The Revival of Lager - Why Beer Geeks Are Falling Back in Love

For a long time, many of us beer geeks ran away from lager.

When we were younger, #Lager was usually the cheapest beer we could get our hands on. The supermarket stuff. The student-budget stuff. The “it’s cold and alcoholic, so it works” stuff. In most cases, that meant Lager.

Well… at least for most of us. My friend Sébastien in Quebec once told me that the best value-for-money beer when they were younger was a #Belgian-style tripel from Unibroue. Which honestly sounds like a pretty luxurious definition of cheap beer. Spoiled with the good stuff.

But eventually, something happens when you start tasting more seriously. You discover new styles, new breweries, and suddenly, lager becomes the villain of the story. The beer you used to drink before you discovered “real beer”.

For me, that moment happened in Vancouver when I first tasted the legendary Flagship IPA from Steamworks Brewing. That beer completely changed my understanding of what beer could be. It was bold, fruity, aromatic and complex - basically the opposite of the industrial lagers I had associated with the word “lager” for years.

Like many beer geeks, I then spent a long time believing one simple rule: lager equals boring.

Mass produced. Flavorless. Industrial. The kind of beer made for stadiums and festivals, not for people who actually care about what’s in the glass.

But something interesting has been happening in the last few years.

The Lager Revival Everyone Predicted

For a long time, craft beer insiders have predicted the revival of lager. One of the loudest voices has been Jonny Garrett from The Craft Beer Channel on YouTube. For years, he kept saying lager would be the next big trend.

The funny part was that every year he also had to admit that it still hadn’t happened. But now I think we’re finally there.

For Europeans, one of the easiest ways to see where craft beer is heading is still to travel to North America. It’s like a crystal ball for the trends that will eventually arrive here a few years later.

Last year, I travelled to the United States as a judge for the World Beer Cup, and what really surprised me was the amount of great lagers suddenly appearing everywhere.

Denver: Lager Done Right

In Denver, Bierstadt Lagerhaus has become almost a pilgrimage site for lager nerds. The brewery focuses heavily on traditional lager brewing, and their famous Slow Pour Pils was recommended to me by basically everyone in the city who even knew how to spell beer.

The name is quite literal. The beer is poured extremely slowly, sometimes taking several minutes, building up layers of dense foam before the glass is finally filled. The result is a crisp pilsner with a softer mouthfeel and beautifully balanced bitterness that many brewers consider a benchmark lager.

As impressive as Bierstadt was, my personal highlight in Denver was Cohesion Brewing. Walking into that place feels like you’ve suddenly been teleported to Prague. Ordering a Šnyt or Mliko doesn’t sound like you’re speaking some fantasy language anymore - it’s just normal beer culture. And the lagers there are absolutely phenomenal.

Canada Confirms the Trend

We just came home from a trip to Canada, and the same trend was impossible to ignore. Montreal, Quebec City and Vancouver all showed that Lager is clearly having a moment again.

In Vancouver, Slow Hand Beer Company absolutely nailed a Tmavy Lezak, brewing Czech-style dark lager with a confidence that makes you wonder if someone secretly moved their brewhouse from Prague overnight. Drinking it there felt about as natural as grabbing a Nanaimo bar in Vancouver.

Quebec City also joined the party. At Nano Cinco, we tried a Märzen called “Neuschwanstein”. As a German speaker, I’ll admit the name is slightly cheesy. But let’s be honest, fancy names sell. The beer itself was fantastic - maybe slightly darker than expected for the style, but incredibly flavorful and dangerously drinkable.

And then came my personal highlight of the trip: Mellön Brasserie in Montreal. Their taproom has ten taps. One hazy IPA, one wild ale, and the rest are lagers. Tmavy Lezak, Svetly Lezak, Munich Helles, Franconian-style ungespundet Lager. Everything incredibly precise and beautifully balanced. It felt almost surreal seeing a craft brewery commit that hard to lager. By the way, if you want to try some of the Canadian beers we brought back from that trip, we’re organising two special tastings in March. Canada vs. Denmark at Mikkeller will feature a wide variety of beers we discovered along the way, while The True North is a small, exclusive tasting limited to just five spots and only includes the highest-rated beers we could find - all with Untappd scores of 4.3 or higher. Book your spots now!

The Lukr Tap Effect

While travelling through North America, I noticed something else that kept appearing everywhere: Lukr taps.

If you’ve ever been to Prague, you probably know them already. A Lukr side-pull tap allows bartenders to control the beer flow much more precisely than a normal tap. Instead of a simple open-or-close handle, the tap works with a ball valve that lets servers regulate how much beer and foam enters the glass.

This allows different Czech pouring styles like hladinka, šnyt or mlíko, each with a different ratio of foam to beer. The faucet itself even contains a small screen that helps create extremely fine bubbles, producing that dense, creamy foam typical for Czech lagers.

And that foam is not just decoration. It protects the beer from oxidation, softens the carbonation and enhances the aroma.

The amount of Lukr taps I saw on this trip was honestly wild. Breweries had them. Taprooms had them. Even The Magnet, a great beer bar in downtown Vancouver, pours side pours and slow pours like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

Personally, I think the Lukr tap is a big part of the lager revival. With well-trained staff and the right pouring technique, a simple lager suddenly becomes a small performance at the bar.

Why Lager Makes Sense Again

So what actually happened? Why is Lager suddenly cool again?

My personal theory is that the new generation of beer drinkers already has enough complicated things to think about. The world feels politically different, everything moves faster, and we are constantly overstimulated by social media telling us about the newest food trends.

One minute, it’s Nigerian smash burgers. The next minute, it’s Filipino-Afghan fusion cuisine. Sounds amazing by the way - if anyone knows where to find that, let me know. But maybe the beer itself doesn’t always need to be complicated.

Not six different hop varieties. Not a barley wine imperial stout blend aged in Calvados and Tequila barrels with tonka beans at 16 % ABV. Sometimes people just want a beer.

Something locally brewed. Something refreshing. Something you can drink the entire evening and still enjoy the fifth one as much as the first. And still something that tastes amazing.

That’s exactly why lager became popular in the first place. But the modern craft version of lager has evolved far beyond the industrial beers that made many beer geeks turn away from the style years ago.

Of course, the obvious question is: why pay double the price for a craft lager?

Part of it is supporting #local breweries. But the bigger difference is the brewing process. Proper lagers often spend weeks fermenting and lagering at cold temperatures, allowing flavors to develop slowly and creating the clean, balanced character the style is known for. And that effort shows in the glass. Big beer is usually fast beer. And just like fast food compared to slow food, it’s simply a different product - you can taste the difference.

You don’t have to drink lagers exclusively to be hip these days. Craft beer will always have room for wild experiments, hop bombs and ridiculous #barrel projects. But lagers definitely deserve another chance.

They’re fun. They’re elegant. And maybe the best part: most of your non-beer-geek friends will actually like them too.

What Do You Think?

Now, while I’m cracking open a can of Mellön 11° Svetly Lezak that I brought home from Canada, I’m wondering what you think about the lager revival.

Which Swiss craft lagers should people try?

And do you enjoy the trend - or do you still prefer the big, bold beers? 🍻