Beer Style: European Pale Lager
Includes an array of styles including Munich helles, pale kellerbiers, pale lagers, Mexican lagers, and premium lagers.
Cerebral Brewing Co.’s Standard Practice clone
Stouts and barleywines aren’t the only styles you should consider aging in barrels. This helles lands on the other end of the flavor intensity threshold and is perfect for any occasion. This beer received a gold medal in 2022 at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers.
Brewing Helles
Brewing a well-made Helles is the ultimate test of skill. The recipe may be simple but the execution is challenging with no place to hide any flaws. But that end result of
Gordon Strong’s Italian Pilsner
Compared to a German Pils, the late hops are the first thing to notice. The flavor and aroma hops are more prominent and the aroma can have a freshly dry-hopped character. The hops don’t need to be at the IPA level; just more noticeable than in a German Pils.
Bierkeller Columbia’s Kellerbier clone
An unfiltered Franconian lager with a bready malt character that is balanced by soft carbonation and clean Perle hops.
Gordon Strong’s German Helles Exportbier
This beer is bolder than your typical lawnmower beer, but it is meant to reward a hard day’s work. So go cross something off your to-do list, then grab a cold one, like life was meant to be.
Gordon Strong’s Leichtbier
When I first thought about giving a recipe for this style, I was going to say, “just take your favorite Pilsner or helles recipe, but use more water” – and I wouldn’t be too far from the mark. But there is a little more to it than that.
Kellerbier
This recipe is based on the gold-medal winner kellerbier Mut Lager from Cervecería Mut out of Quito, Ecuador. Special thanks to the Brewer Dora Durán for her help pulling this recipe together for the homebrew scale.
Sommerbier
This beer that lands somewhere between a German Pilsner and a pale Kellerbier.
Munich Helles
The bittering hop selected here is the Mittelfrüh-like, daughter of Hallertau Gold, Tradition with a nominal average alpha acid rating of 5.5%. It has gentle fruity notes. However, any other German noble hops would work as well. The flavor and aroma hops are, fittingly, Mittelfrüh.
Mexican Lager
A sub-style of the International Pale Lager, Gordon Strong provides a nice example of the way a Mexican Lager could and should be brewed.
Horst’s Helles
Author and frequent contributor, Horst Dornbusch provides readers with a classic Munich Helles recipe, restrained in hop character with a sweet-grainy malt finish and just enough hop bite to keep it nicely balanced.
Euro Pale Lager
Author Terry Foster offers a European pale lager recipes for readers with a simple grain bill and clean lager yeast to allow the beer to focus on the Tettnang and Saaz hop profile.
