Pilsner is “a brewer’s beer” style. You hear it again and again when you talk to brewers about their favorite styles or when you ask them what their “desert-island beers” are—it’s the bitter golden lager that they love to drink when they’re off the clock. Pilsner is an easy style to fall for. It can be easily consumed in quantity without fatiguing the palate, but a good Pils also has the complexity to withstand scrutiny. The best examples showcase a remarkable balance between a distinctive hoppy character and a delicate malt flavor. Brewing a Pilsner requires technical skill and flawless ingredients. They are so much more than boring light beer, and the American drinking populace is (finally) catching on. Lager is no longer a dirty word in the craft-beer world, and American brewers, inspired by travels abroad, are brewing their own visions of the perfect Pilsner.
It’s as if the history of Pilsner is repeating. The first Bohemian Pilsners spread across Europe like a viral meme in nineteenth century. The idea of briskly bitter and brilliantly clear golden lager was captivating to thirsty Europeans, and as railroads connected cities for the first time, Pilsner washed over the continent and changed the world’s beer culture forever.
Each new region that adopted Pilsner put its own spin on the style. The Germans used harder water and hops besides the signature Saaz variety beloved in Bohemia. When German immigrants brought the style to the Americas, they used New World ingredients (six-row barley, maize, and American-grown hops), adding further variation to the style. In America, more railroads and refrigeration helped Pilsner dominate an expanding market, and a shifting, consolidating beer industry led to a homogenization of beer from which we’re still reeling.