The Evolution of the Pale American Lager

American pale lager, the world's most ubiquitous beer style, is produced at a rate of 180 million barrels per year and commands a market share in the United States in excess of 97 percent! This amazing feat is not the work of Madison Avenue wizards but the result of over 500 years of evolution.

Records show that lager beer was first brewed by Bavarian monks during the fifteenth century and could only be brewed in the winter months. Large-scale production of lager beer did not begin until 1840 in Munich and Vienna. Lagers, and beers in general, were relatively dark in color because of the alkaline nature of the waters in the brewing centers of the world - Dublin, London, Burton-on-Trent, and Munich - and also because it was not possible to produce a malt of both pale color and full flavor.

That situation changed in 1842. A brewery was built in Pilsen ( in Czechoslovakia) to produce traditional, dark Bavarian-style lagers. The water of Pilsen proved to be too soft and too lacking in alkalinity to produce a good dark beer. However, advancements in the science of malting at that time allowed for the production of well-kilned, flavorful malt of low color. This coupled with Pilsen's extremely soft water allowed brewers in Pilsen to create a new beer style. Beer from Pilsen proved to be so popular that it was exported to Vienna in 1856, to Paris and London in 1862, and even to America in 1873. Pilsner beer was soon copied by breweries around the world. In fact, Budweiser and Michelob are named for cities in Czechoslovakia known for good beer.

First brewed in the United States in the early 1840's, lager beer did not take America by storm. Because of an entrenched ale tradition, it would take nearly 40 years for lager to outsell ale. In England the rise of lager has been slower, yet significant. Market share for ales has dropped from 71 percent to 57 percent over the last eight years. American breweries during the mid-nineteenth century were relatively small and numerous. In 1873 there were more than 4,000 breweries in the country. Market size was dictated by the distance a horse-drawn cart could travel in one day. Beer was always fresh, served from wooden kegs mainly in local saloons. Rarely was beer bottled or shipped long distances; shelf life was not a concern.

New American refrigeration technology made lager production possible all year long. Advances in transportation (especially refrigerated rail cars), bottling, and pasteurization allowed the more successful brewers, willing to invest in the new technology, to expand and to swallow smaller breweries. Many of the smaller breweries produced inferior, inconsistent beers and therefore could not compete.

As breweries expanded into bigger markets with bottled beers, shelf stability became a major concern. Brewmasters discovered American six-row barley was not conducive to a stable all-malt lager. Most brewers were German immigrants, and the pale lagers of the Germany and Czechoslovakia were brewed using 100-percent barley malt, mainly because of the Continent's plentiful supply of low-protein barley well suited to that style. American unblended six-row barley produced a darker, more satiating, and less stable product.

The solution to the brewers' dilemma was in another very American grain - corn. When it was blended with six-row barley, a cleaner, crisper, more brilliant beer could be produced and shipped over great distances.

The introduction of corn as a brewing ingredient was not taken lightly by the brewers in the late nineteenth century. There were many heated debates among American brewers. But, domestic raw materials have always dictated the style of a region's beer. Technological advances in farming and corn processing made good corn accessible to the brewer, and developments in microbiology gave brewers pure lager yeast.

New brewing technologies and the use of corn blended with domestic high-protein barley permitted American brewers to produce pale, clean, drinkable beer that has proved to be immensely popular with American beer drinkers. Budweiser exemplifies this beer style, and Anheuser-Busch has lowered the bittering units over the last few years to accentuate its blandness.

According to a report in One Hundred Years of Brewing, published in 1903, "many times the attempt has been made in recent years to re-domesticate a kind of beer of Bavarian character, but the national taste could not be controlled and invariably returned to a beer . . . pale and lustrous, and the brewer was compelled to satisfy it."

Important Dates in the Evolution of the American Pale Lager

• 1400s Bavarian monks brew first lager beer.
• 1840 The Klein-Schwechat Brewery near Vienna and the Spaten Brewery in Munich commence large-scale production of lager beer. Bavarian brewer Johann Wagner brings lager yeast from Germany to Philadelphia.
• 1842 Pilsner-style beer introduced in Bohemia. Patrick Stead acquires patent on a pneumatic malting system.
• 1860 World's first brewery refrigeration machine installed in Australia. Pasteur discovers role of yeast in fermentation process.
• 1869 America's first brewery refrigeration machine installed in New Orleans brewery. 1870s Malting engineers Galland of Belgium and Saladin of France install pneumatic malting system, thus offering more control and consistency to the maltster.
• 1878 St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company founded by August Busch. The national railroad system had expanded fivefold during the previous ten years, making large-scale distribution of beer possible.
• 1881 Dr. J.E. Siebel describes modern American mashing method using a blend of barley, malt, and corn.
• 1883 Emil Christian Hansen introduces a pure-yeast culture system. First pure lager yeast is developed. System is adopted by Schlitz Brewery in Milwaukee.
• 1904 Traveling pasteurizer is developed.
• 1905 German chemist applies ion-exchange process to softening of water.
• 1910 Windisch reports on the deleterious effect of alkaline water on the production of beer. Introduces lime-treatment process.
• 1920 Prohibition.
• 1933 Prohibition repealed. Over 2,000 breweries fail to reopen.
• 1935 Canned beer introduced by Krueger Brewing Company.
• 1941 Packaged beer sales surpass draft beer sales for the first time.

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