Ever wondered what makes a pilsner a pilsner?
These days, there are many different beer styles labelled pilsner on the market – from Czech pilsner, to German, Italian, New Zealand pilsners and more.
What do they all have in common and how do they differ? Let's find out.
Love Pilsner but don't know why? Our beer qualifications are a great way of learning more about beer styles from around the world.
Pilsner’s origins
The name Pilsner gives us a clue as to where it’s from. Pilsner means ‘from Pilsen’ (Plzeň), which is the town in the present-day Czech Republic where this beer was first brewed way back in 1842.
Pilsner Urquell – with urquell meaning ‘original’ or ‘original source’ – wasn’t just the world’s first pilsner... it was the world’s first golden-coloured lager.
You might be thinking, aren’t all lagers golden in colour? Many are today, but it wasn’t that way in the past. Lager brewing dates to the 1500s and most lagers back then were brown in colour and perhaps even slightly smoky in aroma (more similar to a Rauchbier!).
It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that maltsters – the people who make malt – fine-tuned their techniques and made malt lighter in colour. This pale malt is also known as pilsner malt and is – you guessed it – a key ingredient in pilsner beers.
The Urquell brewery in Plzeň, Czech Republic.
The production process
In addition to pilsner malt, Czech pilsner is also brewed with local Czech hops, with the Saaz (Žatec) varietal being most common, and lager yeast.
Still common today, Czech brewers use a traditional mashing technique called a decoction mash which creates a really deep and rich malt character that helps to balance the style’s hop bitterness and aroma. A long boil is also typical here, which darkens the colour from straw to gold. Good clarity is expected from the beer’s long lagering, or cold conditioning process, which gives time for flavours to mature and appearance to improve.
What’s unique about the Czech pilsner though is a compound that’s considered an off-flavour in most beers – diacetyl – is welcome here in low levels. So, what does a Czech pilsner actually taste like?
The sensory profile of a pilsner
Starting with appearance, as you might expect, Czech pilsner is typically gold in colour with good clarity. On the nose, we’ll find aromas of bread crumb from the pilsner malt and decoction mash, while the local Czech hops, notably Saaz (Žatec), bring spicy, herbal and floral notes. Those hops also contribute a medium level of bitterness, which is nicely balanced, or softened, by both the rich malt aromas and diacetyl’s light butter note. This style is typically brewed to a medium alcohol strength.
Pilsner’s global impact
When most people think of a glass of beer, they think of a glass full of fizzy yellow liquid. You’ve got the Czech pilsner to thank for that. Today, pale lagers account for the vast majority of beer consumed worldwide.
So how did one beer style make such a big impression? It had a lot to do with timing.
Glassware became affordable in the mid-1800s, making beer colour matter in a way it hadn’t before. (Previously beer was consumed from ceramic steins or metal tankards.)
By the late 1800s, new railroads let pilsner spread from city to city, and country to country, while refrigeration enabled year-round brewing, and pasteurisation helped beer keep for longer, allowing it to travel further and expand its impact.
Other pilsner styles
Historically, the term pilsner was used only to refer to the original Czech version. These days though, you may see the names Czech lager, bohemian lager or bohemian pilsner used instead. (In the Czech Republic, look out for the label světlý ležák, which literally translates to ‘pale lager’ in English.)
When Germany came up with their adaptation in the 1870s, they called their version a ‘pils’ or ‘pilsener’ to distinguish it from the original.
It would be another hundred years or so before Italian and New Zealand brewers introduced their takes on the style... which, interestingly, were variations of the German adaptation!
Here’s how they differ:
German pilsner
Compared to the Czech version, German pilsner is often lighter in colour (typically straw, sometimes gold) because they’ve ditched the laborious decoction mash and long boil the Czech version used. This gives lighter malt aromas, think bread dough or light honey, and makes the bitterness a bit more prevalent in the balance, typically medium to high. German hops are often used here, instead of Czech, but their hop aromas are similar – floral, herbal and spicy. Lastly, instead of the buttery diacetyl note acceptable in the Czech version, the German version typically has a low level of DMS from the very pale colour malts that are used, meaning a slight cooked sweetcorn aroma is considered acceptable in this style.
Italian pilsner
First brewed in the mid-1990s, the Italian pilsner is broadly similar to the German pilsner but adds an extra step to the brewing process to further emphasize hop aroma. In this process – called dry-hopping – hops are added during or after fermentation to give pronounced hop aromas. Specific varietals of German or Czech hops, often called noble hops, are used to bring even more floral, spicy, and herbal hop notes to the beer than previously present.
New Zealand pilsner
The New Zealand pilsner uses the same dry-hopping technique as the Italian version, however, instead of using traditional European hops, varietals from New Zealand or Australia are substituted instead. These varietals introduce aromas like citrus fruit, stone fruit, or tropical fruits – hop aromas we wouldn't typically associate with a lager, making this a totally new take on the style. These beers may have a slightly higher alcohol level (medium to high) compared to their inspirations. You may also see these styles labelled as contemporary hopped lagers, hoppy lagers, or Imperial pilsners, some also include American hops in the mix, too.
So, what actually defines a pilsner?
Generally speaking, if we see another variation of the pilsner appear in the future, we can expect it to be a pale-coloured, hop-driven lager beer, with both hop aroma and hop bitterness as key features. Cheers!
