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From the Wall Street Journal:

"Among discerning drinkers, craft beer’s hot new thing is a cold, crisp lager that couldn’t be further from long-popular IPAs. The beer that Budweiser and Miller made famous in the U.S. has gone artisanal.

"The bestselling beers tend to be mass-produced lagers, the kinds long associated with ballgames and barbecues. They’re also the brews that picky drinkers often regard as watery and low on flavor, beer experts say. But lagers are now important for more brewers and for a wider range of customers, says Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, which counts more than 5,300 craft breweries as members."

Will Golden, co-founder of Austin Beerworks in Austin, Texas, tells the Journal that "craft microbreweries weren’t very interested in lagers during the last decade because they needed to turn out beers faster than a good lager takes to brew.

"But with craft beer becoming normal, beer connoisseurs now view lagers as a measure of quality, he says. Making one that is clean and refreshing is considered a mark of craftsmanship … Lagers, which range from the bright yellow pilsner to the darker, full-bodied Märzen, are produced at low temperatures. The slow fermentation and refrigeration process reduces the speed of yeast activity during conditioning, creating a crisp flavor and brilliant color. But keeping the beer in tanks for the weeks it takes to make a lager costs more time and money. Add rising costs of labor, packaging and raw ingredients like malt—for which mega-breweries negotiate lower prices—and more lager means more risk and cost for microbreweries."