Around the World in Sixty-Eight Lagers
With a "First-Glass" Ticket

Posted: December 5, 2005

By Jerald O'Kennard, jerald@tastings.com

Lager styled beers, and particularly the pale lager and pilsner styles, are the world’s most popular beers and our 2005 lager style tasting happily confirms that you can find good ones on every continent of the globe. This year, from Argentina to Vietnam, (and many points between) we saw one of the broadest, international ranges of beers since we began reviewing beers in 1994. Sixty-eight lagers from around the world made it to our tasting room door and we’re sure that youvll find many of them to your liking.

In the pilsner category, two countries that are historically synonymous with great pilsners, The Czech Republic and Germany, shared the top honors with an ¥¥¥upstart¥¥¥ from America. The Radegast Lager (90 points) displayed classic, earthy Saaz hops character from the nose all the way through the crisp, astringent finish. The Pinkus Muller Organic Ur Pils (90 points) had rich, doughy pale malt, subtle fruity raisin notes, and fine bittering hops that would make this a fine foil for German and Eastern European foods. A new beer from the Boston Beer Co., the Samuel Adams Bohemian Pilsner (90 points) was a fruitier, richer take on the classic style with lightly caramelized malt and tangy, ripe citrus flavors that would pair nicely with Thai food.

In the pale lager category, The Gubernija Brewery from Lithuania scored a trio of gold medals for their Gubernijos Ekstra (92 points), Zalgirio (91 points) and Ledo (90 points). These beers display classic Germanic and Czech style with great toastiness in the malt and earthy and tangy hops notes on the finish. The Session Lager (92 points) from Full Sail Brewing Co., was a full-throttled, fruit-forward lager with great texture, depth of flavor and well balanced hops¥¥¥a tasty and tasteful marriage of dry lager and fruity, ale-like characteristics.

In other lager styles, the world-class beers from Ayinger took top honors for the: Celebrator Dopplebock (97 points), Jahrhundertbier (94 points), Altbairisch Dunkel (94 points), and Oktober Fest-Marzen (92 points). These are classic, textbook examples of their respective styles and have a delicious immediacy that requires no beer ¥¥¥booksmarts¥¥¥ to appreciate. Also remarkable was the Menabrea Birra Strong, (94 points) a bock beer that sets a new benchmark for Italian lagers.

It would be great to take a leisurely trip to each of the twenty-one nations represented in this year’s lager tasting and enjoy these fine beers first-hand in their homelands, but at the very least, you can bring this buying guide with you to your local retailer, select some flights, and take your own ¥¥¥first-glass¥¥¥ beer journey at home. Happy trails and hoppy lagers to you!

• 2005 Pilsners

• 2005 Pale Lagers

• 2005 Other Lagers