Why are lagers much more popular than ales?

[HPEtech]

St. Arnold's Oktoberfest is one of my favorite beers.. That being said, I have never brewed aLager.

 

[kaconga]

Just bottled my first lager, a bock, it turned out great. I still prefer the complexity of ales but I definitely appreciate lagers more now that I have made one.

 

[chuckstout]

Mostly low gravity, very clean flavor profile, crisp, easy to drink. Im goin to take a shot in the dark and say a lot of german immigrants began brewing lagers in Americas early years and it stuck more so than ales did and advertising and association developed

 

[Braufessor]

Another thought... I don't know if this was mentioned - skimmed and did not see it. Large american breweries use a lot of adjuncts like corn and rice, etc. which are cheaper. Do you "need" a lager yeast/process to make better beer with adjuncts? If you used similar grain bills with corn, rice, etc. and ale yeasts..... would you end up with something inferior (more "inferior" than BMC beers)? Maybe the lagering process allows for use of cheaper ingredients and is therefore a cost savings?

 

[Frige]

I was kinda curious about the difference in taste between the 2. I have a batch of Yoopers fizzy yellow beer lagering right now. It in its second week now. My lhbs guy says I wont be able to tell the difference.

 

[progmac]

I was kinda curious about the difference in taste between the 2. I have a batch of Yoopers fizzy yellow beer lagering right now. It in its second week now. My lhbs guy says I wont be able to tell the difference.

I recently did a split batch of a tried-and-true house altbier recipe. Half the batch was fermented with an ale yeast at 58 degrees and the other half with a lager yeast at 53 degrees. Both batches were bottle conditioned for three weeks and cold-conditioned (fridge temps) for two weeks. The beers will be ready in about one more week. I may report back if anyone is interested.

 

[Darwin18]

Another thought... I don't know if this was mentioned - skimmed and did not see it. Large american breweries use a lot of adjuncts like corn and rice, etc. which are cheaper. Do you "need" a lager yeast/process to make better beer with adjuncts? If you used similar grain bills with corn, rice, etc. and ale yeasts..... would you end up with something inferior (more "inferior" than BMC beers)? Maybe the lagering process allows for use of cheaper ingredients and is therefore a cost savings?

I'm not sure about that. The cost for fermenting in the lager range, especially back in the day, probably outmatched any of the potential cost savings by using adjuncts. My personal thought is that lagers are more popular than ales is because of the North American climate. In the summer, especially in the South, it is hot and humid. I really don't want to drink an ale when I could have crisp lager instead.

 

[kombat]

I would also like to add (if not already said). That Lagers take alot longer to make.

At the macrobrewing level, I don't believe that's true. They may take marginally longer (because the yeast just plain work more slowly at colder temps), but as I understand it, a big brewery like Coors can turn around a lager in less than 2 weeks.

The big guys use techniques and equipment that are impractical for homebrewers, or even nano/micro/craft brewers, such as filtration, centrifuging, and pasteurization, so that once fermentation is complete and the yeast has had a couple of days to clean up, it's bottled in fairly short order.

I have asked a few micro and nano brewers why they don't make more lagers. And they always say because of the slow turnaround.

As I said, the smaller guys can't afford the tools that accelerate the lagering process, so you're right, they'd have to do it the old fashioned way: waiting. But I assure you, Budweiser does not have a vast refrigerated warehouse of fermenters full of beer lagering for 6-8 weeks. They're able to get their lagers into bottles and onto trucks faster than most of us can make an ale.

 

[ObsidianJester]

I suspect it is a combination of many things but marketing is the biggest factor today. As others hinted at lagers at some point in time were not the macho drink to quaff in large amounts they were targeted to women in some countries. Know what else was initially targeted to Women? The old school Marlboro cigarettes. What changed? They re-marketed to a different demographic. I think it is Busch that currently has an add out there that negatively portrays anything but Busch beer as anyone that drinks it is a faker or a snob or both.

Taking the opinion on if the big lager brewers are good or not out of the equation you have a huge amount of marketing involved.

 

[the_trout]

Read the book "Ambitious Brew". The first few chapters are about how and why lagers became the brew of choice. In a nut shell... early colonials drank rum and applejack. During the revolutionary war the Brits cut the sugarcane supply lines and therefore access to rum. Whisky became the drink of choice but the temperance movement derailed it. The mass German immigration of the 1800s brought with it lager beer which was so low in alcohol content, compared to whisky, that the temperance peeps accepted it. Hence lager became the dominant alcohol. Truth is ales never gained a strong foothold stateside.

 

[JKaranka]

I just made a very light ale: pale malt and corn sugar up to 4% with some hops to bring it up to 10 IBU. And yeah, after cold conditioning you can tell it has an ale yeast, with the flavour having a slight yeast fruitiness that you wouldn't get in most lagers.

 

[Crowemagnonman]

Drinkability.

 

[brick_haus]

Didnt read this whole post so excuse me if this is redundant info.
Lagers were called ladies beer during WWII. When all of the beer drinking men were off to war, the better (IMHO) beers werent selling because the ladies liked the clean beer for the most part. The big brewers switched production to only lagers because thats all that was selling. When (too few) of the men came back, lagers were the only beers available so thats what they drank. It caught on and the rest is history.

So, lager is ladies beer...

 

[Evan_L]

Why? You could make a case for any reason, but what it comes down to is the power of marketing and bully distribution. Simple as that. If ale producers had more money, they would be the most popular. Capitalism at its finest.

 

[bbatch]

actually, I never thought of it that way. I always ask myself "what does it say about lagers that they are the most popular beer with the masses?" in all forms of consumption (books, tv, movies, music, food) it's the bland, least challenging brands that do the best.

 

[chuckstout]

actually, I never thought of it that way. I always ask myself "what does it say about lagers that they are the most popular beer with the masses?" in all forms of consumption (books, tv, movies, music, food) it's the bland, least challenging brands that do the best.

No man, its called time, in time the only ale thay well compete with lagers well be saisons, complex, dry, versions not offended with being a cheap date using simple sugars and spelt, corn, rice would probably work also.

 

[highgravitybacon]

Drinkability.

Tastes great, and less filling.

 

[Grossy]

I have never had a pilsner that I like.

So which one? I would like to hear from the community which beer I should run down and purchase from Bizmo or Wine and More that will change my mind.

I ask this not because I want to re-affirm my preconceived opinion, but because I want to shatter it.

 

[highgravitybacon]

I have never had a pilsner that I like.

So which one? I would like to hear from the community which beer I should run down and purchase from Bizmo or Wine and More that will change my mind.

I ask this not because I want to re-affirm my preconceived opinion, but because I want to shatter it.

Victory Prima Pils. Trumer Pils.

 

[ido50]

If I were to look at my country (Israel), I would not say lagers are much more popular than ales. Most people don't even know there are lagers and ales. Lagers are just the cheapest and most pushed beers in Israel. We have five lagers mass produced in Israel: Goldstar, Carlsberg, Tuborg, Heineken and Maccabi (yes, even the foreign ones are produced in Israel). They are the cheapest beers, the "default" ones you would find in any grocery store, every pub, wherever you go.

Up to a few years ago, awareness for the available variety and complexity of beer was seriously lacking here. A friend of mine who owned a grocery store didn't even know there are other beer brands aside from the five I mentioned above when I asked him why he doesn't carry any. These stores got a default supply from a common supplier.

Only in recent years, with the advent of homebrewing, the opening of a lot of craft breweries and a sudden rise in beer popularity, has awareness grown. We now have pubs that carry tremendous amounts of ales and lagers on tap; variety in grocery stores and supermarkets has risen; and there are some new annual beer festivals/exhibitions that are gaining popularity. Unfortunately, several extremely large tax increases on beer lately may hinder this progress, but I digress.

I think lagers dominated the Israeli marketplace purely from momentum/inertia, with the original reason of their popularity long forgotten. The current slip in popularity they are suffering seems only natural to me.

 

[hmiles86]

Wow I just realized how very very little I know about beer. I enjoy all kinds but this thread was pretty informative. Loved all the opinions and info! Cheers!!!

 

[Kozzer]

I recently did a split batch of a tried-and-true house altbier recipe. Half the batch was fermented with an ale yeast at 58 degrees and the other half with a lager yeast at 53 degrees. Both batches were bottle conditioned for three weeks and cold-conditioned (fridge temps) for two weeks. The beers will be ready in about one more week. I may report back if anyone is interested.

It's been a few weeks since this post, and I'm interested in your results!

 

[progmac]

It's been a few weeks since this post, and I'm interested in your results!

i still haven't bottled, but i did taste both last night to see if they were ready to bottle. they are.

i will post again, but preliminarily, i will say this -- they are VERY different beers. i enjoyed both, but the cry havoc sample was my preference. the cry havoc was also the slower fermenter with more byproducts -- but they all cleaned up after a few days of room temp conditioning -- before i started lagering. i'll report back once they are carbed back up.