EUGENE, OR—Last week, Denver, Colorado hosted the 2013 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), an annual, three-day beer festival and one of the most coveted beer competitions in the brewing industry. Presented by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest national beer competition that recognizes the most outstanding beers produced in the nation.

In an award ceremony held on Oct. 13 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, the top three winners in the competition’s 84 beer-style categories were announced. Jamie Floyd, Ninkasi’s founding brewer and co-owner, and other Ninkasi team members excitedly accepted an award on-stage as the brewery was presented with a gold medal in the Bohemian-Style Pilsener beer-style category for its Bohemian Pilsner. In total, 53 beers from breweries across the nation competed in this category.

Released in July 2013, Ninkasi’s Bohemian Pilsner was brewed under its Rare and Delicious Series, offering limited-release beers that are creative expressions of its brewing collective. The beer itself was released specifically for the 26th Oregon Brewers Festival, and is a Ninkasi take on the traditional Bohemian-Style Pilsener. Ninkasi’s Bohemian Pilsner is a medium-bodied golden lager with spicy floral aromas from the styles signature hop, Saaz.

“Winning gold or any medal for a Bohemian-Style Pilsener is an incredible achievement for us as brewers,” explains Floyd. “This is an incredibly difficult beer to make and we love to show that we are as committed to making delicious lagers as much as we are to the hoppy beers we are associated with.”

Set to release in January 2014, Ninkasi will release its Bohemian Pilsner as the next beer in its Prismatic Lager Series. Renamed after the Czech word for truth, Pravda will be available in 12oz. bottles and on-draft January through April 2014.

“This style has been produced for centuries in Europe so we are excited to share this delicious lager with our fans as a true representation of the style,” says Floyd.

Ninkasi’s complete line-up of beers can be found at: www.NinkasiBrewing.com/beers.

About Ninkasi Brewing Company
Founded in 2006 by Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge, Ninkasi Brewing Company continues to grow from its first batch of Total Domination IPA, to a 55-barrel brewing system located in Eugene, Ore. Ninkasi’s Flagship beers—Total Domination IPA, Tricerahops Double IPA, Believer Double Red, Oatis Oatmeal Stout, and Vanilla Oatis Oatmeal Stout—are sold throughout Oregon, Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and British Columbia. The brewery remains privately-owned and is committed to community support and giving. Ninkasi’s Beer Is Love program offers in-kind donations and support for organizations throughout its footprint.

La Crosse, WI

Pearl Street Brewery, which started in a basement with a seven-barrel subterranean brewhouse, is now a 30-barrel brewery. Rubber Mills Pils is hopped with whole-leaf Saaz hops.

ABV: 5

ABW: 3.92

COLOR: 30

BITTERNESS: 50

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1044

AVAILABLE: WI

Dobranska Desitka is the 10˚ unfiltered house lager, light orange-colored in the glass and sitting beneath a fine and firm head of snow-white foam. A nose of crushed grain (think Grape Nuts) with underlying hints of resin and ripe pineapple in the background leads through to an appetizingly crisp mouthfeel that is softened by a flurry of light sugary caramel notes before a dry, bittersweet finish. It’s marvelous.

Dobranska Hvezda is the 12˚ svetly lezak (light lager), a superlative beer with sweet toasted grain, slight pepperiness and delicate Saaz-derived floral notes all vying for attention on the nose. The palate has a hint of fruit pastilles, a slight sweetness and a long lasting dry and bitter finish. A lightbulb flashes on in my head. I ask Petruzalek if what we are drinking is really a pilsner style, bearing in mind the closeness of the historical brewery (I didn’t know then that he had worked there until 2003). The answer, translated, comes back, “All these beers would be adjudged to be a pilsner style because of the way they are made.”

I guess he means yes. However, search through the rest of the Czech-brewing world and you will only find one brewery using the term pilsner: the mighty Pilsner Urquell, a Hercules of beer that has bestrode the world since its arrival in 1842. On that sunny afternoon, passing through this gorgeous array of beers, I wonder why this is so. Especially as in the rest of the brewing world the terms pils and pilsner/pilsener are sprinkled about as freely as ticker tape on a big day in Lower Manhattan.

A true pilsner should be all-malt, a shade of gold and decidedly hop-first, with a crisp bitterness and rambunctious aroma overlaying soft Continental maltiness. Pilsner Urquell is the original, implicit in the name, and is the triumphant culmination of the Bohemian brewing in Plzeň, an area known for its superior malt and hops, and unfortunate lack of direction. That direction was supplied by a famous brewer―along with yeast from Bavaria―and a couple of whirlwind years transformed Plzeň from substandard to sublime.

The Bohemian Life

The Czech territories have been under the auspices of various empires over the past 2,000 years, and like most of the European lands, the inhabitants brewed beer. Trade routes crossing Europe during the first millennium passed through Bohemia and Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. Settlements where Prague and Plzeň now sit were key stations for commerce and respite. Bohemia has nearly perfect conditions for growing hops, which cultivated a thriving hop industry. This valuable, coveted commodity was exported extensively, as hops were becoming an ordinary brewing ingredient. First agricultural note was in 859 A.D., and export in 903, meaning that Bohemian hop merchants have been in business for over 1,100 years.

The Žatec region produced the best, known as Žatec Red, or the familiar Saaz. So important were they that it was made a capital crime to smuggle rhizomes out of the territory. Cities were built on the strength of Bohemia’s hop production, and the beer-centric cities of Plzeň, Prague and České Budějovice have always been part of Bohemia.

Bohemia and adjacent Moravia has soil unmatched for growing wheat, oats and barley. Though beer was still a multi-grain tipple, the seeds were sown for what became the world’s most important barley growing region. Moravia especially cultivated, by careful selection, what is considered the finest barley in the world over several centuries. By the mid-19th century, a wealthy landowner developed the Hana variety. It is considered the progenitor of all modern types, having genetic ties to premium barley grown in Germany and England.

Modern Plzeň was granted cityship in 1295 by King Wenceslas II of Bohemia on a site 10 kilometers from the old settlement at the confluence of 4 rivers, convenient to trade routes. The Good King granted the 260 citizens of New Plzeňthe right to brew in their homes with wort from a communal brewery. History seems to cast the Bohemians as a cooperative lot, evident in their collective brewing persuasions. Soon, a guild of brewers and farmers was formed to ensure that their product would remain locally robust and to allow passage of the craft to their descendants.

Even with outstanding indigenous hops and barley, Bohemian brews were not more highly regarded than their neighbors in Germany. Bavarians were perfecting bottom-fermentation, and Einbeckers to the north were fine-tuning their renowned bock. Meanwhile, contemporary Bohemian brews were rather undistinguished. Perhaps this was due to the lack of continuity and endless, chaotic change of rule that hovered over them for centuries. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was especially devastating for Bohemian brewing. Within 200 years though, Plzeň would rebound and take the world by storm, combining local ingredients, the savvy of an invited guest and yeast from an unlikely source. They have never looked back.

The most impressive European contribution to brewing science came from Bavaria, where a special yeast was developed that had a unique ability to ferment beer at very low, nearly freezing, temperatures. At that time Munich, or Bavarian, beer was brewed dark but not always strong. The unique cold ferment was carried on in deep caves and the sub-40 F (4.5 C) temperatures were made possible by using ice harvested from frozen lakes in winter. The beer was made in winter and aged, or stored, until summer. Such beer was called “lagered” or stored beer, from the German lagern, “to store.”

The cold temperatures allowed an infection-free ferment with fairly low alcohol content and eliminated souring bacterial contamination, which could ruin its taste. This cold ferment was much slower and resulted in a smoother, mellower product. Munich beer was the first of the great modern European beer styles to be developed in the nineteenth century. It was mellow and malty, dark amber or copper in color, mildly hopped, and had a little less than 5 percent alcohol from a gravity of 12 Plato (British 1048). It was brewed in most countries about the world as simply “dark lager.” There were many fine examples.

Dark beers are brewed less frequently these days, even in the lands of their origin. Why? Our great American contribution to brewing science, aka Bud/Coors/Miller, is flooding European markets and the young drinkers (like our own young drinkers) are going for tasteless, colorless, character-free beer that is so popular in this country.

Czech Origins

Our own indistinctive beers weren’t always thus. They originally attempted to follow a particular style: “pilsner” is the name found on many of our beers, and indeed on those from across the world.

The original pilsner beer is from Pilsen (Plzeň), Czech Republic. The brewery was said to have been established in 1280 by royal decree and, if you believe the importer’s press agent, they have made the very same beer since that time. The beer, of course, is Pilsner Urquell. “Urquell” means original, the Original Pilsner.

Pilsner-style lager beer is very pale, almost straw-colored, from medium gravity (12.1 degrees Plato), with medium alcohol (4.3% ABV) and a dry crisp taste. It has mellow bitterness (about 43 IBU—International Bittering Units), accompanied by a highly aromatic hop bouquet. When you crack a fresh amber bottle of Pilsner Urquell in Europe, the hop bouquet is nearly overwhelming; the delicate flavor quite intriguing. The beer has been brewed in almost identical fashion for over a 150 years, but only an ad writer would imagine that this is the very same beer that was brewed in 1280. In this country, the bottle is green and the beer has often deteriorated badly.

The American product we call Budweiser (11P/1044 British, 4.7 % ABV and 10.5 IBU) uses a large amount of rice in its production. The company claims not to have changed the recipe over the last 130 years. Can you imagine that? We know that the taste threshold in hops is at about 12 IBU, which explains the lack of perceptible hop character in this beer.

The real story behind the so-called “pilsner” is much more interesting than any PR agent could imagine. In 1842, a number of small householder brewers united to form a Citizen’s Brewery in Pilsen. They produced 96,000 gallons (3,100 bbl) that year, and the beer, at that time, was unique. It was very much like the present-day product. This was possible owing to malting methods developed in the latter part of the eighteenth century, which had made very pale barley malt possible. Until then most beers had been relatively dark in color, even when called pale.

More importantly, there was a new yeast strain that had been brought from Munich, in Bavaria, to Pilsen by a monk in 1840. The combination of very pale Bohemian malts, lovely Czech Saazer hops and a long, slow, cold ferment brought about a revolution in the world’s brewing industry. With the possible exception of the invention of mechanical refrigeration (1860s), this was probably the most important development in brewing history. Modern examples of this beer type are most often called “pils” and they dominate the world market.

The Great Ale Nations

No discussion of the effects of the Bud/Coors/Millers invasion on the European brewing scene, however brief, can exclude the beers of Britain and Belgium. The range of British ale styles have filled many books on beer and the Belgians’ easily fill many others. However, let me just babble on about two favorites of mine: Belhaven Scottish Ale from Dunbar, near Edinburgh in Scotland, and Orval Trappist Ale from Villes-Devant-Orval, Belgium.

Belhaven 80 Shilling Ale is brewed from 10-degrees extract (1041) in 4,300-gallon (140-bbl) batches, using well water from deep Dunbar wells. Traditional English East Kent Goldings hops are added in the boil and a batch is boiled in two segments in the brew copper, (the British call the brew kettle a “copper”), which can only hold 2,600 gallons/9,800 litres (84 bbl) at a time.

The beer is fermented initially in 40 hours at 58 F/14.5 C, followed by four more days of slow ferment at 52 F/11 C. The result is a rather mild alcohol content of 4.25 percent, with no additives or adjuncts. Belhaven started brewing in 1719 and is a small brewery, by American standards. I tasted it here (on nitrogen draught) just last week. Wow!

Belgian Orval Trappist Ale is one of only a handful of Belgian beers allowed the Trappist appellation on the label. It is certified by the Brussels School of Brewing to be a totally natural beer with no artificial ingredients or flavorings. Three separate yeast strains are used in the triple ferment, along with Belgian-grown and malted barley and hops plus water from the famous Matilda Fountain inside the monastery. The usual initial (or primary) ferment is followed by a second ferment during the two-month aging process at 59 F/15 C), and finally a third ferment, in the distinctive baroque bottle, after the addition of a champagne-style dosage.

When bottled, the beer is allowed to age for at least three months. In Belgium, each label has a Roman numeral indicating the month of bottling, which is lacking in the import version available here. I’ve tried it both before and after the aging cycle, and the beer definitely does improve in the bottle. That’s what a bottle-ferment does for you—but the beer tends to cloud if it is not decanted carefully to avoid disturbing the yeast sediment on the bottom of the bottle. As for me, I don’t mind if the beer is not perfectly clear, and I know the yeast is good for me. Orval Trappist Ale has a typical “Belgian” flavor and 6.7 percent alcohol.

The Ark

What  lies ahead for these outstanding traditional beers? Too many of Britain’s young citizens are switching to America’s anemic brews, to the detriment and loss of many of their fine breweries. And a number of Belgian brewers seem to be taking a hit and that’s pretty serious, because the Belgian brewing scene, although-world class and very distinctive, is quite fragile. Many of their brewers are very small by world standards. More to the point, we need them.

The only good note we can find here is the great American craft brewing industry, which seems to be becoming (in Slow Food terms) an “ark” of beer. We are brewing and preserving some great examples of Belgian, English and German-style production, so all is not totally lost, at least not yet. In fact, American craft brewers are busy inventing great new beer styles as well as improving some great “old” beer styles. Witness the great wave of wonderful India pale ales, with IBU counts of up to a hundred. Not everyone’s piece of cake, but they certainly make my day!

We are still in need of low alcohol brews in this country, not just for those of us who want to drink more than two in an evening, but also for our youngest citizens, the 18 to 20 year olds who could easily use mandatory training brews they could order in public houses. This could help teach them about the effects of alcohol. Sadly that won’t happen soon because Americans wouldn’t buy a beer called “mild,” just as they didn’t buy ones labeled “low alcohol.”

Plenty of new styles of ale have been showing up on the scene recently. Barrel aged ales, wildly fermented ales and a myriad of hop-bombs to entice the beer hunters out there. Experimental styles seem to generating a lot of intrigue, but for flavor and balance, be sure to stop by and give your old friends, the lagers, a visit once in a while.

Here are a few to revisit or try the next time you’re in the mood for a crisp, clean quaff. As far as pale lagers go, treat yourself to the Imperial Lager (91 points) from Lion Brewery Ceylon in Sri Lanka. An incredible lager to spend some time enjoying, considering its ABV weighs in at 8.8 percent. To amp it up a bit, invite some of your favorite curry dishes to the party. If the occasion is game day, and you need a great session brew to pair nicely with some homemade chili, try the lager from River Horse Brewery Lager in New Jersey (87 points).

Many brands these days are calling themselves pilsners. It is, after all, the most widely replicated style. Buyer beware: many in reality are watered down versions of the classic. Here are a few that will give a taste of true pilsner perfection. Zatec Bright Lager (90 points) from the Czech Republic, the home of pilsner, is highly drinkable and well balanced. Germany’s Paulaner Brauerei (88 points) brews another fine example of the style. Even Scotland has shown us an interesting take from the Atlas Brewery: Latitude Highland Pilsner (90 points) is soft on the palate and highly thirst quenching. Try any of these brews with some encased meats and hard cheeses at your next session with friends.

When fall rolls around, many breweries offer fine examples of malty Oktoberfest beers to grace the autumnal celebrations. From Germany, try Hofbrähaus München Oktoberfest (92 points) or Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest (90 points) as benchmarks for the style. Upland Brewing’s Oktoberfest Bavarian-Style Lager (84 points) from Indiana is a great example of the influence the classics have had on an American brewer: a big, roasty malt bomb with some warming qualities as well. Wash down some roasted chicken or pork with some spätzle on the side with any of these fest beers.

Dark lagers, or dunkels are personal favorite. Hirter Morchl from Austria (96 points), with its perfect balance, is a must-try for any fan of the style. Hofbrähaus München Dunkel (93 points) is also welcome to the session. If you are in the mood to seek out a domestic example, definitely keep your eyes open for Bastone Brewery’s Munich Dunkel Lager from Michigan (90 points): you will be rewarded with excellence. Try a dunkel with a liverwurst sandwich if you’re feeling adventurous.

Lastly, explore the doppelbocks, the dark and mischievous side of the lager coin. Salvator Doppelbock from Paulaner (93 points) was my introduction to the style many years ago and still a personal favorite. For a fun combo, pairing try it first with some braised pork-belly and then, for dessert, some crème brûlée: you’ll experience just how dynamic and complex this beer style really is.

A handful of classics and a few interpretations of the various styles rounded out this last World Beer Championships. Many thanks to the brewers and judges who participated in such an extraordinary event. Cheers!

Plenty of new styles of ale have been showing up on the scene recently. Barrel aged ales, wildly fermented ales and a myriad of hop-bombs to entice the beer hunters out there. Experimental styles seem to generating a lot of intrigue, but for flavor and balance, be sure to stop by and give your old friends, the lagers, a visit once in a while.

Here are a few to revisit or try the next time you’re in the mood for a crisp, clean quaff. As far as pale lagers go, treat yourself to the Imperial Lager (91 points) from Lion Brewery Ceylon in Sri Lanka. An incredible lager to spend some time enjoying, considering its ABV weighs in at 8.8 percent. To amp it up a bit, invite some of your favorite curry dishes to the party. If the occasion is game day, and you need a great session brew to pair nicely with some homemade chili, try the lager from River Horse Brewery Lager in New Jersey (87 points).

Many brands these days are calling themselves pilsners. It is, after all, the most widely replicated style. Buyer beware: many in reality are watered down versions of the classic. Here are a few that will give a taste of true pilsner perfection. Zatec Bright Lager (90 points) from the Czech Republic, the home of pilsner, is highly drinkable and well balanced. Germany’s Paulaner Brauerei (88 points) brews another fine example of the style. Even Scotland has shown us an interesting take from the Atlas Brewery: Latitude Highland Pilsner (90 points) is soft on the palate and highly thirst quenching. Try any of these brews with some encased meats and hard cheeses at your next session with friends.

When fall rolls around, many breweries offer fine examples of malty Oktoberfest beers to grace the autumnal celebrations. From Germany, try Hofbrähaus München Oktoberfest (92 points) or Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest (90 points) as benchmarks for the style. Upland Brewing’s Oktoberfest Bavarian-Style Lager (84 points) from Indiana is a great example of the influence the classics have had on an American brewer: a big, roasty malt bomb with some warming qualities as well. Wash down some roasted chicken or pork with some spätzle on the side with any of these fest beers.

Dark lagers, or dunkels are personal favorite. Hirter Morchl from Austria (96 points), with its perfect balance, is a must-try for any fan of the style. Hofbrähaus München Dunkel (93 points) is also welcome to the session. If you are in the mood to seek out a domestic example, definitely keep your eyes open for Bastone Brewery’s Munich Dunkel Lager from Michigan (90 points): you will be rewarded with excellence. Try a dunkel with a liverwurst sandwich if you’re feeling adventurous.

Lastly, explore the doppelbocks, the dark and mischievous side of the lager coin. Salvator Doppelbock from Paulaner (93 points) was my introduction to the style many years ago and still a personal favorite. For a fun combo, pairing try it first with some braised pork-belly and then, for dessert, some crème brûlée: you’ll experience just how dynamic and complex this beer style really is.

A handful of classics and a few interpretations of the various styles rounded out this last World Beer Championships. Many thanks to the brewers and judges who participated in such an extraordinary event. Cheers!

But there’s much more to tell. First of all, ale and lager are both beers; that is, they are fermented from grain. The major difference between these two beer families stems from the temperature at which fermentation is carried out. And the importance of these differences in temperature is that chemical reactions happen more slowly at lower temperatures.

The science of chemical change tells us that for each increase of 18 degrees Fahrenheit/10 degrees Celsius, the speed of chemical change is doubled; a similar decrease, and the speed of change is halved. But when the temperature goes above 104 degrees F/40 degrees C, or falls below 58 degrees F/15 degrees C, most yeast will be in trouble.

Brewers generally want their beer to attenuate (convert sugar to alcohol) slowly in the ferment, thus changes will take place over a longer period of time. Hence, they tend to keep fermentation temperatures as low as possible, particularly in the aging process after attenuation is, for the most part, complete.

S. cerevisiae is the most common yeast out there. Variants of this yeast are used in bread making, winemaking and other common formulations. We think of it as the original beer yeast, used in the production of all original beer styles dating back to early Babylonian times—the original or natural yeast used in ale beer production. It is the universal yeast, appearing world wide, even into the Antarctic.

We call it “top fermenting” or “ale” yeast: it ferments throughout the body of the beer wort, rising first to the surface (where it can be harvested). In time, it will sink to the bottom of the fermentation vessel, remaining after the finished beer is removed. This yeast also has greater tolerance to alcohol, hence it is capable of producing stronger (higher alcohol content) beers.

Saccharomyces uvarum—so called “bottom fermenting” or “lager” yeast—is more fragile. It ferments throughout the body of the beer wort and settles to the bottom of the vessel at the end of that process. The wonder of bottom fermenting yeast is that, in addition to being very fragile, it attenuates more slowly and to a lesser extent than ale yeast. Not only that, but it has lower alcohol tolerance and almost no ability to sporulate (form cysts of one to three cells that are surrounded by a protective wall as protection against cold). Without this protection, it will continue to work at fairly cool temperatures, even below 39 degrees F/3 degrees C. It has the additional ability to ferment the sugar melibose, an ability missing in the top fermenting “ale” yeast.

These traits might appear to be a disadvantage for this yeast strain, and in some ways they are. But the effect is to leave a greater remnant of sugar in beer. Combined with the very slow attenuation, this results in better clarification, a more full-bodied beer with far fewer esters and a better and more mellow palate. The final result of all that is the wonder of so-called “lager” beer (from the German lagern: to store), a beer that is crisper in character and less fruity in aroma than ale. If the only beer you had ever tasted were heavy and hoppy ale beer, lager would indeed be a revelation to you.

Better Yet is the Story!

It all began in the Middle Ages when Bavarian brewers discovered that their beer continued to ferment while being stored in cold ice-caves during the winter. The result was a greatly improved, very smooth, mellow tasting brew. They would brew in late fall and store the beer, covered with ice harvested from nearby lakes and rivers, until early spring. They called it lager beer because of the long storage period. This beer, fermented at some 40 degrees F/4 degrees C had worked only half as fast as similarly brewed ale beer brewed at 58 degrees F/14 degrees C.

In the second half of the 19th century, scientists (Pasteur and others) began to study this beer’s obviously different yeast with great interest. By that time, the most renowned version of the beer had come to be called “pilsner,” after the Bohemian (now Czech) city of Pilzn. The original yeast had been brought to Bohemia from Bavaria by traveling monks. Quality glassware had come into production, and improved malting techniques made very pale beer feasible. This new beer was clearer, more beautiful and mellower, thanks to those improved malting techniques and lowered hop rates. The cold ferment prevented souring, allowing reduction of the high hop levels that were required for safe ale ferments. This was especially so once the introduction of refrigeration permitted year-round production.

It was a whole new ball game: beautiful beer from cultured yeasts, along with mellow taste and lower alcohol content led to the introduction of pilsner-style beer across the planet. It was the brewing phenomenon of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lager brewers soon cornered the major beer markets in much of the world, with the major exception of Great Britain and Belgium, where the brewers continued to cling to their beloved ales.

Lager Domination

Central Europe, and to some extent the United States, came to dominate world beer production with this fascinating new beer type. Large American brewers of this era began to buy up their smaller neighbors. Nevertheless, by 1860 there were 1,269 breweries in this country, with a total population of 31 million people. Although expansion and consolidation continued, there were a little over 1,900 breweries by the end of that century. Prohibition loomed and numbers fell precipitately, so that fewer than 1,000 remained by the time Prohibition was enacted in 1919.

After Prohibition was repealed at the end of 1933, some 756 brewers eventually returned to production in the next few years. However, consolidation once again became the major activity of American brewers. Only 605 remained in 1939. World War II also took its toll and by 1962 only 220 brewers remained operational.

That wasn’t the worst result of the war. The brewers were forced to lower the alcohol content of much of their production. During the war, the Republicans wanted to return to return the country to Prohibition, but British Prime Minister Churchill urged President Roosevelt not only to allow continued beer production, but to make sure that our armed forces in this country, and in the field across the world, were provided with a reasonable ration of beer.

Actually, when I was serving on Okinawa near the end of the war, we were provided with a weekly ration of six beers, so called “3.2 beer” ABW, which translates to 4% ABV. (I remember that when the Japanese surrendered, supplies became scarce, and our ration was reduced from six beers to six cans of Australian chocolate milk toddy, and a little later to six cans of tomato juice! But I digress. Another time I’ll tell you about the grand party we enlisted folk had to celebrate the war’s end. That one featured some of our purloined officer’s hard liquor, along with stolen steaks and such. Fireworks? They wanted us to return our unused ammunition. Fat chance.)

This era led to the large brewers using greater amounts of cheaper non-malt adjuncts. Eventually it led to the ever lighter and paler beer. By 1962 only 220 brewers remained, down to 55 in 1974, with 10 predicted to remain by 1990. Worse, the beer was becoming totally tasteless.

Then came lite beer, dry beer and ice beer. The lager beer revolution had reached its ultimate end-point. Enough! What the country needed at that point was beer with taste and character. We needed ale beer! Ale beer was a natural result of the many new brewers joining the fray. They didn’t have the room or the refrigeration to produce lager beer; and for the most part were forced to fast ferment their beer because of space limitations.

Ale was just what we beer drinkers needed: beer with flavor and character. We had come a full circle. But rest assured, lager beer will become more popular again for the same reasons it first became dominant on the planet. Folks will tire of ale, and look for mellow lagers again. But maybe this time, the beer styles will be more abundant. Any brew that can be aled can be lagered. Two different results and twice as many satisfied customers. That should be great fun.