10 of the Best Craft Lagers to Stock Your Beer Fridge

Yeah, @steveh - stop FORCING that guy to drink lager!

 

That's my job, the Lager Enforcer -- via telepathy and the internet.

 

I can’t find any of my favorites (Pivo, Celebrator, Rev Pils, Prima, Pony) around here anymore, but I enjoy PU, Founders Pilsner, and SABL quite a bit.

 

I've been on a lager kick recently, here are mine

Brevard Brewing American Lager- One of the most underrated breweries in North Carolina and one of the best examples of an American premium pale lager I've ever had.
Victory Prima Pils
New Belgium Mountain Time
Sierra Nevada Skeista
Hi-Wire Lager
Green Man 1922 Traditional American Lager
Oskar Blues Mama's Yella Pils
Brooklyn Lager
Brevard Brewing Pils
Any lager from Olde Mecklenburg, especially their Vienna lager

 

The only ones I’d say that were great here are Red Oak, Old Meck, Firestone Walker, Mason Jar. I haven’t see Sunshine Pils here in forever, even Pivo is mostly old stock, but better dates than imported German beers. There’s something about Burials Shadowclock that I just don’t really care for, touch of floral or perfume perhaps.

 

Enegren has blown up one of the FB groups I'm in with that Bierstadt collab. Hadn't heard of them before. They do a collab with a hype lager brewery and the collab is all I see now.

 

My Favs:
Bierstadt Slow Pour
Von Trapp Helles
Brooklyn Pilsner (very underrated, IMO)
Great Lakes Eliot Ness
Sierra Nevada Skiesta
Heater Allen Pils
Modern Times Ice
Great Lakes Oktoberfest
Bierstadt Dunkel
Suarez Palatine Pils

 

I forgot to mention that I think the Lagunitas Pils is very good, extremely underrated, though a little high in ABV for the style.

 

This and as a fellow Californian I've added Moonlight's Reality Czeck and Death & Taxes (Schwarzbier) to the line up as we can know order and have it delivered the next day.

 

Columbus summer teeth is the best lager across all styles I've had in a very long time.

Weihenstephaner original and Boston lager are both arguably perfect beer IMO. Add these to my list.

And of course my beer fridge would feel betrayed if I didn't have some Schlenkerla marzen and helles in it.

Throw in great lakes dortmunder and eliot ness and my summers looking good.

Now if only I could find some sixpoint alpenflo to compliment the above - do they even still make it? It's been two years since I've seen it.

The only other thing I could ask is to bring back the SN/weihenstephaner Octoberfest collab.

 

Good for them, the two beers I've had from them were impressive in their restraint. I wish they were available in my area

 

I bought a six pack from the brewery when I got some to go a week ago.

It was pretty good. Not my favorite from them. I'll post more about it in the Pilsner tasting in a week.

 

I’ll have to check out Moonlight. Heard good things but live outside their distro. If they deliver that changes things.

 

That would be my expectation from you; this beer is not a Continental Pilsner.

Cheers!

 

Doh, right. Forgot this is a lager thread, and my knee jerk reaction was “bock” and I thought of Aventinus, because that would have been one of the higher rated beers 15 years ago here.

Totally forgot about the WEIZEN part.

Now I want an Aventinus...

 

The problem with list is that someone else can make another list thats just as good or better. No doubt, those are good. But I don't have access to any of those listed.

 

The Bierstadt/Enegren American Reinheitsgebot Pilsner is a great beer. I had it side by side with Victory Prima Pils and the collaboration beer was far superior, IMO. I'm going to try it beside Bierstadt Slow Pour tonight to see how they compare. Although Bierstadt is somewhat of a hype brewery, they are pretty low key locally; the IPA breweries (Cerebral, WeldWerks, Outer Range, New Terrain) get far more hype, and cooler breweries like TRVE overshadow Bierstadt as well. I guess craft lagers are getting trendy in so much as a lot craft breweries are offering them - many are just okay.

It just speaks to how much more popular IPAs are than, say, Pilsners. Untapped check-ins illustrate the gap or canyon between the two styles.

WeldWerks "Juicy Bits" - 56,000
Outer Range "In the Steep" 13,000
Cerebral "Rare Trait" - 12, 000
Bierstadt "Slow Pour Pilsner" - 8,00

IPAs just get people more excited. Craft lagers compete with affordable industrial lagers and European classics. Pilsners have flavors that can be difficult to describe and too technical discuss for the average drinker, and the average lager drinker would rather pay less or stick with their legacy brands than go with a craft option. On the other hand, IPA drinkers can throw out fruit, weed, milkshake and other terminology that is cooler, more relatable, and conjures up tangental nostalgic euphoria. Oh, and it gets you drunk faster.

 

Ah yes, I keep getting in my head they are N. CA. Geographically challenged.

 

Radeberger
Czechvar
Sunner (Yes an ale hybrid)
Reissdorf (Yes an ale hybrid)
Surly Hell

 

I normally have a mistrust of American Pilsners. I find many of them taste too grainy or grassy, or just are very astringent on the tongue. Tonight, however, I had an 1897 Pilsner from Nashville Brewing Company that did a great job replicating the wonderful Old World attributes of this style - they’re a great lager-centric brewery.



The question of this thread otherwise has me stumped, despite being a big fan of lager generally. I’d say my incomplete list, all craft and no imports, would be:

Devil’s Backbone Vienna Lager
Jack’s Abby Red Tape
Jack’s Abby Sunny Ridge
Jack’s Abby Saxony Lager (if they still made it)
Von Trapp Pilsner or Vienna
Urban Chest Oachkatzlschwoaf (I love the Bairisch name)
Nashville Brewing 1897 Pilsner

With imports:
Stiegl Goldbräu
Hirter Morchl Dunkel
Pilsner Urquell
Spaten Oktoberfest
Augustiner Müllnerbräu Märzen (in the miracle they distributed outside the brewery!)

 

Chicago area and nearby states I frequent
-Spiteful Lager
-Off Color Tooth & Claw
-Revolution Pils
-Pipeworks Classic Lager
-Metropolitan Flywheel Pilsner
-Dovetail Helles
-Half Acre Pony Pils
-New Glarus Two Women
-Metropolitan Magnetron
-Bell’s Quinannan Falls

+1. I’ll always have a Pilsner Urquell when I see it on tap and pick up a 4 pack on occasion. May not fit most people’s definition of craft, but I simply love it.

 

Those Texas beers are good ones. I don't personally care for the Hans Pils or 5 o'clock due to the hop usage in them (I get to much of a fruity flavor like strawberry).

I'd personally add the Altstadt Lager, most of the lagers at Oddwood, and a few others.

Lol. I didn't know that I've really talked bad about CAP's as a style.

I do like my pilsners to be flavorful but that doesn't mean I don't like American style pilsners.

The beer I got most often at my local brewery I would have considered a CAP even though it's just called a lager. It didn't have the breast/crackery flavor of a continental pilsner but it had a clean corny grain flavor with spicy hops. I drank it all the time and enjoyed it.

I've loved other CAP's when they have interesting (but not overpowering grain flavors).
I don't want to get into the Live Oak Pre War here because I'd want to share it in the tasting thread. But my slight issue with it I don't think was from the grains.

 

Moonlight is legit for sure. But not all that easy to get either.
anchor makes a beer called California Lager. It’s pretty good.

 

My thoughts from the Colorado Lagers thread:

For the record, I've had Slow Pour on draft many times, and I found it consistently delicious.

 

In lager circles, Bierstadt is very well known.

 

I'm truly glad if they are, but based on the numbers I think they're niche in craft beer and minuscule on the beer drinking world at large.

 

Highland Park Brewing - Timbo
Brouwerij West - Popfuji
Homage - Tristeza
Enegren - The Lightest One

For cheap lagers, the TD Joe's Cezch pils and Summer pils are surprisingly solid.

 

Sure but my original point was that Enegren wasn't talked at all in those lager circles until this collab with Bierstadt who are universally respected within those circles. People are coming out of the woodwork now to say that Enegren does good stuff that isn't the collab. It's like where was this praise or recognition beforehand?

 

I see your point. Hopefully they were a bit of an undiscovered gem or maybe they are a brewery that has finally dialed in their recipes. I had not heard of them before the collaboration, let alone had one of their beers. Had you? I just looked at their website: cool canning and all the German styles are in their portfolio. Maybe a Cali BA could provide some context for the brewery.

 

The love was.there but my experience of them was that they make solid examples of classic styles and distribute them for reasonable prices. For better or for worse a solid amber lager sold into distro at a reasonable price isn't a recipe for hype.

When I asked in the Pacific forum about solid breweries doing classic styles they were quickly mentioned

 

Maybe you poured the can too quickly?

Hype? Nah. Sales, you bet.

See Boston Lager and Yuengling.

 

No doubt. I first encountered energren as a random purchase at a gas station next to a hotel by the highway. It was fairly fresh and that signals to me that they are doing an alright business

 

First off, that original list is unabtanium in Connecticut, except for Jack's Abby.
My wife is lager woman. There are some really good local lagers we enjoy. Beyond that..

• Summerfest, Sierra Nevada
• Almost any Jack's Abby
• Victory Prima Pils, c'mon amazing.

 

The only one I had from that list is the Troegs pilsner which was okay. The list should absolutely have included Victory Prima Pils. I am glad to see some BAs here list that one.

 

Love Riggs Helles, waiting patiently for August u til it is released again. Love Live Oak Pils too

 

Or available to people in downtown Beer Hell.

 

Is it too late to mention Kentucky Common? I've yet to see/have one

 

Nice list. Check out Loggerbier from Sigma.

 

Just had it this past week, its really good.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44383/437869/?ba=champ103#review