Changes

Spontaneously fermented beers from the United States form a group of beers referred to as American Coolship Ales (or ACAs), American Wild Ales (or AWAs), among other names.<ref name=AWAs>Nicholas A. Bokulich, Charles W. Bamforth, David A. Mills. [http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0035507|Brewhouse-Resident Microbiota Are Responsible for Multi-Stage Fermentation of American Coolship Ale], PLoS One, 7(4), 2012</ref> Spontaneously fermented beers from other parts of the world are occasionally referred to as "American Wild Ales" as well, though it is unclear if there is any reason to associate any arbitrary spontaneous or even mixed fermentation beer that doesn't fall into another existing style with the United States. At present, there are few satisfactory naming conventions for these beers.

ACAs vary in their intended similarity to lambic, with some American producers even going so far as to label their beers "lambics", while other ACAs bear little in common with lambic besides spontaneous fermentation. Due to the geographical separation between the United States and Belgium and the large variations in yeast and bacteria genetics between these different populations, even an ACA wort carefully prepared to be very similar to that of lambic will yield notably different results after fermentation, even if the overall experience of the two styles of beer is similar.<ref name=AWAs>Nicholas A. Bokulich, Charles W. Bamforth, David A. Mills. [http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0035507|Brewhouse-Resident Microbiota Are Responsible for Multi-Stage Fermentation of American Coolship Ale], PLoS One, 7(4), 2012</ref> <ref name=sour> J. Edwards and A. DiCaprio. [http://www.process-nmr.com/pdfs/Edwards%20-%20SMASH%202014%20-%20MNova%20Users%20Meeting%20-%209-7-14.pdf| When Beer Goes Sour: An NMR Investigation], MestrelabMNova Users Meeting, SMASH – Atlanta, GA, September 7, 2014</ref> <ref name=Oevelen77 >D. Van Oevelen, M. Spaepen, P. Timmermans and H. Verachtert, [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1977.tb03825.x/abstract|MICROBIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SPONTANEOUS WORT FERMENTATION IN THE PRODUCTION OF LAMBIC AND GUEUZE], 1977</ref>