What is a Lager?

Last Updated on Sunday, 4 April 2010 06:32 Written by admin Sunday, 28 September 2008 01:25

Lager is the English name for cool fermenting beers of Central European origin. Pale lagers are the most commonly consumed beers in the world. The name “lager” comes from the German lagern for “to store”, as brewers around Bavaria stored beer in cool cellars and caves during the warm summer months. These brewers noticed that the beers continued to ferment, and also to clear of sediment when stored in cool conditions.[40]

Lager yeast is a cool “bottom-fermenting yeast” (Saccharomyces pastorianus), and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7–12 °C (45–55 °F) (the “fermentation phase”), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0–4 °C (32–40 °F) (the “lagering phase”). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a “cleaner” tasting beer.[41]

Modern methods of producing lager were pioneered by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who perfected dark brown lagers at the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher, who began brewing a lager, probably of amber-red colour, in Vienna in 1840–1841. With improved modern yeast strains, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically 1–3 weeks.