Even hearty Beer drinkers are amazed at my lager ale story

[DizzyPants]

Ok, I have always wanted to brew beer at home but due to my previous profession I was out of the states for six months at a time and home for two months. Not a lot of time to start a new hobby.

I tell this tale to people who I would consider hearty beer drinkers and they are amazed.

I thought when I got in to this hobby I would just rip off a bunch of tasteless lagers quickly and then the good beer (stout, porter, wheat) would be the brews that would come along at a slower pace.

Then I quickly learned lager comes from the German lagern meaning to store. Then I also quickly found out that doing a near flawless lager is next to the hardest thing to do, and ales have a much wider flavor profile for off flavors to hide.

Boy was I wrong. I can rip off those wheats and stouts and only brew about 15 gallons of lager a year due to space and lagering constraints.

"I got learned (sic)."

 

[superjunior]

amazing :cross:

jk. I just did ( or in the process of) doing my first lager for a buddy of mine. what a pain in the ass...
lucky for me I'm not a fan of lagers

 

[ayoungrad]

I'm doing my first lager next. I don't really like lagers. I retried a Pilsner Urquell recently to inspire me. It didn't.

I'm doing a lager just to prove I can. Loosely based on a German-style lager. Who knows, maybe I'll like the one I brew.

IMHO American Lagers are not great. I can't see myself ever putting anything derived from corn in a beer I brew.

 

[mikebowman]

Just bottles a Czech style pilsner yesterday... The sample was unreal! I'm not a flavor expert, and it's fermentation/lagering was kind of haphazard, but it tasted fantastic. Nicely hopped, very clear... Could have been a bit lighter in colour, but definitely delicious

 

[Airborneguy]

That wasn't much of a lager or ale story.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I'll give a full proper lager a shot eventually (either german pils, maibock or marzen) but I'm in no rush. I'm picky about lagers, and I don't have the capacity to do it properly at this time. Closest I really care to tread right now are kolsch and steam beer.

 

[DizzyPants]

Sorry, the point I was trying to convey was that I thought I could just produce what now I know is the hardest beer to make and leave time for the so called hard ones.....stouts, porters and such....and the fact that no one I knew who drank beer knew the production timelines or reasons why.

 

[GuldTuborg]

I'm not sure I'm convinced. I don't think brewing a good ale is more difficult than brewing a good lager beer; it's plenty tough to get things just right in either case. There seems to be an odd lack of a middle ground in lager beers, though. While ales come in good, mediocre, and bad examples, lagers seem to be either good or bad (or just boring), with much less space in the middle for decent examples. That may just be my tastes, though; I vastly prefer ales to lagers.

 

[Nightbiker]

I like lagers, but I also have the space to store 'em at near freezing temps -and keep others on tap to tide me over 'till they're done.

 

[boo boo]

I like lagers, but I also have the space to store 'em at near freezing temps -and keep others on tap to tide me over 'till they're done.

Yeah, me too. I have 5 kegs lagering and just did a standard american lager for my buddy who happens to really like them. I like them also, but much prefer German lagers.
Probably going to make another shortly... already have the starter going for it.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

I wasn't much of a lager fan until I went to German back in February. Now, a fermentation chamber is on my to do list.

Really can't wait to have an Oktoberfest this fall.

 

[osagedr]

Just bottles a Czech style pilsner yesterday... The sample was unreal! I'm not a flavor expert, and it's fermentation/lagering was kind of haphazard, but it tasted fantastic. Nicely hopped, very clear... Could have been a bit lighter in colour, but definitely delicious

Up to 6.0 SRM is good for the style. A bit of colour is a good thing!

 

[SwampassJ]

I'm doing my first lager next. I don't really like lagers. I retried a Pilsner Urquell recently to inspire me. It didn't.

I'm doing a lager just to prove I can. Loosely based on a German-style lager. Who knows, maybe I'll like the one I brew.

IMHO American Lagers are not great. I can't see myself ever putting anything derived from corn in a beer I brew.

Try looking for Urquell on draft or in a can. The bottles are always skunked. If you can find Prima Pils give that a try, I think it's much better than Urquell.

 

[Montanaandy]

I love nothing more than a cold lager homebrew on a hot summer day. Wonderful. I too run into space limitations with my lagering keezer because it it stocked to the gills with hops at the present time. I have gone back and forth about getting a 3rd small chest freezer for lagering. Probably will bite the bullet and get one so I can resume brewing lagers.

 

[unionrdr]

Try looking for Urquell on draft or in a can. The bottles are always skunked. If you can find Prima Pils give that a try, I think it's much better than Urquell.

I found that to be true with the Bitburger Pils as well,the tall cans are way better. Glass just doesn't seem to treat some beers well when traveling long distances.

 

[mrk305]

I did a lager this winter. The weather was perfect. It was cold as heck for a month in a row. I just put my fermentor bucket in my unheated utility room. Now it is back to using ale yeast for the summer. I still have the Saflager S23 yeast packet littering my desk from doing all the reading about it.

 

[Airborneguy]

I've never had a more satisfying beer than my pilsener. I think with all the extra work and concern that goes into it, the final product just tastes so much better. Such a simple beer, but it tastes like perfection.

 

[ghpeel]

I've had good success with my first two lagers and intend to keep on making them. My advice to new lager brewers is two fold:

First, look into NO Chill brewing. It allows you to get your lager down to perfect pitching temps at your own pace, instead of frantically chilling and ice bathing it (which doesn't well for me here in FL with 70F tap water).

Second, get your yeast from an active lager fermentation done by someone who already knows lager yeast. Either an experienced lager home brewer, or beter yet, a slurry from a local brewery. lagers need a LOT more yeast than an ale, so it's tricky to grow that much unless you are an experienced yeast wrangler.

 

[McMalty]

not really sure why you thought lagers would be easier than ales............usually the first thing a homebrewer brews is an ale...b/c it's much less complicated. so are you saying that you just started off brewing lagers without even knowing that it's a pain in the a$$?

my two cents....lagers can suck it

 

[Qhrumphf]

not really sure why you thought lagers would be easier than ales............usually the first thing a homebrewer brews is an ale...b/c it's much less complicated. so are you saying that you just started off brewing lagers without even knowing that it's a pain in the a$$?

my two cents....lagers can suck it

Before I learned anything about brewing, I'd always assumed the standard light american lager (a la most BMC brews) would be the easiest thing to create, where bigger darker ales would be much tougher. It seems logical that a clean and simplistic lager would be easier than something with a rich body and complex profile. I realized as soon as I first started learning about the actual brewing process that wasn't the case. I think that's the point the OP is making.

 

[DizzyPants]

Thank you Qhrumphf. In my homebrew haze last night that is exactly the point I was trying to make. The fact that BMC might get knocked but anyone who has talked to a Budweiser brewer knows they make "the perfect Ford Pinto" everytime. Also that as homebrewers with ales there is a much wider taste profile to hide sours, temp problems and the like. Most people at a party who just consume and don't get into the rivets of brewing don't know the distinction between a the hardest to brew tasteless lager and your normal ale.

 

[stubbornman]

I've never had a more satisfying beer than my pilsener. I think with all the extra work and concern that goes into it, the final product just tastes so much better. Such a simple beer, but it tastes like perfection.

This. I couldn't have said it any better.

 

[Airborneguy]

After a few pilseners, you probably could have

I was sober when I wrote that.

 

[McMalty]

Before I learned anything about brewing, I'd always assumed the standard light american lager (a la most BMC brews) would be the easiest thing to create, where bigger darker ales would be much tougher. It seems logical that a clean and simplistic lager would be easier than something with a rich body and complex profile. I realized as soon as I first started learning about the actual brewing process that wasn't the case. I think that's the point the OP is making.

yes, that's a fair assumption. but the OP seems to have been brewing lagers long b4 ales. just personally, i've never heard of someone starting with lagers who didn't intend to do it, knowing that lagering is a much more involved process. any brewing guide or LHBS would tell you that. so i guess i'm just wondering how the OP got into brewing.