Pre-Prohibition Pilsner

A Relic of Bygone Era

A forgotten American beer style, almost lost to the annals of history, save for the occasional spot on the taplist of the modern craft brewery.

What is a Pre-Prohibition Pilsner? Also referred to as a Pre-Prohibition Lager, the Pre-Pro Pilsner (as it shall henceforth be spelled, to save your breath and mine) is a lager that was commonly brewed in the era before the 1920s Prohibition in America.

It is noted for being extremely light in flavor and crisp. The high carbonation adds a full mouthfeel to the beer in an otherwise simple and delicate palette. Pre-Pro Pils is the grandmother to what we call today the American ‘Macro Lager,’ like Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. 

Like the California Common, this lager was brought to America via German brewing immigrants that specifically utilized their clean fermenting lager yeast strains from the motherland. In particular, they seemed to settle mostly in the Midwest, as we can see today with all of the German influences in Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois.

The Lakes Drew Them…

What drew them to this region of the country was probably not what you would expect. It certainly wasn’t the barley, as we learn about later in this blog. It was in fact, the water. I know! It’s the most overlooked ingredient that every homebrewer learns about last in their journey to making great beer. For the Germans flocking to a new country, however, the water was the most critical part of brewing their precious lager, and the Midwest had the best water in the form of The Great Lakes. 

Those humongous bodies of water provided an incredible source of fresh, clean, drinking, and indeed brewing, water. The water from The Great Lakes, and specifically Lake Michigan, is known to be extremely soft. Soft water sits opposite hard water.

You know that feeling when you take a shower at grandma’s, and are bombarded with a rough, almost rocky texture on your skin? That is hard water, which is loaded with extra minerals, like calcium, magnesium, and sulfates. Often hard water comes from well or ground water. Soft water in contrast, is relatively free of these minerals that make water feel hard and taste minerally.

Hard or Soft Water? It Matters When You Brew

Hard or soft, both types of water can be used to brew with, but you will have vastly different tasting outcomes in your beer, depending on which you use. The harder the water, the more harsh tasting, minerally, and bitter your beer will taste. Sometimes, as is the case with India Pale Ale, harder water is necessary to balance and smooth out a beer style, perhaps due to the unfathomable amount of hops in it. 

For lager brewing, soft water was the name of the game, and there is no place in America with such a soft and abundant source of soft water than the Midwest, surrounded by The Great Lakes.

The lack of minerals in the Midwestern water meant that the German lager yeast, free of fruity esters, has nowhere to hide and needs a blank canvas in order to offer the delicate presentation of hops and malt that it seeks. 

Enough about water. We want a recipe! 

The BJCP Guidelines

The BJCP Style Guidelines list the stats of Pre-Prohibition Lager (Pilsner) as the following:

IBU: 25 – 40

SRM: 3 – 6

OG: 1.044 – 1.060

FG: 1.010 – 1.015

ABV: 4.5% – 6%

New Recipe! Michi gami Lager

Here is our recipe for the Michi gami Lager, a Pre-Prohibition Pilsner:

Grains: 8 lbs 6-row

3 lbs Flaked Corn

Hops: 3 oz Spalt

Yeast: OYL- 114 Omega Bayern Lager

Let’s break down the recipe. We opted for close to a 30% addition of corn here because the US has so much corn, and back then most beers would be made with enough corn to scare the husk off your homebrewing ancestor.

Corn was just so prevalent, and cheap, that you couldn’t not brew with corn back in the day. This led to the ‘weakening’ of many styles of beer brewed in America, at least according to your typical European. However, that meant that many of these styles would begin to take a distinctly American flavor to them, as corn lightened the typical barley malt aroma and taste, but also lent a corn-like sweetness to them as well.

We went with 6-row barley over 2-row to capture that traditional rustic, less white bread/biscuit, malt flavor of the time pre-prohibition. 6-row grew all over America, whereas 2-row from Europe hadn’t quite caught up yet.

Spalt was the chosen hop since it is a traditional Noble hop, from Germany, with floral and spicy notes. This is just like the German immigrants would have cultivated and brewed with in America. Lastly, the yeast chosen is a classic clean fermenting lager strain with a crisp profile from Omega yeast. Not too different from what might have been used pre-Prohibition.

To Pre-Prohibition Pilsner!