Thoughts On Lagers Not Being Synonymous With Craft

yes, most pros graduate from ales to lagers once they've reached a certain level of maturity ;-)

 

Lagers are definitely being explored MUCH more currently. I know of a few great lagers in California right now. Of course, there is Anchor Steam and also California lager. Speakeasy has Metropolis Lager which is really really good. And I think one of the best lagers you can find is Firestone Pivo Pils. Those are all really good beers. I think that lagers are being looked at because the consumer is so used to ale flavors that a good lager is now refreshing our pallets.

 

Jacks Abby is killing the American lager game, they've made some of my favorite beers of the past year and I'm not just talking about Fram.

 

I think that means more lagers for me. It's hard to beat a tasty, crisp craft lager on a hot day.

 

Maybe it's because many craft beer fans don't really like beer. The chocolate coffee cinnamon pepper stout with elderberries flowers tastes less like a beer than a well-crafted lager.

 

I see as the drinkers (i.e. single men) get out of the early 20s fascination of let's crush 3 - 4 unbalanced brickwalled on hops high abv beer with funny death metal names will realize there's beer that can be drank and paired well with food that is also well made, balanced, and leaves the person who now has someone to answer to when they get home still respectable even with a few in them.
Threads like these are funny too because they show how much ignorance there is in the space between the drinker and the brewer.

 

Two main reasons...one everyone has touched one is because it takes longer to ferment lagers.

The second reason is because lager tanks take up more floor space because they are horizontal. Our 60 and 90 bbl ale fermenters take up less floor space than our 50 bbl lager tanks. So I can pack in more ale tanks than lager tanks in a given amount of space thereby increasing our production capacity by going heavier on ales. In terms of costs, an ale tank and lager tank of the same capacity cost about the same. So it's a bit of a no brainer to go ale heavy from an economic standpoint.

 

Some horizontal lagering tanks are "stackable." Either way, cool to know you guys use the traditional horizontal tanks for your lagers. Makes a difference when the yeast only need to drop 3 feet vs 15, but it's still longer than it takes an ale to ferment out.

 

Yeah we haven't quite gotten to the level where we would need stackable lager tanks and I'm not sure if we could at our facility based on ceiling height we are constrained by. Even with that we can still do 2 turns per month for ale tanks versus 1 (or less) per month with the lagers.

 

There have been some kick ass lagers introduced lately. My two new favorites are Troegs Cultivator and Otter Creek Citra Mantra.

 

I bet this won't really be the end of the thread.

 

Next I thought a lager was the first craft beer SA made? It was the first one of thiers I had, then the stock ale was next. Many do lagers (pils) well. Let see the Germans been doing it well for lets see humm about 500+ years. I guess its not craft its not made here? LOL funny stuff.

think world beer wise and all this crap just fades away.

 

To springboard off @TongoRad comment of “If you are located where excellent craft lagers are available: SEPA…” There are indeed a number of packaging breweries and brewpubs in SEPA making tasty lagers. Below is a partial list of lagers from production breweries (there are even more from brewpubs):

Victory: Braumeister series of Pilsners (Hallertau Mittelfruh, Saaz, Tettnanger, Sladek, etc.), Lager (a Munich Helles), St. Victorious (Doppelbock), Hip Czech Lager (Bo-Pils), Scarlet Fire Rauchbier, Zeltbier (Wiesn style Marzen), Sommerbock (Helles Bock), Baltic Thunder (Baltic Porter brewed with lager yeast), Prima Pils (German Pilsner) and others.

Troegs: Sunshine Pils (German Pilsner), Troegenator (Doppelbock), a number of lagers as part of their Scratch Series. And the new beer of Cultivator Helles Bock.

I am also a big fan of Sly Fox brewery: Helles Golden Lager, Charles Bridges Pilsner (Bo-Pils), Standard Pils (unfiltered German Pilsner with Spalt hops), Pikeland Pils (Northern German style Pilsner), Keller Pils (unfiltered Pikeland Pils), Oktoberfest, Rauchbier, Dunkel, Helles Bock, Maibock and others.

My favorite Oktoberfest/Marzen of this season (and past seasons) is Sly Fox Oktoberfest. I even prefer it to my German brewed favorites of Ayinger, Weihenstephan and others.

Stoudts brewery also makes a number of tasty lagers: Stoudts Pils, Oktoberfest, Stoudt's Gold and others.

Neshaminy Creek makes an excellent German Pilsner: Trauger Pils. In Spring 2014 this beer will be available in cans.

Cheers!

 

it's because lagers used to seem synonymous with BMC. that's really the entirety of the perception.

as for why there aren't more, skill and $$$ likely relevant.

 

Perhaps this has been said already but I'd propose that beyond the obvious (that lagers are more expensive to produce because of how long they take and that craft drinkers assume all lagers = macro), I think brewing a craft lager may be more difficult than brewing a craft ale. Seems to me that because lagers are so clean, hiding a brewers mistakes is much more difficult.

EDIT: Should have read one post above me @Pahn already suggested skill as a reason folks may not do it.....

 

I love Lagers and they opened the door to craft beer for me and I still drink them often. But with that being said, they can be a tough sell in the craft beer world I think because as others have said already you have the economics side of it all. The crisp, clean "snappy" flavors of a Lager aren't as exciting to many and I have had some Ales that can almost mimic the flavoring of a Lager quite closely. Lagers can be pretty one-dimensional and it can be hard telling one Lager from another, and the style just doesn't have the range that other styles seem to have (I am not saying that this is not possible mind you, just saying that Lager styles tend to blend together from what I have experienced).

But with all that being said I am happy to see the craft beer world seemingly exploring Lagers a little more these days and it is an art that I am hoping is never lost.