Pilsner Urquell

Pilsner Urquell

The story of Pilsner Urquell begins in 1838 in the Bohemian city of Plzeň with an act of public outrage: local tavern owners were so dissatisfied with the consistently poor quality of their beer that they poured 36 barrels of it down the drains on the city square, setting in motion a chain of events that would permanently and irrevocably change the world of beer. The frustrated citizens of Plzeň commissioned architect Martin Stelzer to design a new brewery on the banks of the Radbuza River – a site chosen for its exceptionally soft water and sandstone foundations ideal for cold lagering – and summoned a 29-year-old Bavarian brewmaster named Josef Groll to carry out a deceptively simple task: brew a high-quality, delicious beer. On 5 October 1842, the first batch of Groll's golden, crystal-clear lager saw the light of day, and the world of beer was never the same again.

What Groll created was a sensation without precedent: at a time when the world knew only dark, heavy and cloudy beers, his brilliantly clear, golden and light-bodied lager with the distinctive bitterness of Saaz hops was an instant and overwhelming success. The beer's fame spread with extraordinary speed – transported to Germany via the River Elbe and throughout the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire by what contemporaries called «beer trains», it had already reached American shores by 1874, where it immediately inspired a generation of lager brewers. In 1859, the name «Pilsner Bier» was registered as a trademark, and in 1898 the brewery adopted the name Pilsner Urquell – meaning «original source of Pilsner» – to distinguish the one true original from the countless imitators that had sprung up around the world, a name that today gives its style to over 70% of all beer produced globally.

The recipe has remained untouched for over 180 years, and every drop of Pilsner Urquell is still brewed exclusively in Plzeň using the traditional triple decoction method and parallel brewing – a process that takes longer but ensures that the signature balance of sweetness from triple-decocted malt and the clean, pleasing bitterness of Saaz hops remains unchanged in every glass around the world. Today the brewery, which has been part of the Asahi Group since 2017, welcomes more than half a million visitors annually, making it one of the ten most visited tourist attractions in the Czech Republic – a living and breathing monument to the single most influential batch of beer ever brewed.