Ales: Amber, Red and Blonde

The ale styles known as Amber, Red and Blonde are what I like to think of as your "basic" ales. There's nothing fancy going on here, no truckloads of unnecessary hops, no addition of flavorings like fruit or coffee, just plain ol' ale! One could think of these ales as the craft beer industry's answer to the American pale lager...a much wittier and more well-read answer! They all clock in at 4.5 - 6% ABV and have a moderate hop profile of 25-30 IBU. They all tend to be similar in some respects to lagers, but with a layer of subtlty and complexity not found in most lagers. The main difference among these three styles is color. The blondes are naturally a golden yellow, the reds a coppery red and the ambers somewhere in between, although some reds can differ in taste, with a sweeter, maltier character reminiscent of a Vienna Lager or a Märzen. Of the amber ales, New Belgium's Fat Tire is a great example, as is Nebraska-brewed Lucky Bucket and Odell's 90 Schilling. Red Ales seem to proliferate around St. Patrick's Day, with Killian's being a great example of the style. Don't confuse a red ale with that Midwest abomination, beer mixed with tomato juice!

Ales

Now that we have examined lagers in a fair amount of detail, it's time to move on to ales. Twenty years ago it could be said that most beers in the United States were lagers, with a few (mostly imported) exceptions like Guinness. The main difference between lagers and ales is the type of yeast and the associated fermentation. Lagers use bottom, or cold fermenting yeast, while ales use top or warm fermenting yeast. The effective difference is that in general a lager will be clear and "crisp" while an ale, due to the heat generated in fermentation, will have a variety of flavors that are present without any addition of flavoring agents. Until recently most small brewers produced ales rather than lagers. The reason for this is that brewing a lager ties up the equipment for longer periods of time due to the necessity for lagering, that is letting the beer age in a cool place for a period of time - sometimes months. A small craft brewery. microbrew or brewpub could not afford to tie up their equipment for that long. In the last decade however, some of what used to be small batch brewers have expanded (sometimes due to being bought out by the beer giants) and have added lagers, especially Märzens to their selection. Ales are by far the older of the two main families of beers, but were nudged aside by the lager in the 1900's, only to gain prominance again in the 21st century.

In this series on ales, we'll be looking at the following main styles:

• Blonde
• Amber Ale
• Pale Ale
• Strong Ale
• Cream Ale
• Red Ale
• Brown Ale
• Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
• Steam Ales (Summer Common)
• Porters
• Stouts
• India Pale Ale (IPA)
• Belgian Beers (including dubbels, trippels, quadrupels)
• Farmhouse/Saisson
• Alternate grains (wheat beers, rye beers)
• Scotch and Scottish Ale
• Rauchbiers (smoked ales)
• Barleywine

That's a lot of different styles! Some styles may be combined into one article if they are similar. We'll also be looking at combination styles like Belgian IPA and descriptors such as "imperial". At the end, perhaps as a separate series, we'll look at the hybrids like Kölsch and Altbier. 

We've got a lot to cover, so let's get going!

Ales: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Following is a repost of an article from March 2014, I thought I'd open up the series on ales with these musings on dark beer and some of the myths associated with it. I am also including a link to an article about the relative heaviness of dark and light beers
https://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/the-lighter-side-of-dark-debunking-the-myths-surrounding-dark-beer


How often do I hear people say "I don't like dark beer". I used to respond "dark is just a color". While this is technically true and there is nothing about the color of a beer that reliably indicates the flavor, heaviness or hoppiness of a beer, beers that are typically darker colored tend, in general, to taste different than your run of the mill lager.What I generally ask now  is "what kind of dark beer don't you like?"  because there is a wide variety and divergence among the many darker-hued beers. Most people don't really know what dark beers that they don't like.

Most people's first experience of beer is a lager. Budweiser, Miller, Coors and most of the mass produced beers are lagers. Outside of any discussion of what makes a "good" beer, lagers are cold fermented and then "lagered", or aged in a cool place, which results in a cool, crisp taste and a clear, golden color. This is usually the standard against which most people judge other styles of beer. But even among the light-colored beers there is a vast difference in flavor, bitterness (hoppiness),heaviness (original gravity) and alcohol content. Belgians, IPA's, Pale Ales, Witbiers and ESB's all have relatively light coloration, but still might not be palatable to novice lager drinkers.

Most styles that are typically brewed to a golden or amber hue can also be brewed with darker malts that give the beer a brown or chocolate color, but still have the same basic flavor as their lighter cousins. Black lagers have become common in the last few years, as well as black IPA's, both of which could be mistaken for an amber lager or IPA if consumed with eyes shut. Styles such as brown ale or altbier are very light in flavor but are a copper color.

When most people say they don't like dark beer, they, in most cases are referring to Guinness Stout, which for years was the most commonly available of the darker-colored beers. Guinness, like many Irish or English stouts and porters, tend to be fairly bitter and have a distinctive taste quite unlike lagers. However, recently, other varieties of stouts and porters have appeared on the market, notably sweet, or milk, stouts, which are made with lactose, which does not convert to alcohol. These brews tend to be creamier and sweeter than stouts like Guinness. Imperial Stouts are often hoppier and higher in alcohol content.

Belgians are another style where the beers are frequently dark in color. However, a Belgian might be a bright yellow or it might be a deep mahogany with no discernible difference in taste. Bocks, a lager that is richer in taste than a standard lager, can be deep brown, or golden, also with no taste difference than can be noticed.

Keep in mind, that not all beer styles are supposed to all taste the same, no more than a cup of coffee is supposed to taste like a cup of tea or a mug of hot chocolate. But somehow beer drinkers expect that a pale ale is supposed to taste like a lager.

So, when someone says that they don't like "dark beer", what styles have they tried? Are they cutting themselves off from the rich variety of lagers and ales due to something as unimportant as the color? If you've tried an Imperial Stout and didn't like it, fine, that thick bitterness has nothing to do with the smooth whiskey finish of a bourbon oak barrel aged quadruple Belgian.

Don't be afraid of the dark.

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat

Ill-Gotten Booty did a review of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat several years ago. At the time I classified it as one of the few Sam Adams beers that I didn't like...cough syrup is what I compared it to. My view has softened a bit over the last few years, but man, this beer is still very cherry! The first key to enjoying a fruit beer is accept the basic fact that it's a fruit beer! I used to think that adding fruit to an ale or lager distracted the drinker from the beeriness of the brew, but I have tried so many fruit beers over the years that I have come over to the fruity side. Don't get me wrong, a well-crafted pale ale or stout trumps a fruit beer any day, but these guys have their place. If you're a summer beer guy or gal, or just are into the whole fruit thing, you'd probably like this one. Let's give it a 5.5 on the IGB scale.