LAGER

'Lager' beer, which was first brewed in Germany some 500 years ago, has since become one of the most popular types of beer in the world. The word comes from German and means "to store". Traditionally, the beer is stored in barrels for several weeks or longer before being served. Lager is also a general name that includes several variations or styles, such as Pilsner, Vienna and Märzen.
Lager is one of two types of beer (Ale being the other), and it is distinguished by its yeast. Lager yeast ferment at colder temperatures and settle on the bottom of the fermenting tank, while Ale yeast ferments at warmer temperatures and settles on the tops of fermentation tanks.

Contents

History

Pilsner

Etymology

Common varieties of lager

Common brands of lager

References

History

Beginning in the sixteenth century (or possibly even earlier) Bavarian brewers were required by law to brew beer only during the cooler months of the year. In order to have beer available during the hot summer months, beers would be stored in caves and stone cellars, often under blocks of ice.
In the period 1820-1830, a brewer named Gabriel Sedlmayr II the Younger, whose family was running the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria went around Europe to improve his brewing skills. When he returned, he used what he had learned to get a more stable and consistent lager beer. The Bavarian lager was still different from the widely-known modern lager; due to the hardness of Munich water it was quite dark.
The new recipe of the improved lager beer spread quickly over Europe. In particular Sedlmayr's friend Anton Dreher used the new lagering technique to improve the Viennese beer in 1840–1841. The Viennese water enabled the use of lighter malts, giving the beer an amber-red rich colour.
The new recipe reached Bohemia, too, and the technique was further improved.
In 1842, in the town of Plzeň, a 29-year-old Bavarian brewer Josef Groll tried the new lagering recipe using a different malt with the local water, which was much softer than Munich or even Viennese water: the resultant beer had a very bright golden color. This new kind of beer, which became known as Pilsener or ''Pilsner'', had a huge success and spread all over Europe.

Pilsner

Pilsner is light in colour and relatively high in carbonation, with a noble hop flavour and an alcohol content of around 4-5% by volume. Pilsner Urquell ("Original Pilsener") is the prototypical example of pilsner beer and is brewed in Plzeň in the Czech Republic, known as 'Pilsen' in German, from which the beer takes its name.
Most of today's pale lagers are based on Pilsner style beers.

Etymology

The word "lager" stems from the German ''lagern'' ("to store"), and refers to the practice of storing beer at a cold temperature to allow the beer to self-filter.
Lagered beers run the gamut from sweet to bitter, and from pale to black. Most lagers are of pale to medium color, with high carbonation, medium to high hop flavor, and alcohol content of 3–5 percent by volume.

Common varieties of lager

★ Bock/Doppelbock

★ Dortmund

★ Dunkel, (dark in German) dark lager from Munich

★ Helles (pale beer)

★ Kellerbier

★ Märzen/Oktoberfest

★ Pilsner

★ Schwarzbier

★ Spezial

★ Vienna lager

Common brands of lager

★ Alfa

★ Alpine

★ Amstel

★ Antarctica

★ Bavaria

★ Beck's

★ Bitburger

★ Bluegirl Beer

★ Bohemia

★ Brahma

★ Brand

★ Budweiser - one Czech and one US American

★ Carling

★ Carlsberg

★ Castle

★ Castlemaine

★ Cisk

★ Coors

★ Corona

★ Crown Lager Australian

★ DB Export Gold

★ Dommelsch

★ Dutch Gold

★ Efes Pilsen

★ Foster's

★ Grolsch

★ Harp

★ Haywards

★ Heineken

★ Hertog Jan

★ James Boag's

★ Jupiler

★ Killian's

★ Kingfisher

★ Konig

★ Kronenbourg

★ Labatt

★ Leinenkugel's

★ Landshark Lager

★ Molson

★ Moosehead

★ Miller

★ Pabst

★ Pacifico

★ Peroni

★ Pilsner Urquell

★ Primus

★ Quilmes

★ Red Stripe

★ Rolling Rock

★ Saku Originaal

★ Samuel Adams

★ Schaefer

★ Skol - Inbev Brazil

★ Sol

★ Stella Artois

★ Steinlager

★ St Pauli Girl

★ Stroh

★ Super Bock

★ Tekel Birasi

★ Tennent's

★ Tiger Beer

★ Timisoreana

★ Tuborg

★ Tusker

★ Vergina Beer

★ Victoria

★ Warsteiner

★ Wrexham Lager

★ XX Lager

★ Yuengling

★ Zhujiang Beer

★ Zlatorog

References

★ Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing, Second Edition, , Charles, Bamforth, Oxford University Press, Inc, 2003, ISBN 0-19-515479-7
Bohemia