Every pale lager on a supermarket shelf owes something to a single brewing accident in 1842. That is the year the style now called pilsner was born in the Bohemian town of Pilsen, and the beer that resulted was so different from anything drinkers had tasted before that it reshaped the entire industry within a generation. Almost two centuries later, “pilsner” gets used loosely for anything gold and fizzy, but the real thing, brewed with pale malt, noble hops and cold bottom-fermenting yeast, still has a distinct character. Here are eight brands, from the 1842 original to a modern American craft take, that show what a genuine pilsner is supposed to taste like.
Pilsner Urquell: The Beer That Started the Category
The story behind Pilsner Urquell is more accidental than most brewery legends admit. Pilsen’s citizens, unhappy with the quality of their local beer, built a new municipal brewery, the Burghers’ Brewery, and hired a Bavarian brewer named Josef Groll to run it. On October 5, 1842, Groll produced a batch using pale malt (a newer kilning technique that avoided the smoky, dark character of most beer at the time) and bottom-fermenting lager yeast, and the resulting beer was clear, golden, and unlike anything the region had seen. Urquell means “original source” in German, a name the brewery adopted specifically to distinguish itself once competitors everywhere started calling their own beers pilsner too.
Budweiser Budvar: The Other Beer Named After the Town
Budweiser Budvar, brewed in the South Bohemian town of Ceske Budejovice (Budweis in German) since 1895, is the beer at the center of one of brewing’s longest-running trademark disputes with the American Budweiser, which is a completely different, unrelated recipe. Budvar is a traditional Czech pale lager, fuller-bodied and maltier than most German pilsners, brewed under the Czech “Budweiser” name that predates the American brand’s use of it by decades. Outside the U.S., where the naming dispute limits its branding, it is simply sold as Budweiser Budvar or Czechvar.
Bitburger: The German Pils Built on One Slogan
Bitburger traces back to 1817, when Johann Peter Wallenborn opened a small rural brewery in Bitburg, in Germany’s Eifel region. The brewery stayed in the same family for seven generations, and by the time Theobald Simon took over in 1876 (brewing his first pilsner in 1883, just after the style crossed into Germany from Bohemia), it had built the brand around the “Bitte ein Bit” (“A Bit, please”) slogan that is still one of the most recognized lines in German advertising. Unveiled at the ANUGA trade fair in Cologne in 1951 in Theobald Simon’s own handwriting, it stuck hard enough that it is still printed on the can more than 70 years later. Bitburger Premium Pils today is a crisp, distinctly German-style pils, drier and more assertively bitter than its Czech cousins, at 4.8% ABV. It is genuinely light-bodied and fairly carbonated fresh out of the can, though the head does not last, it settles to a thin ring within a few minutes, so it is best appreciated while it is still fizzing.
Warsteiner: The Best-Selling German Pils
Warsteiner, brewed in the town of Warstein in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1753, markets itself as “the queen among beers” and has, for long stretches, been Germany’s best-selling pilsner by volume. It is brewed using soft local spring water that the brewery credits for the beer’s especially light, clean character, a step drier than Bitburger and closer to the Bohemian originals in that respect.
Konig Pilsener: The One That Grew Through Acquisitions
Konig Pilsener started in 1858 when Theodor Konig founded the King Brewery in Duisburg, and it later became one of the brands folded into the Bitburger Braugruppe alongside Kostritzer and Wernesgruner, part of the wave of consolidation that reshaped German regional brewing through the 20th century. It remains a straightforward, well-regarded German pils, distinguished mostly by heavy sponsorship of German motorsport and football rather than any dramatic recipe departure from the style’s basics.
Trumer Pils: The Austrian Recipe Brewed in California
Trumer Pils has been brewed in Salzburg, Austria for roughly 400 years, but the version most Americans drink comes from an unusual arrangement: in 2004, a group of American craft brewers found the Trumer Brauerei and, rather than ship the beer across the Atlantic, built a sister brewery in Berkeley, California, using hops shipped in directly from Austria (Saaz, Hallertau Perle, Spalt Select) but local Sierra water.
At 4.9% ABV and brewed strictly under German Reinheitsgebot purity rules, it is one of the more faithful German-style pils recipes brewed on U.S. soil.
Victory Prima Pils: The Beer That Introduced Americans to Hoppy Pilsner
Victory Prima Pils, first brewed in 1996 at Victory Brewing in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, was unlike anything on the American lager shelf when it launched: a German-style pils loaded with “boatloads” of whole-flower noble hops (Hallertau, Tettnang, Saaz and Spalt), pushing bitterness far past what most drinkers associated with pilsner at the time.
At 5.3% ABV, it is widely credited as one of the beers that proved American craft brewers could do hoppy lager as well as hoppy ale, years before the modern cold IPA trend caught up to the same idea.
Stella Artois: The Pilsner Most People Do Not Realize Is One
Stella Artois traces its roots to Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium, with brewing records dating back to 1366, though the Stella name itself only dates to a 1926 Christmas beer. Technically a pilsner, brewed with Saaz hops at 5.2% ABV, it is marketed more on its branded chalice glass and global availability than on its style credentials, which is exactly why most casual drinkers file it under “Belgian lager” rather than “pilsner” without realizing it belongs on this list at all.
Pilsner Styles at a Glance
| Sub-style | Character | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Czech (Bohemian) pilsner | Fuller malt body, softer bitterness | Pilsner Urquell, Budweiser Budvar |
| German pils | Drier, crisper, more assertive hop bitterness | Bitburger, Warsteiner, Konig Pilsener |
| Imported/licensed German-style | Brewed abroad to German purity standards | Trumer Pils |
| American craft pils | Hop-forward, sometimes far past traditional bitterness levels | Victory Prima Pils |
Curious how pilsner compares to its darker cousins? See our roundup of dark beer brands for the other end of the lager and ale spectrum.
FAQs
What actually makes a beer a pilsner?
Pale malt, noble hops, cold bottom-fermenting lager yeast, and a clear, golden appearance. The style was invented in Pilsen in 1842 specifically because those elements produced a clearer, lighter beer than the darker, cloudier styles common before then.
Is Stella Artois really a pilsner?
Yes. Despite being marketed more on its glassware and Belgian branding, Stella Artois is brewed as a pilsner with Saaz hops at 5.2% ABV.
What is the difference between a Czech pilsner and a German pils?
Czech pilsners tend to be fuller-bodied and maltier with softer bitterness, while German pils recipes are typically drier and more sharply bitter. Both trace back to the same 1842 Pilsen original.
