Some things are debatable, like the origins of the world’s most famous foods.

The hamburger might be named after the German port city of Hamburg, the Hamburg America Cruise Line, or even the city of Hamburg, New York. 

Hungary claims the first goulash, but the recipe might have started with Romanian tocanita or Austrian rindsgulasch.

Pasta was probably first prepared somewhere in central Asia, and some say that Arabs introduced noodles to Sicily. 

We might not ever know exactly where these foods started. But we do know that Josef Groll brewed the first ever pilsner beer at our brewery in Pilsen in 1842. 

Pilsner Urquell was so unique and delicious that it soon became the most-imitated beer in the world. Every pilsner lager out there today is based on Groll’s recipe.

So before you get into an argument about the origins of your next meal, enjoy the original pilsner!

In 1842, our first Brewmaster Josef Groll brewed a beer unlike any other. His crisp, refreshing golden lager was made with local ingredients: sweet Moravian barley, delicately bitter Saaz hops, soft Pilsen water, and bottom-fermenting H-strain yeast. Groll named this special beer after the city where he brewed it, Pilsen, where we still brew the same beer today. Over the last 178 years, pilsner-style lager has become the world’s most popular beer, with seven out of 10 beers in the world imitating Groll’s innovation. There are many pilsner-style beers out there, but only one original.