We are now in the main yard of the Pilsen brewery. Video of Pilsner Urquell Brewery Tour Home to the biggest pub in the Czech lands So they invested their rights and their money to build it. But this type of business was unique in those times and even now because there were the rights to brew the beer and one way, particularly in the Industrial Revolution, was to setup a new industrial company. Yes, the money was equal for every family, because every family owned one right (share) in the future brewery.ДЄnd at that time was it not common to turn to banks? Or was this a community effort? How much would a family need to invest? Was it all the same amount? And how did this come about? WeвЂ™re looking at a document that was undersigned by 256 families which invested their money in 1842 and decided to build the new brewery. And in our brewery, we really value the history and own every document which is connected with the last 176 years, and visitors can see the original of the documents which established the brewery in 1842.Д¬ould you tell us what weвЂ™re looking at now? But in the quite early history of the brewery it became very, very big. A small building with other small buildings around it.

The first brewery was something like a villa in a garden. How did the original building from 1842 compare in size, in scale, to other breweries in the Czech lands? So, every tour starts with the history of the brewery so that every visitor can see a picture of the original brewhouse, when Mr Groll brewed the first Pilsner Urquell and how the brewery was successful in the 19th century and grew over 50 years from the one small brewhouse to the 55 hectares of the industrial brewery. For the majority of our beers, we use just the basic ingredients вЂ“ water, barley, yeast вЂ“ for Pilsner Urquell, itвЂ™s a special strain of yeast called the H-strain вЂ“ and hops. Rudolf Е lehofer, photo: OndЕ™ej TomЕЎЕЇ What is practically still the same from the beginning, when we established the brewery and brewed the first brew is that we use the best raw materials ever.

Could you elaborate a bit вЂ“ were they using the same hops from Saaz (ЕЅatec) that are so famous around the world? You were talking earlier about the raw materials. So they brewed something different than they expected. Something like a semi-dark or red beer, because it was very popular in Bavaria in those times, and because they produced the Pilsen-type malt вЂ“ a very, very pale malt вЂ“ and from pale malt you basically brew pale beer. They had planned to brew Bavarian-style lager. But they discovered that the beer is tasty, refreshing, with a rich foam, and is tasted so good everyone started to copy it. Because they had the newest technology вЂ“ an English kiln and special raw materials, they invited Josef Groll, the famous Bavarian brewmaster вЂ“ and they brewed the first pale lager. So they invested in a new brewery, and in 1842 they brewed the new beer. But during that time, because everybody brewed their own beer, they discovered that the quality of the beer was poor and they needed to change. Beer and Pilsen have been connected together for more than 700 years now because all citizens in Pilsen have had the right to brew since the 13th century. So, we are now in the visitorsвЂ™ centre in the yard of the Pilsen brewery, the place where Pilsner Urquell вЂ“ the first pale lager in the world вЂ“ was brewed.

Pilsner beer origin