Cascade hops are the reason American craft beer exists. That’s not hyperbole — when Sierra Nevada Brewing released their Pale Ale in 1980 using Cascade as the primary hop, it introduced an entire generation of American drinkers to what beer could taste like outside of a mass-market lager. The grapefruit-and-pine character of Cascade became the […]
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Japanese lager is a pale, cold-fermented lager brewed with a level of technical precision that most countries simply can’t match. Japan’s big names — Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin, and Suntory — produce beers that are ultra-crisp, near-zero in aftertaste, and built for easy drinking alongside food. They’re not complex. That’s entirely the point. If your only
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lager beer beer is made using the same basic process as ale — malting, mashing, boiling, fermenting, and conditioning — but with one critical difference: lager uses bottom-fermenting yeast at cold temperatures (35–50°F / 2–10°C) and then undergoes an extended cold conditioning period called lagering before packaging. This cold, slow process is what gives lager
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California Common — also called steam beer — is a uniquely American hybrid lager beer fermented at ale temperatures, producing a beer with the clean malt character of a lager and the fruity complexity of an ale. It’s amber in color, firm in bitterness, with woody, herbal hop notes and a crisp finish. ABV typically
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lager beer is the most food-friendly beer category in the world — and most people haven’t fully appreciated that yet. Its clean fermentation character, moderate carbonation, and range of malt profiles from pale and crisp to dark and toasty mean there’s a lager for almost every dish on the table. The trick is matching the
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Schwarzbier is a German dark lager beer — jet black in color, with flavors of roasted malt, dark chocolate, and coffee, but with the clean, light body of a lager rather than the heaviness of a stout. It typically runs 4.4–5.4% ABV and finishes dry and crisp. It’s the beer that surprises everyone who assumes
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Kellerbier is a German unfiltered, unpasteurized lager beer — pale to amber in color, naturally hazy from yeast in suspension, and fresher in flavor than most commercially filtered beers. It’s how lager tasted before filtration became standard practice. Think soft, round malt character, gentle hop presence, a lively carbonation, and a bright freshness you just
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Rauchbier is a German smoked lager beer — amber to dark brown in color, with a pronounced smoky character derived from malt dried over an open beechwood fire. It tastes like a proper campfire in a glass: smoke, ham, dark bread, and subtle sweetness, all grounded by the clean finish of lager fermentation. ABV runs
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All pilsners are lagers, but not all lagers are pilsners. lager beer is a broad category of beer fermented cold with bottom-fermenting yeast — pilsner is a specific style of pale, hop-forward lager that originated in Bohemia in 1842. The difference is like asking about cars vs. sedans: sedan is a type of car, just
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Czech pilsner — also called Bohemian pilsner — is the original pilsner style, first brewed in Plzeň in 1842 and copied ever since. It’s a pale golden lager beer with a full, soft body, prominent Saaz hop bitterness, and a distinctive spicy, herbal hop aroma. Expect 4.2–5.4% ABV, rich golden color, and one of the
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