Commercial breweries, with a few specialized exceptions, no longer rely upon wild yeast in creating delicious-tasting beer. Instead, brewers have cultured numerous varieties of yeast which are used to ferment the natural sugar found in malted barley. Within the ale category, consumers will find stouts, porters, milds, and wheat beer. Some well-known ales include Pete s Wicked Ale, Anchor Celebration Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale ale, Bass Ale, and Guiness Stout. Within the lager category, consumers will find pilsners, octoberfest, bock, and dunkel.
Many people can taste the difference between lagers and ales.
Ales tend to taste robust and complex. Lagers tend to taste smooth, clean and malty. The malty, sugary liquid used to create beer is called wort. Yeast eat the sugar in wort and create alcohol as a by-product. Yeast that ferment at the top of the wort are ale yeast, Yeast that ferment at the bottom of the wort are lager yeast.