What’s your type of beer? Ale, Lager and Wild Beer
When you first start drinking craft beer, often you'll hear people say ‘Oh, no, lager is terrible, lagers are awful’. This is mainly because the first beers that we try when we start drinking alcoholic drinks are macro lagers that don't have an awful lot of taste. If you enjoy a macro lager that's absolutely fine, drink whatever makes you happy. Beer is about the enjoyment of drinking. But a lot of the time in the craft beer community, lager is a dirty word. A lot of craft beer is ale. And we'll come to that in a moment, but actually, there are three different types of beer and all of them can be equally delicious and complex, depending on where you get them from. Let's have a look at the three different types of beer and what you can expect from them.
Type of Beer 1 - Ale
Most craft beers are ales, but when you think of ale, you might think of real ale and traditional beer. In fact, an ale is also the craft beers we have come to love. It all comes down to the yeast. Most of our craft beers will be produced with ale yeast, its official name is Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and it ferments at higher temperatures. We used to differentiate between yeast by saying they were top fermenting and bottom fermenting, but this school of thought is starting to die out. Ale yeast ferments best between 18 to 22 degrees Celsius. And what really makes an ale yeast interesting is that it adds fruity esters and spicy phenols to our beer. There are different yeast strains within the ale family and each one will do something slightly different. Some will add more fruitiness, some will add more spicy and peppery notes. Some like our weissbier yeast used in German wheat beers are very particular and add things like banana and clove that is absolutely essential to the core characteristics of that style. So when a brewer chooses their yeast, they will choose the type that will make exactly the type of beer that they're trying to make.
Type of Beer 2 - Lager
Lager yeast, however, is slightly different. Love yeast is known as Saccharomyces Pastorianus and it used to be considered bottom fermenting. This means it ferments at lower temperatures - between 10 to 14 degrees Celsius. It went really well in Germany because they used to store their beers in cold caves. But it does take a lot longer to work. Lager yeast is different because it doesn't add those fruity and spicy notes and is considered to ferment clean, which means the malt and the hops in these beers are really shining through. Think about a really lovely, proper German lager that you've had, how refreshing it is. It's all because of the choices that the brewer makes around the malt and the hops that they put into that beer. There is still a wide range of lager styles for you to try. It's not just that yellow fizzy stuff. So if you aren't drinking lagers, I suggest that you start finding some really good craft versions and give them a go.
Type of Beer 3 - Wild
Finally, we've got wild beer. What does that even mean? You might also hear wild beer called spontaneous fermented beer as they are generally fermented with a wild strain of yeast, or with bacteria that will do really interesting and complex things to the beer. Lambic is a whole style that is protected and is brewed in Belgium. This is a spontaneously fermented beer, the wort (what beer is called before it’s fermented) is left open to the elements. So the air around where it is being brewed will have wild yeast and bacteria in it. The brewers will just open their windows and allow all of this to get into the beer and see what happens. We can also use wild yeast - if you've heard of Brettanomyces or Brett this is a wild yeast that is often found on the skins of fruit and also on pineapple. Back in the day, this would ferment beers and wine automatically because it was on fruit that was going into them. This gives really interesting funky flavours in your beer. We're thinking about words like horse blanket, barnyard, funky, leather – basically words that all sound gross. But actually, when you taste it, it's really delicious. It's complex and interesting. We say Brett is a wild yeast, but actually, nowadays we do cultivate Brettanomyces so that we can use it. But essentially, it's not a brewers yeast, like ale and lager yeast, so it's still considered wild.
Bacteria is also used to ferment beers – this is where we get our lovely sour tasting beers. Bacteria like lactobacillus, acetobacter and even a bit of pediococcus is used to create interesting yoghurt and vinegar flavours. Again, they might sound gross, but when they are mixed together in the way that brewers create beers, they're actually really delicious.
Have you tried any wild, spontaneous or sour beers recently? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments.
The thing with our wild and spontaneous beers is that they can be very unpredictable. Sometimes brewers will blend different beers together to create the flavours that they really want. Sometimes they will be aged over time to allow the beer to change and create different and complex flavours. Wild and spontaneous beers do age really well because they will be constantly changing because of those bacteria and wild yeast that are in them.
Of course, it's not just the yeast that really makes our beers. Brewers have a plethora of choice of ingredients that they can use to create the amazing beers that you find in your glass. But yeast is pretty important and we shouldn't forget about it. And we should make sure that we try all the different types of beer to see what we really like.
Are you ready to start tasting beer like a pro and pick out the differences that yeast can create? Grab my free beer tasting mini course here to up your beer tasting skills today.
