not. A brewery that had hops was a beer or Porter brewery, otherwise it was an ale.

But then that distinction became meaningless because even the ales started being hopped. So the definition of Porter adapted and changed. Then it depended on the malt used. Porter used only dark kilned malt while ale used pale malt.

But then with scientific measurement the Porter breweries realized they were screwing themselves with inefficient extraction. So they also switched to using pale malt with specialty malts. Now Porter and ale really don't have any distinct definition. The only possible definition I can see defines the beer on its history.

Language adapts and changes over time. No matter what you want. Porter is no longer a family or category of beers but it is a specific style while ale is a family of beer styles.

The definition of ale would now be a hopped malt beverage made with pale malts and adjuncts, brewing sugars, or specialty malts as desired.

I understand the history but it really doesn't add anything to the distinction because you've already bastardized the words by allowing hopped ales and porters using something other than brown malt.

But at least Kölsch and Altbier is lagered (traditionally at least) so I'll happily be drinking them when I am forced to never drink any ales again.

 

This is an easy one!
While there are many good lagers (and I would hate to not have them anymore), the vast majority are light and are of a similar style. Lagers by their very nature are "cleaner and crisper" due to the lager yeast imparting much less flavor. This is why virtually all the lighter "easy drinking" beers are lagers. If your into drinking mass quantities then I can see why you might choose a lager...

On the other hand, if you would rather have one great beer over a case of cheap crap then Ales all the way!

 

No reason to limit myself to just one when I can have one of each.