Lagers don’t get much attention in the craft beer world, mostly because of the higher level of difficulty in making them compared to ales. As a result many beer drinkers, even craft beer drinkers, often associate lagers with the thin, watery beers made by the big macro breweries like Miller and Coors. In reality, there is a wide variety of different styles of lagers ranging from the hoppy, to the sweet and everything in between. (Not sure what makes a lager different from a ale? Take a look at our article on the subject) Today we’re going to take a look at some lager styles you may not know from Germany, the land of lagers:

Bock/Dopplebock – These nutty, sweet beers were originally brewed by German monks to be consumed as a source of sustenance during fasts.  Their malty flavors are balanced by the smoothness that is a hallmark of lagers. Sam Adams Winter Lager is a great example of the style by an American craft brewer.

As you might expect, dopplebocks (dopple meaning double) are a much stronger version of the style, sometimes ranging to the 7, 8, or 9% alcohol by volume range.  One of the first widely available dopplebocks was Paulaner’s Salavator and as a result many other brewers have taken to naming their dopplebocks with a name ending in “–ator.” Examples include Ayinger’s Celebrator and Spaten’s Optimator. Both bocks and dopplebocks also happen to be associated with goats, which appear frequently on their labels, owing to the fact ‘bock’ can refer to male goats in German.

Rauchbier – This style’s name means “smoked beer” in German and I really could think of no better name. The taste is almost like barbecue. Although there are many different styles of smoked beer, this is the original, tracing its roots back to the 1500’s when smoked beer was pretty much all that was available as cleaner techniques for preparing grains had yet to be invented. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock is the undisputed signature version of this style.

Eisbock – German for “ice beer,” this is lager which is frozen after brewing and some of the ice is removed,  leaving a more concentrated beer, both in terms of flavor and alcoholic strength, which can range from 9 to 15%. The end result is a rich, sweet and smooth beer akin to brandy, or cognac, great for warming you up on cold nights. Please don’t confuse this style with the ridiculous “Ice” brands of the major macro breweries, such as Bud Ice. While some of them are indeed frozen like an eisbock to increase strength, they don’t resemble the style in any other way. Kulmbacher Reichelbrau Eisbock is one of the better known versions of this style, but it’s still quite rare, as a result of the difficult in producing it.

Dunkel/Dark Lager – This is lager brewed with dark, sweet and rich grains, but balanced nicely by the smoothness of the lager process. It’s not nearly as nutty as a bock, but makes up for it with a creaminess unique to the style. Negra Modelo, while often mistaken for a Vienna lager, is actually an example of the style, and probably the most well known version of it. Try a Blackened  Voodoo Lager from Dixie brewing for an American craft take on the style.  Schwarzbier (black beer) is a very similar style, of which Sam Adams Black Lager is a great example.

Dortmunder Export – A style originally from the town of Dortmund, it’s a light, crisp beer similar to a pilsner but more intense, with a stronger maltiness and hints of honey in it. Like many “export” styles it was made more robust in order to better survive shipment to other countries and faraway lands, however the 5-6% alcohol range may seem light to modern drinkers. This style was once one of the most popular in Germany and much of Europe. The heavy damage Dortmund endured during World War II resulted in this style becoming fairly uncommon today. Try a Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold for an American craft take on this style.

Have any other favorite craft lagers that look past pilsners? Let us know on Twitter! Next time you try one of these, or any other beer tweet what it is and add the #mybeer hashtag to it to let us know what you’re drinking and what you think about it.

Summer is a great time for beer. When the temperature is hot, nothing’s better than a pint of your favorite beer to cool off. Although plenty of breweries do terrific summer seasonals that go great with the hottest months of the year, there are many traditional brews that also go great with summer, and today we’re going to take a look at them.

1. Hefeweizen - This is a wheat beer of German origin, whose name yeast (hefe) white (weiss, referring to the color of the wheat when brewed) is apt considering the strong presence of both elements in this classic beer. Unlike most bottle-conditioned beer, this is one you actually want to pour the yeast into the bottle as it’s a major part of the style’s flavor. It’s great for the summer months because of its light but full-bodied taste and fruity flavor. There are numerous versions of this style but a personal favorite is Paulaner.

2. Wit – This Belgian style is the other major wheat beer alongside Hefeweizen.  Wit beer tends to be lighter and more lemony than Hefeweizen, but it can still be quite refreshing. Coors’ Blue Moon beer has given this style a good bit of attention in the last few years, but try a Hoegaarden for a version more true to form.

3. Saison - A style which originates in southern Belgium, it was originally brewed in the winter months to be consumed in the summer after intense farm work, which is why it’s sometimes known as “farm house ale.” This beer is light but sweet and frequently spicy, thanks to the pepper which is frequently added to it. Saison Dupont is probably the signature brewery for this style, but Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY also makes a pretty mean version known as Hennepin.

4. Steam Beer/California Common - This is the only traditional beer style of American origin. It came to be when California immigrants from Germany and Czechoslovakia attempted to make the lager styles they knew from the old country. Unfortunately the warmer temperatures and lack of refrigeration options In 19th century California meant the beer turned into something new and exciting, a hybrid style that combined the lightness of a lager with the flavor of an ale,  a true American original. Anchor Steam, America’s first craft brewery, has since copyrighted the term “steam beer” so other brewers must refer to their versions as California Common.

5. Belgian Golden Ale - Sometimes referred to as Belgian pale ales because of their relatively hoppy flavor, at least when compared to the other beers on this list, this style is crisp and refreshing.  It’s strong carbonation will also leave a huge head of foam in your glass, regardless of how carefully you pour it.  Duvel is the most famous version of this style, but there are plenty of wonderful American versions, such as Brooklyn’s Local No.1 and North Coast’s Pranqster.

This is of course just the tip of the iceberg when comes to amazing brews for the summer time. There are countless other styles that go great with this time of year. Got any suggestions? Tweet what you’re drinking and add the #mybeer hashtag to it to let us know what your favorite summer brew is and what you think about it.

Budweiser is undoubtedly one of the most iconic and well known American beers around the world. Thanks to its countless commercials proclaiming it the “King of Beers” and “The Great American Lager” coupled with its near universal availability in the US, it’s hard to think of American beer without thinking of Budweiser. Unfortunately, Budweiser isn’t American at all, it’s Czech. That’s right, the beer that is most synonymous with America was actually stolen from a brewery in what today is the Czech Republic.

Pilsner, the style of beer Budweiser attempts to replicate, is originally a Czech style of beer. Originating in the Czech town of Pilsen, Pilsner is a German word which means “from Pilsen.” The first clue that the Great American Lager actually isn’t all that great or American comes from its name. ‘Budweiser’ is also a German word, meaning “from Budweis,” which is a town in the Czech Republic. When German-American immigrant Adolphus Busch started selling Budweiser in 1876, he decided to name it after the town he got the recipe from, Budweis. This wasn’t something the people of Budweis were too pleased about of course, considering they’d been brewing their own Budweiser beer since the 14th century.

As a result Anheuser-Busch and Budejovicky Budvar, the brewery in Budweis which sells the original Budweiser, have been locked in copyright disputes ever since. Currently they’ve reached an awkward truce which allows A-B to sell its beer in the US under the name ‘Budweiser’ while in most of Europe it must be sold as simply ‘Bud’ and in Germany it’s sold under the awkward name ‘Anheuser-Busch B.’ Budejovicky Budvar for it’s part is allowed to sell their beer under Budweiser in Europe while having to go by ‘Budweiser Budvar’ here in the States.

To give A-B some credit, they didn’t simply ‘borrow’ the recipe and name from Budejovicky Budvar, they also dumbed down the recipe, replacing much of the barley and grains used in the Czech version with flavorless adjuncts like rice and corn. Nothing says American like stealing from other countries and making bland, watery beer. So I guess in a lot of ways Budweiser is the Great American Lager. God Bless America!

Beer gets served in a lot of different glasses which vary wildly in shape and appearance. Some are more fun than functional, such as the “half yard of beer” you sometimes see at sports bars. Those can be fine if all you’re interested in is the novelty of it, but if you really want to get the most out of your beer then you should think twice about what glass you choose for your beer.

Certain styles really do benefit from certain types of glassware. In fact back in the day many European breweries (and Belgian brewers in particular) would each create a uniquely shaped glass for their beer. These glasses would frequently be designed to highlight a particular quality of each beer. The end result left even the smallest European bartender stocking many, many different glasses.

If that seems like a tall order, don’t worry; you don’t need to have a unique glass for each beer you bring home to get the most from your glass ware. To cover most of your bases all your really need is a three different glasses you can pick up at a local store. Sure there are many more styles of beer glasses than this but these three will adequately provide for the vast majority of the beers you bring home for the store.

Before we get started I should say a word about why you should pour your drink into a glass at all. A glass offers many benefits over a can or bottle. For one it makes it much easier for the beer’s aroma to reach your nose. Smell plays an important part of the way humans experience our sense of taste; that’s why nothing tastes good when you’re all stuffed up with a cold- you can’t smell anything. Secondly, a clean glass provides a much better view of your beer, its color and appearance.

1. PINT GLASS, MUG, TUMBLER – This is your basic glass which comes in many different variations. They allow for a good amount of room for foam and an unobstructed view of the beer’s appearance. It’s good for everything from an IPA, to a black lager. When unsure of what glass to use, you can go with this one.

2. CHALICE, SNIFTER, TULIP – These are bulbous glasses with stems at the bottom and curved lips. They are designed for stronger and sweeter beers such as barleywine, stouts, and Belgian ales. Their round shape allow for vigorous swirling of the beer in order to releases their strong aromas, the curved lips and relatively large surface area direct the aromas to your nose for your enjoyment. Double IPAs with their strong hop aromas and high alcohol content also do well in this style.

3. WEIZEN - These are large, tall glasses with bulbous tops. They are chiefly designed to accommodate the strong carbonation of wheat beers such as hefeweizens, weizenbock, dunkelweiss and the like.  Their length provides plenty of space to contain the massive foam these beers produce. Trying to pour a Hefeweizen into a smaller glass will surely result in not much but foam and disappointment.

Now that you’ve got the right glass ware, let us show you how to pour the perfect pint

Although the most commonly held belief is that that the only way to enjoy beer is when it is as fresh as possible from the brewery, there are in fact many beer styles which, when properly taken care of, benefit greatly from aging much like fine wine.

During a trip to Belgium I once had the opportunity to try some  aged beer, including a dunkelweisse from 1979 and a Chimay from 1986. They were fantastic, with a smoothness and mellowness akin to fine brandy or port.

When kept properly beer can be aged for decades or even longer. In 2006, a cache of beer was found in an English brewery dating back to 1869, and the beer was still good. You don’t have to wait over 140 years for beer to benefit from aging though, just a few months in the right conditions will make certain beers noticeably improve in flavor.

Let’s take a look at the basics of aging beer.

The first thing you should know is that not all beer benefits from aging; the majority of the beer you drink should be consumed as soon as possible. Beers that have strong hop profiles, IPAs and the like will not age well. Hops tend to break down and dissipate over time leaving little of their spicy goodness to be enjoyed.

Similarly, beers which are not bottle conditioned and have been artificially carbonated will not age very well. The removal of the yeast from the bottle largely halts the aging process. Your favorite pilsener or wheat beer should be enjoyed sooner rather than later. Stronger and sweeter bottle conditioned beers, such as barleywines, stouts and many Belgium beers however will age beautifully.

Here are some traits that makes a beer well-suited for aging:

The first quality which makes a beer a good candidate for aging is a strong alcohol percentage. Beer with 8% alcohol and up generally age very well, as the strong alcohol flavors will mellow out over time and become smoother and more delicate.

Secondly, bottle conditioned beer, that is beer with active yeast still in it, ages extremely well. Because the beer is still alive it continues to condition the beer, constantly adding complexity and subtlety to beer.

The next trait which allows beer to age well is sweet, malty flavors. Because hops tend to break down over time and lose their flavors you can’t rely on hoppy beers to age well. Inevitably the hop flavors will subside making the flavors from the malt and grain stand out. For this reason beers with sweet, roasted and malty flavors do well when aged. The residual sugars which give a beer its sweet taste also react well with the alcohol to create mellow, subtle flavors.

Aging beer should be stored upright in a cool (50-60F), dark, dry place, but not too dry. A fridge seems like a good idea but it will keep your beer too dry and over the long haul can cause a cork or bottle cap to loose its seal. For these reasons basements and other cellar-like environments do wonders for aging beer, the most important thing however is that a beer should be kept in consistent conditions. A space which fluctuates wildly with outside condition will not do a beer any favors.

If you decide to try aging your own beer a good way to do it is to buy two bottles of the beer. One should be consumed immediately and one after aging, this will allow you to really notice how much the aging has changed the beer.

Much like wine, aged beer will eventually peak and slowly stop aging significantly. Knowing when is the best time to drink your favorite aged beer can be tough to gauge, there is still much to be learned about how beer ages. Generally speaking the stronger the beer, the longer you should give it. The strongest beers (around 12% and up) can be aged for decades, while relatively lighter beers will be at their best after anywhere from a few months to a few years in the cellar. You may have to do your own experiments to determine when your favorite beer is at its peak. The toughest part of such experiments of course is resisting the urge to drink the beer now, but believe me, the end results are well worth the wait.

For the last few years Michelob Ultra has been oddly promoted as some sort of ‘sport beer.’ Even though a recent study suggests that beer can rehydrate better than water after exercise I don’t think anyone is ditching their Gatorade for beer when heading to the gym.

Michelob Ultra’s tag line of “Lose the carbs. Not the taste.” just doesn’t make much sense if you think about it. The main ingredient in beer is barley after all, which as a grain is almost entirely carbs. This means Michelob is basically trying to simultaneously increase the flavor while decreasing the ingredients, something that is bound to be met with failure.

Miller has also recently gotten in on this quest to have the lowest calorie beer, with  MGD 64 whose commercials seem to suggest that every other beer is wildly rich in calories.

If you look at the facts however this simply doesn’t add up. MGD 64 only has about two and half calories per ounce less than Michelob Ultra, which means 64 calories of it would only be a sip or two less than MGD 64, not the shot that is portrayed in the commercial. The same thing applies when you compare Michelob Ultra to Guinness, which with its nickname “liquid bread” is frequently considered to be an especially heavy and calorie-rich beer, but it only has about two calories more per ounce than Michelob Ultra, which again is the difference of only a sip or two when having a pint of it.

The point to take from all this is that yes, some beers have less calories than others but not all that much and quibbling over a few ounces here and there isn’t going to make much of a difference and you’ll lose a great deal of flavor in the process. Despite what Michelob would have you believe, beer simply isn’t a sport drink.

Beer is made from four basic ingredients: Barley, water, hops and yeast. The basic idea is to extract the sugars from grains (usually barley) so that the yeast can eat it up and spit out alcohol and CO2 thus making beer.

The brewing process starts with grains, usually barley (although sometimes wheat, rye or other such things.) The grain is harvested and processed. This is done by heating, drying out and cracking the grain. The main goal of malting the grains to isolate the enzymes wanted by brewers so that it’s ready for mashing.

The grains then go through a process know as mashing, in which they are steeped in hot, but not boiling, water for about an hour, sort of like you were making tea. This activates enzymes in the grains which causes it to begin to break down and release the sugar inside of it. Once this is accomplished you drain the hot water from the mash that’s full of the sugar from the grains. You’ve now got a hot, sticky sweet liquid called wort which is basically unmade beer, sort of like dough is unmade bread.

The wort is boiled for about an hour during which time hops are added at various points.
What are hops? Hops are the small, green cone-like fruit of a vine plant. They provide bitterness to balance out all the sugar in the wort and provide flavor. They also act as a natural preservative, which is what they were first used for. (For more info on hops take a look at our article on the subject.)


Once the hour long boil is up the wort is cooled, strained and filtered. It’s then put in a sealed container and yeast is added to it. The brewing is now complete and fermentation begins. The beer is then stored for a couple of weeks at room temperature (in the case of ales) or many many weeks at cold temperatures (in the case of lagers) while the yeast works its fermentation magic. Basically the yeast eats up all that sugar from the grains that’s in the wort and spits out CO2 and alcohol as waste products. (For more info on the difference between ales and lagers check our article here.)

You’ve now got alcoholic beer, however it is still flat and uncarbonated. The flat beer is bottled, at which time it is either artificially carbonated like a soda, or if it’s going to be ‘bottle conditioned’ it’s allowed to naturally carbonate via the CO2 the yeast produces. After allowing it to age for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months you drink the beer, and it’s delicious!

Budweiser has recently launched a major ad campaign centered around Bud Light’s unique ability to be placed in your mouth and swallowed, or as they refer to it, “drinkability.”

This is apparently something that sets Bud Light apart from other drinks. Really Budweiser? Let’s take a look at one of those ads.

I have to agree with Budweiser on a few points. Something is generally easier to drink when it’s not being sprayed at you from a hose at full blast, or not hot sauce, or not hail (which as a solid and not a liquid is in fact impossible to drink.) Last time I checked however none of the other light beers out there were any of these things, they were in fact beer, and generally served in glasses. So unless there’s some brewing company I don’t know about making a hail and Tabasco flavored beer that’s sprayed at you from a hose, I’m not sure if Budweiser is really making much of a claim for Bud Light.

Like red and white wine, ales and lagers are the two key divisions in beer styles. Instead of being determined by the type of grape used however, lagers and ales differ chiefly in how they are fermented. Not sure what the difference is? Well, let’s find out.

Chances are you’re not quite sure what exactly fermentation is, but that’s okay. All you need to know at the moment is that it’s the process that happens when yeast eats up the sugar in pre-fermentation beer (called wort) and spits out CO2 and alcohol as waste products.

Ales are fermented by yeast that hangs out at the top of the wort (hence the name top-fermenting) and needs just a few weeks at room temperatures to work its magic.

Lagers on the other hand settle at the bottom of the wort (which is why they’re called bottom-fermenting.) Lager yeast needs cooler temperatures just above freezing and much more time to do its thing; months, instead of the weeks it takes ales. This is why the word “lager” comes from the German verb for “to store.”

While lagers tend to be a little crisper than ales, whether a beer is a lager or an ale really doesn’t limit the flavor, strength and style it will possess.  Americans are most familiar with the pilsner style of lager thanks to the efforts of big brewing like Budweiser or Coors, but there are countless other lager styles out there as well, from bock to marzen.

It should be noted that not all beer can be so neatly placed in these two categories. There are hybrid styles like the California common (or steam beer) that combine lager ingredients with an ale fermentation to produce a unique style, which was the result of the limited refrigeration options available to German emigrants in 1800′s California who tried to mimic the lager styles of their homeland.

Additionally, there are Belgian lambics which are traditionally produced using a process know as “spontaneous fermentation,” in which the pre-fermentation wort is exposed to the open air in parts of Southern Belgium where certain yeast grows naturally and will find its way into the beer on its own, rather then being added by man.

Whether and ale, lager or something else, there are a lot of beer styles out there to try. The next time you’re enjoying your favorite, twitter using the #mybeer hastag to let us know and join in the conversation.

Regardless of what your favorite type of beer is, the last thing any of us want to happen is to see a sixpack of our ale or lager of choice to go bad and get spoiled or “skunked.”

Although the term is frequently used to describe beer that’s gone bad for any variety of reasons, to be precise “skunked beer” refers to beer that’s been over-exposed to sunlight, or “light-struck.” What exactly does that mean, and how can you avoid this happening to your beer? Read on to find out.

Although there are plenty of ways to ruin a beer, overexposure to light is the only way to skunk it. Storing beer at room temperature won’t do it; re-chilling cold beer that’s warmed up won’t do it either.  These are common misconceptions, but the fact remains the only way to skunk a beer is to overexpose it to light.

The reasons why light is so damaging to your beer gets technical fast, but basically, the light causes alpha-acids (the key component of hops) to break down and combine with other chemicals in beer to create 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol, a sulfur-containing substance which produces the strong sulfur smell which is extremely similar to isopentyl mercaptan, or skunk spray.  It’s easy to see why light-struck beer got its skunky nickname; it’s almost the exact same smell.

This is why most beer is sold in brown bottles or cans; the dark glass and opaque aluminum protect beer from most of the harmful UV rays that damage it, a good thing because beer without any protection can become skunked after just a few hours of exposure to direct sunlight. You shouldn’t worry about a glass of your favorite beer going skunky the next time you enjoy it on your patio, but give it an afternoon undisturbed and it might.

At this point you might be wondering about Newcastle or Miller High Life or another beer that comes in a clear bottle,  then of course there are also some European beers like Beck’s that come in green bottles. How come every single one of those beers doesn’t get skunked? Because those beers don’t actually use hops, they use a hop substitute known as tetra-hop, which thanks to the miracle of modern science avoids smelling like skunks when it’s exposed to sunlight. The downside of tetra-hops is it doesn’t smell like hops much at all either; it has almost no scent at all.

For the curious it’s easy to create skunky beer at home, just put a glass of your favorite beer on the windowsill for an afternoon and see how the smell compares before and after.  You can watch the guys over at Basic Brewing try this experiment themselves if you’re curious but still don’t want to waste a perfectly good beer in the name of science.