Wow, all bottom-fermented beers thrown in one bucket and discounted that easily, huh?
I'd certainly argue that lager is not a "style" but a category encapsulating a number of styles... (Czech/Bohemian Pilsner, German Pils, Helles, Munich Dunkel, Schwartz beer, Oktoberfest/Marzen (it's relative Vienna Lager), American Adjunct Light Piss Lager (my own term for the style), Bock (which has sub-styles that vary from quite light-colored and hoppy to very dark colored and insanely malty), Dortmunder (Czech pils with a different water profile as far as I'm concerned), the unfiltered Keller bier which I'd say is to lager what cask-conditioned ale is to ale.(Although it's a bit of a stretch.) -There's a TON of styles that fall under the "lager" heading; don't dismiss them all.
Eoin, mentioned Schwartz biers, that's a GREAT example of "something different" from the lager category; although I find that both Schwartz biers and Czech dark lagers have more "bark than bite" in that the dark color implies more flavor than you'll find, but that's part of what I enjoy about them. To me they're the "Surprise Symphony" of the beer world; they LOOK dark and bold and roasty but are much more light and drinkable than you expect.
I find some of the Czech and German beers some of the most sessionable and enjoyable low ABV beers around; especially for hot-weather drinking. Even two really historic Czech/Bohemian pilsners, which are brewed "down the road" from each other can vary pretty significantly; take Budwar (malt-forward) and Pilner Urquell (Zatec/Saaz hops showcase as an example.
If you're looking for something different from the light-colored/golden lagers I'd seek out:
Schwartzbier (Kostritzer is all I can ever find), Munich Dunkel (gorgeously malty and not too strong; traditional recipes appear like a less-strong dark bock), a dark Bock (they go by several names) but Ayinger Celebrator doppel bock is the lager cousin of Clotworthy Dobbin as far as I'm concerned;it's a serious malt bomb, a keller bier can be really nice too; all the ones that I've had have been a little hazy and very full-flavored for being such a light-colored lager.
I don't think there's been enough experimentation with lagers; possibly because of the economics of lager and needing to occupy fermenter/conditioning/lagering tanks for so long under cold storage; home brewing is the perfect place to experiment here. Just make any crazy ale you'd normally make but switch the ale yeast out for lager and ferment it cool; and then give it extended cold aging before serving - be sure to think of whether the flavors would be accentuated positively or negatively with a little bit of sulfur and choose your lager strain wisely. (If sulfur would be off-putting with the other malt flavors, the Budwar strain is a nice low-sulfur yeast that will leave some residual sugars.)
Bocks and doppelbocks have a WIDE range of hop levels, colors, and malt flavors (from caramel, to dark fruits, to chocolate; and that's just the dark versions) and I'd recommend picking up a few of them. -Some of the fruity flavors develop as oxidation reactions between higher fusol alcohols and O2 in the bottle so buying a few fresh bottles and opening one every 3 months (while stored poorly intentionally to accelerate the reaction) is an interesting and fun way to see the variation that exists within just one style of lager.
Good lagers are no myth; they're just buried under the billions of liters of tasteless yellow stuff so you have to look for them. (And Germany, the country that seems to be the "guardian of lager" has a beer industry that's in serious trouble and seems to be going through a "race to the bottom" both in price and quality over the last couple of decades, while tons of experimentation with ale strains continue in all the various beer revolutions.) -It seems to me that there are parallels to coffee in America during the 1950s and German lager brewing at the current moment; luckily the Germans have a pretty strong tradition of small local breweries so I really hope they won't endure a similar fate.
Adam
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" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) --> I could call it the "race to Aldi/Lidl" just as accurately. There's also NO WAY that Aldi/Lidl are refrigerating those delivery trucks and we're NORMALLY talking about low abv lagers that aren't going to store well if not treated well.
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