Understanding lager: serving lager beer, but not sure what it is? Cheers lays out the facts

Cheers, April, 2003 by Jack Robertiello

While stouts and ales have made a comeback and become an essential part of most bar and restaurant beer lists, it's lager beer that drives the big brew engine. In fact, lager is now well-established as the world's beer. Even in England, the traditional home of ales, lagers grow bigger and bigger, placing not only ales, but stouts, porters and other brews in the shade.

Most of the world's best-known beers -- Budweiser, Heineken, Corona, Pilsner Urquell, Stella Artois, Beck's -- are lager beers. Of the twenty most popular beers imported into the US, only three -- Guinness Stout, Bass Ale and Newcastle Brown Ale -- are not lagers. When domestic and imports are counted together, only three non-lagers -- Guinness, Bass and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale -- make the top 50. Clearly, lager is the king of beers. But what is a lager, exactly?

Lay It Down

First it's a process of German origin. In the l5th century, Munich brewers Discovered that storing their been in cool Alpine caves for the summer Kept the beers from souring. What they didn't know, exactly, was why the cooler temperatures slowed or stopped further fermentation of the German meaning of the word lager) caused the yeasts to sink to the bottom of the kegs. Hence, the bottom-fermenting yeasts, which work better at cooler temperatures than top-fermenting ale yeasts, operated unhindered in creating a dry, crisp, and clean flavored beer. (Top-fermenting yeasts, those used to create ales, rise to the top of fermentation tanks during brewing and don't work at temperateus below 55F. They also yield sweeter brews.)

Most of the process and how it actually worked wasn't understood by brewers, until the mid-19th century, when the actions of various yeasts were better understood, and artificial refrigeration and more stringent control of mass brewing wing became available with the Industrial Revolution. Brewing masters further developed the different varieties of lager beers as the method traveled throughout Germany and Eastern Europe.

Many Lagers

There are many styles of lager beer. In the 1840s in Plzen, Bohemia in today's Czech Republic, a golden, clear lager with a notable bitterness and hoppiness was developed and became known as pilsener. A few bar owners organized to create the Pilsner Urquell brewery. which produced the golden beer, and as the style became popular. it spread to, among other towns, Budweis.

Another style grew out of a brewers work in a district of Vienna, where a popular amber-red brew came to be known as vienna-style lager. Among the most popular of the sweetish and malty Vienna-style lagers is Mexico's Negro Modelo. now a fast-growing beer in the US. Vienna-style, according to beer writer Michael Jackson and others, was the precursor to the Marzenbier lagered in Munich from March until September and served at Oktoberfest. Only since the 1980s has Oktoberfest style become a more golden, less malty brew known internationally as Helles.

Bock beer was traditionally brewed in the fall, lagered through the winter and offered in the spring. Its name probably derives from the German city Einbeck, once a significant German brewing center. Once a popular seasonal beer brewed by most major US brewers, most bock beer 501(1 in the US today comes from small craft-brewers. The various bock beers now sold are generally strong, malty, dark and smooth.

Dortmunder is another lager style, named for the major brewing center where a variety of lagers are produced. The best known is Dortmunder export, a brew that offers a cross between a pilsener and Munich-style brews, known for its balance.

Dark brown lagers, known in Bavaria as a Dunkel, are also known in brewing circles as Bavarian- or Munich-style lager. Clean and smooth like most lagers, Dunkel is also malty and rich, if dry.

Most of the popular lagers served in America are pilsener in basic brewing style, if not anything like Pilsner Urquell or the newly-imported Czechvar. Some regional brewers, like Brooklyn Brewery, offer pilseners and lagers that are decidedly different in color, character and flavor.