What’s the difference between beer, lager and ale?

Quite simply beer is the overall term for all styles of brews. Lager and ale are specific types of beer.

Lager is brewed and matured at lower temperatures, using bottom-fermenting yeast, which means it should be stored for longer to let its flavours develop (see below). The word lager actually comes from the German word for stored – lagerung. Best enjoyed chilled

Ale is brewed and matured at higher temperatures using top-fermenting yeast. This means it takes a shorter time to mature and should be enjoyed cool (11-12 degrees in my opinion) rather than chilled.

What does cask or bottle conditioned ale mean?

It’s alive! Cask and bottle conditioned beers have a small amount of active yeast still in them, continuing the fermentation process after the beer has left the brewery, which is why they should be treated with respect. With bottles, read the label and if it says it is bottle conditioned make sure it stays stood upright and is stored in a cool, dark place.

Traditionally in Britain the yeast is left in the bottle but in Belgium they say the clear top two thirds of the beer are for their heart and mind and the final cloudy third, which they pour once they’ve drunk the top two thirds, is for their stomach! Make up your own mind but don’t worry about the yeast getting in your glass it won’t hurt the flavour or make you ill; in fact, I think, it can often enhance the experience.

Lager

PLEASE look for genuine lagers, the word lager means stored in German, most mainstream brands most certainly are not, which accounts for their lack of flavour. Great examples of real lager are Budvar, Cain’s Finest, Pilsner Urquell and Harviestoun Schiehallion.

Food match: Anything from the barbecue is lager’s natural partner. But I also love it with chicken, mackerel or vegetables tagines – with honey and fruit couscous – or my personal favourite, roast chicken with 40 garlic cloves, served with vast quantities of green veg and a big wallop of dauphinoise!

Bitter

Bitter is a quintessentially English beer – a well-hopped ale it can be found on draught, in cans or in bottles and it sits at around 3.2%-4.2% ABV.

From copper to a deep rich bronze these beers also come in special and extra special varieties which are generally stronger in alcohol content.

Food match: Perfect with a steak and kidney pie, a rack of mutton or a classic rib of beef.

Golden ales

Quite a new ‘category’ of beers, but a very welcome one nonetheless; light, refreshing and exciting on the palette, these beers often appeal to lager drinkers as a first step into the ale world.

Sometimes called blonde beers, my personal favourites are Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted, Hopback Summer Lightning and Breconshire Brewery’s Golden Valley.

Food match: Sardines marinated in orange and lemon juice, garlic and rosemary; barbecue ribs and pork vindaloo!

India pale ale (IPA)

Now some of you may have tried something like the Greene King IPA in pubs or from a can but, in all honesty, a lot of IPAs on the shelves and in pubs are actually fairly pale imitations of the real thing.

It’s called IPA because it was brewed specifically to be shipped to the colonies in India when Britain was an empire; the beers were brewed to a high alcoholic strength and jam-packed with hops (which have amazing anti-bacterial and anti-fungal qualities) to ensure the beer made it all the way to India from London in drinkable order.

If you’d like to try something resembling the real thing, my personal favourites are Meantime Brewery’s IPA and Worthington White Shield. Meantime in particular is a really exciting beer, which smells sharply of citrus and marzipan and is brewed to a recipe designed specifically to withstand the journey by sea to India.

Food match: Unsurprisingly IPA is fantastic with curry but it’s also great with slightly more unctuous food like slow-roast duck, as it cuts through the oily meat and cleanses the palette beautifully.

Porter

Porters is a London-style almost black beer, thought to originally have been drunk by the river and street porters. Generally fairly strong, around 5%ABV, it nearly became extinct as a beer style. If you want to try a fabulous example then Fuller’s London Porter is magnificent, full of coffee and chocolate flavours that even the most hardened chocoholic will be taken aback by. Meantime and Battersea Brewery also do great examples.

Food match: Porter is the most fantastic partner to chocolate and red berries, give it a whirl with a dark chocolate and cherry torte – heavenly!

Stout

Stout has quite a history and, in fact, Ireland’s favourite beer is actually an extension of the aforementioned porter because it was originally called stout porter, eventually shortened over the years. As a beer it is full of coffee, chocolate and caramel notes and there are three different styles:

Sweet stout, an English style, is typified by Mackeson and usually contains milk sugars, (in my opinion Mackeson is the only stout to use when making Christmas pudding).

Dry stout, the Irish style, is typified by Guinness, so why not make switch from the nitrogenated cans and reach for the naturally carbonated Guinness Original bottles for a less creamy and gassy version of this classic drink.

Russian Imperial Stout is incredibly strong dark beer, at around 9-10%ABV, which was originally brewed by Barclay’s brewery in London for export to the court of the Tsar of Russia. A fairly rare style of beer it is more commonly brewed now by American microbrewers – my personal favourite being Flying Dog’s Gonzo Imperial Porter – the label of which is illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the same guy who illustrated all of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s work.

Food match: Stout is the perfect partner to a pint of garlic prawns or a dozen oysters but is also amazing with barbecue ribs – you can even use some in the marinade.

Mild

Mild is another wonderful dark brew, with definite chocolate and caramel notes and its major advantage is that it has a low ABV but buckets of flavour. Generally a more northern drink it is sadly falling out of fashion, but it is the perfect relaxation, or even lunchtime, drink as it rarely strays above 3.5%ABV.

My personal favourite is Moorhouse’s Black Cat Mild, which has won numerous awards.

Food match: As it probably originated in the north, possibly Lancashire, lamb hotpot has to be the perfect match, however it also has strong chocolate and coffee notes so goes beautifully with tiramisu.

Wheat/Wit/Weisse/Weissbier/Weizenbier

I know all this sounds complicated but really this is just regional German and Belgian words for the same thing – wheat beer. Hoegaarden is probably the best known version of this style.

However, whilst most wheat beers are light and fruity, with hints of banana, clove and peardrops, there are less sweet and floral versions of this style – Aventinus wheat doppelbock for example is a rich, dark and deep beast of a beer with complex chocolate and liquorice flavours.

Food match: Wheat beers are perfect with sushi, sashimi and Thai flavours because they are generally brewed with some form of spice, coriander seed being the most common, which complements green curries perfectly and I personally love it with a Thai beef salad.

Melissa Cole is a partner in lovebeer@borough and you can read more about beer on her popular blog.