Lager
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Lager is a style of beer brewed using a slow-acting lager yeast, commonly known as a bottom-fermenting yeast. While the term Pilsener is sometimes used interchangably with lager, a stricter definition sees pilseners as being specifically pale and bitter beers around 5% abv, a subset of lager as a general term for all beers brewed using slow acting lager yeast.
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History
In the nineteenth century Bavarian brewers used to store their beer in cool places such as caves to mature it. They called the beer they obtained "Lagerbier", from the German lagern ("to store"). During the centuries Bavarian brewers developed a special kind of yeast in order to mature their cold-matured beer. The most apparent difference between ales and "lagers" is that "lagers" use bottom-fermenting yeast. As the name implies the yeast settles to the base of the fermentation vessel. However, the most common modern fermentation system is the cylindro-conical tank where the distinction between the different flotation characteristics of the yeasts becomes less clear.
In the period 1820-1830, a brewer called Gabriel Sedlmayr II the Younger, whose family was running the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria went around Europe to improve his brewing skills. When he was back, 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 got a further improvement. In 1842, in the town of Plzeň, a 29-year-old Bavarian brewer called 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 color and relatively high in carbonation, with a pronounced hop flavor and an alcohol content of 3–5% by volume. Pilsner Urquell ("Original Pilsener") is the prototypical example of pilsner beer.
Most of today's lager is based on the Pilsner style, but is typically much less bitter.
Lager
The word lager was popularised by the major commercial breweries in the UK promoting light coloured keg beers, purporting to be continental beers. The word stems from the German lagern ("to store"), and refers to the practice of storing these (and other) beers at near-freezing temperatures for periods of several months before drinking. The term is not used to describe beer in German, but has recently been used in the name of some beer brands.
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. In America, some are termed session lagers.
Brewing technique
"Lager" yeast, known as Saccharomyces uvarum or Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, ferments at cool temperatures, and flocculates (forms a cloudy mass) on the bottom of the vat.
"Lager" yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast, and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7-12°C (45-55°F) (the "fermentation phase"), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0-4°C (30-40°F) (the "lagering phase"). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "crisper" or "cleaner" tasting beer.
After fermentation, bottom fermented beers are then stored in refrigerated cellars for lagering (maturing and clarification). "Lagers" are stored at a low temperature (as low as 0°C/32°F) for several weeks to several months, clearing, acquiring mellowness, and becoming charged with carbon dioxide.
With modern improved fermentation control, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically 1–3 weeks.
Common varieties of lager
- Bock/Doppelbock
- Dortmund
- Helles (pale beer)
- Dunkel, dark lager from Munich
- Oktoberfest/Märzen
- Pilsner
- Schwarzbier
- Vienna lager
References
- {{cite book
| last = Bamforth | first = Charles | title = Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing, Second Edition | publisher = Oxford University Press, Inc | year = 2003 | id = ISBN 0-19-515479-7 }}de:Lagerbier