Pilsner

How the Beer of Kings Changed the World

By: Tom Acitelli

Narrated by: Ax Norman

On the night of April 17, 1945, Allied planes dropped 111 bombs on the Burghers' Brewery in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, destroying much of the birthplace of pilsner, the world's most popular beer style and the best-selling alcoholic beverage of all time. Still, workers at the brewery would rally so they could have beer to toast their American, Canadian, and British liberators the following month.

It was another twist in pilsner's remarkable story, one that started in a supernova of technological, political, and demographic shifts in the mid-1800s and that continues in the craft breweries of today. Tom Acitelli's Pilsner: How the Beer of Kings Changed the World tells that story.

Pilsner shatters myths about pilsner's very birth and about its immediate parentage. Acitelli, author of the craft beer history The Audacity of Hops and the James Beard finalist American Wine, also pops the top on new insights into the pilsner style and into beer in general through a character-driven narrative that shows how pilsner influenced everything from modern-day advertising and marketing to today's craft-beer movement.

©2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Poor Narration, Odd Prioritization.

Narrator pronounced several names wrong, that he pronounced correctly in the Audacity of Hops. additionally, weirdly attempted a weird southern accent when no other quotations were accented. Story spends time on certain things like phylloxera for a while, but skips over more information about Carlsburg, skips Kronenburg or any other French producers. Much of the content seems directly lifted from Audacity of Hops without modification, so after reading that earlier book, this felt like I was reading the same book with 20% more content about pilsner. The book very heavily focused on Anheuser Busch rather than other producers, even though they also had very large roles. Carlsburg is mentioned briefly and then pops up at the end as oh the third largest in the world. Heineken's role in purchasing domestic breweries globally and converting them to lager and masquerading as a local brand was not mentioned at all. I listened to this while on a 14 hour drive, otherwise I probably would not have bothered after reading The Audacity of Hops. It doesn't add much, and the narrator got worse. A Brief History of Lager is better rounded and gets the same story across.