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German Lagers
Although it was the Czechs who popularized lager brewing, and
the Danes who first identified the S Uvarum strain of Lager yeast (which they
had stolen from the Bavarians), it was without question the Germans who started
this new way of brewing beer. German Monks fermented their beers in cool Alpen
caves. This caused the natural selection of yeasts which fermented well at these
lower temperatures. Any true lager should be fermented on the cool side, and
stored (Lagered) for at least a month at near freezing temperatures. Afterall,
the word "Lager" itself comes from the German verb "Lagern",
meaning "to store".
I'm a bit reluctant to throw all of these beers into this one
highly over-generalised category. Properly speaking, there are a half dozen or
more extremely different styles which all fit nicely into the category of German
Lager. But I don't brew a lot of any of them (mainly because I don't yet have
proper lagering facilities), so that's my only justification for grouping things
the way I do. So look here for Oktoberfest/Märzen, Helles, Dunkles, Bock,
Dopplebock, Pils and more. Obviously, since I'm throwing so many different
styles into one basket, it's impossible to make any sort of general statement
about what the beers in this category look and taste like. Helles and Pils are
light coloured, Dunkles and the Bocks are dark to very dark, and Oktoberfest/Märzen
is somewhere in between. It wouldn't be proper for me to comment any further
than that, since I don't yet have a decent understanding of these styles myself.
The recipes I do have are pretty good, though, and I think you can enjoy them
just the same without having the complete history of the style. Hold tight, as
there are more recipes to come here.
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