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In 1838 the citizens of Plzen, Bohemia which is The Czech Republic now, discovered something that would
change beer history. The brew masters of the town sadly rolled 36 barrels of ale
out into the street and poured the beer in the main square of town. It ran into
the ditches and at last went into the nearby Radbuza River. The brewers decided
that the ale had spoiled and become undrinkable. Even for breweries of Plzen,
many of which had over 800 years of brewing experience, there were still issues
of contamination that could come up. Ales were prone to being spoiled, either by
wild yeasts or bacteria, and would ruin entire batches of beer. The brewers
decided then and there that they would make drastic changes to ensure this would
not happen again. Brewers in Bohemia and across Europe by this time had learned
of the importance of yeast in the process of making beer. There was always some
debate about whether or not fermentation in yeast was a living process or if it
was just the by-product of the death of yeast, but there was no doubt that the
tiny life form had a huge affect on the taste and life of a beer. The brewers
hired a man named Josef Groll who was a Bavarian brewer, to come and live in
Plzen to teach them the German lagering method of brewing. Legends say that in
1840 a monk smuggled some of the precious lager yeast out of Bavaria. When Groll
arrived in Plzen, there was a supply of lager yeast that they had available that
he began using. During his stay he found a source of Saaz hops, a Noble variety
of hops that he would have been familiar with from his previous brewing
experience in Germany. The brewers of Plzen had a bonus for him as well; a well
that supplied very soft water to the town. With caverns that had been specially
carved for lagering in the local sandstone which was soft and pliable, the stage
was set for lager brewingin the town. Using a lighter barley that was partially
malted and not roasted or smoked like the barley that the German brewers were
using, Groll added parts of the fragrant Saaz hops to his beer. On October 5,
1842 he and the other brewers of Plzen got together for their first sample of
the fine new beer.
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