Old Reliable

Origin Story

Sometimes used interchangeably, it is important to distinguish between an American Pilsner and an American Pale Lager. A true American Pilsner employs a malt bill comprised of flake maize (corn) and some other forms of malted barley. Where as most of today's mass produced American Pale Lagers are brewed using a large portion of rice, and at times, flake maize or barley. For our purposes, brewing a "true" American Pilsner, where flake maize and barley make up the entire malt bill, is what ultimately distinguishes us as craft brewers. Experimenting with corn in American brewing dates as far back as 1622, when John Winthrop Jr. documented it's use, explaining to authorities in England that the addition of corn to a barley based mash made for a respectable beer. Future events such as prohibition, the Great Depression, and the worst drought in American history, only furthered the need to stretch recipes, leading to more substitutions and a lightened taste in the American Pilsners being created. In post-prohibition brewing, corn contributed 25%-40% of the grain bill of these beers, altering color, taste, and body, separating our version of Pilsner even more from the European counterparts in which they derived. However, after 10 years of no beer, American drinkers barely noticed the difference and came to prefer a lighter beer overall with the subtle heightened sweetness offered by the increased use of corn. Today, it's doubtful that corn is used in any distinguishable degree in the beers that are being created by the American beer barons that thrived and came to dominate the consumer market place post prohibition. As they continued to refine their practices and find cheaper, and even more readily available grain adjuncts such as rice, corn has been phased out resulting in a product that can most easily be described as an American Pale Lager or just American Lager Beer.