Beer Style: Amber Lager Family
Sin City Brewery’s Amber clone
Full-bodied and proud, this amber hued lager may be an Oktoberfest-style beer, but it is available to be enjoyed year round. A robust micro-brewed lager made with imported and specialty malts, Sin City Amber balances a full-bodied malt character with imported German Hallertauer hops.
Creemore Springs Premium Lager clone
“A big taste from a tiny place” is Creemore Springs creed. This Ontario-based brewery focuses on producing German-style beers. Here is a recipe for their Premium Lager, made using a North American lager yeast.
Spoetzl Brewery: Shiner Bock clone
Shiner Bock continues to ring up awards for it’s classic Shiner Bock, having won gold at the 2012 GABF and silver in the 2017 GABF in the American-Style Amber Lager category. See if you can match Spoetzl’s brewing prowess.
Avery Brewery’s The Kaiser (Imperial Oktoberfest) clone
According to Avery Brewing Co.’s website, “. . . a traditional Oktoberfest – gorgeous, deep copper sheen, massive malty backbone and spicy, floral, pungent Noble hops – then intensified each into this, an Imperial Oktoberfest.”
Doughboy Draught
American Pilsners were bigger and hoppier in the past, right? Well, not always. In 1917 — near the end of World War I — Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act (also known as the Lever Act), which gave President Wilson the power to set prices on and direct the distribution of food and coal. Wilson shut distilleries, limited the amount of coal breweries could use and capped the alcohol percentage in beer to 2.75% by weight (about 3.4% by volume). Here is a classic American Pilsner an American infantryman (or doughboy) might have drank during training, before being shipped off to the trenches in Europe.
The Schizlitz
This is a beer formulated with some information I received about how Schlitz was brewed in 1975. I simplified this formulation by using flaked maize and specifiying that the beer be fermented at working strength, rather than using high gravity brewing.
Red, White and Brew Pilsner
This is a modern American Pilsner, though not an attempt to clone any particular brand.
Uncommon Common – California Common
Anchor Brewing Company has always been very generous to homebrewers. This recipe by Jamil Zainasheff makes a beer similar in flavor to Anchor Steam, but a bit bigger in mouthfeel, hops and malt flavors. If you want a beer a bit drier and more like Anchor Steam, eliminate the Munich, Victory and pale chocolate malts.
International Amber Lager
by the numbers OG: 1.042-1.055 FG:1.008-1.014 SRM:7-14 IBU:8-25 ABV:4.6-6.0% I know this will sound strange coming from me, but some people take beer styles way too seriously. They’re quite happy to invent
Czech Amber Lager
I have a confession to make. I was going to write about Czech dark lager, but I tried an authentic Czech amber lager brewed by my friend Petr Bachan at a recent
Make Award-Winning Session Beers
One of the trends of the past few years that I’ve welcomed is the rediscovery of lower-alcohol craft beers. Perhaps it’s a reaction to the “imperial everything” trend or just consumers becoming
India Pale Lager Clone Recipes
India Pale Lager (IPL) is a modern hybridization of the India Pale Ale (IPA) style and a (insert your own interpretation of the) “lager component” that has taken a craft beer industry
