Oh, and Michael, not precisely. Ale is an even more vague term than beer to be honest. Steve detailed the top / bottom fermenting thing above. Lager is bottom fermenting. Beer /ale is... Well, there's no precise definition, except they'll both be top fermenting. Beyond that, in the UK at least, the waters (sic) are further muddied by the notion of Real Ale and... let's just not go there, eh! ;-)