With many good examples available, the beer panel recently convened to taste 20 American lagers. Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Chase Rabenn, bar and hospitality manager for Colicchio & Sons in Chelsea, and Matthew Pene, beer director for Eleven Madison Park.

We all agreed signs pointed toward a lager renaissance. “It’s just a cool time for lagers,” Chase said. Why now?

Aside from an initial distaste for diving into the style that epitomized industrial brewing, many early craft brewers had other reasons for avoiding lagers, one of the two major forms of beer, along with ales. Minimalist lagers, in general, are more difficult to produce than fruity, complex ales. They are subtle, demanding more precision and more specialized equipment. Ales, by contrast, tend to be more forgiving of errors.

It’s a little like the syndicated-television landscape painter Bob Ross, who would earnestly advise turning an accidental blob of paint on canvas into “another happy tree.” That works for ales, but with minimalist lagers, that ugly blob stands out as a flaw.

Not that all craft brewers avoided the style. Some of the biggest names in the 1970s and ’80s specialized in lagers, like Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Brooklyn Lager and Anchor Steam Beer. Anchor now also makes California Lager, a crisp, bracing, refreshing brew that would be a wonderful ballpark companion. It was our No. 2 beer.

Brooklyn Lager was right behind at No. 3, amber to Anchor’s golden color with a more pronounced malt flavor, yet lively and juicy. Samuel Adams Boston Lager was No. 8, crisp and bitter with a slightly briny quality. This beer has saved me in many an airport lounge around the country.

Defining “American lager” was difficult. American brewers like nothing better than bending and twisting beer styles, so vague terms like American lager bleed into more specific forms of lager like, say, pilsner. Our solution was to include golden and amber lagers, equivalent to German styles like Helles and Dortmunder, while excluding beers labeled pilsner. We also tried, not entirely successfully, to exclude lagers that used cereal adjuncts in the industrial style. As I said, it’s hard to be precise. Almost all were 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent alcohol.