The original Pilsner — the world’s first pale lager, brewed in Plzeň (Pilsen), Bohemia from 1842. Compared to its German descendant, Bohemian Pilsner is softer, rounder, and more malt-forward, with a distinct spicy-floral Saaz hop character and gentle, lingering bitterness. Typically 4.2–5.4% ABV.
In the glass
Origin
The world’s first pale lager, brewed by Bavarian brewer Josef Groll in Plzeň (in modern-day Czech Republic) on October 5, 1842 and first served at the feast of St. Martin’s market on November 11, 1842. The brewery itself was commissioned in response to a 1838 quality crisis in which the townspeople of Pilsen poured out an entire season’s spoiled brew in front of the town hall; architect Martin Stelzer was sent across Bavaria to study brewing and returned with Groll as the new master. Groll was briefed to recreate a Bavarian brown lager, but his combination of soft, sandstone-filtered Plzeň water, sweet Moravian pale malt, floral Saaz hops, and Bavarian bottom-fermenting yeast produced a golden beer unlike any before it. The burghers of Pilsen were slow to trademark — “pilsner bier” was registered only in 1859, by which time many imitators existed, and “Pilsner Urquell” (“original source at Pilsen,” Plzeňský Prazdroj in Czech) was trademarked in 1898. The brewery produces the beer to this day and the style became the most-copied beer template in history.
Notes
Czech and German pilsners are meaningfully different beers despite sharing an origin. Czech versions are deeper gold, rounder, a little sweeter and toastier, with a gentle lingering bitterness and sometimes a faint butter-toffee note (diacetyl) that Czech brewers embrace and German brewers work to eliminate. German pilsners, by comparison, are paler, drier, cleaner, and crisper. Another quirk: inside the Czech Republic, “pilsner” is treated as a hometown name — reserved by convention for beers actually from Plzeň — so other Czech beers in the same style (Staropramen, Gambrinus, Krušovice, Budweiser Budvar) go by different labels at home even when they ship internationally as “Czech pilsner.”
Defining examples
Pilsner Urquell·Budweiser Budvar·Czechvar·Kout na Šumavě·Notch Czech Pils