Pils that are easy to swallow
In the latest of our series on beer styles, Roger Protz gets to grips with pilsner
When the disgruntled drinkers of Pilsen in Bohemia dumped a batch of sour beer down the city’s drains in 1840 they set in motion events that were to transform brewing even more resolutely than the brewers of Burton upon Trent had done some years earlier with India pale ale.
The local Pilsen brewery had a poor reputation and as a result local innkeepers and businessmen raised the funds to build a new production plant that was first named the Burghers’ or Citizens’ Brewery. In neighbouring Munich and southern Germany a new style of beer was being perfected. It was called Bavarian beer and it was stored for long periods in icefilled cellars beneath the brewery (lager is the German term). The owners of the new brewery in Pilsen decided to adopt the lager method. They dug deep caves from the sandstone beneath the site and hired a Bavarian brewer named Josef Grolle to fashion the beer. His first batch appeared in 1842 and it was a sensation. While the beers of Bavaria were brown or russet in colour, Grolle’s beer was a pale, enticing gold. Its clarity in the glass, compared to cloudy wheat beers, added to its appeal. Above all, its rich and malty aroma and flavour, balanced by deep, floral and resiny hop character, entranced all who drank it.
According to a local legend, the colour of the beer was a mistake, due to a paler type of malt being made. I have grave doubts about this. As an experienced brewer, Grolle would surely have noticed the difference in the colour of the malt. T.....
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By Roger Protz
Section : Beer styles
Page number : 64
