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What also emerged from around this time in Germany was the distinction between “beers” and “ales”.

 

“Beers were bottom fermented; ales were top fermented,” says Fox. “Today, of course, most fermentation takes place somewhere in the middle.” That’s because we have the ability to control temperature during the brewing process. But before refrigeration, brewers used ale yeast (top fermentation) to make Kolsch, porters, stouts, ales, and wheat styles, and lager yeast (bottom fermentation) to make beers like pilsners and Bocks.

 

In Britain, however, it didn’t matter where the fermentation took place. It was all about the hops. “Beer” contained hops. “Ales” had no hops. Of course, we think of ales as being hoppy today, but an ale’s hoppiness wasn’t a matter of taste so much as a matter of preservation.

 

In fact, “IPAs, or India pale ales, came about because of the Indian spices trade,” says Fox. It turns out British traders involved in the East India Company were not too impressed with India’s choices of alcoholic beverages. They wanted their British ales, despite the fact that they were being brewed half way around the world.

 

“The problem was that the ships took months to reach India, and by the time this brew reached port, it was spoiled.” It turns out hops act as a kind of natural beer preservative. IPAs became a hopped-up alternative to English ales, which are less hoppy than the pale ales of today.

 

“In Texas, anything with 4.7% alcohol is an ale. Anything less is a beer,” Fox tells the crowd. How alcohol content entered the conversation is anyone’s guess. But, hey, it’s Texas. They do what they want.

 

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