Glossary
Lager
Beer fermented cool with Saccharomyces pastorianus and then matured cold — a process, not a colour or a flavour.
Cool fermentation suppresses the esters and phenols that ale yeast produces, leaving malt and hop character exposed with nothing to hide behind. This is why lager is often described as harder to brew well: there is nowhere for a fault to hide.
The category spans Munich Helles, Czech pale lager, Vienna lager, Märzen, Munich Dunkel, Schwarzbier, Bock, Doppelbock and Rauchbier. Several are dark, several are strong, and one is smoked.
Commonly misunderstood
The most common misconception in beer. "Lager" is not a synonym for pale, fizzy or bland — Schwarzbier and Doppelbock are lagers.
Related
- Ale — The other fermentation family.
- Lagering — The maturation step it is named after.
- Bottom fermentation — The process it names.
More vocabulary
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.