German Pilsner: the Porsche Boxster of lagers, packing a lot of oomph into a lithe frame. Toeing the line on IBUs and color, Bitte is light, lean, way bitter and way dry. To get from here to there it may be necessary to close your eyes before you brew and imagine a very stern German blonde admonishing you to boil a large volume and prepare a yeast starter.

Deep straw color with a brassy, well-spoken noble Pilsner malt profile, Bitte is suffused throughout with hop bitterness, loaded up in the front and middle of the boil for a tingling bitter bite and subtle resiny-sweet-herbal flavor. In a nutshell: clean, dry, and snappy.

Thanks to Wyeast's temperature-tolerant Rasenmaher Lagerbier strain, a batch of this elegant and refined (yet entirely chuggable) lager is within your reach even if you don't have a dedicated lager fridge: the good ol' swamp cooler (tub of ice water, an old t-shirt to cover the carboy, and a fan) will get you feeling the Fahrvegnugen.