- published: 17 Aug 2012
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Pale ale is a beer made by warm fermentation using predominantly pale malt.
The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" first appeared around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Different brewing practices and hop levels have resulted in a range of taste and strength within the pale ale family.
Coke had been first used for dry roasting malt in 1642, but it wasn't until around 1703 that the term "pale ale" was first applied to beers made from such malt. By 1784, advertisements appeared in the Calcutta Gazette for "light and excellent" pale ale. By 1830, the expressions "bitter" and "pale ale" were synonymous. Breweries would tend to designate beers as pale ale, though customers would commonly refer to the same beers as bitter. It is thought that customers used the term bitter to differentiate these pale ales from other less noticeably hopped beers such as porter and mild. By the mid to late 20th century, while brewers were still labeling bottled beers as pale ale, they had begun identifying cask beers as bitter, except those from Burton on Trent, which tend to be referred to both as pale ales.
Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry.
There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams.
The English word amber derives from Arabic ʿanbar عنبر , Middle Latin ambar and Middle French ambre. The word was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century as referring to what is now known as ambergris (ambre gris or "grey amber"), a solid waxy substance derived from the sperm whale. In the Romance languages, the sense of the word had come to be extended to Baltic amber (fossil resin) from as early as the late 13th century. At first called white or yellow amber (ambre jaune), this meaning was adopted in English by the early 15th century. As the use of ambergris waned, this became the main sense of the word.
Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically the terms "beer" and "ale" respectively referred to drinks brewed with and without hops. Over time, "beer" came to refer to all beers, though—after the development of cold fermented beer ("lager")—"ale" came to refer to warm fermented beers only.
Ale, as with most beers, typically has bittering agent(s) to balance the sweetness of the malt and to act as a preservative. Ale was originally bittered with gruit, a mixture of herbs (sometimes spices) which was boiled in the wort prior to fermentation. Later, hops replaced the gruit blend in common usage as the sole bittering agent.
Ale, along with bread, was an important source of nutrition in the medieval world, particularly small beer, also known as table beer or mild beer, which was highly nutritious, contained just enough alcohol to act as a preservative, and provided hydration without intoxicating effects. Small beer would have been consumed daily by almost everyone, including children, in the medieval world, with higher-alcohol ales served for recreational purposes. The lower cost for proprietors combined with the lower taxes levied on small beer led to the selling of beer labeled "strong beer" that had actually been diluted with small beer. In medieval times, ale may have been safer to drink than most water (the germ theory of disease was unheard of, and the sterilizing properties of boiling unknown); however, there is no period evidence that people were aware of this nor that they chose to drink ale for this reason. The alcohol, hops, and some ingredients in gruit used to preserve some ales may have contributed to their lower load of pathogens, when compared to water. However, ale was largely safer due to the hours of boiling required in production, not the alcoholic content of the finished beverage.
She never let her roots go brown
She kept moving them from town to town
Like she was running from a restless sound
That would use her name in vain
Back then she was the one to know
We didn't like it but we loved her so
It broke our hearts to let her go
As if we had a choice...
As if we had a choice...
Oh as if we had a choice...
With far too many brows to soothe
There was just so much to prove
On occasion with the ruthless move
And the smoking overpass
Take it from one who tries
There's nothing friendly in the open skies
Nothing up there ever satisfies
And the air is thin and cold...
Yeah the air is thin and cold...
Amber Lee
Back then we called her Amber Lee
We all landed in her way
We called her Amber Lee
Both a first and a second wife
Unhappy almost all her life
The pain is sharper with a dull-edged knife
And the rust will lock you in
The highway is her habitat
She wouldn't cut it as a diplomat
She's not sorry that it came to that
But what's a girl to do
They call her the names 'cause they think they can
You wouldn't hear them if she was a man
We're all flashes in a great big pan
And they're turning up the heat...