Lager as an extreme beer?

Industrial AALs. Big difference one word makes.

Take style out of it- it's about beers shaped by focus groups, marketers and bean counters vs. beers shaped by their owners' vision.

 

Maybe even style and skill. Passion? You get the point.

 

But that is how small craft breweries brew their beers, no? Small craft breweries don't have the funds to pay for marketers, focus groups, etc.

Edit: For example Tree House, Trillium, Bissel Brothers, etc are crafting beers per their own visions.

Cheers!

 

Exactly, for many that is true, and I think it's fairly easy to tell who is brewing according to 'vision'.

But the post I responded to had you advocating 'giving the people what they want' instead of brewing what you want, in order to stay afloat.

 

Or, in order to boost those sales (whether or not keeping afloat -- just say greed) or win that ever growing popularity contest.

Waitaminnit -- this discussion veered waaay off from Lager as Extreme. Sorry, I'm done with that path... trudging back to the subject.

Izzit Winter Bock time yet?

 

Mmmmmmmmm. Weltenberger Kloster Winter-Traum.

 

I would love to everyday have a chilled fresh draft Lowenbrau easily available in any kind of glass!

 

But those two aspects can indeed be one and the same. For example the breweries I made mention of (Tree House, Trillium, Bissel Brothers, etc.) make beers per their vision plus those are the beers the craft beer consumers want. This does not need to be an either/or situation.

Cheers!

 

No, of course not, but as an underlying philosophy it doesn't really work for me. And if it's just happenstance that 'what we make' is 'what they want', then it's not worth mentioning at all, imo.

ETA: here's the part that pushed my button, just to clarify:

 

Respectfully disagree but as always a pleasure to chat with you.

Cheers!

 

Same here.

Fyi,I did throw a ninja edit in there, in case you didn't see.

 

There was definitely a method, and it related to the central problem of expecting a brewery's flagship to be an IPA. If I wanted to have my flagship be a sour fruit beer (and I did), it's hard to establish that if I also have an IPA. The IPA would have been what people ordered when we opened, especially when we were doing this in GA a few years ago. After we established ourselves as focusing on other types of beers, I figured we could do a year-round IPA without it replacing our sour as the flagship. We're in an interesting position now in that our 3 year-rounds (sour, saison, IPA) and seasonal IPA all do very similar volumes instead of having one clear leader. I don't think that would be the case if we had launched with an IPA.

 

Understood, and thanks for sharing that.

Of the three of your beers I've tried so far I definitely enjoyed the Atalanta the most and it has made a place on my "have-again-list" for the next time I see it. (BTW, in the shop where I bought your stuff, the Atalanta sold out first, followed by the IPA (The Rites), with the Lyric taking the longest to disappear.)

 

Best lager I've ever had was a hopped up later called Jack Abbey's Excess. Great beer.

 

Sorry if my chime in is not welcomed by @TongoRad and @JackHorzempa , but I too was a bit thrown off by the stance of why make lagers if consumers don't want them. As a fellow home brewer, I feel the desire to want to brew any style of beer, popular or not, and don't necessarily believe all brewers should feel the same, but why not be a true master of the trade and maybe show non-believers what they are missing out on! Respectfully. Cheers!

 

To boldly go, where no ales have gone before. lol. I sure do respect brewers who have gone Lager only. For their beers, obviously, and for there bold decision. Kind of hard to hide flaws in lower abv lagers...

 

jacks abby jacks abby jacks abby

 

That's just the beginning of their greatness. The sours and barrel aged stuff is awesome as well.

 

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhm. I don't even know where to start.
Basically, in a culture where "czech pilsner" is considered a style, I don't really see a "lager culture" or a diversity of lagers emerging. Basically, as much as Ales, Lager can go in all directions. It can be a session beer, a sipping beer, and everything in between. It can be dark,pale, hoppy, malty, and everything in between.
From my perspective, a lot of "new Pilsners" for instance from the US or IPLs try to be the same as an APA or IPA. Which is just catering to the lowest common "craft" denominator....
I can think of many more "extreme" lagers, some of which were already mentioned: Eku28, Kulmbacher Eisbock, Samichlaus, Schlenkerla Eiche, Schlenkerla Urbock, Nordbräu Eisbock, Hummel Bräu Räucherator, or even stuff like Zywiec or Pradubice Porter...And many more. And those are not extreme because they are hopped to high heavens

 

Have you tried the new Highland IPA? I think it's pretty good. And I would put Jade on that list too.