A beer made by warm fermentation using predominantly pale malt which results in a lighter colour.

The term 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.

By 1830, the terms bitter and pale ale were synonymous. Breweries would tend to designate beers as pale ale, while 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 labelling bottled beers as pale ale, most cask beers were more normally identified as bitter.