In 1842 a 29-year-old lager brewer from Bavaria, Josef Groll, was named master brewer of Mestansky Pivovar (Citizens' Brewery) in the city of Plzen, located in the western half of the Czech Republic in what was formerly Czechoslovakia and, before that, part of the kingdom of Bohemia. It's about an hour's drive from Prague.
Using lager yeast from Germany and a pale malt, Groll created a new clear golden beer, with a unique clean taste.
The brewery first sold the clear lager in October of 1842. The beer acquired the name Pilsner Urquell (urquell is German for "original source"), in honor of the language of the ruling Austrian Empire.
Though certainly distinctive, Pilsner Urquell was not first beer to be lagered. Germans had been brewing lagers since the 1400s, when their method of storing beer in the cool caves of the Bavarian mountains inadvertently introduced lager yeast, which thrived at the low temperatures. These Bavarian lagers were mostly dark beers, however, and any light-colored ales that were available were probably cloudy.
Word of the clear Pilsner Urquell quickly spread through Europe, and in 1859 the brewery made "Pilsener Beer" a registered trademark. The beer was first exported to America in 1871.
In 1898, following numerous breaches of the Pilsener trademark by imitators, the brewery took further precautions by also trademarking the name "Pilsner Urquell".
To celebrate Pilsner's birthday, drink a Pilsner Urquell on October 5. Or drink one of the hundred American imitators.
Interestingly, Anheuser-Busch applied for trademark of the Budweiser name in 1907, even though Czechs had long known of "Budweiser" as the beer from the Czech city of Czeske Budejovice, or "Budweiss" in German.
Anheuser-Busch's Michelob brand is also named for a Czech town, Michelovice.
Anheuser-Busch's right to sell beers in Europe and Asia under the Budweiser trademark is being disputed in the courts.
