If you have sworn by beers since your teenage years, chances are high that you’ve toasted to, got drunk by, and spilled more lagers than ales in your life.   

That's a mind-boggling reality considering ales have been around for centuries while lagers are much recent, existing only for a couple of hundred years. A tiny, potent ingredient called lager yeast shook things up in the beer world, along with mechanical refrigeration, and you can read more about yeast in brewing beers in our first blog: Ale Or Lager? A Tiny Potent Ingredient Tells The Difference 

Since lager is one-half of the two main beer styles (figured out the other half?), you might find it surprising that there are different types of lagers from golden Pilsners to dark Dunkels. Here at Engkanto Brewery, we have a couple: one that pays homage to a tradition and another that pushes the limits of creativity in craft brewing.   

A popular beer done right in Live It Up Lager   

Before truckloads of mass-produced lager beers made their way across the United States and thereafter, the world, the history of the most influential beer style known as Pilsner can be traced back to Pilsen, Czech Republic.    

Disgruntled citizens of Pilsen clamored for better beer and showed their dismay by dumping barrels of ale on the street. Not long after, they put up their own brewery, took in a brewer from Bavaria, Germany, and around 1840, produced a beer called ‘Pilsner’ meaning ‘from Pilsen.’   

After a few decades, the original German brewer left the Czech Republic, taking home the Pilsner recipe. Then by the 1870s, a distinct beer known as German Pils (adapted from the Czech origin) swept across Germany and its neighboring countries. It has become popular that German immigrants en route to America carried with them beer recipes, started brewing after settling in, and eventually sold these watery highly carbonated, and nearly flavorless beers known today as American Lagers and Light Lagers.  

Setting off a unique flavor profile of citrus, passionfruit, and melon from natural ingredients, the flavorous Live It Up Lager pays homage to the European brewing traditions while it features hop ingredients from the prolific hop-growing regions of the United States, hence we describe it as a “New World” Pilsner.   

Crisp, smooth, and flavorful, Live It Up Lager has no unwanted adjuncts that are widely used in brewing mass-produced, commercial beers while keeping its familiar appeal to a wide swath of beer drinkers.  

A Filipino staple takes the spotlight in Ube Lager  

It’s purple, it’s eccentric, it’s like dessert, and it’s anything but a regular beer.  

Paint Me Purple Ube Lager is brewed with the finest native ube, desiccated coconuts, and imported malt and hops. Engkanto Brewmaster Michael ‘MJ’ Jordan, in his decades of experience, continues to showcase the creativity in craft beers by using Ube, the local Filipino staple. Many craft brewers in the United States have also been inspired by Ube as an ingredient, using it in other beer styles, particularly the IPA.  

What sets lagers apart? It’s their incredible drinkability that has drawn legions of people around the world. Its clean, clear, simple appearance is far from intimidating, yet it’s one of the hardest to brew because there’s no hiding the impurities and other unwanted results.   

Even in Paint Me Purple, its bright purple hue has its own unmistakably vibrant appeal that has made it both intriguing and enjoyable to locals even those who don’t really swear by beers.