Don't Like Lagers, What's Wrong With Me?

[mje1980]

99% of what i brew are ales. And if i buy beer, 99% are ales. However, i do like german lagers. Weihenstephan pils and the like are very good beers IMHO. Oh yeah dunkel too.

 

[Nick JD]

I love lagers. Over half of my brews are lagers of some sort.

 

[argon]

Fresh Urquell.... :icon_drool2:
Lagers are great when you get them right. Most of my lagers are about delicate flavours... but i do like the occasional Baltic Porter or Eisbock as i did last year.

Each year around Oktoberfest i'll do a run of lagers. This year i've currently got on;
Triple Decoceted Bo Pils - Malty yet bitter with a good amount of saaz coming through
Munich Helles - a little sweet and needed a bit more yeast... but very sessionable
Vienna Lager - Malty and toasty/bready goodness
NZ Nelson Pils - Hoppy and bitter with an easy drinking malt backbone
Euro Pils - Generic Euro Lager... good for the masses

Now that i've done the lager run i'll be going on an American Hoppy run IPA, ABA, AAA, APA.

Having the easy drinking lagers through summer will be a great juxtoposition to the hoppy and bold americans... which will hit their straps toward Autumn.

It's all about counterbalance.

 

[komodo]

Lagers I like. I've got a basic rice lager going at the moment in the fridge fermenting.
What about a light ale with some adjunts to "lighten" them up I dont know how rice would go in an ale? but maybe worth a go go get the SG up but leaving it a little 'thin' compared to most ales.

 

[Clutch]

Until I started homebrewing in May this year, I didn't know the difference.
Now I'm all about the IPA and other goodness.
I had a James Squire Pilsener at a meeting last night and took one sip and thought, "**** me, this is bland". I still love lagers on a hot day, but I'm becoming addicted to huge amounts of hops.

 

[drsmurto]

Fresh Urquell.... :icon_drool2:
Lagers are great when you get them right. Most of my lagers are about delicate flavours... but i do like the occasional Baltic Porter or Eisbock as i did last year.

Each year around Oktoberfest i'll do a run of lagers. This year i've currently got on;
Triple Decoceted Bo Pils - Malty yet bitter with a good amount of saaz coming through
Munich Helles - a little sweet and needed a bit more yeast... but very sessionable
Vienna Lager - Malty and toasty/bready goodness
NZ Nelson Pils - Hoppy and bitter with an easy drinking malt backbone
Euro Pils - Generic Euro Lager... good for the masses

Now that i've done the lager run i'll be going on an American Hoppy run IPA, ABA, AAA, APA.

Having the easy drinking lagers through summer will be a great juxtoposition to the hoppy and bold americans... which will hit their straps toward Autumn.

It's all about counterbalance.

Add to that list a Munich Dunkel, one of my favourite lager styles to brew and one i will be belting out after the smoked marzen.

Budvar is my preferred Czech Pils. The last few PUs i have had were dripping in diacetyl, admittedly from Dans but diacetyl is a brewing fault, not a storage fault.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Interestingly it was a lager that converted you to AG, though not a "lager" in the context of this discussion. I love big hoppy APAs.

 

[argon]

Add to that list a Munich Dunkel, one of my favourite lager styles to brew and one i will be belting out after the smoked marzen.

Budvar is my preferred Czech Pils. The last few PUs i have had were dripping in diacetyl, admittedly from Dans but diacetyl is a brewing fault, not a storage fault.

Budvar and Urquell have an ongoing battle for supremacy at my place. :icon_cheers:

yeah the Munich Dunkel and Oktoberfest were also on the lager list to brew... just got fed up with waiting and brewed an IPA instead. Maybe next year i'll go on an Amber Lager run and finish with a Schwarz :icon_drool2:

 

[user 384]

I would guess that its not that you don't like lagers as such, but more likely you like in your face beers. There are a lot of subtle ales, like Mild or even Ordinary Bitter, that don't whack you about the head with shed loads of hops, which you probably wouldn't like either. Even Porter and Stout tend to be styles more robust in flavour, hence you like them. It's just a preference you have.

I have a different preference, I don't like hop monsters and tend to think of it as lazy brewing. Doesn't take much effort to chuck a load of C hops in the kettle and masks all other flavours (including covering up faults). I was in Sydney a month ago and tried lots of craft beer, and was surprised by how many have succumb to the bigger is better mantra.

One persons' subtle/delicate is another persons' bland, just as one persons' flavourful is another persons' OTT.

Cheers
MAH

 

[iralosavic]

You could just lager a dry(er) pale ale and end up with the crispness of a lager with (some of) the maltiness of an ale. Would make for a more interesting session beer that could still be enjoyed by a commercial lager drinker.

I also tend to think that the nature of ale allows for more creativity and individuality of expression in the brewer, so it is easier for an beer enthusiast to appreciate an ale than a lager. However, each beer has its setting, just like you wouldn't drink a shiraz with fish, you wouldn't drink a Begial Dubbel to quench your post-mowing thirst or share a slab of doppelbocks with a mate on a Friday night.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

why the **** not? that sounds epic

 

[mxd]

when I first started I was only Ales, then wanting more hops, I went to a BJCP training course where we got to taste evey style. Tasting the beers, I realized I like some lagers (Schwarzbie, munich dunkel, boh pil, bock), my taste has now moved to more "cleaner" beers (don't know why ) I made a kolsch (not a lager but light and clean) and are really enjoying that.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

I would guess that its not that you don't like lagers as such, but more likely you like in your face beers. There are a lot of subtle ales, like Mild or even Ordinary Bitter, that don't whack you about the head with shed loads of hops, which you probably wouldn't like either. Even Porter and Stout tend to be styles more robust in flavour, hence you like them. It's just a preference you have.

I have a different preference, I don't like hop monsters and tend to think of it as lazy brewing. Doesn't take much effort to chuck a load of C hops in the kettle and masks all other flavours (including covering up faults). I was in Sydney a month ago and tried lots of craft beer, and was surprised by how many have succumb to the bigger is better mantra.

One persons' subtle/delicate is another persons' bland, just as one persons' flavourful is another persons' OTT.

Cheers
MAH

A big PLUS 1 on this post, except that I do crave and enjoy the occasional hop munster or in your face beer.

 

[sinkas]

Almost any kiwi lagers are excellent,
emersons pils
Tuatara, Croucher, etc etc, all really tasty, and a bit better that Hop rocker, but I am sruprised you didnt like that, maybe you have no taste?

 

[iralosavic]

why the **** not? that sounds epic

Most of my mates won't even go back for seconds after a heavy beer like a doppelbock or a dark ale etc I reckon I'd have to skip food for a couple of days to enjoy half a slab of doppelbocks right to the last one. That being said, I've been known to drink a six pack of a meal-in-a-bottle beer after dinner, but I would struggle to find anyone in my circle of friends who would do the same (for the purpose of enjoyment, not proving a point).

At my wedding reception I drank a 700ml bottle of Chimay blue and another 700ml Trappist ale that I forget the name of, as well as a six pack of Grimbergen (an amber dubbel) and a handful of whatever else I had in the fridge. I didn't get hungry again for 24 hours

Might have to arrange a doppelbock-off one day

 

[MaltyHops]

...
At my wedding reception I drank a 700ml bottle of Chimay blue and another 700ml
Trappist ale that I forget the name of, as well as a six pack of Grimbergen ...

For a moment there I thought you wrote you forgot the name of the bride or something.

T.

 

[stux]

I love a nice lager, but the bottleneck they cause in my production means I can only really afford to brew them when I'm well and truly stocked

with octoberfest, swmbos birthday, christmas, boxing day, kids birthdays, new years, australia day, more family birthdays and celebrations I just can't keep up during summer *and* brew nice lagers

And no, swmbo says I can't have more than 800L of fermenting/lagering fridges

 

[Greg Lawrence]

Almost any kiwi lagers are excellent,
emersons pils
Tuatara, Croucher, etc etc, all really tasty, and a bit better that Hop rocker, but I am sruprised you didnt like that, maybe you have no taste?

Have to agree with you there. The last time I had a session on hoprocker was a Macs bar in Kingsland, Auckland. I couldnt get enough of the stuff. And they serve it in massive glass jugs.
Maybe he tried some that had been sitting around in the bottle for months at all sorts of temps.

 

[humulus]

100% BoPils malt,bucket loads of saaz hops and a good czech yeast,fermented cool!!!!!! :icon_drool2:

 

[warra48]

Add to that list a Munich Dunkel, one of my favourite lager styles to brew and one i will be belting out after the smoked marzen.

Budvar is my preferred Czech Pils. The last few PUs i have had were dripping in diacetyl, admittedly from Dans but diacetyl is a brewing fault, not a storage fault.

Amen, to that. Totally agrees with my taste in lagers.

And fresh Czech Budvar on tap is glorious.