Lagers and Ales... can't we all just get along?!

Bock beers are full of flavor

 

"There's something kind of sad about the way that things have come to be. Desensitized to everything, what became of subtlety?"

 

And that is the trick right there! If nothing else, Lagers should be embraced and preserved for the unique flavor profiles they can provide that you simply won't find in an Ale at this point in time.
I do secretly wonder what it would be like to brew an Ale with Noble Hops and what not, though.

Tool rules!

 

Good beer is good beer. Don't be a douche.

 

The proper term for this style is "Märzen". I know your keyboard is umlaut challenged but that's no excuse to not use proper terminology

 

That's an alien concept for many people on here. They drink one bottle, write a review and hurry on in their hunt for scene points. Sad but true.

 

Not necessarily, I subscribe to the separation of styles based on long history -- after all, at one time all beer had a März season.

And no, my keyboard is not punctuation challenged -- after all, I'm on a Mac -- Umlaüts, Scharfeß S', all kinds'a fancy stuff no one understands.

 

It's been done, and perfected: New England Brewing Co. Gold Stock Ale.

Drink it. It's good.

 

That's supposed to be: "Wot's, uh, the deal?"

 

The bottom line is that if you look at the complete landscape of beer, ales are much more tasty than lagers, beer for beer. Give me the best lager out there and the best ale out there, they might be close. Give me 100 ales and 100 lagers, I guarantee my 100 favorites out of those will be at least 80% ales. There just arent enough good lagers out there to compete with the best ales. And if we are looking at styles, the only lager style that competes with my favorite ale styles is the doppelbock, and a good doppelbock doesn't really touch a good IPA/IIPA/black IPA, imperial stout, or barleywine for me. The possibilities are so endless with an ale, even within the styles I just mentioned. Americans are really pushing the boundaries for craft ales, and I love it. Sure we are brewing some decent lagers too, but most will go unnoticed due to that "flavorless and boring" perception you mention.

Let's just face it, if there are two beers sitting on the shelf, one is labeled "Lager" and the other one "Ale".. who is seriously going to grab the lager? I know there are some good lagers out there, but I'm picking ale over lager pretty much every time.

 

Nice quote!
How could this mean anything to me, when I really don't (taste) a thing at all?

 

Go out and get a Schmaltz Barrel aged Blockhead. THEN come back and try to honestly tell us that lagers can't be huge, robust flavor bombs.

 

I had a Surly Smoke the other day, I'd say that one is far from a tasteless lager...

 

One can tell who brews in this thread, and who does not.

You can make a very flavorful beer with a lager yeast strain. Baltic porters have been mentioned. Thomas Hardy Ale was reported to have been made with a lager strain.

 

Ah ha -- I see clearly now, opinion.

And... what if the ale is Boddington's in the nitro can and the lager is Ayinger Jahrhundert? I know which one I'm choosing.

 

I have nothing at all against lagers that don't have the word "adjunct" in front of them. I discovered and really got into the Double/Imperial Pils style a couple years ago (2010?) when Boulevard released a one-time brew in collaboration with Jean-Marie Rock of Orval called Collaboration #1. I've made a point to get my hands on the style whenever possible since then.

You will also find me quite happy with a good bock, doppelbock or dunkel. However, it's no coincidence that my favorite lager beers are either dark, or higher gravity, because in my personal experience, I haven't found the range and variety and depth of flavor to be as pronounced with lagers as with ales.

So I'll certainly agree that this "lagers suck--ales are the shit!" attitude is ridiculous, but I can at least see the roots of that mindset. Most of the beers I've had throughout my life that struck me as simply amazing indeed happened to be ales, and I can understand how some people might generalize that to mean that lagers just aren't as good. Unfortunate as it may be.

 

This is pretty close to how I feel. There are some great lagers, but if I'm blindly picking between an ale and a lager, with zero detail or information on the type of ale/lager, I'm probably going to take the ale.

Maybe that's because the sheer ratio of crappy "adjunct" lagers means that there is simply more chance that I'll get a crappy lager than a crappy ale, but I have a feeling there are some pretty uninspired ales out there.

Plus, I have to be honest: my palate has a harder time distinguishing between two different lagers (same style) than it does between two different ales (same style).

 

Some of my favorite lagers aren’t necessarily subtle or a flavor assault. For instance, Mahr’s Hell (occasionally available as an import from Shelton Bros.) has a old malt profile that is pretty tough to match, but it’s still relatively low in ABV without being overly sweet, too.

 

Bells is working on more lagers, to use the old cypress open vats that they got from the Stroh family. Why would they be going through pilot brews and serving to customers in the pub? Some of you might be surprised what some well known brewers would have to say about lagers.

See lower left.
http://bellsbeer.com/ftp/tapshot.big.jpg?r=816547

 

i'm thinking about commercially marketing this new product - it's revolutionary, 100% natural & is the cure-all, end-all. it's called *IGNORE*. best part, you can whip up an unlimited supply right in your home. sprinkle in a few drops of some *who gives a (censor beep) about trivial viewpoints of others* & you'll be well on your way to becoming the Dalai Lama of all things beer.