This article has the same blindspots as traditional breweries; it asserts "The most obvious difference is that lager yeast works best in cold temperatures -- te

This article has the same blindspots as traditional breweries; it asserts "The most obvious difference is that lager yeast works best in cold temperatures -- temperatures that would make an ale yeast go dormant." This is not a correct statement. A more accurate statement would be "The most obvious difference is that lager yeast - at lower fermentation temperatures than usual for beer - produces a more subtle, 'clean', taste that is easier to mass-market." And that's also not entirely accurate, but it's accurate enough for an article. Anyone who has read "Mikkeller's Book of Beer" and noted the fermentation temperatures of their recipes will be aware of this. If you brew a batch of size X, and then divide it into Y vessels, and: 1. Ferment at different temperatures in each vessel, say with a difference of 3-5 celsius, or 2. Ferment it with a different yeast strain ("ale" or "lager" strains) in each vessel, you will get vastly different results in each vessel for both methods. Shockingly different. There are commercial beers fermented with "lager" yeast at the higher end of the spectrum, like with White Labs WLP940, "Mexican Lager", which on its old packaging advertised a fermentable range of up to 23C, if I remember correctly. My most brewed beer is fermented with this strain at 16C. There are commercial beers fermented with "ale" yeast at low temperatures. I ferment WLP400 at 4C, and it produces an exceptionally smooth taste with subtle hints of clove. There are many others as well that can benefit from lower temperatures, like WLP028 and some in the 5XX series. The much, much more important thing to understand for an experimental brewer is what I demonstrated above, that regardless of an "ale" or "lager" label, two different yeast strains will produce vastly different results given the same conditions and wort - and that _one_ strain fermented at different temperatures will develop amazingly different profiles. The reason this is important to understand is that noone will tell you. If you walk into a store, they'll give you a "standard" yeast that produces a reliable result - like US05. I've read close to 20 books on brewing, and not even the Mikkeller book tells you this as far as I can remember - it only demonstrates it by listing the fermentation temperatures of the catalogued recipes, and allowing the reader to get shocked by them. And it's also important to understand because it's really, really fun to experiment with. One of the best beers I've ever made was a WLP570 fermented at 33C. Unfortunately, this strain is exceptionally hard to work with, if your drinkers prefer a clear beer in their glass.