Pilsner

The town of Plzeň in Bohemia is the home of the style of beer that we now know as pilsner. Moving away from the traditional methods of brewing using top-fermenting yeasts, brewers in Plzeň began to experiment using the Bavarian method of fermentation with bottom fermenting yeasts and lagering. 

Since most beers, both lagers and ales, of that time tended to be dark brown in hue, the appearance of a pale, clear beer was quite unique. The golden color was in large part due to a new method of heating the malt - indirect heat, which prevented a darkening  and smokiness of the brew that direct heat caused. The water was unusually mineral-free (soft) which contributed to the clarity of the beer. The brewers in Plzeň and surrounding areas also were very free with hops, giving the new style a bitter edge. This style became so popular that many of the brewers who eventually emigrated to America specialized in it once they set up their own breweries in The States. The Plzen style, or Pilsner became the dominant style of the major brewers and was what most Americans thought of as "beer" through most of the 1900's, although the mass producers eventually modified their beers to be less hoppy and added adjuncts (grains other than barley) to produce a more consistant product.