THE TIPPLING POINT | A Bohemian Affair: The Genesis of Pilsner in Three Acts

You might have heard about the word ‘pilsner’. Here is the story of its genesis. In three acts.

Dramatis Personae

Hops and Barley – The two main ingredients in beer.

Moravia and Bohemia – Parts of the Czech Republic

Bavaria – A German Province bordering Bohemia which helps her in beer crisis.

Pilsner – A type of pale lager beer born in the city of Pilzen, Bohemia.

Joseph Groll – The Bavarian beer master, who helped the Bohemians make the first Pilsner in the world.

Bohemia – Bohemia.

The Bohemian way – Ask Joseph Groll (only from a safe distance).

Prologue

Bohemia...

The motherland of gypsies. Where troubadours, artists and poets wander about sipping life as it passes by. Wild imagination startles into life here, and runs amok unbridled, along unbeaten trails.

Do people call you irresponsible, non-committal, detached and still happy? Tell them you are a bit Bohemian. The land has famously granted its name to those who lead an unconventional and blissful life.

Tell me, who among us has never wished in secret to lead a Bohemian life?

Bohemia, part of the Czech Republic is also synonymous with beer for centuries. Perhaps a lot of good beer which flowed from the land has built that romantic image.

Remember, it was a Bohemian, Tadeas Hajeck who wrote the first brewing textbook in 1588. But, alas... those were salad days.

Act 1

Many centuries later, we catch the Bohemian burghers (citizens), dispirited and disheartened, sitting around a table, with their chins rested on their arms. Their future seemed bleak.

It was only a week back they poured down the drain one batch of beer they had brewed in front of the town hall. And along with it went the reputation of the famous Bohemian beer.

The quality of the famous beer from Bohemia reached new low, they were convinced.

They knew they had to look elsewhere for support.

Bohemia is sandwiched between the Czech Moravia and the German Bavaria. The latter was the seat of beer during the time. People from faraway lands used to visit Munich to study Bavarian beer in close quarters.

So at the end of the emergency meeting, the committee of Bohemian burghers decided to bring an expert from across the border to set up a new brewery in the city of Pilzen, in Bohemia.

Act II

A massive hunt began in Bavaria to find an expert beer maker who would help Bohemia recapture its lost reputation. Finally, they zeroed in on one.

Joseph Groll. The saviour of Bohemian beer. The new brew master.

Joseph Groll. The coarsest man in Bavaria, his friends said. The rudest man in the city, Groll’s father added.

Joseph Groll. The one who knew the job. Beer making.

Groll was briefed to create a beer of Bavarian style. He grunted, and recruited Bavarian barrel makers, Bavarian assistants and Bavarian yeasts. He was going to make another Bavarian beer but from Bohemia.

Except for the locally grown ingredients everything else was Bavarian.

Groll thoughtfully used the sweet Moravian barley and Bohemian hops, which had bitterness and a lot of aroma to make the new beer. So it became an experiment of Bavarian expertise on Bohemian barley and hops.

Act III

The burghers were tense when the beer was finally ladled into their glasses. With much trepidation they sipped the golden beverage with thick snow-white foam. The liquid coated their mouth with its sharp, delicious taste. After moments of tense silence the gathering broke into one unending applause.

The quiet town of Pilsen had never been reverberated with such loud cheers as the burghers welcomed the new beer which they knew was going to put their land back on the beer map.

Joseph Groll, just nodded his head, tasting his make.

He had just created the first Pilsner in history. Bohemia would be grateful to him for once again raising its image in the world.

Groll was fired in 1845, three years later. He was rude to some Bavarian burghers. They sent him away and continued to celebrate life after the Bohemian fashion. Long live beer.

(Manu Remakant is a freelance writer who also runs a video blog - A Cup of Kavitha - introducing world poetry to Malayalees. Views expressed here are personal)