Today Is National Lager Day!

Today is National Lager Day, a day to celebrate the wonderful world of craft lagers! Are you up on your craft beer facts? Educate yourself with this infographic and list of lager facts compiled by the brewers at Samuel Adams, so you can impress your friends with your knowledge of hops and fermentation. And don’t forget to grab a craft lager like Samuel Adams Boston Lager to celebrate and toast this historic beverage!

Top 5 Lager Facts to Impress Your Friends

1. Though beer has been brewed for over seven millennia, the first lager wasn’t brewed until the 16th century. America’s first lager was brewed around 1840, when lager yeast was brought across the pond from Europe.

2. Let’s talk science: lager yeast, as opposed to ale yeast, ferments (eats sugar to produce carbonation and alcohol) at cooler temperatures and, when done fermenting, settles to the bottom of the fermentation tank.

3. Lager yeast also takes a longer time to condition the beer than ale yeast. What’s the tradeoff for the additional weeks of waiting for a lager to brew? In the case of our Samuel Adams Boston Lager, it’s the extra hop in the aroma and smooth, refreshing finish.

4. Due in part to their smooth, crisp character, lagers are sometimes labeled plain and boring. That couldn’t be farther from the truth! Craft lagers are flavorful and complex, and a number of different styles fall under the lager category. These include Oktoberfest, Baltic porter, Vienna lager, bock, double bock and rauchbier, among many others.

5. Before modern refrigeration, brewers needed a way to keep their lagers cool during the brewing process. In lieu of today’s larger cooling tanks, German lager brewers of old sometimes cooled their beer in Alpine caves or in cellars dug deeply into hillsides.

Now let’s all raise a pint and celebrate National Lager Day with some well deserved brews!