Origins of Malt: Pilsner, a Beer Created from Revolt

Remember the good old days? The days when the beer was so bad that the citizens of Plzeň (Pilsen in English) poured it out in the city streets.

Well that’s exactly what happened in Pilsen, a city in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), in the early 1800s. The world was in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, but apparently still had a long way to go.

The town was so upset that it decided to build its own brewery called Bürgerbrauerei and hired Bavarian brewer Josef Groll. He learned the trade from his father, brewing bottom-fermenting Bavarian lagers.

The Birth of Pilsen Malt

Groll was also keen on the latest malting techniques, particularly those in England, where Daniel Wheeler had invented drum kilining. This allowed for more consistent and lighter malts. It was a stark contrast to the darker, scorched malts that often resulted from primitive floor malting methods.

When creating a new beer for Pilsen, Groll used the latest kilning techniques to forgo the darker malts of the day. He instead created what still stands as the lightest barley malt in the world, aptly named Pilsen.

Pilsen is a pale straw colored two-row barley malt that typically clocks in between 1.7 and 2.2 lovibond. It imparts a subtle sweet malty flavor that allows other elements of the beer to shine on top of the malt.

Groll rounded out his Pilsen malt with Saaz hops, creating the Pilsner style (a light lager) that is the most common beer style in the world today. Despite its proliferation, or maybe because of it, Pilsner contains such a delicate balance of ingredients that it is commonly used as a benchmark for the quality of a brewer’s skills.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Malteurop Pilsen Malts

With the subtlety that Pilsen malt delivers, it’s no wonder there are several varieties available. In fact, Malteurop has three varieties, including our North American grown Pilsen, as well as imported Bavarian Pilsen and French Pilsen from Europe.