Page 23 - All About History - Issue 186-19

Q&A With…

Q. HOW DO WE DISTINGUISH LAGER FROM
OTHER FORMS OF BEER?

A. The simple difference is that lagers and ales
are made from different species of yeasts: lagers
are Saccharomyces pastorianus, while ales are
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The important thing
to know is that the yeasts like to work in different
environments, with lagers fermenting at colder
temperatures than ales. At some point, maybe
600 hundred years ago, ale yeast hybridised with
another yeast to form what we now call lager yeast.

Q. WHEN DID THE FIRST LAGERS APPEAR?

A. The first mentions of lager came in the 15th
century in what’s now north Bavaria, near the
Czech border. Brewers talked about a ‘lower The history of lager
fermenting’ beer, which is how we can distinguish is intertwined with
it from the ‘upper fermenting’ ales. As yeast social changes and the
metabolises malt sugars into alcohol during impact of technology.
fermentation, ales would’ve created a foam on the
top of the wooden fermenting vessel and brewers
could scoop that yeast off and re-use it in the next
brew, whereas in a ‘lower fermenting’ lager they
had to drain the beer out of the barrel, taking the
leftover yeast from the bottom to reuse. It was a
gradual evolution from those rudimentary lagers
into what we know as lager today.

Q. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS MADE LAGER
SUCH A POPULAR DRINK? GettyImages

3x©
A. I think it ultimately comes down to the
reliability of how it tastes. We know what to expect beer and hundreds of years ago all the malt was Q. HOW IMPORTANT TO THE HISTORY OF
when we order a lager and that’s important to a roasted over fire, naturally picking up a smoked HUMANITY IS BEER?
lot of people. Beer is a natural product made from flavour, meaning almost all beer was smoky – that’s
just water, grain, hops and yeast, but for thousands lagers and ales. As technology advanced, indirect A. We think that beer was there at the beginning
of years there’s been a never-ending challenge to heat was used and the flavour of smoke quickly of civilisation – it was likely one of the first
make it taste good and to drink it before it goes left beer. But Schlenkerla continue to brew with foodstuffs produced once humans started to settle
sour. The cold-stored lagers of Bavaria were able to smoked malt. and farm. There are debates about whether beer,
last better than others.
Q. WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHANGES TO bread or some kind of porridge came first, but
Q. ARE THERE MANY ORIGINAL LAGER-MAKING LAGER IN THE LAST 500 YEARS? they are all essentially the same thing, just with
different amounts of water and fermentation.
TAVERNS STILL PRODUCING TODAY? One thought that you often hear is how people

A. The important and main change is how it was drank beer because it was safer than water, with
A. There are many important and historic lager able to go from being a local Bavarian brewing the safe part coming because it was boiled. But
breweries still open today. The most famous is process and type of beer into one which is now that’s not quite right. Think about it: if it’s just to
the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. This was started by brewed everywhere in the world. What came to make it safe, then it’s far easier to simply boil a
the Bavarian royal family in 1589 to brew beer for fascinate me was how it’s constantly been evolving pot of water and drink it than it is to grow grain
their household, and it grew into an important and adopting new technologies, often before other and hops, harvest them, malt the grain, mix that
commercial brewery for the city. They no longer industries. There was industrialisation (more so with water, boil it with hops, let it ferment, and
brew in the Hofbräuhaus, having moved the from British ale breweries but that led to Munich then drink it. In reality, that process made water
brewery to a bigger location over a century ago, but brewers greatly increasing their scale), steam taste better, it made water last longer, and it gave
you can still experience this incredible old tavern. power, pasteurisation, artificial refrigeration, large- calories and nutrients to people – beer contains
The best place to visit to get a taste of what lager scale bottling lines, the development of travel carbohydrates, proteins, B-vitamins, and more. It’s
might’ve been like centuries ago is the Franconian networks. Then into the 20th century it was been a liquid bread for thousands of years. People
city of Bamberg. This is near where lager originated domestic changes that had the bigger impact: cars, also inevitably liked the small amount of alcohol
and the old lagering cellars, which are dug into televisions and advertising, supermarkets, and in there, too, though it was never really what you
the hills surrounding the city, are still in use today. home refrigeration. They all changed consumer drank if you wanted to get drunk because neat
There’s one particular beer worth trying and that’s habits and led to lager being the most popular spirits were a much more effective way of doing
Schlenkerla Rauchbier. Rauchbier means smoked kind of beer. that than low-alcohol, sweetish beer.

23