Lager and Lagering...

Most American beer is a type of beer called a lager. Budweiser, the best selling brand outside of the US, Sam Adams, Coors, Busch--these brands are all lagers. Natty Ice is a pale lager that has actually undergone filtering (or more properly, distillation) by freezing.

So what is lager? Lagered beer is essentially beer fermented at a low temperature with a bottom fermenting yeast, sometimes close to the temperature at which the liquid freezes. Since 1953, it has been possible to do this very quickly, although true lagereing for a home brewer takes quite some time--upwards of six or eight months. It's not unusual for a home brewer to start on next summer's stock of lager in September or October.

It's worth noting that the continuous brewing process used by most large American brewers to speed up the process comes at a considerable loss of flavor--there is a reason Sam Adams Lager costs $9.50 a six and Natural Ice can be had for under $6. Sam Adams lager is borderline microbrewed--it doesn't use continuous brewing, and it takes longer and is more labor intensive to make.

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