ale

/eɪl/

/eɪl/

Other forms: ales

Ale is a particular type of beer. Ale would be a good thing to order if you ever visit a pub in Britain.

Ale is yeast-fermented beer, brewed with sweet-tasting malted barley, and often with hops, to balance the sweetness with a more bitter flavor. In Britain, ale is considered to be any beer "other than lager, stout, or porter," while in the US ale is distinguished by the style of fermentation. The Old English origin of ale is ealu, "ale or beer." The Proto-Indo-European root has an implied meaning of "sorcery, magic, and intoxication."

Definitions of ale

1. noun

   a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume
   types:

   Weissbier, wheat beer, white beer

   a general name for beers made from wheat by top fermentation; usually very pale and cloudy and effervescent

   bitter

   English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft)

   Burton

   a strong dark English ale

   pale ale

   an amber colored ale brewed with pale malts; similar to bitter but drier and lighter

   porter, porter's beer

   a very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley

   stout

   a strong very dark heavy-bodied ale made from pale malt and roasted unmalted barley and (often) caramel malt with hops

   Weizenbier

   a general name in southern Germany for wheat beers

   Weizenbock

   a German wheat beer of bock strength

   Guinness

   a kind of bitter stout

   type of:

   beer

   a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops