Contemporary American-Style Lager

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Location:North American
Category:Lager
BJCP Comparable Category:1B - American Lager

Beer Style Description

This is the description of how the Contemporary American-Style Lager style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the Contemporary American-Style Lager beer style.

Corn, rice, or other grain or sugar adjuncts are often used, but all-malt formulations are also made. Contemporary American Lagers typically exhibit increased hop aroma and flavor compared to traditional versions, are clean and crisp, and aggressively carbonated.

  • Color: Straw to gold
  • Body: Low
  • Malt Flavors & Aromas: Malt sweetness and aroma are very low to low
  • Hop Flavors & Aromas: Very low to low
  • IBUs/Bitterness: Very low to low
  • Fermentation Characteristics: Fruity esters are usually absent but may be present at very low levels. Diacetyl should not be present.
  • Common Ingredients: Two- or six-row barley with high percentage (up to 40%) of rice or corn as adjuncts.

Brewing Properties of Contemporary American-Style Lager

These are the functional brewing properties of Contemporary American-Style Lager beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.

ABV
The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have.
4.1 - 5.1%
Bitterness
The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer.
5 - 16 IBUs
SRM
SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more »
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2 - 4 SRM
(4 - 8 EBC)
Original Gravity
Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer.
1.040 - 1.048
Final Gravity
The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete.
1.006 - 1.012

If you see an error in our data, please let us know!

Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.