Lagers vs. Ales

(upbeat music)

My name is Kyler Serfass

and I work at Brooklyn Homebrew

and I'm gonna teach you a little bit

about the two main types of beer.

There's ales and there's lagers.

And they are differentiated by the two different

types of yeast that they use.

Bottom fermenting or lager yeast like to ferment

at a colder temperature, usually between 45 and 55 degrees.

Ales are top fermenting yeast and they like to ferment

around 65 to 70 degrees or at room temperature.

For this reason, most home brewers usually start with ales

and move onto lagers once they get

a little bit more advanced.

Ales are typically fruitier than most lagers.

Examples of ales are stouts, IPAs and lot of Belgian

and German styles that don't use a lager yeast.

The typical characteristics of a lager

are a clean and crisp

and relatively neutral flavor profile.

The most common example of a lager is the Pilsner

or American's take on it

which is the standard American Lager

that you'll find in most grocery stores.

Most home brewers will start off with usually a pale ale

or something low alcohol

that they can turn around pretty quickly.

Pale ales kind of range in all different types of flavors

going from more subdued to really hoppy.

The beer that we brewed today and the recipe that you'll see

is a black IPA or Cascadian Dark Ale.

It's an ale that ferments at room temperature

and it has the body and flavor of an IPA

with added roasted notes from the roasted barley

and special roasted malts that are in it.

So there are a lot of different beer styles out there

but that's an explanation of the two main types.

Cheers.

(upbeat music)