What does an unlagered lager taste like?

[Sleepy_D]

What is the expected flavor profile of a lager before it has had time to age? I know they will mellow out, but specifically which flavors will become less pronounced?

I have a Czech premium pale lager that I just started to lager and it is currently sort of harsh/astringent and more bitter than I was expecting. Are these some of the characteristics I can expect to drop out or decrease over the course of the lagering process?

 

[friarsmith]

In my experience, young lager beers are bright, bitter, a tad yeasty (which can increase the bitter/harsh flavor) and just kind of “noisy” in terms of overall flavor. Especially if you used a decent amount of Saaz hops, which have a green/herbal flavor in a young beer.

If you still notice astringency in the finished product, you might want to adjust your sparging process, mash pH, grain crush, and/or water profile.

Give it time

 

[Beermeister32]

What is the expected flavor profile of a lager before it has had time to age? I know they will mellow out, but specifically which flavors will become less pronounced?

I have a Czech premium pale lager that I just started to lager and it is currently sort of harsh/astringent and more bitter than I was expecting. Are these some of the characteristics I can expect to drop out or decrease over the course of the lagering process?

Hard to really put a label on taste preferences. Those changes can differ batch to batch. If you can put the keg on tap, try a sample each week. 90 days is my preference on light and medium lagers. Ciders too. There are a lot of changes a beer undergoes in the first 3 months, I wouldn't prematurely judge a batch until you've had time to let it age a bit in the keg.

Here's an interesting clip from an old Olympia Beer annual report. Their tanks and blending produced a beer with sometimes over 100 different batches in each glass. This was done to fill the tanks and produce product consistency, as each batch was slightly different. This is also why as home brewers it can be difficult to produce exactly the same batch - too many variables in malt, hops, mashing, brewing, handling, fermentation and other techniques. My Grandfather worked there. Looking at their old training literature, they were running 90 days from brewing until finished product. I guess that would mean about 80 days lagering.

 

[SanPancho]

esters can fade somewhat. bitterness softens. malts mellow and smooth. yeasty flavors drop out.

but harsh/astringent generally doesnt go away.

 

[davidabcd]

Since the first lagers were aged in caves, I'm thinking a basement will do just fine. I've had no problems. It's cool that someone thought to keep them cold, right?
I'll be in the minority but that's okay--getting all caught up in temp isn't the end all and be all. The beer will still taste good, no off-flavors.
Edit: to answer specifically: good.

 

[SanPancho]

actually temperature does matter. quite a bit. not saying that its 30F or nothing. but colder definitely makes things happen faster in terms of the "good" parts of lagering. and being in a horizontal orientation vs vertical also helps brite the beer faster.

 

[dmtaylor]

A young lager is likely to have sulfur and/or diacetyl. It can also taste more tart and doughy from the yeast itself. And to some extent will be more bitter which is from the hops but will mellow with age. Sulfur is the most typical of all and can vary from farty to burnt matchhead. You will be amazed at how much the beer changes after an extra 3-4 weeks of aging, whether at room temp or cold or a little of both.

 

[Yooper]

A couple of years ago, I did a tour of the cellars at Pilsner Urquell, and we drank a young beer out of the lagering tanks.
Interestingly, my friend liked the beer more than the 'finished' beer, that was in the brite tank. I liked the finished beer better.

The unlagered beer was good, but a bit doughy and not as crisp.

 

[lightningbug]

They unironically have more malt flavor, but also lingering bitterness. When I first started brewing them I never bothered to lager at all and just dealt with the green taste. I didn’t realize how much they mellow until I ignored a keg in the keezer for a couple months because I had better beers to drink. When I tried it again it tasted way different and was really smooth/clean.

But I still dont intentionally wait that long to drink my beer haha

 

[Gthurner]

A young lager does not taste balanced.The individual flavor elements, such as yeasty, estrig, hoppy, bitterness, sweetness, etc. are often clearly recognizable. With the progressive storage period, these peaks reduce and a balanced taste experience develops. This does not mean that fresh lagers are undrinkable. Nor does it mean that weeks of storage will always improve the lager. That would be too simple.

 

[cactusgarrett]

What you would get pre-lagering would essentially be a kellerbier. Take a look at the characteristics of that.
https://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/7/7C/kellerbier/