Rice Lagers are the Crushable Beers for Float Season

In the lager world, we’ve got German pils and Czech pilsners. You’ll now find “Italian pilsners,” which mean they’ve been dry-hopped, something the Germans and other classicists would never do. Then there’s your Mexican lager, which actually has its roots in Vienna lager. I even found a handful of Polish pilsners in Market of Choice’s vast lager section. But of all the various ways to produce a tasty lager around the world, I’m still waiting for so-called Japanese lagers to step into the spotlight. Fortunately, a few Bend brewers have already caught on, including Crux Fermentation Project, Deschutes Brewery, Boneyard Beer and 10 Barrel Brewing. (Cascade Lakes has brewed the style in the past and Immersion Brewing has a rice ale on that’s fruitier/less dry than a lager base). There are also “imports” from Portland (like Pono Brewing) and beyond (like Ferment Brewing). Oh, and of course, the OG: Asahi Super Dry from Japan, introduced in 1987.

Some 7,000 years earlier, the first fermented beverages made from rice were purportedly brewed in China. Six and a half millennia later, Germans started brewing lager beer, but to this day, they literally forbid using adjuncts like rice. German immigrants in the early days of American brewing were not held to such legal standards and made beer even lighter (and cheaper) and more refreshing by adding corn and or rice syrups to their grain bills. When craft brewing emerged almost as a reaction to the industrial breweries, those adjuncts were spoken of pejoratively. But as craft beer began entering the mainstream, crafty brewers dipped their toes into eschewing grain bills built exclusively on malted barley or wheat and today, you’d be hard pressed to find a double IPA that doesn’t feature dextrose derived from corn sugar.

I couldn’t find sales stats for imported or craft-brewed corny Mexican lagers versus ricey Japanese lagers, but considering the top-selling import is Modelo and half of the top 10 imports are Mexican, it’s worth noting that Sapporo Premium (the top selling Asian beer) doesn’t make the list.

With hot days already here, we’ve officially entered float season. Scan those bumper-to-bumper tubes and you’re prone to sightings of everything from canned IPAs to macro lagers referred to as “like making love in a canoe.” I find many IPAs too high in alcohol for a day baking in the sun. I do love 10 Barrel’s Cucumber Crush as a float beer, but wish they’d bring back cans of Money Cat rice lager (4.5%). R&D brewmaster Tonya Cornett introduced it in 2019 and it earned a gold medal at the prestigious 2022 World Beer Cup. (Earlier this year, Hood River’s pFriem Family Brewers earned WBC gold for its Japanese Lager (5%), sometimes to be found in Bend.)

While Deschutes’s King Crispy Pilsner is also great for floating, I sure wish it brought back last year’s riff, Kanpai Crispy (4.8%). At least it’s available on draft at the brewpub.

Another draft rice lager is Boneyard’s Khu Larb Thai Lager, created to compliment the food at Wild Rose and its sister restaurant, Sen (as well as its other sister resto, Khu Larb Thai in Port Townsend, Washington). The lowest of all the Oregon-brewed rice lagers at 4% ABV, you can get a 32-ounce crowler filled for the ultimate in canned float beers.

Although Market of Choice stocks nary a rice lager, it does currently stock six packs of Ferment’s Hana Pils (4.8%) and Crux’s Bochi Bochi (4.9%). It was created by head brewer Ryan Atagi, who said, “As a Japanese-American, it’s important to me to make a proper Japanese rice lager to pay homage to my culture and heritage.” The grist consists of 40% whole-grain Calrose rice—a relatively high quotient—that yields a super refreshing beer that’s extra crisp as well as extra complex.

Over at 3rd Street Beverage are six packs of Pono’s Cuzzi Companion (4.7%) or singles of Level Beer’s Cobra-Kai themed Sweep the Leg (4.6%). I crush more Sweep the Leg than most others, probably because it comes in a stovepipe can (19.2 ounces) for under $4.

Brewer/owner Jason Barbee says, “The idea was Asahi-esque with about 15% puffed Jasmine rice, Southern Hemisphere hops.” What it lacks in mercy, it brims with delicate, floral flavor.

While rice lagers provide a wonderful and delicate platform for otherwise subtle notes of tea or jasmine, the cleanliness and serenity found in Japanese-style rice lagers represents a maturation of craft beer, and an ideal companion for your fancy-schmancy tube’s drink holder.

This article appears in Source Weekly June 15, 2023.