No matter where one is in the world, a quenching pale lager is seldom far away. Nearly every country that has a brewery has one, which in many cases is considered the national beer. The far-reaching consequences of these German- and Bohemian-inspired brews is significant not only as a satiating provision, but often as a sort of identity. Many European breweries adopted the style and shifted their focus in response to the popularity of the originals a century and a half ago. The rest of the world followed closely behind. Most resemble pilsners with a modest hop character, yet other versions rely more on a malt background reminiscent of a helles lagerbier. They are true to their roots in many respects, but different enough from their progenitors and one another to make them regionally and brewery-unique. Some rely on modest amounts of adjunct to lighten the profile. They can also be considered transitional brews with their relatively soft character, an introductory frothy primer to the land of hops and malt. Somewhat disparate in character from one another, their worldwide popularity is not to be denied. They endure because of loyalty, necessity, and quality. One of the producers has an iconoclastic place in history as an innovative bastion of brewing science.
One of the great sages of our time, Frank Zappa, once said, “You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline—but at the very least, you need a beer.”
Origins and Divergence
The original pale lager, brewed in the Bohemian city of Plzen, is the matron of them all. Münchener helles, Dortmunders, German pilsner, and even the kölschbier of Köln, Germany, are offspring of the watershed moment that happened in Plzen in 1842. Unhappy with the state of brewing in the city in 1838 the tavern owners in Plzen collectively built a brewery, known as The Burghers Brewery, in the suburb of Bubenc. Not only did they pool their wits, but they also borrowed from the Munich brewers their bottom-fermenting procedures. By using their own stunningly revolutionary pale Moravian malt, which was lighter than any other, and world-renowned Saaz hops from the Zatec region, the new beer was indeed like nothing that had ever been seen before. The result of this incredible convergence rumbled through Europe like an earthquake as virtually every brewing region scrambled to produce something similar.
The impact is still evident in Europe by the ubiquity of the progeny. Regional differences in water, Plzen’s is extremely soft, and especially maltings resulted in a cornucopia of interpretive pale lagers. Though Germany and The Czech Republic are most famous for these origins, it can easily be argued that pale lagers from other countries are today more well-known, and more extensively consumed.
While the classic and stylistic pale lagers of the world can be pigeonholed either by fashion or region, many of them cannot. Those which are considered here collectively as a logical, if loose, style are common in their ancestry, basic ingredient base, and method of production. Some are rather non-descript, but others are simply very personalized and well-crafted adaptations of the most enjoyed type of beer in the world. Pale malt, almost invariably lager type, coupled with noble hops, elicits a soft, familiar roundness that is straightforward and effortless. Top-notch hops and malt are not strangers to these brews and they are the delightful respite that the unassuming of the world desire. Their global matriculation and popularity is nothing short of phenomenal. The legacy is no less interesting.
