Oh, So That's A Lager!!

Weihenstephan Original

So I was really beginning to wonder...all you guys with your lagering fridges, and your Pilsner Urquel's, and your basements and such. I mean, I tried a sixer of Urquels, and to my untrained palate, they tasted pretty much like a Miller, or a Bud, or whatever. I couldn't figure out why you'd pay eight bucks for a sixer of Urquels that tasted pretty much like a three buck sixer of coors!

Then I tried a Weihenstephan Original. Ok, now I understand...I'm enlightened.

Now I have just two problems: 1) how do I explain to SWMBO that our "extra" fridge just had to be converted for lagaring purposes, and 2) where can I find some cheap scuba gear so I can access my soon-to-be-dug basement.

El Pisto - I tend to agree with you about the bulk of the European lagers. A lot of them are merely thin and weak, acidic, bitter etc. Then occassionally a guy stumbles onto a real class beer, not being mass produced for the Czech frat-party crowd, and lo, it is good. Crispness and thinness aren't the same, and brewers making watery pee and calling it lager has really affected the "average" quality. One thing I've found is that very few of the German beers have succumbed.

Here in Canada, one of the best lagers for a long time was John Labatt Classic. Incredibly smooth and flavorful, I think they stopped making it because it didn't taste enough like beaver pee. Even the so-called premium American Lagers, like Henry Weinhard's for example, just don't compare to the best of the euros or micros. There are some small breweries in Britics Columbia that have figured out how to make beer. There's a 1516 lager made by Okanagan I think, and my god, it's just so much better than canned yellow beer.

I haven't had Weihenstephan for ages, not since I was in Germany ten years ago, and the fact is, I tried so much beer there that I don't really remember any of it.

El Pistolero said:

Weihenstephan Original

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Just to reiterate...this Weiner Steven stuff is very good.

El Pistolero said:

... 1) how do I explain to SWMBO that our "extra" fridge just had to be converted for lagaring purposes, and 2) where can I find some cheap scuba gear so I can access my soon-to-be-dug basement.

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Easy. You don't build a basement at all.

You build an underground storm shelter in the backyard. With an electric hook-up and a fridge. You know... in case a Class-5 tornado comes blowing through town or the (insert your favorite hated nation here) drop a nuclear bomb on us! And, if either happen, you'll have homebrew for sustenance!

roohbarb, we'd hit water by the time the nose of the shovel got under the grass! we'd be better off putting the chest freezer in an inner-tube and floating on the waves! :^)

i agree. the lager's i prefer are the bocks, marzen/octoberfests, doppelbocks, and a good helles. not to crazy about the lighter "beaver-pee" brews :~)

If you all want to try a great lager that's different try to get your hands on a Sam Adams Black lager. These are so smooth you won't believe it. I always loved German lagers for their crispness but I have to find a recipe for one of these darkies. I assume it is are dark ale but using lager yeast. Any one have one??? Extract only for now.

Good idea rubarb,

I have been thinking about storm shelters for years.
Once the grocery store, 3-4 miles from 'my 25 acres'
was blown away,
nothing left of it,
not a can of beans,
or a piece of broken glass.
Like the parking lot had been swept clean.
Nothing but bent over bolts sticking out of the concrete.
The roof came down 80 miles to the east.

A 'root cellar' would be 'the' place to have ones brewery,
ones lager fermintation refridgerators,
the temp. outside today is horrible,
an underground place where one could brew ones ale and beer,
would be cost effective for the electrical saving alone.
Hmmmmm.

I have been a digger, a landscaper, sprinkler dude, ect.
I just have been always impressed... astounded!
by how much work this would take.

A lawn sprinkler system has ditches 8" 10" deep.
Bill dukey wide, and about 500' 600' something like that.
And it would take me alone, without a trencher, a week to dig.

The concept of moving a house size hole of dirt would take years.
In 'Nam' the gooks were required to dig a yard, [3' square,]
of dirt a day.

It would however be cooler down there as in Texas the summers are unbearable to even native Texans.
And I am interested in brewing some lager.
AT $15. 20. A month for a fridge,
Hmmmm...
Lager takes 3-4 months compared to 6 weeks for ale...
Hmmm..

3-4 refrigerators...

Yes, and the storms,
The nucular bombs russia is selling off for bargan basement prices...
A place to avoid the hoards of starving masses,
A place to brew ones lager ...
And a place just to hang out and drop a few homebrews down ones self...
It would be quiet and profoundly thought provoking down there.
One could write a best seller, as well as get really drunk.
I could have me my own personal bar down in a hole!
Call it...
'The hole'
"Hey man, Meet me down the hole."
Would have no meaning to others.
A bar with lighting,
brass foot rail of course.
Lots of bottles and a mirror in order to watch ones self while one gets drunk.
{And watch ones back.}
A big stump to throw knives into.
Coon and Cat hides everywhere,
Traps knives, pictures of my hounds when they were all alive,
It would be just like home.
I can see it all now.
An underground civilization.
And all the beer I want.
In my own storm proof,
nucular proof,
Summer heat proof,
Hoards of starving masses proof,
'Hole'

I know!

'Hole in the ground.'


How about that one.


J. Knife








J. Knife

2nd Street, it's probably a Swarz bier (Sam Adam's Black Lager). Some brew pubs call them Black Forest. Tasty brews!

The Knife is cracking me up.

Y2K was a let down, hunh?

2nd Street, here's a Black Lager recipe from DeFalco's Homebrew and Wine Supply in Houston, TX (it's a grain/extract recipe):
GERMAN SCWARZBIER (Black Lager)
Purchase Kit: Liquid or Dry yeast

A very dark, almost black lager with a modest bite & dry finish
2 lbs. Old Bavarian Munich Blend extract
4 lbs. light malt extract
1 1/2 lbs. German Pilsner malt
3 oz. German carafa malt
3/4 lb. German dark crystal malt
3/4 oz. German Perle or Northern Brewer hops (bittering)
1/2 oz. German Hallertauer hops (flavoring)
1/2 oz. German Hallertauer hops (finishing)
1/2 tsp. Calcium Chloride water salts
Nottingham ale yeast (or Wyeast #1338, #1007 or White Labs German Ale*)
(*For cold fermentation, Saflager 23 or Wyeast 2206, 2308, 2124 or White Labs German Lager or Pilsner)
1 pkg. Bru-Vigor (yeast food)
3/4 cup corn sugar (priming)
O.G. - 1.049 -- F.G - 1.012

Thanks DeRoux. I think I should be able to do that with no problem. Looks good. Hope it turns out better than my last lager

I haven't seen this SA. It sounds a lot like Sprecher Brewing's Black Bavarian Lager, which is available year-round here in the midwest, and is one of my favorites!

rhoobarb, what do you mean by SA?

Sam Adams. 2nd Street Brewery mentioned Sam Adams Black lager.

It's one of their Brewmasters Collection. I'm from around Albany and I don't know how far they distribute it. There's a Hefe, a Boston Ale, a Cherry Wheat, a Cream Stout, a Pale Ale, a Scotch Ale and the Black Lager. I only saw the BL at my beer store but the rest are listed at their website.

Does that come in 12-packs, much like their Christmastime combo packs? If so, I think I have seen those, but never looked that closely at what was inside. That'll teach me to look more carefully next time I run across something like that!

What I got was just a sixer. I'll have to check to see what else they have. Just happen to be planning on running out that way today