Czech Premium Pale Lager

Have you ever been at a town council meeting and thought to yourself, “I could really use a beer right now?” You wouldn’t be alone: the town elders leaders in Plzen thought the same thing in the early 1840s, so they hired a brewer and created one of the most important beers to ever be brewed. Although you might not be cracking one of these every Friday to celebrate the weekend, the seemingly unassuming Czech Premium Pale Lager has arguably had a greater impact on the beer world than any other beer style in history.

As with most iconic products, a special synchronicity led to the incredible success of this beer. Dark lagers dominated the Bavarian scene since around the time of the Reinheitsgebot in 1516, and their massive popularity led the folks in Plzen to hire a Bavarian brewer, Josef Grolle, to help with their enterprise. Grolle advanced new malting technology used by English brewers to create pale malts, and created the pale Pilsner Urquell (“original Pilsner”), which became so popular that German, Belgian, and English brewers were forced to create similar beers to keep up with consumer tastes. Perhaps the most stunning statistic to highlight the impact that Grolle’s creation has had is the popularity that the beer’s descendants continue to enjoy today: Budweiser, Miller, Coors, and Pabst (though remarkably different than the original) all share a lineage in the first pale lagers that came from his brewery in 1842.

Ingredients played a huge role in the popularity of this beer…you might think of it as one of the OG local farm-to-glass beers. Malt came from barley grown in the Hana valley in what’s now the Czech Republic, and the beer was hopped with the Saaz varietal, which are named after the Czech city Zatec where they originated. Hana barley became such a popular ingredient that it spawned breeding programs that produced barley varieties with the same brewing and agronomic qualities but could be grown in different geographic regions. Saaz hops remain such an important aspect of this style that they accounted for a full 2/3 of hops grown in the Czech Republic well into this century. The naturally soft water in Plzen also played an important role, allowing all of those local ingredients to come together in a smooth, rounded, and easy-drinking lager. Thirst (the final, most important ingredient) also likely played a huge role in the growth of the style. Czech drinkers still top the worldwide list of beer consumption per capita (no, the last party at the Delta house doesn’t count) at around 143 liters per person. At about a pint per person, per day, that’s a lot of parched beer-lovers. The US doesn’t even make the top 20, by the way…we drink less than half that amount annually (come visit if you’d like to help our brewers break the trend).

Even the most optimistic town council in Plzen could barely have imagined the impact this beer would have when the first batches were brewed in 1842. The next time you throw back a liter (but not really because you can’t serve that much beer in one glass in Vermont), make sure to thank history’s best town meeting.

Modern Evolution

Commonly associated with Pilsner Urquell, which was first brewed in 1842 after construction of a new brewhouse by burghers dissatisfied with the standard of beer brewed in Plzen. Bavarian brewer Josef Groll is credited with first brewing the beer.