Sparta Pils

Sparta Pils is a light beer with its own character. Sparta Pils is never pasteurized and thus not dead, and it is only brewed with the best ingredients: barley and hops. Sparta Pils beer is drunk cold, very cold, and is light in alcohol.

Where did Pils come from?
In the second half of the 19th century a new brew style was developed in the Bavarian Alps. Indeed, yeast were found that ferment in cold temperatures at the bottom of the vessel. This brew method is since called bottom-fermentation and the beers produced along this method are called Lagers. The old brewing method where yeast ferment at warm temperatures at the top of the vessel is called top-fermentation and the beers brewed along that process are called Ales. In a small town in Tchechia, called Pilzen, the local brewery perfected the brewing process using pale colored malt. Since then this type of beer is called Pils.
During the 20th century, the Pils conquered the world. Over 90 % of the beer consumed in the world is at the turn of the millennium Pils. Several reasons have to me cited:

• the brewing process is simple and cheap.
• the use of a drinking glass instead of a stein. Thanks to the industrial revolution drink glasses could be produced very cheap. The new Pils brewers stimulated the use of these new glasses, and offered the average beer drinker for the first time the view of the golden color of his beer.
• the Pils beers were first popular in the German culture. During WW I, the German occupier closed most Belgian breweries and obliged the remaining brewery to brew the German style beer: Pils. This obligation was repeated during WW II.
• The German immigrants in the USA were the most numerous in the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century. They brought their favorite brew style with them to the USA. The spreading of the American Culture all over the world in the second half of the 20th century, stimulated the introduction of the Pils beer in the rest of the world.

Fortunately we see a new interest emerge for authentic specialty beers during the 80’s and 90’s of the 20th century. Belgium was here one of the leaders by saving hundreds of different beer styles, and limiting the consumption of Pils to less than 70 %. The British Isles, including Ireland, have also stayed loyal to their specialty beers. In the USA a fast growing new micro-brew revolution started, resulting in thousands of brew-pubs and hundreds of micro-breweries. The international praised Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson, believes that from now on the Pils beer will loose market share all over the world at the benefit of the richer specialty ales. That remains to be seen.