Whats the different between an Ale and a Lager?
. The terms “Ale” and “Lager” do not refer to styles of beer, but rather to the way in which the beer is brewed, as well as the type of yeast used in brewing. There are a number of important differences between Ale and Lager. First of all, they are brewed with a different sub-species of yeast. Ale is brewed with sacharomyces cerivisiae, and Lager with sacharomyces uvarum. Ale yeast is commonly referred to as top fermenting since the yeast tends to clump together (flocculate) near the top, sometimes forming an impressive pancake of yeast on the surface of the beer. Lager yeast on the other hand is also called bottom fermenting yeast since it tends to flocculate near the bottom of the fermenting beer. Where there are several very distinct sub-types of Ale yeast, all known Lager yeasts are on the genetic level recognizable as descendants of the original Bavarian strain, or of the Danish strain which was stolen from Bavaria several hundred years ago (establishing the Carlberg breweries). N
