International Amber Lager

Historical Development

When you get really deep into the BJCP guidelines and beer styles, there is a tendency to focus on certain styles, especially the ones you'll be judging a lot, while neglecting that others even exist. The International Lager category, seated squarely between Standard American Beer and Czech Lagers, typically doesn't get a lot of love. That makes sense when you consider the origin of that organization…homebrewers don't often set out to brew the best version of this style, they're more often after Imperial Stouts with more alcohol than some whiskeys and IPAs with about an acre of hops.

Forms of amber lager have been around for centuries. Despite being advanced in comparison to many other trades, beer production in the early period of the reinheitsgebot (and even before that) was far less consistent than it is today. Many of the dark lagers that would later be called dunkels were darker than today's dunkel, but many of them were also a bit lighter. Advances in malting practice came first to England, where the commercial beer industry was for centuries the most advanced in the world. When the scientifically-minded brewers Gabriel Sedlmeyer II, Anton Dreher, Josef Meindl, and Georg Lederer went to England to learn about brewing, they brought back their new-found knowledge of malting practices to Germany, which allowed for pale malts that didn't taste like smoke. Dreher went on to create the Vienna Lager, while Sedlmeyer went on to create the Marzen, both iconic examples of amber-colored lagers.

Enter Pilsner Urquell. The subsequent world domination enjoyed by pale lager wasn't spared on any country, and Adolphus Busch made certain to capitalize on it here in the states while recognizing the newly-arrived German immigrant community. Brewers the world over scrambled to keep up with the popularity of pale lager during the later half of the 1800s, just as the temperance movement took hold. The ensuing world wars left the beer industry unmoored, and what emerged in the 1940s was the beer popular with troops overseas, which was in effect dictated by the federal government during wartime.

Despite all of this, various versions of amber beer, and Amber Lager with them, survived the dark ages in the middle of the twentieth century. In the states, Anchor brewing held the torch with California Common, then passed it on with their early IPAs, which were amber, not pale. In Germany, meanwhile, the Marzen and Vienna Lager never really went away.

International Amber Lager is sort of our catch-all category for amber-colored lagers beers that don't quite fit into the Marzen or Vienna Lager groups. Though it's a rather unstriking category name, there are more than a few compelling beers in this category. Yuengling's Traditional Lager, the most often-cited commercial example, was reintroduced in the modern American market in 1987. Though that makes it less of a grandfather to the style than we might assume based on its ubiquity, it's still a great beer to have around when you want something easy-going with a bit of flavor. Brooklyn Lager from Brooklyn Brewery followed shortly after, and has a bit more American flair, with firmer bitterness and more American hop character. These are great beers for a variety of food, and they're a wonderful go-to for a party where you're not sure whether people are into craft beer (though if you're going to that kind of party, maybe you want to find a better party).

Modern Evolution

Varies by country, but generally represents an adaptation of the mass-market International Lager or an evolution of indigenous styles into a more generic product.