Pilsner

April 13, 2020
Journalist Acitelli (The Audacity of Hops) recounts the history of one of the world’s most popular beers in this effervescent and informative take. In the 1830s, with imports threatening domestic beer sales, the Czech burghers of Pilsen in the Austrian Empire, Acitelli explains, created a modern brewery and new style of beer that was light gold in color and would soon replace the dark, heavy, chunky ales and porters that dominated the beer landscape. By the late 19th century—thanks to such scientific advancements and inventions as pasteurization, bottling, and refrigeration, the beer’s popularity spread from Europe to the U.S. and throughout the world. Brewers including Pabst, Miller, and Heineken rode the wave to international success, but it’s the Busch family’s Budweiser brand that became the king of pilsner, by creating a production line, then controlling the entire production process from distribution to marketing. Woven throughout are interludes of intrigue (yeast being stolen by monks), social unrest (beer riots, anti-immigration and prohibition movements), and economics (the U.S. government’s need for tax revenue ended Prohibition). Written with scholarly attention to detail as well as with dramatic flare (“a sickly nineteen-year-old shot a plumed nobleman... and everything changed,” Acitelli writes of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the beginning of WWI), this chronicle will intoxicate both beer nerds and history buffs.

May 15, 2020
The stealthy rise of humble Bavarian-style pilsner as the world's everyday beer. Acitelli, a James Beard Award finalist who has written widely about beer, wine, and whiskey, shrewdly connects the story of the quintessentially plebeian tipple to time and place, starting with early European experiments in fermentation. By 1900, he writes, "barely fifty years old, [pilsner] was the ascendant beer style and one of the bestselling alcoholic beverages ever." In a humorously meandering narrative, the author ties pilsner's popularity to Europe's cycles of violence and upheaval, which spread it to America alongside immigration, even as the beer barons embraced innovation. For example, although Louis Pasteur originally intended to aid European winemakers, "Pastuerization instead proved much more popular and durable among brewers." When backlash threatened, "brewers hardly noticed. They were in the midst of a remarkable run of growth." Yet, temperance advocates harnessed the World War I-era anti-German hysteria to propel their agenda. The resulting Prohibition "all but killed off the American brewing industry and its favored style." Although the large brewers roared back following the repeal of Prohibition, writes Acitelli, "it was as if [beer] had been run through a decontextualization machine." Such watersheds as the 1935 introduction of canned beer by a smaller brewer contrasted with the dominance of the giant brewers Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, which increasingly snapped up smaller concerns, as well as competition for market share by foreign entities like Heineken. After World War II, brewers continued to pursue consolidation and new technologies even as their signature product declined in consumer cachet beginning in the 1950s. As Acitelli notes, "so many breweries...had unwittingly set themselves up to fail in the 1960s [once] the positioning of pilsner as a lifestyle choice did not work." This would only change decades later, as better-marketed beers like Anchor Steam returned via foodie culture and the microbrew explosion. Though sometimes repetitious, Acitelli's confident, precise approach produces an entertaining narrative.

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July 1, 2020
Pilsner beer dominates world brewing, with a light and bubbly style that appeals to a wide range of drinkers. Acitelli (The Audacity of Hops, 2013) traces pilsner's story from its eighth century Swiss monastery origins. Beer changed little until the nineteenth century, when most beers lost their inky, cloudy color and hops replaced assorted herbs and roots. An Englishman improved malt roasting, and Bavarian brewers brewed lighter, purer beer. Legends involving monks smuggling yeast out of Bavaria to Pilsen have spread, but the real story that Acitelli relates is much more ordinary. Czech brewers were outcompeted by Bavarian imports, so they built their own more modern breweries, with local water and hops producing an effervescent brew consumers loved. Acitelli documents the rise of German breweries in the American Midwest as well as that of breweries in Europe and the world, with families such as Peroni and Heineken coming to the fore. After Prohibition, American magnates like Anheuser Busch and Miller produced pilsner on an industrial scale. Serious beer aficionados will love this detailed history of their favorite quaff.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)