The New Hybrid

I’ve had several beer revelations in my lifetime. Not counting the first, that the Busch Light I just tasted on offer from my father was by far the most awful liquid that side of Robitussin, I guess revelation number one would have been tasting the great imported beers of Europe. Bass, Guinness, Spaten: wow, flavor! Throw in Sam Adams and Pete’s Wicked too.
My next beer revelation was the introduction to Belgian beers, by way of a friend from Atlanta and the three colors of Chimay. Blue, Red, White, I loved them all, through all their yeasty, funky, heavy, malty glory. Who were these bizarre Belgian monks who crafted this elixir?
There was the American craft beer revelation, where I learned that the styles of old had been made new again. Cheers to you American, hard working brewers. There was the Imperial/Baltic/Double revelation that brought on big flavors, big booze, and some headaches. Flavor and alcohol overload in the most beautiful way.
A more recent revelation came a few years ago. At the time, I was not very fond of wheat beers. Then, along comes the hoppy wheat beer movement from our nation’s craft beer brewers, and getting the bitter versions allowed me to return to the classic German and Belgian wheat beers. A similar revelation is happening to me right now with hoppy lagers.
The bulk of your American lagers are only minimally hopped. Light lager, standard lager premium lager, beers with names like Miller Lite, Budweiser, Coors ‘Banquet’ Beer – none of these will have much more than a trace of hop flavor.
To be sure, there are styles of lager that are hoppy beers. Pilsner is a lager, and many good examples are quite hoppy. However, most German and Czech pilsners will make use of the noble European hops, like Saaz and Hallertauer, which offer bitterness of the spicy, mineral and flowery variety; not very American. Pilsners are hoppy, just not west coast hoppy, remember, it’s a lager.
There are hoppy lagers previously available. Tupper’s Hop Pocket Pils is a German Pilsner with the classic flavors along with some of the newer American citrus notes. Prima Pils from Victory Brewing Co. is quite hoppy, all spicy and lemon zest puckering bitterness. But these, and most of the beers available until recently fit into previously recognized styles.
India Pale Lager is not an acknowledged style…yet. Could a similar revelation take place for lager, with the introduction of large doses of American hops?  I foresee this being a type of beer that many will enjoy, possibly becoming the summer beer that hopheads make their hot weather session partner.
Rumors abound about breweries offering or about to release a variety of hopped out American all-malt lagers. At present, the most widely available is Double Agent IPL from Sam Adams. Making use of Zeus, Simcoe, Citra, Ahtanum, Cascade, Centennial, and Nelson Sauvin hops, this lager is “full of the bold grapefruit & piney character of an American IPA”. So, you get a hopped out beer, but the cold fermenting nature of the lager yeast adds a clean, crispness to this IPL and lets the hops shine through. Double Agent IPL is a sneakily versatile beer that I could get very used to. Enjoy the brews.
Cheers…
 
Gene’s Haufbrau has at more than 200 beers in bottles or on tap. While they don’t have every beer the Beer Snob writes about, they probably have most. Gene’s is located at 817 Savannah Hwy. 225-GENE. E-mail the Beer Snob at publisher@westof.net