Why does everybody hate lagers?

My wife ordered two Dunkels when we visited. Needless to say but she was a fan of that beer.

I did not try the Helles.

Cheers!

 

Did you take notice of the date on the bottle?

We obtain Rothaus in bottles here (PA) but they are priced at 16 bucks a 6-pack and every time I have picked up a bottle to look at the beer it has been 'old'. My guess is that at this price the beer just sits and 'collects dust'.

I do order a pint (or two) of Rothaus every time I see it on tap.

Cheers!

 

I don't recall the date on the bottle, I'm sure I checked because I'm anal about that. But it was the first time I ever saw the beer (I was in Glasgow) so I had to buy it regardless.

 

Lagers rock, they just are not hyped like most.

 

My surface level and almost entirely anecdotal take on this is that when people start getting into more interesting and complex beers, the last thing they want is the perceived "boring-ness" of lagers. They drank shitty lager in high school/college/their 20's/whenever and want to break away from that as often and as completely as possible. Once they've whet their pallets on some of the more unique options, they find themselves coming back to what got them here in the first place, it's just (usually) more well made.

This has been the process for many people around me and in some ways very illustrative of my own, so it's possible I'm projecting a little.

 

You’re not alone in your cynicism being a an all time high these days.

 

Lagers are not my favorite and I tend to stay away from them, but even an ale-lover like myself can appreciate a good lager. There is nothing like a good lager on a hot summer day.

 

What types of ales do you like? For every ale, there is practically a lager equivalent!

 

OK, I’ll bite:

· What is the lager equivalent of a Dubble?

· What is the lager equivalent of a Hefeweizen?

· What is the lager equivalent of a Wit?

· What is the lager equivalent of a Gueze?

· What is the lager equivalent of a Sweet Stout?

· What is the lager equivalent of a…

Cheers!

 

Bierstadt made an impression, eh?

 

Love me some lagers, pilsners and kolshs. Great summer options. Vienna lagers are great too.

 

Some others brought it up but for so many , they are too close to their college binge days. It's truly a bad memory thing.

I've also noticed many will go to extremes to drink what isn't even close to light lagers. With that comes palate fatigue. I was drinking ipas everyday for awhile and couldn't appreciate any sub 6% beer, including session ipas. But I soon took a breather and found a reemergence and appreciation for all walks of pilsner life. I'd bring goses into the conversation because those helped bridge the gap in those 'extreme' flavors my palate was often craving.

For me it's also a cost thing. I know it takes 2-3x more time in the tanks but I don't want always want to spend $6 on a pint of 4.7% lager when a 7% witbier or IPA is the same cost.

As I walked away from 100+ ibu dipas and ipas, I was able to circle back on some of the lighter styles. I hope everyone gets a chance to circle back on beers that appear like their macro AAL cousin but have actual flavor.

Let your palate rest for 10 days and have your first beer back be a pilsner urquell and you may be surprised at how hoppy and spicy that beer is.

Without truly blaming new hazy fruity IPA drinkers, the breweries have created a whole generation of Ill guided technical beer drinkers. It's true what many Brewers say. Show me your lager/pilsner and if it's well done without flaws, that's a sign of a great technical Brewer. Technical Brewers are on their way out/don't appear to be as important with the haze trend where it's been going.

Then again, of course it would be TH or another hyped brewery to do a dry hopped pilsner and that beer show up on a top 100 list. So I don't know what to really say. The fact that eureka, a blonde ale, shows up 4 out of the top 5 entries is enough to show that maybe these people don't know how to rate the lighter styles. I guess that's for another discussion.

Canned lagers have increased around my way so I see the trend going upwards.

 

Isn’t that like a week or two from now?

OP...ipa and stout do tend to dominate the conversation on this site, and, especially more, on other convos on the Interwebz.

I think there is a large appreciation on BA for the lager though and, lucky for me, there are a lot of good lagers around me in NY, even though I usually stick to the German staples. I’ve been killing Warsteiner cans like it’s my job lately.

 

I never would have discovered craft beer beer if I hadn't started out looking for American versions of German lagers. Lagers are the sign post of drinking good beer.

 

Can't vouch for that here. Currently drinking a Dynamo by Metropolitan.

 

You got me on those! I should have worded myself a bit more carefully. I was thinking more of the fundamental or traditional/classic styles. Like Brown Ale to Dunkel, Helles or Pils to Blonde Ale, Amber Ale to Marzen, Porter to Baltic Porter or Schwarzbier, IPA to IPL... Not every ale has a lager equivalent of course, as you had pointed out. But for many of the staples, you can find a similar profile.

Belgians or Wit/Hefe and other ale yeast focused beers will be tough. But I find it hard to believe if somebody says they don't like lager when both ale and lager cover so much middle ground, if that makes sense.

Oh, and nothing says you can't dump lactose into a Schwarzbier or Baltic Porter to make it a "sweet stout"! (I know, yeast influences this one too but let's be honest, lactose is a focus in sweet stout). Sounds like a fun homebrew experiment.

 

Prima Pils is a pilsner, and it's a far cry from Miller Lite, that's for sure.

Damn it, now I'm thirsty for a pilsner.

 

I drink craft lagers more than anything the last few years. Craft Lagers are not dead in MN/WI. If anything brewery lager offerings have pickup here recently. Plenty of Pilsners here. Many are brewing Czech style for the summer. Octoberfest is common. In WI you have plenty of bocks, but it's a little weak in MN but last winter/spring there seems to be more bock brewed in MN.

 

I went through the online tap line lists of a few dozen Twin Cities-area breweries. 12% of the beers listed are lagers. 56% of the breweries at which I looked have at least one lager on tap. If you're a lager fan, I'm not sure whether you count those numbers as good or bad. My guess is that the Twin Cities area outpaces most of the rest of the country in craft lager market penetration.

Waldmann is the only brewery I examined where lagers constitute a majority of the taps (4 of 6). Hop & Barrel in Hudson, Wisconsin (6 of 16) and Surly, which I consider sneakily the best lager brewery in the area (6 of 22), have the most in absolute numbers. Utepils has 3 of 10. Bauhaus surely would be up there but does not list its tap lines online.