How exactly is lager beer popular? Well, very much 🙂 We can say, with certainty, that this beer style is the most consumed worldwide.

Izvor: Allied market research https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/europe-beer-market

And yet looking at the craft beer scene and beer lovers, one somehow gets the impression that the beer styles that belong to the lagers are not as exciting as the others.

Let us start from the beginning.

što lager pivo čini lagerom?

Among other things – lagering. Or ageing. And the point is that the beer must be aged until it clears up.

What does that mean? To make lager beer, we use something called bottom-fermenting yeast. It ferments at lower temperatures, and therefore its metabolism is slower and consequently, so is the whole process by which beer is formed.
As a rule, lager beer is aged for one to three months. During this time, the beer matures, the aromas stabilize, and it becomes a balanced, fine product that we come to know and love.

Of course, everything also depends on the technology used. Today, lager beers can be produced in a much shorter time, using modern biotechnological and technological methods. But if we stick to more traditional production conditions, lager beer needs time to rest.

In Brlog coop beer is lagering in fermentor – most important ingredient is – patience!

There are lager types? Is it not all the same?

No, it is not!

It is common to expect lagers to be light (pale lager) and easy to drink, simple in taste. But that is just a fraction of the spectrum. The colour can vary from light yellow to dark chocolate. Likewise, aromas and complexity can vary in countless combinations. It depends on the ingredients we use but also on the ageing time. So do not judge a beer by its colour – at least until you try it!

A lager beer style with an interesting background story is definitely Märzen bier. It is a reddish lager, made in the past as the last beer of the season for practical reasons. Due to the warmer weather after March, it was not possible to ferment beer because it required cold conditions. So the brewers would make a lot of stock to last them until the fall when production would start again. And to free up the necessary space from any leftovers before the new batch, they decided to make a beer festival and consume all that would be left. And that is the origin of Oktoberfest!

Whoever decides to step into the world of lager beers has a whole range to try. So we have Helles, Pilsner, Märzen, Bock, Vienna lager, Dunkel, Schwarzbier, you name it.

Marčano pivo – red Marzen beer

Brlog brewery’s first lager was a variant of Märzen beer or as we locals say – Marčano. And as we like to add our own twist, our brewer Lukasz added extra hops, making it a bit bitterer than the average lager.

Difference between craft and lager beer

There is none! That is, the terms are not comparable. Craft beer can be any beer style, including lager.
Then why is one of the most common questions we can hear right now – Is lager craft beer? The answer lies in the popularity of the style. Before the craft revolution, the only mainstream choice of beer was lager beer made to satisfy the broad masses. That made it watery, impersonal and not at all adventurous.

Once the craft revolution came about, the story went in a very different direction from the saturated market. Enthusiast started to produce hopped ale beers like IPA, APA and all possible combinations. Lager was mentioned only in the context of larger, commercial breweries and put on ignore, so a person that is not so close to the topic concluded that ale style is craft beer and lager industrial beer – which is not true.

Today the situation has changed significantly. Crafters are making a bunch of interesting lager variants with lots of flavours and aromas.
So, next time do not hesitate to ask at the craft bar for lager beer – it might pleasantly surprise you.