Lagering Question

[Dennis1979]

As I spend time at Homebrewtalk, it seems most people are brewing ales vs. lagering. I understand the lagering process is a bit more complicated and I am wondering how many guys are doing that? In my limited brewing experience, I am quite happy with the quality of my beer (ales) and I don’t feel a great desire to do anything different, but I am curious to know from those who do lager why they might prefer that over an ale. It's my understanding that lagered beer is simply different but not necessarily better than ale. Is the purpose just to be able to brew some particular style that can't be done with ale yeast?

All I have to compare to is store-bought lagers and it seems to me that lagered beer might be a bit smoother than ale, but then I am comparing beer brewed in sophisticated systems to our somewhat less sophisticated homebrew methods.

Dennis

 

[BigEd]

As I spend time at Homebrewtalk, it seems most people are brewing ales vs. lagering. I understand the lagering process is a bit more complicated and I am wondering how many guys are doing that? In my limited brewing experience, I am quite happy with the quality of my beer (ales) and I don’t feel a great desire to do anything different, but I am curious to know from those who do lager why they might prefer that over an ale. It's my understanding that lagered beer is simply different but not necessarily better than ale. Is the purpose just to be able to brew some particular style that can't be done with ale yeast?

All I have to compare to is store-bought lagers and it seems to me that lagered beer might be a bit smoother than ale, but then I am comparing beer brewed in sophisticated systems to our somewhat less sophisticated homebrew methods.

Dennis

Brew what you like. I like ales and lagers so I brew both. One style is not inherently better than the other, they are different. I don't know what kind of commercial lagers you have tried. There is a whole world beyond the Wonder Bread crap of the American mega brewers. Both the ale and lager side if the beer tree have a long list of different styles. Estery, chewy British ESBs are great and I love brewing and drinking them but I also love a clean, malty, hoppy pilsner or a the rich, mellow malt flavor of a Festbier.

 

[Dennis1979]

I don't like the stuff from the Americam mega brewers either. There are many American beers that I like from smaller brewers, Shiner, New Belgium etc, but what I really, really like is brands from various parts of Europe. As an example, a couple that I have found locally from my limited local selection, is Svytury's (made in Lithuania) and Fischer (from the Alsace region of France). There are others I like from Germany, Ireland etc. That's pretty much what I always go for.

So these are the kinds of styles I want to brew. I don't like hoppy beers, IPA's etc.

Dennis

 

[menschmaschine]

You're right that most homebrewers brew ales and not lagers. If I took a guess, I'd say it's probably in the in the range of 70-80%. Those that brew lagers almost inevitably brew both ales and lagers.

Lagers aren't that much more complex to brew, if at all. To brew a lager well, you need a reliable temperature controlled fermentation environment, which is easiest done by a freezer and temperature controller (cost), but there are DIY ways to do it too.

Time is another big thing. The average ale only takes about 3-4 weeks to be drinkable (kegging) and 5-6 weeks (bottling). But the average lager takes double that. Lagers require patience and extra vessels.

For the brewing part, you can brew a lager with roughly the same procedures as brewing an ale, but since pilsner malt is often used, you need to do a 90 min. boil. It's also best to have the wort cooled more (</= 50°F) before pitching yeast. And since some of the best lager styles are German, decoction mashing is sometimes used (although not necessary).

The rewards are great, but are more of a personal accomplishment than anything. To take a drink of a clean, malty lager that you took so much care to make (e.g, decoction, 6 week lagering period, good temp. control, etc.) is very rewarding, but the full appreciation is yours alone.

Commercially, lagers are brewed far more than ales. This has to do with the advent of refrigeration in the mid-late 1800s and the industrial revolution, the influx of immigrant German brewers to the US, and the desire to make beer that the majority of people like (little yeast character, lightly hopped). These lager breweries grew and grew and eventually came to define what beer is to most Americans... cheap and widely available.

But brewing lagers at home can be much more rewarding than drinking a commercial example. Most commercial lagers are centrifuged, filtered, pasteurized (and consequently stripped of flavor and character) to have a longer shelf life and be more forgiving when mishandled. Homebrewed lagers are fresh and flavorful due to leaving in proteins and suspended yeast.

BigEd is right... brew what you like. If this were 150 years ago and we could homebrew the way we do today, we'd probably all be brewing lagers because of always having drank ales.

 

[david_42]

mensch has it, lagers take time. I did a schwartzbier vs black ale two years ago. Just split the wort and fermented one with a lager yeast and the other with an ale yeast. By the time the schwartzbier was done lagering and ready to drink, the black ale was history.