LOL! You likely are just kidden with me but just in case your aren't, Lord Chesterfield is fermented using a lager yeast strain. Lord Chesterfield is indeed an AAL beer. Cheers!
I voted 'no' but only because there wasn't an option for 'kind of.' The first sour beer I ever had was something from Jolly Pumpkib and I thought to myself "How do people drink this crap" but I eventually acquired a taste https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/182/2842/ Does the BA listing need to be updated? I think I recall you saying a while back that the "Ale" part was removed from the label, but I thought that was just due to marketing and not an actual recipe change. If so, when did they change the recipe? Last time I had it was way back in like 2008 probably. What was I drinking then? An ale or lager? I know I could probably just google/Chatgpt all this but I'm in a hurry, gotta go!
I have never read/heard about this. The beers I purchase have the same label with the word "Ale" on it. I am uncertain of a specific date for when they switched to using lager yeast. From a quick web search which mentions 1983 (and emphasis in bold by me): “According to Yuengling's own info (via the '83 GABF) LCA was made with "barley malt, corn grits, Yakima Valley hops and bottom fermenting yeast".” See above. You were drinking an AAL in 2008. Cheers!
According to a Modern Brewery Age interview with Dick, Jr. in 1999: US labeling law changed the legal definition of "Ale" back in the late 1930s (so only a few years after they were rewritten at Repeal), dropping any reference to or mandating a particular type of yeast for ales, mostly at the request of brewers. The current regulations, which allow for so-called "Bastard Ales" such as Chesterfield (and, over the years, has including other US pre-craft ales like Rainier, Ballantine, McSorley's, Black Horse, etc), require only "comparatively high temperature" fermentation - which is pretty vague. As noted by Dick, Jr. in the quote above, a number of the handful of US porters that survived into the 1960s and beyond were also fermented with bottom fermenting yeast. See more at my TOP AND BOTTOM FERMENTING YEAST page.
Thank you for the info. Sorry I wasnt more specific in my last post when referring to the BA entry link, but it is listed on this site as an English Pale Ale. That's where my confusion is stemming from, hence my question remains, does the BA entry need to be edited? Edit: It's also listed as a Pale Ale on untappd. So where is this disconnect coming from?
The confusion is due to the word “Ale” on the label. As you have been informed Lord Chesterfield is fermented with a lager yeast. If you are motivated you could contact the moderators and request a change here. Cheers!
Thanks for starting this spin off! A question for further conversation must now be if those that answered “yes” find a problem with it. For example, I do; mainly for the reason that I no longer appreciate beers that I know I once liked. However, I noted on the other thread that others saw no issue with this. Some even managed to open their palate to liking new styles while preserving a fondness for what originally peaked their interest.
I used to well and truly hate Munich malt and could pick it out in any beer that used it bc the flavor was just that annoying to me. I just had a fresh gravity pour of a Vienna lager at Barrique and that was heavy on the Munich malt. It was the best beer I've had in a long time, and the malt character didn't bug me at all. The flavor still stuck out, but it registers as dry roasted peanuts and brown bread instead of canned peas like it used to be.
Interesting. Yes, I drank nothing but IPA’s for 10+ years, strong ones and was unable to drink lawnmower beers or anything not hoppy. A few years ago like a light switch this changed and now I cannot drink more than a taste of an IPA or any hoppy beer. I constantly try and cannot finish beers I once loved and could drink 6+ in a sitting. Now I only drink lagers and pilsners (non west coast pils). It’s so weird
Yup. Belgian beers. I used to love them, specifically Chimay Blue and Saison Dupont. Drank them all the time. Then circa 2010, I went to the Belgian Beer Fest, hosted by Beer Advocate, at the Cyclorama in Boston. Drank Belgian's all afternoon when it suddenly hit me, "Holy shit, I want a Pilsner." It was like I overdosed on Belgian's. Aside from a few sips here and there, I haven't had a Belgian since that day about 15 years ago. Interestingly enough, that's the same day that my love of craft lagers kicked off. Prior to then, anything lager like just got labeled as an AAL, and thus gross, in my brain. But after that fateful day, I started appreciating them way more. Luckily, this is when Jack's Abby was just getting rolling, so I was in good shape. I also have lost my interest in any beer that reads as sweet. When I got started with craft, the diabetes stouts that fill the shelves would have appealed to me. But now? Hell no.
Submitted my update request yesterday. That's wild that it's been mislisted on here for what seems like around 2 decades. I'd also love to finally try it again, but the closest I can find it on Yuengling's beer finder is Newport, TN which is an hour away. Gonna make a mental note to try and track it down next time I'm out that way. I remember it having a bit more body and character than Yuengling lager, which again is kind of blowing my mind that it's an AAL since the lager is an Amber Lager. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ IDK Anyway, sorry to derail the thread. To finish my thought from earlier, I didn't like sour beers at first and most stouts that I tried had a metallic taste to me, but that faded the more I tried them. And Saison used to be my favorite style, but I tired of them after a while, and IPAs became far and away my favorite. But I would call all of those acquired tastes rather than a full-on palate shift. I'm waiting for this lupulin threshold shift thing to happen since I primarily drink IPAs but it hasn't yet. I've had friends it's happened to and, while I have been craving cheap AALs lately, I just chalk that up to the weather getting warmer
I said Yes. When the IPA craze started, I did not care for the intensity of hop-forward brews. But as my circle of friends kept showing up at the crib with DFH 90, I found I not only got used to, then enjoyed the style. It’s become my weapon of choice, after, of course, Imperial Stout.,.
I am headed in this direction as well, difference being I am getting much more into lagers and seeing fewer IPAs and stouts in my fridge. I think it was general boredom that has shifted things for me. Also, I've been enjoying bourbon again after years of being a tequila enthusiast. Bourbon pairs better with lager rather than stout IMO
I haven't received a response about my update submission. This is indeed quite the enigma, as Google states: "Yes, Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale uses bottom-fermenting yeast. While originally brewed with top-fermenting yeast, Yuengling transitioned to bottom-fermenting yeast in the 1960s. This change didn't alter the beer's taste or character." That's quite incredible actually. Sure, I know there have been many who say bottom fermenting vs top fermenting shouldn't be viewed as a hard and fast rule defining lagers vs ales, like @marquis in this thread: https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-based-on-top-bottom-fermenting-yeast.409921/ We could really get into the weeds if we go down that road. But, rather than the yeast resulting in a completely different style of beer, I would expect there to be at least some change in taste or character, even if it were subtle. The beer was added by Todd in 2002 (I don't see the point in tagging him in this just yet to get his .02) as an English Pale Ale and it remains in this designation. I almost don't care what it says on the label, but I do care how it is defined on this site. If it's an AAL, like you state, it should be listed as such. But, more importantly why should it be listed as an AAL? Simply because they use corn grits in part of the malt bill and a bottom fermenting yeast? It seems that it's been grandfathered in under the eyes of the law regarding the label: But, again, that's kind of irrelevant to me at this juncture. What I want to know is how homebrewers, beer nerds and beer experts would define this beer. Is it an ale? Or is it a lager? If it's an ale, is it an English Pale Ale and I can stop my nitpicking? Or, if it's a lager, is it an American Adjunct Lager? And then my mission to have it changed in the BA database continues. Very exciting stuff if you ask me. Edit: Again, sorry for derailing the thread. I'm totally prepared to create a thread of my own on the subject if need be
I did not drink Lord Chesterfield in the 60's so.... Maybe the statement of it didn't alter the beer's "taste or character" was more of a marketing thing to not piss off the old time regular customers of this product? It is indeed an AAL beer. It is fermented with lager yeast (ergo a lager) and it has an adjunct (i.e., corn) as part of the grain bill. Entirely up to you have much effort you want to make here to 'correct' things. Tilting at windmills is not my preferred hobby. Cheers!
No, it is a classic (North American) golden ale, a style which became fashionable during the period of US Prohibition in Canada (often smuggled cross the border) and became popular after Repeal when brewed by US breweries. Yuengling, when they created the ale after Repeal even advertised it as such. This website calls the style "American Blonde Ale" - a term never used in the US pre-craft brewing industry that I've ever seen, during the era when the style was popular and brewed by dozens of US brewers. Other brewers over the decades also called similar ales by terms like "Sparkling Ale", "Lively Ale" and "Cream Ale" (<not to be confused with the blended product made popular by Genesee). So, the legal definition as requested by American professional brewing industry representatives is irrelevant and you're basing it on the feelings of "homebrewers and beer nerds" ? Are you going to get this website to also change the brewers own designations for all the other bottom-fermented (bastard) ales and porters (like those mentioned in my post above) or beers like Anchor Bock (top fermented) or the early incarnation of Anchor Porter (which used the Steam beer yeast). It's a big project, given that there are many beers, both domestic and imported, marketed in the US that, when they do list ingredients, just say "yeast". You'll have to contact every brewer and find out if they use what the industry considers a bottom- or top-fermented yeast.
The Ale vs Lager argument is not black and white. The yeast genome study found that some commercial lager yeast are genetically ale yeast, and vica versa. The resulting beers characteristics depend on how the yeast is used in fermentation, i.e. pitch rate, temperature, and so on.
Like when your palate asks you: "Have you ever been experienced? We'll, I have." ... And probly more frequently that I'm conscious of. Why just last night my choice from the bar was Heineken. Fresh bottles, icy cold but didn't taste good to me so I just stopped. But when I got home I had a Miller Lite and it tasted just fine. I used to like Heineken and I'm enjoying the heck outa other Euro Lagers. Maybe they changed their sauce, maybe it's me. Probly me.
