On 10 Jul 2003 at 23:46, AVALON2455@aol.com wrote:
> Beer is bottom brewed...................(yeast on the bottom)
> Ale is top brewed...................(yeast on the top)
I'm not a brewer and I don't play one on TV, but this isn't quite
they way it goes, at least to some folks. I have a book by one
Michael Jackson (do I remember the name right?) that lists
microbreweries around the world (the products of some of which I've
sampled - so many breweries, so little time). In the rather long
intro he describes the brewing process, the history, and the
terminology. An ale uses top-fermenting yeast and is typically
brewed at warmer temperatures. A lager uses bottom-fermenting yeast
and is typically brewed colder. The term beer is generic and refers
to either.
(From memory), the ale process was the original method since cooling
wasn't readily available in most places and the culturing of yeasts
was unknown; the yeasts were whatever nature happened to drop into
the vat. The lager process was discovered in Bavaria in the 14th
century by brewers using cold high-altitude caves for storage. The
yeast would sink due to the colder temps, so the bottom-growing yeast
had to be siphoned up to seed the next batch. This meant the growing
environment and the yeast selection were much more controlled, giving
a more consistent taste. The "ultimate" form of this was a light,
golden lager developed in Plzen (a.k.a. Pilsen), a town now in the
western part of the Czech Republic. Hence this style is known as a
Pilsener. Most of the canned pseudo-beers in the world today are
Pilseners. However lagers don't have to be either golden or light.
There are some very good non-Pilsener lagers, but in general the
colder/bottom-fermenting yeast makes for a duller taste. If you're
gonna' make the beer taste colorful, might as well make it an ale.
Nor do ales have to be dark and thick, as someone has already
mentioned India Pale Ale, a light but highly alcoholic and heavily
flavored ale developed to survive the boat trip from the homeland out
to the colonies.
That's how I've been taught over the years, and my taste buds have
had no reason to disagree. Your mileage may vary.
I swapped the GT6 for the Spitfire yesterday, washed up the Spitfire
because it hadn't had a good cleaning for a while, got the battery
all charged up after it had been sitting for a month or so. I left
it at the end of the driveway wearing its tonneau cover, hoping to
drive it to work today. Boom! This morning it was raining.
Bummer.
--
Jim Muller
jimmuller@pop.rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+
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