Why does everybody hate lagers?

Just put on a 1/2 barrel of Summit Dakota Soul Pils...no lager hate here!

 

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not disregarding any style of beer. I'm simply making a comment on the ingredients and techniques used to make some of them.

 

When I quit smoking cigarettes and suddenly found myself able to afford better beer (and as my sense of taste returned to make it worth the extra cost), it was ales ales ales all over the show, with comparatively few lager options available in my area. More "craft" brewers have since become willing to brew and distribute lagers in recent years (my first big local option arriving with Jack's Abby) and now I drink more lagers than ales, a condition I wouldn't have considered possible ten years ago. The number of worthy choices we have today is a happy thing.

 

This is same issue down here in MD. I thought Rothaus bottles were just ok (the 1 sixer I bought), and due to price, I haven't revisited. Would love to see it on tap somewhere. Never have yet.

 

I have one local beer bar that has it in tap every once in a while (every 3 months or so).

I suspect that this beer is pretty pricey by the keg and generally speaking folks are not willing to pay an inordinate amount of money for a pint of a Pilsner (as opposed to a 'NEIPA' type beer) so I am not too surprised that the other beer bars I go to do not carry Rothaus.

Cheers!

 

Pennsylvania likes their German beers. Honestly I don't eat out/drink out too much so my opportunities to find it are pretty slim. I'll always be on the lookout though.

 

I'll second @JackHorzempa by recommending that if you ever do find it on tap, don't hesitate, don't debate it, just order it. When I reviewed it, on tap, I thought it was quite possibly the best German brewed Pils I'd ever tried.

 

I trust you guys. I don't give out perfect 5's too often on my ratings, but one of mine was a local small batch pilsner from years ago entered in a homebrew contest by a local brewer. Finally got to try my first Suarez pilsner last month. Was quite solid, but I was expecting a little more I guess based on the hype. Their Kolsch was to die for however.

 

Welcome to the club! But my area must be an outlier then; we've always had a great assortment of lagers to choose from. Even in the days before we got Victory, Troegs and Sly Fox there were always stacks of Augustiner, Jever, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, etc.

 

Small, locally brewed Pilsners can indeed be ‘winners’. Below is something I posted in a past thread:

“A number of months ago Jeff had on tap at TJs Everyday Pilsners from Root Down, Tired Hands and Rothaus. I ordered three 8 ounce glasses of these beers and did a side-by-side-by-side taste test. That evening the hands down winner for me was Root Down with Tired Hands and Rothaus being 2A and 2B.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-updates-etc-2018.553540/page-20#post-6078450

Cheers!

P.S. My wife took some small sips from the three glasses and for her Rothaus was the ‘winner’. Bottom line: they were all high quality Pilsners.

 

Excellent beer, but I still prefer Jever myself. Come to think of it, I'm about due for a case...

 

Relying on the BA list of most popular beers would be like reading Pitchfork and gleaning that the greatest band of all time was Kraftwerk. Nothing against Kraftwerk, but a niche community will rarely reflect the opinions and habits of the real world: Einsturzende Neubauten eats Kraftwerk for breakfast.

 

Even so some of those were some of the best words, and so logical and analogous to the topic so perfectly stated.

 

Love a good lager - drinking a Trumer Pils as I write this.

 

I too am a fan of Jever. The two attributes that this beer that is enticing for me is the aspect of being bone dry (which is particularly appealing for hot weather drinking for me) and the nice whiff of sulfur dioxide upon opening the bottle and still present upon the initial pour (when I can find bottles relatively fresh).

Unfortunately Jever is rarely (never?) available on draft in my area; or at least I have not seen it on tap in over 5 years.

Cheers!

 

I really like this perspective. Back in the days of Bud and Schlitz (60s) it was a miracle when my Dad loved Lowenbrau and Heineken- fuck PBR- I knew the difference and I still do. Those malty Euro beers back in the 60s stood out as superior beers. We are so lucky to be where we are now, touting our great beers, but it's important to remember there was a time not so long ago that this wasn't true, mostly. Encore, Erlanger, National Premium, even Rheingold aside. The time I spent out in the woods with my Dad drinking Lowenbrau, listening to cicadas, and not really knowing I was watching the end of his life, now mean so much to me and it's a real reason I like really good lager.

 

I agree with the fact that most craft beer drinkers, when starting to drink them, tend to lean more towards the ales than lagers. For me, starting out, if it was any kind of lager, I would pass. It took me many years, and some palate adjustment, to finally begin to appreciate lagers. And back when I first got into craft beer, there were very few breweries that were even doing lagers. They were all European imports, which were sometimes skunky (which is another reason why it took so long for me to appreciate lagers). Now, after years of trying barrel aged this, sour that, and heavily hopped IPA's, I find myself more often reaching for a nice crisp lager. I think it not that people hate lagers, it just takes time to come back to them. Just my $0.02.

 

That sounds like a great time. Awesome that Suarez is visiting for the West Coast pilsner crowd

 

I'm very much looking forward to it.

 

I need to visit your neighborhood.