ALE

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ale mean? 

• ALE (noun)
  The noun ALE has 1 sense:

1. 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

  Familiarity information: ALE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALE (noun)

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("ale" is a kind of...):

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

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ale"):

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)