Pilsner

Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from Plzeň (Pilsen in German), a city in Bohemia, then in the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic, where it was first produced in 1842. The world’s first blond lager, the original Pilsner Urquell, is still produced there today.

The City of Pilsen began brewing in 1295, but until the mid-1840s, most Bohemian beers were top-fermented. The taste and standards of quality often varied widely, and in 1838, consumers dumped whole barrels to show their dissatisfaction. The officials of Pilsen founded a city-owned brewery in 1839, called Měšťanský pivovar Plzeň (German: Bürger-Brauerei, English: Citizens' Brewery - now Pilsner Urquell), which was to brew beer in the pioneering Bavarian style. Brewers had begun aging beer made with bottom-fermenting yeasts in caves (lager, i.e. German: gelagert [stored]), which improved the beer's clarity and shelf-life. Part of this research benefited from the knowledge already expounded on in a book (printed in German in 1794, in Czech in 1799), written by Czech brewer František Ondřej Poupě (Ger: Franz Andreas Paupie) (1753–1805) from Brno.

The Pilsen brewery recruited the Bavarian brewer Josef Groll (1813–1887) who, using new techniques and paler malts, presented his first batch of pilsner on 5 October 1842. The combination of brighter malt prepared by English technology, Pilsen's remarkably soft water, local Saaz noble hops from nearby Žatec and Bavarian-style lagering produced a clear, golden beer that was regarded as a sensation. Groll returned to Vilshofen, three years later in 1845, and there later inherited his father's brewery.

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