This beer obsession has taken me hither and yon across the universe of fine ales over the past 17+ years, but traversing the land of the lager has been difficult. Several reasons for this – 1.) Lagers usually aren’t made nor served by most microbreweries, save for a token pilsner, and 2.) I generally don’t like ‘em. Naturally, I’m not alone here – lagers are the lost stepchild of the craft beer movement, despite their ubiquity in terms of US sales, though it’s somewhat embarrassing for me to focus so heavily on ales when lagers have served mankind so well for so long. There are even lagers that I love – HACKER-PSCHOR DUNKEL WEISS and MOONLIGHT REALITY CZECK made the vaunted “Hedonist Beer Jive 25” – and I’d like to get involved with a few more good ones. (Correction - noted by Loren in the comments below - Hacker-Pschor Dunkel Weiss is an ale, not a lager. Damn it, Loren!) To that end, we tried our old friends from MOONLIGHT BREWING’s LUNATIC LAGER the other night. The brewery calls it a European Export-style lager, and continues with “A crisp Germanic-style light lager beer, lively hop and yeast flavors yet subtle”. I call it clean, crisp and altogether boring as hell. But then that’s me. I’m not into a clean-n-crisp-n-boring light lager. I wish I could pretend otherwise. Like its Bay Area-based cousin TRUMER PILS, this LUNATIC LAGER is most likely a fine representative of its style, and certainly would go over easy at the sports bar over the course of a good hockey game. I’d tap it over the usual suspects in a second. That said – 5.5/10. It’s not you, Moonlight – it’s me.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
IT’S NOT YOU, MOONLIGHT – IT’S ME
This beer obsession has taken me hither and yon across the universe of fine ales over the past 17+ years, but traversing the land of the lager has been difficult. Several reasons for this – 1.) Lagers usually aren’t made nor served by most microbreweries, save for a token pilsner, and 2.) I generally don’t like ‘em. Naturally, I’m not alone here – lagers are the lost stepchild of the craft beer movement, despite their ubiquity in terms of US sales, though it’s somewhat embarrassing for me to focus so heavily on ales when lagers have served mankind so well for so long. There are even lagers that I love – HACKER-PSCHOR DUNKEL WEISS and MOONLIGHT REALITY CZECK made the vaunted “Hedonist Beer Jive 25” – and I’d like to get involved with a few more good ones. (Correction - noted by Loren in the comments below - Hacker-Pschor Dunkel Weiss is an ale, not a lager. Damn it, Loren!) To that end, we tried our old friends from MOONLIGHT BREWING’s LUNATIC LAGER the other night. The brewery calls it a European Export-style lager, and continues with “A crisp Germanic-style light lager beer, lively hop and yeast flavors yet subtle”. I call it clean, crisp and altogether boring as hell. But then that’s me. I’m not into a clean-n-crisp-n-boring light lager. I wish I could pretend otherwise. Like its Bay Area-based cousin TRUMER PILS, this LUNATIC LAGER is most likely a fine representative of its style, and certainly would go over easy at the sports bar over the course of a good hockey game. I’d tap it over the usual suspects in a second. That said – 5.5/10. It’s not you, Moonlight – it’s me.
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2 comments:
FYI...Weiss beers are ales, not lagers.
Clean, crisp and altogether boring as hell?
Doh!
You know Loren, I thought someone might call me on that. I realized the error of my ways the day after I posted this. Correction to be listed. Thanks.
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