The hot new thing in craft beer? Good old-fashioned lager

As breweries expanded capacity rapidly, the craft beer growth slowed. What to do with that extra tank capacity? Lagers!

 

I feel ya

^^

 

The discussion of Lagers being on the rise predates that article. Right here, on BA.

 

Craft lager sounds great until breweries start putting them in 16oz cans and selling 4 packs for $12-15, which my locals are already doing. I'll continue not buying from local breweries.

 

I saw @honkey post talking about lagering times which brought me to the Red Oak site. All they do is German beers and their brewmaster is Chris Buckley, born and trained in Germany. FWIW here’s their lagering times they brew exclusively to the 1516 law, cold lagered.

Amber Lager - 7 weeks
Helles - 7 weeks
Pils - 8 weeks plus
Marzen - 5 weeks
Heller Bock- 9 weeks
Double Bock - 10 weeks
Bavarian Bock - 10 weeks
Vienna Bock - 8 weeks

 

They opt to not filter their beer, so in that case extended lagering times are probably necessary for the beer clarity.

 

To add on to this... I think that sometimes romanticism and science conflict in the beer world, especially with lagers and the romanticism of doing things "the old way." I think it's pretty cool and makes for a good story when I talk with brewers about using these long lagering techniques or insisting on not adding finings or filtering, but it also represents a decision to ignore science. In one of the most respected brewing text books (Technology Brewing and Malting) there's 7 different methods listed for fermentation schedules and lagering and all of them are described as being significantly faster than what most of us think of a lager requiring. In one paragraph it states explicitly that "A very long lagering time of more than 5 weeks is not recommended." Autolysis, rising pH, and foam stability are the main reasons that are mentioned after that. Personally, I've never tasted autolysis in a beer lagered that long, but I've certainly seen a rise in pH. In addition to that, the German professors that I studied with were of the opinion that a proper German lager should be, in their words, "finely filtrated." I think that some of the romanticism of the old methods of brewing frequently ignore the technological advances that have allowed us to make better beer or make equally good beer in a shorter time frame.

 

I say this as a person with zero knowledge of the brewing process, none, and I learn a bit as I go. For larger breweries I’m sure science has its place in the process, actually I’m very sure of that, but for a small brewery like Red Oak that’s very limited with respect to footprint, I’m going to assume time is of no issue. He was born in Germany, he schooled there, brewed there, so you do what you know. Last time I checked they sell like 23,000 barrels of beer a year, maybe more now the new brew house is open. I haven’t a clue how much that really is to be honest, but I’m guessing perhaps 1/10 of what a brewery like Old Mecklenburg might produce, remembering the stink about the self distro a few years ago. So they’re small with zero intention it looks like to produce more beer or to do it faster, it’s irrelevant I suppose to the owners wishes and the brewmasters practices. They’re also tough on retailers, their beer stays cold from brewery to your house, no exceptions. If a retailer makes a mistake they take the beer and remove them from distributing, and their sales rep checks. The advantage of being happy being a small brewery in a very small town with a small footprint could be enormous in and by itself. So perhaps for a small operation like this science to a certain point is irrelevant, if I’m wrong excuse my inexperience, but there’s often different ways to get to the same end result.

@honkey

 

@honkey
If Red Oak is something you’ve never had, I’d be happy to send you a few samples. Always curious what brewers think about beers.

 

Personally, I consider 23k bbl to be a lot of production. In comparison, I'm brewing about 1/15th of that volume on an annual basis. For what it's worth, I have a lot of respect for Red Oak. I think their beers are great. I also went to school in Bavaria and that's not the way we were taught. When you think about the changes that actually occur during lagering, it is mostly beer clarification more than chemical reactions resulting in flavor changes. Of course, this does depend on yeast strain and methods used (gradual cooling during primary fermentation and slow maturation vs. allowing full attenuation and cold crashing beer quickly for example). For me, I do tend to take a more scientific approach to brewing than a lot of brewers do but I do it in order to make what I believe to be the best beer I can, not to try to find ways to make shortcuts. I have found that the techniques that I use that allow a lager to go from grain to glass in 5 weeks are ideal for beer flavor and stability and I have been able to confirm my results with tasting panels and some gas chromatography. I intend for the beer to stand on its own merits when someone drinks the beer, but the consequence is that I don't have the romantic story to help sales.

 

I’m sure romantic stories don’t really help sell the beer, it’s not really promoted like that here, if
it wasn’t for their brew site being on I85 you would have to be a beer geek to find them at all. But they are also well represented on tap in the area, but it’s only their Bavarian Lager, sometimes a Helles there, the others are brewery only. I am surprised though by the local support they get, that place can really be humming on Fridays and weekends. I really like their Pils, but their Amber Lager and Helles is a tad too sweet for my palate.

 

My 2 cents is I wait patiently for my local brewery to put out Mountain Lager every once in awhile. It’s so good. I’ve ask for them to keep it on the year round can line up. I was told right now space wise and dollar wise, it holds up valuable space because it takes so long to finish. They said their are trying to get its own tank so they can make it year round. It’s one of my favorites from them and so crisp, clean, refreshing and biscuity. I can’t wait lol.

 

Dale, I just wish I could find this elusive thing called "fresh Pivo Pils". I am guessing it has been over 2 years since I purchased a 6-pack of Pivo Pils (the last time I saw it fresh at my local beer store).

Cheers!

 

This is how Jack's Abbey made it's name. Craft lager-

 

That's not much of a surprise to me that they'd be packed frequently. As you might guess, Tombstone isn't really a craft beer destination spot, but people still love stopping by the brewery and checking it out. From what I've gathered, a huge percentage of Americans drink craft beer without thinking about it much... Just whatever is available at the local grocery, not in beer groups, not posting on BA, not seeking hyped styles, etc. I've found that this group of people that aren't seeking the hyped styles and just like seeing the brewery and drinking craft beer gravitate towards lagers. A lot of people also think of Germany as the ultimate beer drinker's paradise and will get excited to find a German style brewed well in America. We brew a lager that I don't know what style you would call it... It's essentially a low gravity version of our Festbier. When it is on tap or when our cream ale is on tap, they'll outsell our IPA's 2 to 1 or even 3 to 1. We don't get much sales of those beers through distribution though whereas we can only can 125 cases of every batch of IPA and we get orders for over 500 cases for every release and end up having to set limits for retailers. A lager only brewery, especially one as beautiful as their's, with a German influence can easily be huge for taproom traffic.

 

Most aren’t, especially the beers from Red Oak in general given their nature. I’d say most Pils are only really hoppy as compared to a Bavarian Lager or Helles, certainly not close to PA or ipa not by a long shot. Mason Jar out of Fuquay Varina use modern hops in their lagers and Pils. Interesting having a hoppy lager with mosaic hops, but it’s not a hop bomb in the least, but you can see the subtleties.

 

Weedy, do you conversations with your customers on this topic? Do they also enjoy purchasing German brewed beers?

In a recent thread entitled “A new "BEST SELLING GERMAN IMPORT" in the US” @officerbill posted:

As of November, 2019:
Total Imports by Volume (Gallons per Country) YTD
MEXICO 751,248,673
NETHERLANDS 119,511,404
BELGIUM 62,554,653
CANADA 38,276,581
IRELAND 28,405,353
GERMANY 18,193,899
ITALY 8,282,826
JAMAICA 3,274,740
POLAND 2,953,110
UNITED KINGDOM 2,837,033
(https://www.beerinstitute.org/industryinsights/import-export-data/)

I must confess that I was a bit surprised that the amount of beer imported from Germany is so low (especially compared to other countries listed above it).

It make we wonder if contemporary American beer drinkers are really all that enthused about German brewed beers.

Does it make sense to you that American beer drinkers may be excited about German style beers but not necessarily German brewed beers?

Cheers!

 

Funny how the righteous have fallen to the very thing they most despised and opposed

High horses always die

 

I would say those countries above Germany are more due to marketing than personal preferences.

Mexico has Corona, Modelo, Dos Equis...etc.

Netherlands has Heineken and Amstel

Belgium has Stella

Canada has the Molson brand

Ireland has Guinness

For Germany I would put beers like Warsteiner and Radeberger in that category, but I can't think of seeing any commercials in the US geared towards those brands, or any German brands period (unless I'm forgetting one).

All the others I listed definitely have a heavy marketing presence in the US, with exception of Molson. This also means they have a higher turnover, and are likely MUCH fresher than the German imports.