Why the World Needs Lagers

Faster than a speeding pint of lager...

The Superman fans will see what I did there.

Okay, so I know I've been conspicuously absent over the past few weeks… kind of like I went to my home planet of Krypton and left humanity to its own devices for a spell. Yes, yes, the Superman references are flowing today.

It was Spring Break!!! Down in sunny southwest Florida!!! But I’m back now and rested… ready to bring the funk.

While I was visiting with the Floridians, an interesting topic came up. A local brewer was talking to my father about why they were offering a basic, bud light like, lager on their flight of craft-brewed excellence. Now, I am on the record as being pro-lagers in a flavor-driven ale world, so I support including lagers into a brewery’s flight… but not a bud light like lager.

Apparently, this brewer was convinced that he needed to make a light pilsner lager so that “people who drink bud light will have something to drink.” Or at least, that is how the episode was retold by my father, who I think agreed with the logic. If the brewer was making a light, flavorless lager so as to imitate Bud, Miller, Coors and all the other garbage water beers, than I completely disagree with the premise.

First of all, those light, fizzy, industrial assembly line, yellow, pseudo-beers are not made with proper techniques or ingredients, deliberately, in order to save money. Since we craft brewers are deliberately making beer the right way, using proper ingredients and proven methods, it will be difficult to replicate the crappy end product, especially at the same price point that big beer does. Not only that, we shouldn't be doing it, and we shouldn't even want to do it in the first place.

But what about those folks who refuse to drink craft beer because they “don’t like it?”

I've buried enough members of the
Wayne family

It still amazes me to this day that people like that exist, but they absolutely do. Some people don’t want to taste the amazing flavors that the spectrum of craft beer styles can bring them. Or to quote Alfred Pennyworth, “Some men just want to watch the world burn, Master Wayne.” (that one wasn't Superman)

For those people, there is no hope. They are stubborn, or something worse, and will never get on board. But they are a very small percentage of big beer drinkers. Most big beer drinkers have never seen the light. They live in a region that is still dominated by big beer, their parents drank big beer and their parents before them, or maybe they’re from a family that works for a big beer company. These unenlightened account for the vast majority of big beer drinkers.

Now let me ask you this: If you make big beer drinkers a light, low-flavor, pilsner lager similar to their precious bud light, won’t they order it every time? And if they order it every time, how will you ever break their unenlightened habits?

I’m not implying that a craft brewer’s mission should be to convert bad beer drinkers into good beer drinkers (though that is a delightful side effect more often than not). A craft brewer’s job is to make good quality beer that is made the right way, and if you do that, the customers will drink it, kind of like a “if you build it, they will come” kind of thing (also not Superman).

Take for example, New Belgium Fat Tire. Fat Tire is what I call a gateway beer. It is a properly made amber ale that is easily palatable for the inexperienced. But it’s still properly made. Nobody at New Belgium is giving up on their principles or fighting ethical battles when they make Fat Tire. They have packaged and distributed Fat Tire to the four corners of America, in bottles, cans and kegs, and people love it. Many people who only drank bad beer for multiple decades of their lives have become acolytes of the Fat Tire cult. This is a perfect example of people who don’t like full-flavored craft beers drinking a less-intense craft beer, because they like it.

Fat Tires everywhere!

My point is, don’t make them a bud light clone… make them a gateway beer. Make them something with a little bit of flavor (instead of no flavor) and made with proper ingredients so they can taste it. Don’t let them stay in their rut, but give them the opportunity to stretch their wings while staying in the nest. Once they realize, as millions have, that they like tasting their beer, they’ll come back to your brewery, and over time, they’ll work up their courage and curiosity to try a pale ale, or a wheat beer, or a Belgian style. Before long, they’ll be a bone fide hop head, scouring the earth for hop bombs and high gravity face melters.

Now I know I used an amber ale as my gateway beer example, but realistically, the better opportunity to make a gateway is in the lager family. As we craft beer lovers already know, lagers are so much more than those light pilsner lagers that AB-InBev and SABMillerCoors churn out. Lagers range in color, body and flavor from the bold dopplebocks and schwarzbiers to the pilsners and American light pilsner lagers… over a dozen different lagers to choose from. And contrary to the light American pilsner lagers, many properly made lagers are very flavorful and pack a punch.

Varieties of lagers

If you are a brewer and worried about whether the bud light drinkers will be happy with your beer, make a few of the lighter varieties of lagers – still properly made with proper ingredients – and sell them to those bud light drinkers. A Dortmunder gold lager, a Vienna lager and a proper pilsner lager should be enough variety to let folks taste the possibilities. If they still don’t like it, that’s okay too – you probably weren't going to convert those guys anyways.

But don’t feel pressured to make a garbage water beer clone just so bud light drinkers will be happy. If that is your reason for making a light lager, in my humble opinion, you've already missed the point of craft brewing.

And not only that, it’s impossible for a small craft brewery to make a bud light clone for as little money as Budweiser does, which means you’ll have to charge more – and why would someone want to pay more money for a product that is equally meh?

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!