What does the word "lager" mean to you? A cold, bland, fizzy drink knocked out in vast volumes by global brewers — or a beer full of flavour?
In recent years a major divide has opened up between global brewers and smaller independents. The German word lager means "storage place", similar to the English word larder, where families stored such perishables as butter and milk before we all had access to refrigerators.
Once, all lager beers were stored for several months while they underwent a second fermentation at a temperature just above freezing point.
But now most major lager brands are produced as quickly as ale. When the late Michael Jackson, the revered beer writer, visited the Coors brewery in Burton-on-Trent to record a piece for BBC Radio, he was astonished to find that Carling is produced in just a few days and he queried whether it deserved to be branded as lager.
I have similarly found at Carlsberg's Baltika Breweries in Russia and Heineken's Zywiec brewery in Poland that the entire brewing regime — from mashing to keg-filling — lasts just 21 days. It's the same with the world's biggest beer brand, American Budweiser — though 21 days can be cut at periods of high demand.
If you compare these industrial lagers with true lagers still brewed in the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands, a chasm opens up between the tasteless and the tasty.
For example, the Czech golden lager Budweiser Budvar (5%) is lagered or cold conditioned for 90 days. Some Bock beers — strong lagers — are conditioned for even longer. For example, the world-famous Samichlaus (14%), brewed by Eggenberg in Austria, is matured for between nine and 10 months.
The equally famous German Bock, EKU 28 (13.5%), is also matured for nine months while Paulaner Salvator Doppelbock (7.5%), originator of the Munich Bock style, enjoys three months in the lager cellar.
Global brewers will respond by saying modern technology enables lager beer to be produced more quickly today. It doesn't apply to wine — great vintages such as Bordeaux are still made in the time-honoured manner because producers know perfection is created slowly with passion and craftsmanship.
Meantime
High-gravity brewing and other new methods have all failed because the beers that resulted from such processes were poor.
Where lager is concerned, my watchwords come from Alastair Hook at London's Meantime Brewery. He trained at the Munich technical university, where they know a thing or two about lager. Hook says emphatically: "If you use the finest ingredients, the longer you lager beer, the better it will get."
On a number of occasions I have sat in the celebrated Englischer Garten in Munich, seen wooden casks of Helles or pale lager delivered by a local brewery and then served by its own natural carbonation and wondered whether all true lagers were once dispensed in this manner. Munich beers are rarely exported, but we can now get a fascinating glimpse of "real lager" thanks to the arrival in the London area of Budvar "yeast beer".
This is a version of the 5% Budvar original that is neither filtered nor pasteurised and which is cold conditioned for 100 days in the cellars underneath the brewery in Ceske Budejovice.
Unpasteurised
In discussions with Josef Tolar, the retired brewmaster at Budvar — who is still active and conducts invigorating brewery tours — I have discovered this was the typical version of Budvar beer for several decades after the company was founded in 1895.
Budvar didn't install a pasteurising unit until 1937 and that was used mainly for bottled beer for export.
Draught beer for home consumption wasn't pasteurised and that is still the case in the Czech Republic in bars with a fast turnover of beer, where air pressure is the preferred method of dispense.
Similarly, until the craze for crystal-clear beer put pressure on smaller brewers, Budvar saw no need to filter its beer, as yeast and protein settle at the base of conditioning tanks during the long lagering process.
To encourage a second fermentation in the cellar, Tolar explains a small proportion of sugar-rich unfermented wort — result of the mashing process — is blended with beer in the lager tanks to produce the yeast beer. This method is known in German as kräusening and Tolar prefers to call this version of Budvar "kräusen beer" rather than yeast beer.
The finished beer has only a slight hint of haze as it "drops bright" naturally in the lager tanks. The typical Budvar aroma and flavour of toasted malt, a hint of vanilla and floral Saaz hops are overlain by a gentle estery/yeasty note. The version on sale in London is served by nitrogen and C02, but volumes are low and the beer in the glass is free from gas bubbles.
Budvar yeast beer has a shelf life of 28 days and is brewed three/four times a year. It's available in all three Draft House pubs in Battersea, Clapham and Tower Bridge Road, the Porter House in Covent Garden and the White Horse at Parsons Green. Go and taste a glass of history.