How to Make Pilsen Beer??

Beer is as old as human civilization and we have not decided yet if it's good (as least for the heart and skin) or bad. 5,000 years ago, Sumerians, Babylonians and Egyptians already had over 19 varieties of beer. From Middle East, Europeans adopted this booze and at the beginning of the first millennium it had already became a favorite of Celts, Germans (including Vikings) and other tribes, entering their mythology.

During the Middle Age, beer brewery was the task of monasteries and monks improved the process by adding hop. But the history of the Pilsen beer started in 1295 when Wenceslaus II of Bohemia gave 260 citizens of the city of Pilsen the right to make beer. The household processing at first in small quantities ended with the formation of guilds and breweries. In time, the economy and culture of Bohemia declined and so did the beer processing: people were brewing beer following their own recipes without considering traditional techniques, which often resulted in a disgusting broth not worthy to be called beer.

By those times, there were two types of basic European beer: the one fermented on the surface of the liquid, made especially in Bohemia, and the one made at the bottom of the barrel, of better quality and very popular in Bavaria. The difference between the Bohemian beer and the Bavarian lager was abysmal.

In 1839, 200 brewers of Pilsen founded the Citizen Brewery, aiming to produce only lager beer similar to the Bavarian one. They invited the famous Bavarian brewer Josef Groll and even if he produced something different of what the Bohemians expected, this was more than Groll himself had anticipated. The result was the Pilsen beer, unique through its scent, color, and flavor, due to the excellent quality of the local raw material. The fame of the Pilsen beer made it one of the most imitated types of beer.

At the beginning of the 19th century beer brewery became a mechanized process. When Danish researcher Emil Christian Hansen separated a pure yeast strain for beer, he effectively revolutionized brewery.

Beer brewery requires 4 ingredients (water, barley, yeast and hop) and four steps. Germinated barley (malt, made in 5-6 days at 14 degrees C) is dried in special ovens, being left with 2-5% humidity, which stops germination. The sprouts are eliminated and the ground malt is mixed with water till a pap emerges, and this is heated 'till it reaches the temperature when enzymes are activated and break down starch to glucose (in over 4 hours). The resulting liquid is filtered and boiled for two hours to deactivate the enzymes, hop is added for the bitter flavor and the liquid is cooled. Through fermentation the glucose is turned into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast, in a week. Temperature and time makes the beer type, ale or lager.