Talk:Bartending/Alcohol

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[edit] Classification of beers

People are often confused about types of beer (i.e. ale vs. lager vs. stout, etc). Let me first say that "Beer" doesn't belong as a type of beer. All beer is beer.

All beer is either an ale or a lager. The distinction has to do with the type of yeast used. As a rule of thumb (but only that -- there are exceptions), ale yeast ferments quickly at high temperatures and floats on top during fermentation, while lager yeast ferments at more slowly at low temperatures and stays on the bottom of the fermenting vessel. This is somewhat confused by the fact that the process of fermenting beer at low temperatures is called lagering, quite apart from what yeast is used. A homebrewer can easiler lager an ale (i.e. use ale yeast but ferment a lager temperatures) or ferment a lager at ale temperatures. This is quite rare AFAIK in the commercial beer world -- Anchor Steam is an example of the latter. But it's still technically a lager.

Beer is divided into styles. See, for example, the BJCP Style Guide. Ale and lager are not styles. Stouts, for example, are ales. And there are many types of stout.

In short, the all to common Ale vs. Lager is not useful in describing beer. It's kinda like saying the types of cars are "two door" and "four door". True, but it's more an either-or attribute of being a car. Talking about "Coupes", "Sedans", "wagons", "minivans", etc. is a better top-level organization. While being four- or two- door is perhaps common or universally found in some styles and not others, it's not really a good top-level organization in exactly the same way ales and lagers are not good top level categories for beer.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.46.148.232 (talk • contribs) 01:04, 1 November 2005 (UTC).

I agree Discordance 19:04, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually lets rob wikis w:List of alcoholic beverages Discordance 21:51, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spontaneous Human Combustion

Come on. Seriously?

Spontaneous human combustion has been thoroughly debunked. If I were interested enough, I could find you plenty of authorities, including a program on Discovery Channel, but I'm not. Mike Hayes (talk) 02:36, 20 August 2008 (UTC)