Lagers: Funny how tastes change over time

Thanks for the correction. I think I was mixing up the festbier designation with a colab they have out now. I've had so much stuff from Schilling and Notch lately I can't keep anything straight!

 

Picked up a couple of 4 packs of Ayinger's Octoberfest today. So good. That is all.

 

Ah yeah, I think they do they have a collab that’s more like the classic pale Oktoberfest style in both color and strength.

Yup, it’s actually on tap right now, see below for the description:

Schilling Beer Co.- Three’s Brewing (Brooklyn, NY): Merriment (Festbier), 6% abv. A pale lager that pays homage to Munich’s Oktoberfest celebration. A stronger variation on a Helles lager, this rich golden beer is packed with fresh doughy malt as the star player. We used Mandarina Bavaria in the whirlpool (a newer hop variety grown in Germany’s Hallertau) to put our spin on this style, which is not to be confused with a Märzen lager (commonly called “Oktoberfest” in America). Doughy bread, biscuit and a touch of grassiness mix with nuanced orange notes are on the nose. Flavors follow the aroma, with no indication of the beer’s strength. Prost!

 

I got curious and bored so I looked at schilling’s Instagram. They only brewed this beer 3 weeks ago according to their posts. How can they have such a quick turnaround time on a lager? I mean fermentation alone should take up half or more of that time with a lager yeast no? Then the diacetyl rest, then lager it. Anyone have a guess or explanation or am I over thinking it. How can they flip a beer that quick?

 

Tons of good suggestions here.

Old World lagers should never be dismissed. Urquell is my go to. $6-8ish a four pack cannot be beat at that quality—and even 6mo old cans are still superb. Desert island beer for sure.

Domestically, you started out at the top with Von Trapp. To me, their Helles and Dunkel are world class. Not much wiggle room to go up from there.

Lots of folks love Suarez, myself included, but I’ll take Von Trapp and their quality to price ratio the majority of the time (but don’t get me wrong: Suarez rocks!). I also find Jack’s Abbey to have a very high QPR, and never hesitate to buy anything from them when I see it fresh.

Less affordable in your region, but well worth checking out, Oxbow makes killer lagers. And anything from B United’s tank container project. The tank project is killer, and you can get super fresh cans (unfortunately, at a premium price) of amazing, rare-ish EU lagers. Think Tipopils and Schlenkerla Helles. They also did one of the truly standout lagers for me this last year: Einbecker Brauherren Pils. Just amazing stuff, and an amazing project.

Not sure if they get up to NH, but if you see any Foreign Objects lagers, don’t hesitate. Excellent takes on traditional lagers—never steering too far from old world roots (unlike many American brewers who claim to make a pils or helles, but instead are making an IPL).

Any if any lagerheads made it this far, get on the horn to Victory (social media or emails help!) and tell them to bring back Homegrown cans. I annoy them every chance I get. That was another desert island beer that they sadly stopped canning b/c, well, craft lagers aren’t popular enough to command shelf space. Also doesn’t help that idiot ale drinkers don’t know how to properly rate lagers on sites like this one. /end rant.

 

Can’t speak to Schilling’s methods, but they are probably doing rapid fermentation (start cold, increase temp midway till completion), with a rapid cold crash followed by minimal lagering and perhaps some forced CO2 scrubbing. Tasty describes the process in one of the BN Session podcasts. Quite a few brewers seem to be doing this now—which I get from a financial standpoint. But, to me, the levels of hydrogen sulfide in these rapid lagers is noticeable, and a big turn off if you are sensitive to it.

 

I really missed Homegrown this summer.

 

Tipopils is no longer available due to changing Italian regulations.

Have you tried the new lager from Victory: Classic Lager? It came out earlier this year. I have already purchased three 15-packs of this beer.

Cheers!

 

Oh yeah! It’s always in my fridge. (But I’d rather it were Homegrown).

 

anyone who cannot appreciate a good lager, helles or pilsner sitting outside in a beer garden on a nice is not a real beer drinkier.

 

I have been on a pilsner kick as of late before I overlooked the style and dam I was stupid! Just picked up a case of veltins pilsner for 24.00 a case I know it isn't the best pilsner put there but dam it is very solid and for especially for the price

 

I've been drinking loads of it since I find it reasonably fresh.

 

I just bought Boston Lager for 10.99 a twelve have not had in long time forgot how good this beer is.

 

This is a beer I have been meaning to revisit as well since I used to drink it a lot. Judging by your reaction I should probably grab some soon as well.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/boston-lager-remastered.646882/

 

saw this. Thank you, I guess I should grab some sooner than later before the OG stock gets pushed out. It’ll be neat to try the remastered one after to see how much it’s still the same or different.

 

I too started out with the high abv stouts and IPAs. IPAs I don't really care for much anymore, once in a while I'll have one. I still enjoy stouts very much. About a year ago I had the Paulaner Hefeweizen and that was a bit of a revelation to me. I was like "wow, these German beers are pretty good!" I got into Weihenstephaner and Ayinger and so on and those German lager styles are now my favorite.

 

Yes, a straightforward Helles with pilsner malt and Hallertau hops, and it's delicious!

 

This! And it goes down so quick. Every sip makes you want the next sip even more. It’s a very enjoyable beer in my opinion as well.