I’m not entirely sure how or why, but it’s what my mouth told me when I sipped it a minute ago and a minute ago before that.
The fact is, Carlsberg Danish Pilsner is better. But is Carlsberg’s new stuff any better? The ingredients list is a little troubling – it includes not just “hops”, but “hops oil”. We focused on brewing quantity, not quality we became one of the cheapest, not the best.” Remember, we are all now connoisseurs.Ĭarlsberg’s Liam Newton said: “Drinkers’ interest in mainstream lager has waned because, though the world has moved on, the mainstream category hasn’t. It will need to, given the proliferation of more sophisticated, complex beers in the UK, as well as changing consumer habits. “Carlsberg Danish Pilsner”, the company says, provides a “crisper, fuller flavour”. The brewery hasn’t just strapped a new name on cans and bottles, but updated the ingredients. My pint of carlsberg tastes like naan bread Here in the Netherlands, Pilsner is still the most popular type of beer to be consumed- something that we’re trying to change with our own scrumptious beers of course! In fact, two of our most popular beers are Trackdown and the Dikke Lul 3 Bier, both of which are pale ales that we offer year round.Our generation have trust issues because we were all raised on those awesome adverts saying Carlsberg is the best lager in the world only to finally taste the shit and realise it’s like drinking the bath water that your nan died in. Without over simplifying it, with a Pilsner “what you see is what you get”- although of course quality does vary between brands and brewers will pride themselves on brewing a great pilsner as there is nothing to hide behind. Brewing wise, they also use different yeast strains.
Pilsners on the other hand tend to have a cleaner and crisper taste than pale ales. So what’s the difference between a pilsner and a pale ale? Perhaps the most distinguishable difference between the two beer styles is that pale ales tend to be more bitter, maltier (and more hoppy) than its pilsner counterpart. The 19th Century also saw mass immigration to the New World, so German immigrants took their recipes (and yeasts) in order to be able to continue to brew their Pilsners, where it soon proved to be a popular beer style too! Pale ale vs pilsner As railroads were built across Europe and refrigeration technology developed which made lagering easier, this proved to be a catalyst for the spread of the Pilsner. Neighbouring areas of Pilsen that enjoyed the same soft water and access to hops were soon brewing their own Pilsen beers and the beer style soon proved popular throughout Bavaria too. From Pilsen and beyondįrom Pilsen in the Czech Republic, the now popular Pilsner soon made its way to other corners of the world. The result emerged in 1842, a clear ‘golden’ coloured beer that proved to be an instant hit, aptly named the Pilsner after the town in which it was born. Groll meanwhile made the use of new malting techniques-British maltsters had been perfecting paler malts- and with the development of yeast technology and access to local hops, he was in an ideal position to develop a great new beer style.
Stelzer hadn’t built a brewery before so spent some time travelling around Europe to carry out research – he ended up building the brewery near the Radbuza river, which enabled easier access to aquifers which held soft and mineral free water. A Bavarian brewer, Josef Groll, was brought in and with the help of builder/architect Martin Stelzer, they were commissioned to build a Burger brauerei- which translates as a citizen’s brewery- and brew a new beer. So first of all, how did the Pilsner come to be? It all began with a citizen’s ‘beer protest’ in the Czech city of Pilsen, who were not happy with the quality of their beer.
We’ll delve into the history of how the Pilsner came to be, and how it became so popular around the world, and finally how it compares to a pale ale. Throughout our blog series, we have been focused largely on the topic of IPAs so we thought this week it would be good to focus on another beer style, the Pilsner.