Despite many vigorous discussions about the best hop choice for hazy IPA (it’s Amarillo, by the way) and the right pressure settings for your kegerator (balance, set, and forget), the brewing conversation that draws me in more than any other often begins with a surprising degree of humility. It goes something like this: “I’m going to make my first lager. Any tips?”
Thinking back to my early days of homebrewing, I don’t recall lager being all that mysterious. Sure, we kicked around ideas for how to lager without proper temperature control, or how to make something very lager-like with ale yeast. But there was no secret about what made lager different: You ferment it colder.
With the benefits of hindsight and experience, we know it isn’t quite that simple—but as many distinguished brewers will tell you, it doesn’t have to be all that complicated, either.