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Lagers

Bill's Pils

If you are fond of American Style Lagers but are put off by the lack of flavor, try this one. It's light in color, rich, full-bodied, and loaded with hops. This is a great way to test the contributions that one type of hop can give to a beer. Don't be afraid to substitute Saaz, Hallertau, Spalt, Liberty, or Mt. Hoods.

Sam Adams Lager

I don't know how much of the Sam Adams legend is fact or just hype to sell beer but, the Boston Brewing Co. did come up with a great recipe for a well balanced lager. This is quite different from your typical American Lager(Bud, Miller, Rainier, etc). This lager is all malt, no rice or corn to lighten color and body. It is a well hopped beer but not bitter. The boiling hops balance the beer and 4 oz of Hallertau are used to give a heavy hop flavor and aroma. This recipe involves partial mashing which means you are trying to get some fermentable sugars from the 2-row and Munich malt. We are also getting extra hop aromas by adding them to a secondary fermenter(dry hopping).

Oktoberfest

Octoberfest beers have always been associated with higher alcohal levels, sweet malt character, and light copper color. That's exactly what you get with this brew, but with a spicy hop aroma.

Vienna Waits for You

Bud Clone

From the beer factories that gave you Spuds McKenzie, Louie the Lizard, and "born on dating" comes this Bud clone. Yes, it is light and less flavorful than the beers that usually grace these pages. But, sometimes you need to make beer for mass consumption at weddings, parties, wakes, etc.

Helles Bock

Light but malty, rich but clean. Helles Bock or Maibocks are the lighter versions of the more familiar dark chocolate Bock and Doppelbocks German Lagers. Like its darker cousin, Helles Bock is a little higher alcohol (1.060 OG) than the average brew. It is a lager that requires cold fermenting and cold aging for best results.

Dunkel

Back in the 70's, imported beer began to take a bite out of the factory beers' sales. To compete with the flood of Heineken, St. Pauli Girl, and Becks coming into the country, domestic breweries began experimenting with dark lagers. Brands like Michelob Dark appeared along with ads depicting its European flavor difference with characters sniffing bottle caps to show their good taste. What these breweries were actually making were Dunkels; brown to black lagers, lightly hopped, and a very light roast malt character. If you're in the mood for a clean crisp beer with a light body but dark overtones, give this a try.

Doppel Bock

Doppelbocks are brewed for celebration and this one is no different Doppel or Double Bocks are high alcohol, dark, sweet, and malty lagers. The chocolaty malt character comes from a healthy portion of a dark German crystal malt, called CaraMunich, and chocolate malt. The high alcohol is a product of 10 lbs of malt extract, lightly hopped to bring out it's sweet character.

German Pils

Pilsner, or Pils for short, are lager (cold fermented and aged) beers. Most people associate Pils with light lagers like Bud or Miller. The original is still light in color but more flavorful in both malt and hop characteristics. Originating in Eastern European countries of Czechoslovakia and Poland, Pilsners were modified and made on a larger scale by German Breweries. The difference is additions of corn or rice in the Czech styles but a strict adherence to purity (just malt, hops, water, and yeast) in a German Pils.

Pils Urquell

The original Pilsner from the Czech Republic

Anchor Steam

A pioneer beer in the craft brewing industry, unique because it uses a lager yeast but ferments at ale temperatures.

Heineken