Ale

This article is about the beer style. For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation).

A glass of ale
A glass of real ale from an English pub

Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method.[1][2] In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.[3]

As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale was originally bittered with gruit, a mixture of herbs or spices boiled in the wort before fermentation, before hops replaced gruit as the bittering agent.[4] In England, however, it was also common to brew ale without adding herbs.[5]

  1. ^ Ben McFarland, World's Best Beers: One Thousand Craft Brews from Cask to Glass. Sterling Publishing Company. 2009. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-4027-6694-7. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  2. ^ M. Shafiur Rahman, Handbook of Food Preservation. CRC Press. 2007. p. 221. ISBN 978-1-57444-606-7. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  3. ^ "Oxford English Dictionary Online". Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  4. ^ Doorman, Gerard (1955). "De middeleeuwse brouwerij en de gruit /". lib.ugent.be. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  5. ^ See the recipe for bottle ale in: By several hands (1690). Receipt-Book. Manuscript 4054 (wellcome collection). p. 180.