Lager, Pilsner, Helles

Lager, Pilsner, and Helles

Bottom-fermented beers are the best-selling beers in the world. This is due to their low alcohol content, around 5% Abv, their high refreshing capacity, and finally, their low complexity of flavors and aromas.

If we analyze this last point, their apparent low complexity, it is because most liters of Pilsner and Lager produced in the world are industrial. These are beers made to appeal to the maximum number of consumers who, in turn, are not very demanding in terms of palate and quality.

Even so, there are also beers of these styles that seek qualitative excellence; in many of these cases, they are beers produced by Craft breweries that make a great effort to produce these complex and expensive beers.

Their origin dates back to before the industrial revolution, in Central Europe, where, due to their proximity to snowy mountains, they could store beer in cool, low-temperature warehouses, thus producing bottom-fermented beers, those that ferment below 12°C.

These styles of beer were generally characterized as being toasted, sweetish, and were known as "old beer." It was not until 1842, in the city of Pilsen (now the Czech Republic), that they began to produce an innovative beer. This beer was no longer toasted, but blonde, and with a lagering process that was not carried out in the mountains, but in underground cellars beneath the factory.