“The world of lagers contains many of the world’s most delicious and beguiling beers. Dave Carpenter dives into this world with gusto, verve, and precision.”
—Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster, The Brooklyn Brewery, Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford Companion to Beer
Beer has come a long way in the last four decades.
Craft brands have exploded as flavor-conscious consumers have rediscovered what it means for beer to delight the senses. Modern brewers have reacquainted us with pale ale, stout, hefeweizen, bière de garde, tripel, and countless other styles. They have introduced us to wild and sour beers that tickle the palate with acidity and funk. And they have developed entirely new kinds of beer, a great number of which have found a home in the ever-expanding family of India pale ales.
Craft beer’s ascendancy has largely been built on the success of ale, a generic designation for beer fermented at or near room temperature. But for most people, the word beer still means one thing: lager. In just about every city in every nation, ordering a beer without further qualification is very likely to get you a lager, an umbrella term for a family of beers that trace their lineage to medieval Bavaria.
For most of the last forty years, however, craft beer consumers have overwhelmingly opted for ales over lagers—save the occasional oktoberfest seasonal or summery session pilsner. Fortunately, the tide has begun to turn, and brewers and consumers alike are once again celebrating the joys of lager beer. Some are brewing faithful renditions of Continental stalwarts. Others are reinventing classic styles with an American twist. And still others are creating entirely new kinds of lager beer altogether.
We’re on the cusp of a lager revolution, one that’s been more than five hundred years in the making. It’s time we all started giving lager the respect it deserves.
