They have two kinds of lagers.
San Miguel Lager
A pale golden with a hint of pleasant hoppy aroma, medium boy balanced with smooth moderate bitterness and snappy clean palate.
The amount of hops used in the fermentation process has a direct effect on the flavor. There are beers with strong hops flavor and there are beer drinkers that prefer it. This is where microbreweries can adjust their product to their customers. Literally, a brew can be local to the palate of their particular customers and/or use exclusively ingredients found in the area. There is a real science to the thinking of local products.
It goes like this.
Any ingredient not locally grown is pollution to the soil. If hops are grown locally there is a particular flavor that will be captured by soils all over the USA.
How many soils are there in the USA? Ever look at a USGS Quadrangle map? There are many, many soils in the USA and they all have unique names. So, when one thinks about beer and their preference and the fact they have developed a taste for 'the local stuff' it is because that flavor is specific to the soil and water where the crops were grown. Yes, different soils can result in different flavors of hops. More acidic soils or more basic soils result in slight differences in crop flavor.
There is such a thing as Kobe Beef, yes? Why is it special? The beef steers are hand raised and feed a specific diet. They are even massaged. Now, if the handling of the beef made no difference why do it at all?But, back to lagers. There are less varieties of lagers than ales. They also rage from golden to black with the other colors of amber and brown. They range in flavor from bitter to sweet. Most lagers are on the bitter side and tend to be golden or amber. However, San Miguel has a dark lager.
San Miguel Negra
A full bodied dark lager with a balance of bitterness of straight forward aromas of pleasant sweetish roasted malt bouquets pours with a creamy, frothy head showing excellent lacing.
I realize this is not an American beer, but, American microbreweries should be striving to find the perfect dark lager for the palate of the USA.
