NORTHERN BREWER: Lager Kits (Extract)

American Lager - Extract Kit

OG: 1042 / Ready: 2 months

Why do we have a kit to make the style of beer that, directly or indirectly, inspired so many to brew their own? Maybe it's just nostalgia—for many of us, our first sip of beer was a taste of Dad's Pabst or a can of Hamm's stolen from the back of the fridge. Or perhaps after batches of stouts, bocks, tripels, and IPAs, you might want a change of pace. This beer has a body lightened by rice syrup and very low hop rate to make it appealing to nearly every taste. Plus, unlike the offerings of some mega breweries, our American Lager doesn't skimp on flavor!

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$25.25

World Wide Lager - Extract Kit

OG: 1049 / Ready: 2 months

The next time one of your good-time buddies hits you up for a Heineken, take a cue from Frank in Blue Velvet and politely suggest a bottle of your own World Wide Lager instead. Engineered to satisfy fans of the Green Bottle as well as your own more exacting tastes, this kit exhibits the refined, dry maltiness and crisp hopping of a choice Northern European pilsner. Your friends will be impressed by the lack of skunkiness and you'll be impressed by how soon you'll want another.

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$29.74

Czech Pilsner - Extract Kit

OG: 1047 / Ready: 2 months

"All beers were dark... until 1842" writes beer critic Michael Jackson, "when a brewery in Pilsen, Bohemia, introduced a lager... that was golden and clear." Pilsner, named for its hometown, has enjoyed incredible popularity for over 150 years and has been interpreted time and again by brewers worldwide. You've had the rest (American macrobrews) now homebrew the best. Northern Brewer's Czech Pilsner is faithful to the original: rich gold in color, caramelly-malty in body, and bursting with the spicy aroma of the Saaz hop.

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$31.25

Bavarian Helles - Extract Kit

OG: 1049 / Ready: 2 months

Saying the magic words "Ein Bier, bitte" anywhere in Bavaria is likely to result in you drinking some Helles. A delicate, restrained lager, this kit is the product of much self-sacrifice and firsthand research on-site in Munich. The palest malted barley is the centerpiece of Helles, with full, complex flowery and grainy notes supported by understated hopping and a clean, malty lager yeast. Try one of these and you'll have to agree that the world looks very different through the bottom of a liter stein.

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$28.24

Oktoberfest - Extract Kit

OG: 1058 / Ready: 2 months

We've all seen the pictures—hundreds of happy Germans, tubas and pretzels galore, sitting under a big tent wearing leather shorts and hoisting huge steins of the luscious amber lager known as Oktoberfest. Typified by breweries such as Paulaner and Spaten in Munich, the world capital of beer, Oktoberfest originates from the time when brewing in the summer was illegal in Germany. Brewmasters concocted a beer that was a little on the strong side, and stored cold through the warm months, to be broken out in time for fall and harvest celebrations. Our kit will give you a malty, orange-colored lager that's great for any time of year.

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$34.24

Bock - Extract Kit

OG: 1064 / Ready: 3 months

Invented in Einbeck, made popular in Munich, beer lovers have been drinking this distinctive style in one form or another for almost four hundred years. Bock, which means "goat" in German, is a family of strong, generally sweet lagers that, as Darryl Richman says in his bock book, "provide the extra Gemuetlichkeit needed to endure cold, short, gray days." In keeping with German brewing law, our Bock kit has an original gravity of 1.064, and, after three patient months of cold conditioning, it will become a beautifully thick, dark, and smooth beer.

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$37.24

Dopplebock - Extract Kit

OG: 1083 / Ready: 6 months

Doppelbocks rank among the world's strongest beers. Rich and filling, these lagers used to sustain German monks during Lenten fasts. While we don't endorse this kit as a replacement for solid food, it does come highly recommended as an after-dinner drink on a dark winter night. Deep copper-brown in color with a potent mix of malt and alcohol aromas, full and rich mouthfeel, slightly sweet and malty with just enough hops to strike a balance, warming all the way down. Say "Guten Nacht!"

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$42.24

Maibock - Extract Kit

OG: 1064 / Ready: 3 months

In Germany, this sub style of the bock family is brewed late in the year and lagered all winter; then in May, the beer is ceremonially tapped and consumed at huge outdoor parties that have big unpronounceable German names. Maibocks are quite strong, and are very pale despite their high original gravities - the palest commercial examples are barely darker than a pilsner. With a traditionally pale color and a delicate hop aroma, the Northern Brewer Maibock is a Fruhjahrstarkbierfest in a box.

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$37.24

Bavarian Dunkel - Extract Kit

OG: 1052 / Ready: 2 months

Some will tell you that the copper color and profound complexity of a world-class Dunkel needs a little chocolate malt to make it happen. Not so. The real trick is using high-kilned Munich malt, with its toasty, bready aroma and full flavor. Our kit is rounded our with a tried-and-true Bavarian yeast strain to yield a smooth and satisfying dark lager. Serve at 45° F in a Willibecher glass with rye bread, cheese and mustard.

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$30.75

Rauchbier - Extract Kit

OG: 1055 / Ready: 2 months

German for "smoke beer", this lager style is a specialty of the Bavarian city of Bamberg. They're often based on an Oktoberfest recipe, but brewed with a proportion of beechwood-smoked malt to create a rich, warm smoke aroma and flavor. Our Rauchbier kit yields an amber-red beer with an off-white head, substantial maltiness, and woodsy smokiness (the secret is authentic German beechwood-smoked rauchmalt from the heart of Rauchbier country). Enjoy this one in front of a blazing fire.

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$33.24

Schwarzbier - Extract Kit

OG: 1052 / Ready: 2 months

The lager world's answer to porter and stout, this black beer from German is roasty, malty, and crisp. Debittered black malt gives a sharp, clean dryness, underscored by a rich, malty sweetness from Munich and German crystal malts. Since Schwarzbiers are more assertively hopped than many dark lagers, our kit loads up on hops. Not too bitter, not too sweet, Schwarzbier is very drinkable and forgiving to brew.

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$30.25