Craft Beer Decides Adjunct Lagers Are Cool, Actually

I like AAL’s, especially from my locals. I’m not ashamed to admit that.

I like the part about how corn and rice are “just ingredients”. This really registered with me. These are just “extra” ingredients. The same way vanilla and lactose are in everyone’s favorite stouts.

I’ve definitely seen the local beer scene embracing lagers in several forms, I suppose AAL’s are a part of that. I’m glad to see people embrace “different styles” in any form. Whatever broadens your horizons and helps you enjoy beer, I’m all for it.

Cheers.

 

Live Oak Pre-War Pils is a contender for possibly my favorite new beer from last year, and one I drank as much or more than anything else, at least while I had access to it. And yes, it’s an adjunct lager. But oh so good.

I think what craft brings to the table—quality ingredients and an attention to brewing process—Is a welcomed contrast to the ‘race to the bottom’ of mass-produced AAL. At least, for $10/sixer I’d like to think so!

 

I think this is a part of a "full circle" experience for craft beer drinkers. I can now strongly count myself among them. I currently have Modelo in my fridge, I often buy Miller High Life, and I love corn or rice lagers from multiple local breweries. I still stand by the claim that many macros taste terrible, but a nice light lager that uses corn or rice is often quite refreshing and pleasant, in a time in which palates are easily burned out by excessive gravity, sweetness, and flavorings.

 

High life for the win, Hamms in a close second spot. It’s warm out and these are my go to beers in the warm weather.

Enjoy

 

I thought Founders Solid Gold would be gone by now as well but I literally saw it a few months ago. It seems to have done much better than I had thought.

 

Yards Philly Standard my friend. No corn. No rice. American Lager. Also done in a lime variant as well.

 

That one, "mega-corporations", always amused me. When AB started experimenting with rice as an adjunct in the 1870s for their St. Louis Lager and, then, Conrad's Budweiser, they were a 45k bbl/yr brewery (1877) not even the largest brewery in St. Louis (that was Lemp). Even the largest US brewers of the era, with barrelages of around 100,000 like Ehret, Best (soon to be Pabst and also experimenting with corn and rice), B&E, Ballantine and Seipp could hardly be considered "mega-corporations".

 

This was a local one I had a month or so back and it was a very well made and enjoyable beer…

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/56695/606031/

There is also neshaminy warehouse lager is another adjunct lager which I haven’t tried yet, in part cause I never see it. Have you tried that one?

 

I currently own Hamm's, Schlitz, and Coors Banquet in my beer fridge. Easy on the wallet and easy on my waist line. I dropped 35 lbs starting a couple of years ago when I stopped trying to be cool and drinking high abv IPAs and stouts. My jam is Euro lagers and local pale and brown ales.

 

Bells “Lager of the Lakes” would be another fine example of an all malt craft lager. It definitely seems most craft brewers are headed more in this direction than the direction of AAL. Cheers.

 

No still mostly terrible

 

Nearly 40 years of enjoying good beer without straying back to AALs. Not sure who the target customer is here, but it's not me.

 

From the article:

“In 2013, in response to the critics, Chris Lohring of Notch Brewing in Massachusetts released a corn lager called The Mule. “I wanted to show that corn as an ingredient is not bland, it’s a recipe or a goal that makes it bland,” he said. “The corn or rice is not the culprit, it’s the structure of the beer.”

I think that the above is a fair assessment and I am continually hopeful that craft (or regional) breweries will produce more beer that those that were brewed by American breweries in the later 1800’s, a beer style we homebrewers call Classic American Pilsner (CAP).

Straub Brewery makes a CAP they brand as Straub 1872 Lager (1872 is when the Straub Brewery was founded). I started a thread about this beer in 2014:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/straub-1872-lager.144714/

And I discussed this beer in a NBS thread:



https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-678.559974/#post-5884158

Straub 1872 Lager is still listed on the brewery’s website but it has been a number of years since I have seen this beer at my local Retail Beer Distributors; maybe it is more of a Western PA thing.

And a AAL beer that is craft brewed closer to home is Reading Premium which is brewed by Sly Fox in Pottstown, PA. I typically purchase a six-pack of this beer for summertime drinking; once I finish my 12-pack of Yuengling Lord Chesterfield I will do so.



https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-weekend-58.661067/#post-7332587

Cheers!

 

At your next Yards production meeting I would suggest you mention them producing a Classic American Pilsner using corn. When done right (e.g., Straub 1872 Lager, Live Oak Pre-War, etc.) it is a very tasty beer. The sort of beers your great grandfather would have drank.

Cheers!

 

Can do. With the success of philly standard I'm sure they'd be open to it. The way it works is it's get run as a one off. Can a limited amount. They feel it out. It's a good idea.

 

I visited to Source Brewing website and took note they have two Kolsch beers available now:

· Brauhaus: Kölsch Beer

· Kolsch Bier: Traditional Kölsch Style Beer

Maybe these would be good candidates for next weekend’s online tasting? Perhaps even a side-by-side tasting?

Cheers!

 

A local brewery near me recently brewed an adjunct lager. I had a pint on tap and enjoyed it. I thought I could even see my way to buying some for a hot summer afternoon. Then I saw it in the local liquor store. $14/4pack. No thanks.

 

The preferred format of small, local breweries are often four-pack/16 ounce cans and all too often at elevated prices. I too would pass on that price.

Two 'comparable' beers near me for comparison:

• Sly Fox brews Reading Premium (and AAL) and this beer is in the six-pack/16 ounce cans for around 10 bucks
• Mainstay Poplar Pils (a German Pilsner) is in the dreaded (for me) format of four-pack/16 ounce cans but I can buy this for around 10 bucks at my local Retail Beer Distributor.

The majority of the beers at my local beer retailers that come in the four-pack/16 ounce cans are priced in the teens and I personally choose to not buy them. In my perfect world the four-pack/16 ounce cans format would 'go away' but I know that will never happen. And in all probability there will be more and more brands packaged in the four-pack/16 ounce cans format since this typically yields greater profit for the craft breweries and it sure seems that many (most?) craft beer consumers are OK with the elevated prices. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!