Found this to be an interesting Read

[berryman]

https://learn.kegerator.com/lager-vs-ale/

[alb]

Yeah, I enjoyed that. Thanks!

[mashani]

What that article totally misses however, is that the long term storage - the laagering as such - was not simply about the clarity/etc... but about the discovery that *it doesn't fooking get sour like ale!*

Because sour bugs do not work at those temperatures.

Beer got sour back then. A lot. Except for very strong and/or intentionally sour/aged/blended beer and/or stupendously hopped beer (like 200 IBUs of hops actually all use in bittering) ales were pretty much consumed within a week or weeks of manufacture.

So when we talk about "clean" tasting beer, that is a major factor.

The clarity is just a nice side effect that we like a lot today because we have sanitation.

[alb]

What that article totally misses however, is that the long term storage - the laagering as such - was not simply about the clarity/etc... but about the discovery that *it doesn't fooking get sour like ale!*

Because sour bugs do not work at those temperatures.

Beer got sour back then. A lot. Except for very strong and/or intentionally sour/aged/blended beer and/or stupendously hopped beer (like 200 IBUs of hops actually all use in bittering) ales were pretty much consumed within a week or weeks of manufacture.

So when we talk about "clean" tasting beer, that is a major factor.

The clarity is just a nice side effect that we like a lot today because we have sanitation.

There's a museum brewery about a mile and a half from my house, brewing as they did in the mid-1800's. Many of the brews are indeed sours. I recently had a sour porter that was kinda weird but delicious. The first lager produced in the area was in 1852.