Good lager in the UK

[jceg316]

After going to Munich, Prague and various Eastern European cities I realise that we have a shortage of good lager in this country and I'm not sure why this is. A lot of craft breweries have a lager offering and they are quite good sometimes, but the vast majority I've had just don't stand up to traditional European lagers, and I don't understand why. I've had homebrewed helles/pils which is a lot better than most the British breweries' attempts and much closer to Bavarian or Bohemian styles, so I know it's possible!

I wanted to know if anyone has had a good helles or pils made by a British brewery which is readily available here? By readily available I mean it's not a special edition or one off beer.

 

[aamcle]

I think your going to have a long wait....

 

[rank_frank]

Camden Hells from The Camden brewery, Korev from St Austell, Frontier from Fullers and Tarka Four from Otter are 4 that I've had and hit the mark, particularly over the last hot summer

 

[Leon103]

My local have a dortmunder on tap that I tend to have on a hot day. It's not up there with the European giants but it's half decent

Will do some googling later to find out who brews it

 

[HarryFlatters]

West St Mungo https://www.westbeer.com/beers/

Edinburgh Beer Factory Paolozzi Hells https://edinburghbeerfactory.co.uk/beer/

Awesome stuff.

 

[MickDundee]

My local microbrewery, 71 Brewing, do a few lagers that are very good. Not as good as most German or Czech ones I’ve had but very good.

Apparently the Dundee water profile is naturally very close to that used in a lot of pilsners. I was told that on a brewery tour so not sure how true that is. They are also at the opposite end of Dundee from me, so it might not apply to my tap water.

 

[Stephenj]

Donzoko northern helles. Cracking stuff

 

[Clint]

Wrexham had the first lager brewery opened in 1882 by my brother in law's family who were from Germany. It was originally black. Bottles were sent all over the empire and it was possibly served on the Titanic.
Carlsberg Tetley bought the brewery in 2000,shut it and sold it.
It's sinced reopened in Wrexham on a much smaller scale and is very busy.
Not a bad pint.

 

[jceg316]

Thanks for your replies, I'll need to try some of these out. I'll have a search on Beerhawk or somewhere for them.

@MickDundee interesting what you seen about the water profile. I think if that were true then maybe there'd be a few more breweries there making some tasty pilsners. Or maybe there are and I just don't know about them.

 

[Clint]

The original Wrexham brewery had its own wells.

 

[Alex.mc]

A different answer perhaps.........
I think Lager has a long way to go here in the UK to shake it's dodgy reputation. By dodgy, I mean the reputation of being a cheap, fizzy, cold, slightly flavoured, refreshing on a hot day alocholic drink.... and no more than that.

About 15 years back, I travelled with a friend fairly extensively around the Czech and Slovak republics, and found some very good lagers. It made me think the standard offerings here were pretty poor, which of course at that time was probably true.
I think it's going to be a really tough gig here in the Uk for any independant brewery to get a foothold in the lager market when up against the brewing giants of Heineken etc....
However........ the upside of that is that it allows the small craft breweries to experiment and diversify on a local scale the domestic market amongst beer nerds for Lager.

 

[MickDundee]

@MickDundee interesting what you seen about the water profile. I think if that were true then maybe there'd be a few more breweries there making some tasty pilsners. Or maybe there are and I just don't know about them.

I think the answer is ££££.

A different microbrewery (Eden Mill, who lost focus on their beers when they branched our into gin and went downhill a bit) told me on a tour that they don’t do lagers because it ties their tanks up for too long. They can get ale out in a couple of weeks but lagers tie up the tanks for much longer.

71, however, started with their lager as their core/flagship beer and just about everything else is seasonal.

 

[Mungri]

My local have a dortmunder on tap that I tend to have on a hot day. It's not up there with the European giants but it's half decent

Will do some googling later to find out who brews it

That brings back memories. 20 odd years ago I used to get a beer from Makro called Dortmunder union. It was a lovely strong tasting lager. Nothing like the piss we get in most pubs.

 

[Leon103]

That brings back memories. 20 odd years ago I used to get a beer from Makro called Dortmunder union. It was a lovely strong tasting lager. Nothing like the piss we get in most pubs.

That's it. Dortmunder union pils.

 

[-Bezza-]

Hogstar by Hogs Back Brewery is pretty good for a lager. Prevalent in supermarkets across the South East but not sure if it's available more widely.

 

[DavidHatton]

Not been yet, but recently heard of this place, down Elephant & Castle way, will defo be trying it out next summer.
https://www.germankraftbeer.com/

 

[Martybhoy]

Tesco sell Vocation Brewery's Dirty Pilsner. Probably nothing like the traditional European lagers, but it's very good.

 

[Norfolk79]

Adnams dry hopped lager is a pretty good pint, if you can find somewhere outside of Norfolk & Suffolk that sell it

 

[MickDundee]

Adnams dry hopped lager is a pretty good pint, if you can find somewhere outside of Norfolk & Suffolk that sell it

My local Tesco had it for a while so assume it must be available nationwide.

 

[jceg316]

Not been yet, but recently heard of this place, down Elephant & Castle way, will defo be trying it out next summer.
https://www.germankraftbeer.com/

That place looks pretty cool, I might have to go and visit. On Saturday I went to Bierschenke in Moorgate which has some good German style beers, including their own helles.