Making a successful industrial lager involves a brewer directing their professional perfectionist streak towards creating something cheap and clean. Creating an authentic lager in a traditional style involves pointing it in an altogether different direction.
The best European lagers are made from 100% unrefined malted barley; mashed using the decoction method; hopped with German varieties such as Saaz, Hallertau, Spalt or Tettnang; fermented by a lager yeast strain at no more than 15o C for anything up to two weeks; and then conditioned in lagering tanks at 0o to 4o C for as much as three months.
This last part of this process adds significantly to the storage space required within the brewery but adds maturity and sees off a wide variety of immature and unpleasant flavours.
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