Pilsner: One of the World’s Most Popular Beer Styles

Pilsner: One of Europe’s Gifts to Mankind

Pilsner is one of the world’s best- known styles of beer and it has inspired the creation/enhancement of many other types of beer over the ages, like Oktoberfest, Vienna Lager, and many of the lagers brewed in the United States. It’s the most imitated of all the world’s beer styles, with many brewers placing the pilsner label on most any lager they produce. What makes a pilsner, and how did the style originate?
Pilsner’s Past:
The origins of this style of beer can be traced to 1842 when the first pilsner was brewed in Pilsen, Bohemia, which is part of the Czech Republic today. This original pilsner was the product of the Mestansky Pivovar (meaning “citizen’s brewery”) brewery, which would later change its name to the Plzensky Prazdroj (meaning “original source of pilsner”) brewery. Leading the brewing was brewmaster Josef Groll. He created this beer, later named “Pilsner Urquell”, which means “original source”. With this new beer, the pilsner style had been born.
The popularity of this new beer spread quickly throughout Europe. It was exported to the United States for the first time in 1871. To protect this new venture in malt beverage creation, the Mestansky Pivovar made “pilsner beer” a registered trademark. This protective measure didn’t last long, however. The pilsner style was so well- liked and grew in popularity so quickly that the term pilsner eventually became a generic word that was used to describe most any light lager, even if the beer wasn’t very similar to the original pilsner.
Characteristics of Pilsner Beer:
Pilsners are made with bottom- fermenting lager yeast. These beer products have an original gravity that generally starts around 1.048 (12 degrees Plato) and the finished product usually has an alcohol level in the 4 to 5 percent range, by volume. Pilsners are light golden in color and a true pilsner should have a moderate amount of malt taste, and a substantial flavor of hops. The original pilsner, Pilsner Urquell, has a hop bitterness rating of 40 I.B.U. Other characteristics of pilsner include a pale body, and crisp, dry finish.
Many American made, mass- produced beers try to claim that they are pilsners, even though they really don’t fit the definition at all. For the most part, these beers are just light American- style lagers with greatly reduced hop content to reduce bitterness. They are not true pilsners, in spite of the brewer’s claims. When a true lover of beer hears Miller Lite proclaim that it is a “fine pilsner beer”, we just roll our eyes and chuckle. The only similarity between Miller Lite and Pilsner Urquell is that they are both light colored.
Pilsner Today:
Pilsners remain a very popular style of beer, and it isn’t difficult to see why. They are light, clean- tasting, and don’t lead to a bloated feeling the way some of the darker beers do. Personally, I would rather have a stout, porter, or bock. However, if I had to choose a lighter beer, pilsners would rank at the top of my list. Please note that I’m talking about real pilsners, not the light lagers that many American brewers try to call pilsner.
Most all people in the United States have tried lager beers, but only a fraction have sampled a true pilsner. The granddaddy of them all, Pilsner Urquell, is a popular import and is available all over the United States. If you haven’t tried it yet, then you should make it a point to find some and sample it. And keep an eye out for the small, craft- brewed pilsners out there. Many of them are excellent.
Pilsners and imitations of the style are not likely to lose any of their popularity in the near future. The craft beer revolution in the United States has made an impact and has encouraged greater consumption of ale, but pilsners are still quite popular among the public. And we can thank our European friends in the Czech Republic for introducing pilsner beer to the world. Josef Groll, specifically, deserves the credit for creating this beer style that is so well- known and praised the world over. His Pilsner Urquell is considered a world classic and his creation has lead to happiness and conviviality all over the planet.
So raise your beer mugs and proclaim a toast to Mr. Josef Groll. The world would not be the same without him!