How the Czechs created modern lager (with a lot of help from the Germans)

The Czech Republic was the birthplace of the brewing technology that gave us modern lagers. Photo: Getty Images Europe/Gabriel Kuchta

Study shows that the Czech Republic has as much of a claim as Germany to be the birthplace of lager.

Incredibly proud Germany, home of Oktoberfest, has long been claims to be the birthplace of lager.

But recent research shows that German ales and Czech wheat beers were just as important as each other in creating the modern, beloved lager.

< p>The data shows that bottom feed yeast for ale production has been used in Bavaria ever since. The 14th century was first mixed with top-fed Bohemian wheat brewer's yeast in 1602, creating a new lager yeast.

The Czech Republic is a region of the modern Czech Republic with its capital in Prague, but in the 17th century it was a German state. This blend resulted in the creation of a hybrid lager yeast known as Saccharomyces pastorianus.

History of lager

Scientists in Germany looked at old brewing records to uncover the history of lager, as it was not previously known how the unique yeast came about. Lager yeasts have previously been found to be a combination of the other two types, but it has never been known when or how they hybridized to create lager yeasts.

Professor John Morrissey, yeast evolution expert at University College Cork (UCC), researched the origins by looking through old books and brewing reports translated from Latin.

He discovered that bottom-fermentation was taking place in Bavaria. Brown ale was being brewed as early as the 14th century, and in neighboring Bohemia, wheat beer was top-fermented.

In the mid-16th century, all Bavarian brewers were ordered to use bottom-fermenting yeast. However, due to the success of Czech wheat beer, a brewer received special permission from the duke to create a wheat beer competitor on the territory of Bavaria, right on the border with Bohemia.

Holy Roman Empire

Hans VI von Degenberg's product was a wild success, but when his grandson, Hans VIII, died without heir in 1602, Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria and later Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, confiscated all his assets and took control of the brewery.

“Von Degenberg has been given the special privilege of producing wheat beer in Bavaria, north of the Danube, to protect it from imports,” Professor Morrissey told The Telegraph.

«In October 1602, the Duke transferred the yeast from the von Degenberg brewery to his own brewery in Munich at the Hofbräuhaus because he was jealous of the economic success the von Degenbergs had with their wheat beer.

«So, over the next For five years, between 1602 and 1607, the Hofbräuhaus brewery alternated between batches of traditional bottom-fermented brown beer and top-fermented wheat beer. lager yeast.

In 1607, the duke opened a new brewery specifically for the production of wheat beer. According to Professor Morrissey, the site is now home to the famous Hofbräühaus brewery, which still brews beer. The old Hofbräuhaus brewery continued to brew bottom-fermented ale.

Lager yeast

Lager yeast was created in Munich with original strains from Bavaria and Bohemia, but the first lager was not brewed until the yeast was extracted and properly isolated in Copenhagen over 200 years later by the owner of Carlsberg.

“All lager strains worldwide today are derived from this original Munich blend,” said Professor Morissy. “We can trace them all back to the Munich Hofbräuhaus blend in 1602.

“Von Degenberg may not have had a son or family inheritance, but the lager yeast was his heir. No one knew about the role of this family until this study, and we discovered for the first time that one of the parent lager strains comes from Bohemia.

“This is really important for people from the Czech Republic, because the modern style of lager, pilsner , is a Czech beer, so they are very patriotic about the origin of the lager.

“It will be news to Czechs that they “own” one of the parents of the lager.

“Bohemia was then by the German state, but of course, in modern terms, a lager is not a purely German beer, it is at least half of Czech origin.

Study published in the journal FEMS Yeast Research.