The Lager Waiting Game: Is It Worth the Patience?

Good morning. With steel and aluminum tariffs on the horizon, local breweries are bracing customers for price increases. With the cost of kegs, brewing equipment, and cans increasing for breweries, it’s inevitable that these costs will be passed onto the consumer.

As if beer wasn’t already expensive enough… which is another great reason to homebrew. 🍻

-Brandon Copeland

The Lager Waiting Game: Is It Worth the Patience?

Lagers. We love drinking them. Crisp, refreshing, smooth. But brewing them? That’s another story.

Ask any homebrewer what keeps them from making lagers, and you’ll usually hear the same thing: time. Fermenting at low temperatures, lagering for weeks (or months), tying up a fermenter for what feels like forever—it’s enough to make any impatient brewer reach for their ale yeast instead.

Yet, despite all this, some homebrewers swear that lagers are the ultimate test of skill—a style that showcases technique, precision, and patience. Others say modern methods have made long lagering times unnecessary. So, is the wait still worth it?

Traditional vs. Modern Lagering

Historically, lager brewing was all about cold storage (the name—“lager” comes from the German word for “to store”). Classic Bavarian brewers would lager their beer in caves for months, allowing the crisp, clean profile to develop.

But today? Some brewers are cutting that timeline down to just a couple of weeks. With modern techniques like pressurized fermentation, spunding valves, and the “fast lager” method, it’s possible to get a solid lager in a fraction of the time.

Some argue that you can’t rush perfection. Others say why wait if the beer still tastes great?

Does the Extra Time Matter?

The big question: Does extended lagering actually make a noticeable difference? Some brewers claim that time smooths out rough edges, reduces sulfur and diacetyl, and enhances that crisp, refined finish that defines a great lager.

But is that something only a beer judge would notice? If you serve a traditional six-week lager next to a two-week fast lager, will most people even be able to tell?

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Beer Trivia Question

🍺 Which country is credited with creating the world’s first pale lager, revolutionizing beer styles globally?

Read to the end to find out if you're right!

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Most brewers are ion the same camp - they would rather overpitch yeast than underpitch and make sure that the fermentation completes fully and quickly. However, some brewers wrote in and that they underpitch for NEIPA’s and with Kveik yeast with a lot of success. I have to say, I’d rather overpitch - one day maybe I’ll be bold enough to give it a try…

And the Answer Is...

🍺 Czech Republic. In 1842, the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Plzeň brewed the first-ever pale lager, using bottom-fermenting yeast and new malting techniques to create the crisp, golden beer we now know as Pilsner. This beer style became the foundation for most modern lagers, influencing brewers worldwide.