Hacker News Reader

Comment by soco | Hacker News Reader

Tell me you don't drink beer without telling me you don't drink beer.

Nobody here calls it "Lager", u less it actually is one. We have Helles, Dunkles, Weissbier, dunkles Weisbier, Kellerbier, Pils, Lagerbier... If you order a Lager in Bavaria I honestly have no idea what you would get. Most likely still a beer, I have to try it next time, weather is nice enough for a first trip to a beer garden anyway!

Weissbier and all other white beers are ales, not lagers.

Lager/bottom-fermenting: Helles, Dunkles, Kellerbier/Zwickel, Pils

Ale/top-fermenting: Weissbier/Weizenbier, dunkles Weissbier/Weizenbier, Alt, Kölsch

I’m surprised that Kölsch is top-fermenting as I (a Dutch beer noob) would describe Kölsch as “like a regular lager, but then really nice and in a long drink glass”.

Love it, I’m all confused

And that’s kind of the point of Kölsch.

A lot of home brewers who don’t want to mess about with temperature controlling bottom fermentation go for a top fermenting Kölsch yeast to achieve the same effect.

You'd get a Helles or Pils, depending where in Germany you are. Either because the waiter/waitress know that they are lagers, or alternatively, they don't, but understand Bier, in which case they'll serve you a Helles or Pils as well.

This is an English speaking website. In English, lager only means beer

The article talks about 90% of all consumed beers are "Lager" which definitely isn't what I would expect when I hear "Lagerbier". The "90% mainstream beer" is called Pilsner in Germany (unless you're in Bavaria where the mainstream beer is probably Hefeweizen).

PS: I'm actually surprised by the article, I thought this type of beer was first brewed in Pilsen/Plzeň (thus the name "Pilsner")

Not sure about the rest of Bavaria, but "Helles" (Lager) is the mainstream beer in Munich. Weißbier (Hefeweizen) isn't that uncommon but rather cliche...

I don't know about Swabia and Franconia but if you are in Upper Bavaria (or probably any part of Altbayern [0]) and order a beer (without specifying anything else), you will definitely get a Helles.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altbayern

To misunderstand this word, OP probably speaks German, which means statistically they probably drink more beer than you.

Not just German. Similar word exists also in Russian (лагерь), Czech (lágr), Slovak (láger).

Doesn't help that "Lager" is not used as much for beer in Germany, at least in the regions I know.

Such beer is instead often classified as "Untergärig", from "untergärige Hefe" => "bottom-fermenting yeast"

Nobody I know orders their beer "ein Untergärig bitte" (Switzerland here). Although not THE name, still everybody knows what a Lager is (as in, whether they want a helles or dunkles). Yes of course there's the camp meaning as well, but you wouldn't mix that up in a Kneipe. Only when you read just a random internet article and you have zero context to know which is which - even though this phrasing would be really weird if it referred to a camp (for me, non-native English speaker).

Yeah, Lager inside a Kneipe / Wirtshaus is obviously meant in the "category of beer" way. At least here in Bavaria, it would just be "ein Helles" (or "ein Dunkles"). :D

Regional differences between Bavaria and Switzerland may show here. As an example of "Untergärig" used instead of Lager: https://www.giesinger-shop.de/zum-trinken/9-giesinger-erhell...

And in Austria, a Märzen.

This is commercial advertising, a product description. That has of course its place but it's something different from the daily usage, which is what I meant. You wouldn't order at the Theke ein Untergäriges, or would you???

> At least here in Bavaria, it would just be "ein Helles" (or "ein Dunkles"). :D

No, I wouldn't. And you wouldn't just order "a Lager", right? I kinda think we don't actually disagree. :)

The only difference may be that, if asked what kind of beer a "Helles" is, expecting some kind of category other than "Helles", I would answer "untergäriges Bier" and you may answer "Lager". Both are correct, one description focuses on the ability to keep the beer in storage in the ice cellar of the brewery, the other on the brewing process. What we both probably don't do is also e.g. call a Pils a Lager. In my experience, some of our american friends do that.

My point was that the US definition of beers that are "Lager" is very broad, way broader than in Germany (and probably also Switzerland & Austria) and that some parts of Germany even use completly different words for a similar categorization.

Ahhh I think I finally got your point - that basically everything is confusing (as even my favorite porters can be untergärig). And I also learned that the Austrian Märzen is not exactly what I'd expect, so all in all an interesting beer thread :)

PS I wouldn't order a lager either. If I didn't care what they have (very rarely) I'd order "a beer" and live with it, or otherwise I'd ask for the choices.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com