{"id":1580,"date":"2009-07-15T23:28:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T03:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.2beerguys.com\/blog\/?p=1580"},"modified":"2009-07-15T23:28:24","modified_gmt":"2009-07-16T03:28:24","slug":"beer-or-ale-what-are-you-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/15\/beer-or-ale-what-are-you-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer or ale:  What are you drinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Are you drinking Lagers or Ales?  Do you know?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is an interesting question that many beer drinkers face.  Budweiser is a lager, but what is Miller light?  Are my favorite Harpoon beers lagers or ales?<\/p>\n<p>At a recent beer event, I had a discussion with a festival participant on this topic.  Lets say his name is Bob.  Bob asked me if he was drinking &#8220;beer&#8221; or an ale.  At first I was a little confused.  Ale&#8217;s are beer &#8211; what was he asking me about?<\/p>\n<p>I quickly understood his question.  He was asking me about Lagers vs. Ales.  I explained that in this specific case he was drinking an ale.  He asked. &#8220;Is it an ale because it&#8217;s darker and maltier&#8221;.   No Bob, that&#8217;s not the reason. Lets Discuss&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are some basic differences between Lagers and Ales:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fermentation Location: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Ales use yeast  fermented at the top of the vessel.<\/li>\n<li>Lagers use yeast fermented at the bottom of the vessel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fermentation Duration:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A standard ale will complete fermentation in 2-3 weeks.<\/li>\n<li>A standard lager will complete fermentation in 4-6 weeks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fermentation Temperature: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Lagers need a colder temperature &#8211; fermentation typically occurs between 45 &#8211; 55 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/li>\n<li>Ales need a warmer temperature (closer to room temp) &#8211; fermentation typically occurs between 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Style Examples: <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, Stout, Porter, Barley-wine, Belgian Strong Ale, Extra Special Bitter.<\/li>\n<li>Light Lager, American Style Lager, Pilsner, Marzen, Bock, Dunkel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Classic Examples:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ALES: <\/strong>Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Harpoon IPA, Redhook ESB.<\/li>\n<li> <strong>LAGERS:<\/strong> Budweiser, Miller Light, Heineken, Sam Adams Boston Lager.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I hope that this helps unlock the mystery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoy!!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sean<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Drink Craft Beer, You&#8217;ve Earned it!!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>This article can also be viewed on examiner.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you drinking Lagers or Ales? Do you know? This is an interesting question that many beer drinkers face. Budweiser is a lager, but what is Miller light? Are my favorite Harpoon beers lagers or ales? At a recent beer event, I had a discussion with a festival participant on this topic. Lets say his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82,88],"tags":[681,680,682],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1580"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1581,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1580\/revisions\/1581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}