Pilsner
How the Beer of Kings Changed the World
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Pilsner tells the remarkable tale of the world's most popular beer style. It begins with its humble birth in a far corner of the Austrian Empire in 1842, goes through its zenith and near death during Prohibition in the United States, and concludes with its present dominance worldwide. Pilsner was born during a remarkable mid-nineteenth-century epoch, and this first biography of the style places it in its historical context, where it intersected with revolutions in politics and technology, including the railroad, refrigeration, and germ science. The book shatters myths about pilsner's very birth and about its immediate parentage, showing that it's largely a German invention rather than a Czech one. Pilsner also pops the top on new insights into the style and into beer in general through a character-driven narrative that shows how pilsner influenced everything from modern-day advertising and marketing to today's craft beer movement—which is driven by a reaction to pilsner's dominance in the form of brands such as Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Light, Heineken, and Snow (the world's best-selling beer, a pilsner out of China).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
