International Pale Lager

BJCP 2A

ABV 4.5-6.0% · IBU 18-25 · SRM 2-6 · Serve 38-42F · Glass Tall tumbler

Identify: Pale straw to gold, and very clear. A white foam head that often sinks within a minute. The smell is faint at arm's length: a little grain, sometimes a trace of sweetcorn, and a light floral or spicy hop note if the beer is fresh. Light and briskly fizzy, with a small prickle of carbonation on the tongue. A gentle grain flavour arrives, a short bitterness follows, and then it is over. Your mouth is left clean and slightly dry.
Place: No single home. Built through the twentieth century by large breweries in the Netherlands, Belgium, Mexico, Japan, China and the United States
Cause: The grain bill is light, and part of it is often rice or corn rather than barley. Brewers call those adjuncts, which just means a fermentable ingredient used alongside malted barley. Rice and corn give sugar for the yeast with very little flavour and very little colour attached. The beer is then fermented out almost completely.
Confused with: American Lager, which is thinner and much less bitter. German Pils, which is drier and clearly more bitter. Munich Helles, which is rounder and maltier. Czech Premium Pale Lager, which is deeper gold and fuller.
Numbers: This is the most drunk kind of beer on earth. Heineken, Stella Artois, Corona Extra, Asahi Super Dry and Tsingtao all sit here. If someone hands you a cold beer at a barbecue without saying what it is, this is usually what it is. Take a mouthful and count how long the flavour lasts after you swallow. In most beers something stays behind.
Will you like it, Order and Try: You like cold sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon. Same job, same brisk clean feeling. You are eating something hot, salty or fatty and you want the drink to get out of the way. You are thirsty rather than curious. This is a thirst drink, and it is very good at that.
Pair, Judge, Myth and Remember: What does not work: strong cheese, rich chocolate, and anything smoked or slow cooked. The beer simply disappears underneath them. There is nothing here to push back with, and that is by design. Pale and bright with a white head. A faint clean grain smell and nothing else.