A pre-Prohibition lager pours yellow to deep gold and bright, under a substantial, long-lasting white head. It tastes of grainy malt, often with the round sweetness of corn, held by a substantial bitterness and a rustic, floral, herbal or spicy hop that lasts through a dry finish. At 4.5–6% it is stronger than today’s American lager.
Where it comes from
German immigrant brewers adapted their lagers to American grain and hops in the mid-1800s, and the style was at its most popular by the 1870s. After Prohibition it came back weaker, less bitter and less loved, and the American lager replaced it. Home brewers revived it in the mid-1990s; few breweries make it.
Next to its neighbours
It has the balance and bitterness of a modern Czech Pilsner, with American grain and hops of the time. It is bigger, more bitter, fuller in flavour and often stronger than an American lager.
Pre-Prohibition Lager in numbers
- Classic examples
- Cerveza Loba, Molson Coors
- Original gravity
- 1.044–1.060
- Final gravity
- 1.010–1.015
- Also called
- Classic American Pilsner
- Classic examples
- Coors Batch 19; Schell Deer Brand; Urban Chestnut Forest Park Pilsner; Capital Supper Club
- BJCP style
- 27A Historical Beer: Pre-Prohibition Lager
Sources
Checked .
- 27A. Historical Beer: Pre-Prohibition Lager, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
