Living the Lager Life (June-July 2020)

Spring is full swing, so fire up the grill and break out the lagers. These three tasty dishes—honey-helles shrimp skewers, dunkel-braised bratwurst, and grilled bock pizza—are designed for cooking over fire and for sharing.

For this foraged recipe that includes sassafras root, spruce tips, and oak bark, any number of yeasts can work—but we think Norwegian kveik is a great fit.

This distinctively spicy folk ingredient has a long tradition of going into American drinks, including beer—though it comes with a few disclaimers. Ready to forage?

Steve Holle, founder and managing partner of the KC Bier Company in Kansas City, Missouri, describes their deliberate, details-oriented approach to brewing traditional German-style lagers.

With some thought and planning, big dessert stouts are well within reach of extract brewers. Here's a recipe featuring vanilla, pecan, cacao, and plenty of toasted coconut.

In this edition of No Rests for the Wicked—a series on extracting the most character from extract brewing—Jester Goldman turns his attention to the dark, decadent, and dessert-like.

Don’t bother with a yeast starter, oxygenation, or cold crashing here. We want the yeast “struggling” to produce a nice, noticeable ester/phenol profile, and the cloudiness is no vice in a weiss.

For 3 Sons Brewing in South Florida, the idea is simple: Make the beer that people want to drink. But that manifests in different ways—from cocktail- and dessert-flavored beers to a barrel-aging program via traditional German styles.

This is a homebrew-scale recipe for the German-style Pils from Smith & Lentz Brewing in Nashville, Tennessee. Below, we explain how the recipe can be adjusted for a range of variations.

“We think pilsners can be as different from each other as the four or five IPAs we have on tap,” says Kurt Smith, cofounder and head brewer at Smith & Lentz Brewing in Nashville, Tennessee.

Mead has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past decade. Here, we ask five new-school meadmakers about the bottles that were formative experiences for them, or that stand out in recent memory.

You, too, can brew a quaffable, enjoyable, malt-forward lager beer—in relatively short order.

It may be brewing science, but it ain’t rocket science. You can brew a great lager faster than you think—but not too fast. Drew Beechum demystifies how it works.

Looking for new gear? The Plaato Keg Management System, Yeti Roadie 24, and Brew Essence Sensory Training Kits were among our Editors' Picks in Issue 39.

From Superstition Meadery in Prescott, Arizona, this homebrew-scale mead recipe gets a tropical boost from Samba hops in the fermentor.

In about a decade, mead has gone from off-the-radar for beer lovers to an attention-grabbing trend driven by bold flavors and rave reviews. So, what’s all the fuss about?

Riggs Beer Company in Urbana, Illinois, brews this old-school American pale lager using a traditional double-mash process. The grain bill consists of six-row base malt and whole-kernel corn.

Matt Riggs is brewmaster and cofounder of Riggs Beer Company in Urbana, Illinois, where they grow their own six-row barley and have it malted locally. Here he talks about the strengths of that under-loved malt.

In 2009, Maine Beer Company cofounders Dan and David Kleban brewed Peeper—over and over—on a one-barrel system until they were happy with the results. It’s a superb example of a modern, brightly aromatic American pale ale.

Newly adopted tricks borrowed from Old World beer culture are helping to elevate service and presentation, reimagining what draft beer looks like.

It all started with Tipopils... Matt Brynildson, brewmaster of Firestone Walker, talks about the beer that sparked his Pivo—as well as a growing number of Italian-inspired pilsners—and the core elements of this burgeoning sub-style.

From outside the box to the top of the beer ratings, Arizona’s Superstition Meadery has gained a devoted following for its characterful, off-the-wall concoctions.

From old school to new and from breweries across the country, here are a few of our favorite American pale ales.

Our country’s signature flavor profile was not born in Burton, but in the hop fields of Oregon.

Agostino Arioli, founder of Birrificio Italiano, provided this homebrew-scale recipe for the beer that inspired “Italian-style” pilsner—an aromatic, floral, dry-hopped pilsner in an elegant frame.

Joe Stange speaks with Agostino Arioli, founder of Birrificio Italiano, about the 25-year-old beer that’s sparking a new wave of hop-forward lagers—and about what makes Tipopils different.

Matt Tarpey, cofounder and head brewer of The Veil, selects a foundational six-pack that combines early experiences with the classics and those he still reaches for today.

Rob Gallagher, former chair of the London Amateur Brewers, has a thing for decoction mashing. This is his Czech-style pale lager recipe, which won Best of Show at London Brew Con 2018. It includes a triple-decoction mash and plenty of gorgeous Saaz hops.

Decoction is not an obsolete brewing technique. It’s one that can take you to other (richer) destinations… even a few you might not expect.

This recipe for an orange-blossom mead is adapted from Ken Schramm’s book, The Compleat Meadmaker. It makes a great starting point for homebrewers who want to dip their toes into meadmaking.

Maybe you’ve eyed the mead section of the homebrew shop with curiosity or flat-out suspicion. Could you become a meadmaker? Turns out, you already are; you just don’t know it yet. All you need are the ingredients and these crucial tips from Josh Weikert.

One of the bright spots of this challenging year: Getting beer delivered to your doorstep has gone mainstream. Here are some apps that make it simple.

Want to brew a helles from 50 years ago? For a snapshot in the evolution of pale lager, here is a Bavarian helles recipe from 1967.

Randy Mosher, author of Radical Brewing, delves into the decidedly un-radical character of the world’s most unassuming—yet arguably most rewarding—swath of the beer spectrum.

Maybe we can't do Oktoberfest this year, but we can still don our dirndls and drink lager. Plan ahead to have this one ready for autumn. The fresh, grassy, floral hop nose on this one is a perfect fit for the bready malts in the grist.

The long-term effects of the pandemic closures are unclear, but a Brewers Association survey of their member breweries suggests that the impact will be severe, causing tectonic shifts in the beer landscape.