OnTap Magazine

They’re bitter, malty and perfectly balanced. They are as difficult to produce as they are easy to drink and they’re perfect for some summer sipping. Shawn Duthie unpacks a pair of pilsners. n life, there are some questions that you hear over and over: “why is the sky blue?”, “is that really Donald Trump’s hair?”, “what is the meaning of life?” and, more importantly, “what is the di erence between a lager and a pilsner?” Well, I’m glad you asked, because there is indeed a di erence. But before we get to that we must rst look at how pilsners came about, and changed the face of beer as the world knew it. MALT, HOPS AND SMUGGLED YEAST Pilsners, named after the Czechia (formerly the Czech Republic) town of Plzeň, originated as a result of aligning planets – or at least ingredients. It was the mid-19th century and overinBritain,advancesinmaltingtechnology had paved the way for lighter malts. After a series of unfortunate brews which resulted in the people of Plzeň dumping the latest batch of beer into the town square, the local brewery hired a Bavarian brewer by the name of Josef Groll. His quest was to replicate the renowned bottom-fermented beers of Bavaria and so on his way out of the German state he smuggled some yeast to use in Plzeň. e recipe sheet was now complete: Plzeň’s soft well water, pale malt, the appropriated yeast and a liberal dosing of Saaz hops. e result: a clear, light and refreshing beer that would be the standard today, but which was something completely new in 1842. Others rushed to copy the beer and the ‘clear beer’ craze was born. Until this point, beer had largely been a murky business but even in a pre-Instagram world, people wanted to appreciate how pretty their beer was before they took a sip. e Czech beer relied heavily on Bavarian beer wisdom, so it’s only fair that the Bavarians took a little back, leading to the two classic styles of pilsner that we have today– Czech and German. e main di erentiator is the ingredients, which are based on locality – German pils uses a combination of noble hops THAT CONQUERED THEWORLD GERMAN CZECH STYLE GUIDE I THE BEER 52 | Summer 2018 | ontapmag.co.za