Your Top 5 U.S Lager Breweries

Good to know, thanks. I remember really liking it, plus it was affordable.

 

Some of these concentrate on lagers, others have at least one amazing lager.

East Rock (CT)
Jack's Abbey (MA)
Live Oak (TX)
Fox Farm (CT)
Concentric (CT)

 

I picked up a 6 pack of the Imperial Pilsner this afternoon cost $11.99. The clerk said it was the 1st time they ever got anything from High Point 2 cases Imperial Pilsner and Amber Lager, The Pilsner has a best by date of 01/23 on the label.

 

In about 1980 I got the best "brewery tour" ever from Hudepohl. I called and asked for a tour and met a rep at the brewery. They weren't set up for a full tour but the rep showed me around for a while and then took me to lunch at a German restaurant somewhere "Over the Rhine". It would have great public relations, but I didn't live anywhere near their distribution area.

 

I have limited experience with out of state breweries with me being located in Texas. We're starting to see more and more out of state brews tho.

1. Celestial Beerworks - Every lager iv tried from them has been impressive
2. Odd Muse Brewing Co
3. Vector Brewing

Iv tried more lagers from those breweries. The best out of state lager iv had was by Fair State and Bierstadt. I'd love to try more from both breweries. Also had a tasty smoked lager from Ursula Brewery.

 

Yeah, I stopped in around that period but didn't call first, so no tour or lunch but I did have a beer at a table in their rathskeller with the ladies from the day shift bottling line. Stopped at Schoenling, too, but couldn't even get into the office - front door was locked. Had the feeling it was then "the bad part of town"...

 

Your beer at Hudepohl sounds like fun. I walked from downtown to Schoenling (about a mile) just to take a look at the exterior. I didn't knock. I had lived on the south side of Chicago by that time, so I didn't recognize the "bad" Cincinnati neighborhood. In Phoenix I stopped at National (A-1) once and got inside far enough to admire the tile "A-1" decoration on the lobby floor. I did taste A-1 in the early 70s and thought it was pretty good - especially at 99c (?) a six pack (maybe a National Boh clone?).

 

I live same region and agree with all this and that’s my list. There is also a bunch of distro of what I’d say is one step below these guys but still good lagers and adds to wealth of area. Von Trapp, Idle Hands etc

 

Wow 17 posts for a Suarez mention, and it took a guy from Kiribati to do it!

 

Which Landbier? They have a Dunkel, a Landbier (no other name but it’s their pale lager), and now a Landbier Amber.

I’ve had more beers from them than I can count. They make so many that they range from just alright to outstanding.

Georg is the best US Dunkel I’ve had for example.

Do you recall others you’ve had from them?

What have you had from them? I definitely wouldn’t judge Notch on their canned offerings in distribution. Especially since many locations only see Left of the Dial and Session Pils.

I HIGHLY recommend visiting their brewery for fresh draft.

If you go shoot me a message. First Kranz is on me.

 

First let me say both beers were very enjoyable @AlcahueteJ my only two surprises came in the following…

Salem Lager was much hoppier than I expected for a helles with a nice bit of cloudiness. Which isn’t saying much because I actually still very much enjoyed it.

The kölsch was very good too but had quite a bit of particulate floating for the duration of the glass. Taste, feel everything else spot on.

I guess some may say I’m nitpicking but with such a reputation for traditional beers the aspects above just caught me off guard and stood out.

I did later learn these two beers are actually contract brewed at zero gravity, this may explain the lack of clarity but you would know more than me. Have you had experience with contract brewed beers I drank?

 

If that’s the case, then it doesn’t say good things about Notch. Sure - distributed cans (flagship or otherwise) won’t give the full picture… or perhaps the ideal picture… but one can certainly form a judgement from them. Do you think they are the kind of brewery that wouldn’t stand behind their products or put cans into distribution that they weren’t comfortable being judged by? (rhetorical question )

@jonphisher

 

to be fair, sometimes it's just impossible (or at best extremely difficult) to retain the character of the freshest, most-properly served stuff in any form of packaging. you just lose too much in the transfers. that's why we're avoiding kegs and serving straight from the tanks. even places like schlenkerla with rauchbier, any great kellerbier, or a kölsch like malzmühle. ain't gonna be the same in packaged form. doesn't reflect on the quality of the brewery IMO. just the nature of the (packaging) beast.

 

was the pale one (landbier)

 

Sure… drinkers can keep all of that in mind when making judgements, but I think we go too far when stating that we shouldn’t make a judgement about a brewery based on packaged product. Using your statement above, one can say that we shouldn’t judge a brewery when having their kegged beer in their taproom. BA would have very little content under those conditions. A brewer might not feel that their beer is best in certain instances, but we still want them to be able to stand behind their product if they release it. I’ve unfortunately never been to Malzmühle. While I would never pretend to understand their beer inside and out, I’m totally fine expressing love for their beer after only having it from bottles. And yet, having had bottles, I still want to go through the effort and expense of having their beer at their location.

 

I've noticed that cloudiness myself at times, I'll ask them about it, I'd be curious the answer myself.

For what it's worth during our Kölsch tasting I ordered a Kranz there and those were clear as day.

Salem Lager has been excellent in cans, I had one recently.

@zid what Scott said above illustrates my feelings here.

Many of Notch's canned offerings are very good in my opinion. But their draft can be a next level experience for the reason's Scott illustrated.

Notch also serves some of their beers straight from the tanks like Bierkeller (I've had the pleasure of a guided tour in which the owner explained this and showed us). Straight from the tank (especially with the added experience of an educated bartender serving it off a Lukr) is simply not going to be the same experience as a packaged product. Especially since there's no way it will be as fresh.

That being said, I've been to breweries that I think are good to great lager breweries like Live Oak, Von Trapp, Schilling...etc. in which their draft experiences were not "next level" like Notch.

This isn't even getting into a couple of Notch's offerings that are pitch-lined and/or from a Stichfass. One of their Pitch-Lined Pils releases from a Stichfass and their Zwickel from a Stichfass were borderline religious experiences.

People always harp on how important freshness is with IPAs, but I consider lagers as important if not more important when it comes to freshness (I'll throw Hefeweizen in there as well).

One of the better sessionable beers in the Northeast at 4.2%. I like the Dunkel too, but it's been awhile since I've had it. I just had their recently released Amber, but that was just ok in my opinion.

 

To be honest, I can use this example for my experience with Dovetail out of Chicago. A few bad 4-packs (cloudy lagers, off flavors in styles) that often keep me from trying more, but great draft pours that kept me from looking at any other beers in the bar that night.

And to be fair, I mentioned a particularly cloudy 4-pack of Helles in the Midwest Forum and got a standing offer for beers at the Dovetail taproom from their rep.

 

Oh, and I suppose I should toss in a top five of my own

In no particular order (and with the caveat I haven't had many mentioned in this thread):

Notch
Chuckanut
Schilling
maybe Wayfinder too
Urban Chestnut

Of the above, I would put Notch and Chuckanut head and shoulders above the others. Simply because they both have multiple offerings I was blown away by.

I've been to all those locations above too. Also been to other heavy hitters like Von Trapp and Live Oak. I'll also add in that Idle Hands makes some good lagers too for a local option. Their draft only Kölsch is phenomenal this summer.

 

what was that about very little content?

seriously tho, the beers should always be good to great. but really the best judgements come from having consumed at the source.

of course I've been harping on this string for years and he hasn't changed much, so...take it fwiw I suppose.

on the other hand, i am literally putting my money where my mouth is and serving (and bottling) as absolutely fresh and closest from the source as possible at our new place. lotta thought and energy (and money) has gone into this approach. y'all shoulda seen the micromatic rep's reaction when I told him about our planned pouring system!

guess y'all will have to visit to see

 

My favorite local/regional breweries (in no particular order) for acquiring lagers:

Jack's Abby
Von Trapp
Counterweight
Schilling
Fox Farm

Honorable mentions:
Notch
East Rock
OEC
NEBCO