which was very different than the other mineral-rich brewing water of the time.
In 1842, four years after the beer rebellion, the Burger Brauerei, German for citizens’ brewery, unveiled this new beer to the public. Never before had there been such a clear goldencolored beer. The glowing color combined with the liberal use of the spicy, herbal hops, the soft water, the cold fermentation, and the long conditioning period created a crisply-flavored, refreshing, and miraculously translucent beer. It was named pilsner, meaning“ from Pilsen.” The malt being produced with the English kilning method turned out to be far lighter than what the English were producing with it. To this day the lightest colored malt you can buy for brewing is Pilsner malt. At that time glassware, previously only available to the wealthy, was being produced on an industrial scale. Pilsner’ s golden glow was uniquely suited to being served in glassware and very well might be the reason clear glass began replacing the ceramic mugs and steins in the biergartens.
Word travelled quickly about this new style of beer and it wasn’ t long before the surrounding areas began brewing their own pilsner lagers. German and Austrian brewers were producing their own versions as well, quickly producing their own pale pilsner malts and using their own hop varieties. German pilsners in particular were, and still are, more hop forward. The advent of refrigeration meant that lagers no longer were confined to caves in cooler climates and could now be brewed anywhere. Pilsner quickly became a global style. So much so that the Burgerbrauerei and the city of Pilsen itself fought to keep other breweries from using the name pilsner, trying to keep regional status on their pride and joy. Many breweries agreed to shorten the name of the style to“ pils” but the campaign was largely unsuccessful. The genie was out of the bottle and had long been granting delicious and refreshing golden wishes all over the world. Unable to keep the pilsner name for themselves, in 1898 the brewery branded its beer“ Pilsner Urquell” which means“ original source pilsner.” They wanted there to be no doubt that theirs was the original.
The Pilsner truly became the world’ s beer, influencing even more styles of golden lagers. The hiccup in innovation and technological growth was the 20th Century. Two world wars, prohibition, the Great Depression, and the spread of communism through Eastern Europe all had a stifling effect on world brewing. Half of Germany and Bohemia were incorporated into the Soviet Union after World War II. The Soviets closed most breweries and nationalized the larger ones, including Urquell. Productivity, profitability, innovation, and efficiency were discouraged at best and punished at worst. Surviving Czech and East German breweries were perpetually stuck in the 1930s until the
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