Cold Moves: Why Craft Breweries Are Exploring Lagers | Imbibe Magazine

Photo: Rachel Bradley

The 2010s belonged to IPAs, first bitter and then hazy, as brewers doubled down on hops and alcohol ascended to great heights. Brewers mixed yeast strains with souring bacteria, sending beers on acid trips, then packed sour ales with puréed fruit. Decadent pastry stouts and 100-calorie hard seltzers offered excess and restraint, while slushy machines churned out frozen beer. All those flashy fermentations started feeling extra, and drinking them felt like a liquified double-dog dare.

But increasingly, craft breweries are balancing bold impulses with cool moves toward crowd-pleasing lagers. They’re building bridges to different cultures, cuisines, and demographics by using heritage corn and basmati rice, embracing regionality, and innovating by aging lagers in large wooden foeders. For Imbibe, I get to the bottom of the trend toward cold fermentation.