Ales: Pale Ale

After the "basic" ales mentioned in the last article, we have pale ales. A pale ale may or may not end up with a pale golden hue - the "pale" refers to the type of malt used. In general a pale ale refers to an ale that is more aggressively hopped than an amber, but not so much as an IPA. Pale Ales tend to be about 5% ABV, with some as high as 6%. Originally pale ales came about due to technology changes in the heating process in the 1800's. Previously the direct heat caused the malt to darken, producing the darker stouts and porters. The new direct heating method yielded a pale malt and thus a paler ale. (This is similar to the advent of Pilsners in Bohemia). In England, this style of beer was also called "bitter" interchangeably with "pale ale". American brewers shied away from the term "bitter". It wasn't until recent years that the term "bitter" shed its negative connotations in the U.S. In England, and eventually in America, there were subcategories of Bitter, such as Best Bitter, Extra Special Bitter (ESB). Pale Ale was for a while the most popular of the craft beer categories, but became overshadowed by IPA's, so much that what would have been called a pale ale might now be called a "Session IPA" or simply an IPA with a low IBU count.

Pale ale is often a good introduction to craft beer noobs since it looks like a light beer and doesn't set off dark beer alarm bells. I've occassionally seen people picking up a pale ale under the mistaken belief that it is "light".