Your Top 5 U.S Lager Breweries

Not all lager-specific but here are my 5 favorite lager makers:

• Notch (Salem, MA)
• Von Trapp (Stowe, VT)
• Pollyanna (Lemont, IL)
• Port City (Alexandria, VA)
• Idle Hands (Malden, MA)

Honorable mention/ones I haven’t had enough of yet:

• Schilling
• Dovetail
• Urban Chestnut
• Great Lakes
• Jacks Abby

 

Earth Rider- Superior, WI
Summit, St. Paul, MN
Bayern, Missoula, MT
Hoops, Duluth, MN
Molson Coors, Chicago, IL

 

I live in NJ about 25 miles away from Ramstein and rarely see their beers at retail or on tap.

 

Ugh. That doesn't seem right at all.

 

Yeah, it's something. 5th smalllest state in the country and one of its oldest breweries and the distribution in most of the state is lousy. Had a buddy working retail about 10 years ago now, and he would order every beer of theirs on the local distributor's list and they were always Out of Stock. And they had a lot of them ('snip' from back then - it ain't the first time I made this complaint ).

(And when you do find it - check them dates. Last ones I found were pretty old).

 

Through trading, I was particularly fond of Winter Wheat and Winter Wheat Eisbock.

 

After hearing about their beer for something like thirty years, I finally did a locals-for-locals trade with a New Jersey BA* about this time last year.

I found their takes on traditional lager styles to be excellent, and wished that I was able to purchase their brands regularly. They also make an excellent Weizenbock and Eisbock, so I would highly recommend you try them if you can.

Regarding Capital, yes, twenty (and more) years ago they were among the best breweries in the nation with their stylistic interpretations. In recent years they have simply not been as easy to come by (so many new brands and breweries on the dry shelves and cold boxes, so little room for “old brands”) as they once were.

Their lagers are still good to very good, but even in the Kirby years their were a few hit or miss brands and batches.

*The High Point beers are notoriously difficult to find, even in their local distribution range — see this post @jesskidden. Absolutely worth trading for, though.

 

Yeah, what's up with that? For such an established brewery, how come Ramstein's distribution is so limited? I have been trying to get my hands on Winter Wheat for ages, to no avail (probably not hard enough). Will have to visit the brewery one of these days...

 

An issue with US lager-centric breweries is that one off beer can sometimes speak a lot louder in my memory than the voice of a lot of great beers in unison. I am not naming names, but the often discussed age of imported German lagers is preferable to the feeling of QC roulette that can set in for some US producers.

 

I retailer close by to me got in 2 cases of the Imperial Pilsner last week. Hasn't put them out for sale yet. It's the 1st time he has ever gotten a High Point beer.

 

Typical.

Maybe it's my browser but for years their website has been squirrely. Click on DISTRIBUTION and you get a page titled "Point of Sale and Retailers" with the message:

Not much help to (potential) consumers.

Pretty sure at one point their website was posting a message like:

Oh, wait - did a Google search and turned up this page
https://ramsteinbeer.com/distribution/
which list AB houses, High Grade and Ritchie & Page, both central Jersey regions (I shop in both, HG is Middlesex and to the north, R&P Monmouth/Mercer and south).

 

They may not mean much, but it still serves as a resource for those visiting your area. It would be worthwhile to note what is and is not distro'd though.

 

Local (Kansas City, Missouri) lager producers:

Alma Mader
Pivo Project (BKS offshoot)
KC Bier

Both are doing some great lagers. Alma Mader's lager portfolio really focuses on Czech styles, amongst other European lagers. Their beer Premiant has gotten a lot of positive beer press. Pivo Project is a newer operation from the owners/brewers of BKS Artisan Ales. It's less traditional, but still plenty crispy and with good quality. KC Bier only does traditional German style beers, and with that, they have some good lagers. Variety isn't their strong suit, but if you respect traditional beer, it's a top notch stop.

Otherwise, the other local/regional brands I'd mention have already been mentioned in this thread.

 

This is also a bit of a problem in the area, too. There are smaller breweries north and south in the Chicago area that don't distribute far in either direction. Makes their beers somewhat elusive, but also a nice, old-fashioned beer-hunting challenge.

 

I don't know if I have a "top 5" or whatever, but these are usually my favorites:

Live Oak (Austin, TX)
Urban Chestnut (St Louis, MO)
Riggs Brewing (Urbana, IL)
Great Lakes (Cleveland, OH)

Need to have more from Dovetail, and some others listed here like Von Trapp, cause I have only had a few of those, but can obviously can see the quality there.

 

Pennsylvania Brewing Company is my favorite.

 

Tröegs? They brew more ales than anything.

 

I don't know what other beers they brew, but Christian Morelain used to make a fantastic lager way back in the mid '90's.
I have not seen anything from them around these parts of Pennsyltucky since then, unfortunately.

 

In the mid-1990's, Christian Moerlein was just a brand owned by Hudepohl - Schoenling Brewing Co. of Cincinnati. Hudepohl, pre-merger, had created the superpremium all-malt beer, named after the owner of the largest pre-Pro Cincinnati brewery, in 1981.

Here are the moms of two well-known BA's making some extra cash as so-called "cover girls" a few years after CM's release.