This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250.
America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. I turned off news altogether.
I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people. If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting.
Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America. What's up y'all? Summer's got a different temper.
Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer.
Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in between moments. That's where the ideas hit. conversations stretch out, little memories sneak up on you.
Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. that color. That chill. a new tropical butterfly refresher from Starbucks. guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls.
Yeah. That feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm. with Starbucks.
Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks. And we continue here with our American stories. And up next, a story on one of America's favorite beverages. Here's our own Monty Montgomery. with a story.
We Americans enjoy our beer. In 2018, we consumed about 6.8 billion gallons of it. And by far the most popular style we drink is Pilsner. Here's Tom Akatelli, author of Pilsner, How the Beer of Kings Changed the World, with more. Hilsner is the dominant style of beer in the world, and has been for well over 100 years.
All the major brands you can think of, Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller, Miller Light, Heineken, Paps, are based on Pilsner or imitations of the Pilsner style. They're everywhere. They're every grocery store, bar, gas station, bodega, you name it. It's Pilsner. It was first made in a small, what was then a sort of a mid-sized city of the Austrian Empire called Pilsen, and what's now the Czech Republic.
local aristocrats in Pilsen who had the right to brew and sell beer locally. They were getting tired of their beer, their local beer, getting beaten out of the marketplace by beers from Bavaria just over the border.
So the aristocrats in Pilsen are like, we're tired of losing market share to these guys, these Bavarians, making these lighter, better. beers, so we gotta co-opt what they're doing, right?
So you can imagine, you know, they literally have meeting after meeting memos and manifestos about how to compete with Bavarian beer and knock it out of the marketplace and pills in.
So what they do is They hire a Bavarian brewmaster named Josef Grohl. Who uses Bavarian know-how, Bavarian recipes, Bavarian techniques, in other words, just sort of imports German technique. and style. Over the border, and makes this beer for the burgers, for the aristocrats of Pilsen to sell. And he ends up making in late 1842.
Now it's lost to history whether Grohl himself intended for this to happen. But the specific ingredients he used and the water quality, the local water quality, which was very important to brewing then as now. turned out the lightest looking beer. anyone had ever seen up to that point. Before that, Beer for millennia is dark and it's thick and it's rich, it's like liquid bread and they weren't the color of sunshine.
Pilsner was this lager made in Pilsner in 1842. You know, it looks beautiful. Right? It's bubbly. It's clear, it's crisp when you taste it.
It's a beer that's unlike anybody has ever seen. Right from the get-go, Pilsner is. Extremely unique. Um And it quickly grows in popularity first in the Austrian Empire. Then in Central Europe, and then basically all over the world to the present day.
It picked the best time to be born. And the best time to leave home. Because it's born in this kind of supernova of technological change and political change, especially in Europe. The technological change, you know, is everything from the mass production of glass. which had never happened before in the history of humanity, because Pilsner looks great in a glass, it looks great poured, it looks great in glass bottles.
The technology for fighting bacteria and infection, which can be deadly to beer and deadly to beer sales, comes along around the same time. brewing techniques, temperature measurement, all that is sort of blossoming around the same time as Joseph Grohl is doing those first batches of Pilsner and Pilsen. And then you also have stuff like the railroad for better shipping, the first mechanical refrigeration starts up because Pilsner, like most lager beers, unlike Yales. taste better cold. It's easier to preserve them too.
What? The political change is really What spurs Pilson's story from sort of a local legend to worldwide fame? There's all these revolutions and counter-revolutions in Europe and a lot of Germans and Czechs fled the turmoil. They were done with these wars and fighting. and they settled in the United States, a lot of them.
There were about a million Germans emigrated to the U.S. in the 1850s alone. they find the most opportunity farther inland.
So they settle in cities like Chicago. Milwaukee. St. Louis. They take Their preference for lighter lagers and lighter colored lagers and lighter tasting lagers to the United States.
And of course the dominant style by then is Pilsner. And so that's how it spread, basically. Anywhere you had Germans in the mid to late 19th century, you were going to have beer. and the beer was overwhelmingly going to be Pilsner. Wherever Germans go, they bring this Jones for the lighter log.
And with the winds of the Industrial Revolution at their back, these immigrants created some of the most recognizable names in the beer industry today, including Anheuser-Busch. Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch were father-in-law and son-in-law, and they became business partners. Adolphus Busch basically rescued his father-in-law's business. He had a brewery that was failing, right?
So, after the Civil War in the early 1860s, Adolphus Bush begins to build the Anheuser-Busch. Brewing company into this mega conglomerate, and he does it largely behind a recipe for Pilsner imitation. that he gets via a business partner of his who had been traveling in Europe. and knew of the popularity of this lighter-colored, lighter-tasting lager called Pilsner. Brings it back to Adolphus Bush, says, Can you make this for me?
He does, and he eventually acquires the rights to it. They name it after a Czech town called Budweis. or Budweiser. And that becomes just a sensation from the late 1870s onward. For many of the reasons that, you know, Pilsder itself became a sensation, is that it just looked good.
It looked modern, it looked good in a glass, it looked good in a bottle. Anheuser-Busch is the biggest bottler of any foodstuff at the time in the late 19th century. and it just takes off from there. I mean, I don't, you know, there was sort of an arms race in the late 1900s between Frederick Pabs and Adolphus Bush. to have kind of the biggest brewery in the US and perhaps the world.
and they were both racing each other. with pilsners. In Bush's case, it was Budweiser. In Pap's case, it was what we now know as the Pap's Blue Ribbon. Because of this arms race, they end up just sort of sweeping all before them, competition-wise, and end up as the kings of brewing by 1900, by the 19 teens.
And Because of that, because of that race, Pilsner gets more and more ubiquitous and more and more unavoidable. And increasingly on the radar of temperance advocates wanting to end the sale and consumption of alcohol in the U.S. Back into the 1900s, right, there's a sort of a movement to improve the United States, you know, in many, many cases, well-intentioned. And one of the ways to improve it is to cut back on overconsumption of alcohol.
Now, the US in the early 1900s was not a beer country, it was whiskey, whiskey and cider. And Americans drank a tremendous amount compared with the rest of the world. European visitors who chronicled their visits to the US always noted. how much and how frequently Americans drank.
So there was an understandable temperance movement to sort of slow things down. Then, what happens is you have this mass immigration of Germans, and they bring with them a different way of drinking and a different type of drink. They bring lighter lagers which are much, much lower in alcohol than whiskey. And they drink it in beer gardens, and the beer gardens are family affairs. And Germans are still, you know, despite the fact that they drink this beer, noted for their industriousness and their hard work.
So it sort of clashes with what the temperance advocates have been telling people for decades. That if you drink, you know, you're going to be derelict and desolate and not contribute, you're not going to get up for work the next morning, et cetera, et cetera. German Americans disrupt this narrative. And so the temperance movement has to turn its efforts toward combating beer as well. They also have to turn their efforts toward combating the brewers behind the beer.
And they have a very tough time of it, but they get a boon. from World War I. America's enemy in World War I, of course, was the German Empire.
So the temperance advocates seize on American skittishness about German culture. War ends in late 1918. Prohibition passes in 1919, takes effect in 1920. I don't think it would have happened with the speed it did without the war. And the anti-German feelings that the war engendered.
It's just a fascinating slice of life and culture. when you realize what happened over those 70 years, you know, and how Pilsner and beer is right in the middle of it. And great American storytelling and history. through the lens of beer. When we come back more of this remarkable story of how the beer of kings changed the world.
The story of Pilsner. continues here on our American stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way.
The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q.
This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org.
Protect your pet with insurance from PetsFest. Plans start from less than a dollar a day. Visit PetsBest.com. Pet Insurance products offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services LLC are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company or Independence American Insurance Company. For terms and conditions, visit www.petsbest.com backslash policy.
Products are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company, Independence American Insurance Company, or MS Transverse Insurance Company and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services LLC. $1 a day premium based on 2024 average new policyholder data for accident and illness plans pets age 0 to 10. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month.
Of course if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird.
Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 per three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month, required. Intro rate first three months only. Then, full price plan options available.
Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. And we return to our American stories and the story of the Pilsner with Tom Accatelli, author of Pilsner, How the Beer of Kings Changed the World. when we last left off, anti-German sentiment in the US. was at an all-time high because of World War I and prohibition went into effect.
impacting brewers profoundly. Let's pick up where we last left off. Um With animosity towards Germans and German culture at an all-time high after World War I. The 18th Amendment was passed. Ushering in Prohibition.
With their market dried up, brewers were forced to set aside beer and make other products to survive. Hilsner. was put on hold.
Some of them made near beer. They switched to, you know, alcohol that could be used in machinery. But a lot of them didn't survive. It's a much smaller field of brewers in the United States. post-1933 when Prohibition ends.
And what that means is the ones who could survive who could get by, who could skirt disaster. They come out with the ability to grow very fast. their reach expands. And you see this massive consolidation in the industry where the big get bigger and the smaller kind of disappear. Before Prohibition became the law of the land, there were over 4,000 breweries in the United States.
By 1975, There were a hundred fifteen. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's where I think Pilsner starts to have a wider cultural effect. Marketing Pilsner becomes such an acute focus of these bigger breweries.
that they start to really innovate when it comes to advertising and marketing.
So you get the quirky beer jingles, you get the cartoon characters, you get the sports partnerships, any number of things that we all know today, and we can probably remember our favorite taglines like: taste great, less filling. All you ever want in a beer and less. I mean, all those, you know, the champagne of beers, et cetera, et cetera. That comes about after Prohibition and helps Pilsner grow its reach wider and helps these breweries get that much bigger. The Budweisers, the Millers, they grew and grew and grew.
Hills are becoming so big you couldn't get away from it. The first big change comes when the Miller Brewing Company, which had recently been acquired by Philip Moore as the tobacco giant, they were. Laser focused. on growing from, I think they were the eighth or ninth biggest brewery in the country. They wanted to be number two.
behind Anheuser-Busch. They know that they're not going to be number one. Anheuser-Busch is so far ahead of any brewer, maybe except for Heineken, in the entire world. And how do they do that? They introduced Miller Light.
And this is the one I'm holding on to. Light beer from Miller. It has a third less calories than a regular beer. It's less filling, and it tastes terrific too. I also love the easy opening can.
Miller Light kind of changes the game. There had been light beers before. but they, you know, the marketing had always been toward people who maybe wanted to diet or to lose weight. But the problem is, if they're trying to lose weight, they're not going to look to beer at all, whether it's lower than calories or not.
So Miller Light basically presented itself as quote a low calorie beer that tasted like beer. They wanted to be known as just beer but with low calories.
So they came up with the famous tagline, light beer from Miller, everything you always wanted in a beer and less. And it became this kind of sensation, you know, light beer. Just a quick aside, you know, this is another example. Of Pilsner's influence, you know, Miller Light put a fine Pilsner right on the bottle. You can still see it on the labels today.
But you know, light. LI-TE or L-I-G-H-T. Seeped into all sorts of foodstuffs from that point on in the 1970s.
So you had light everything. But back to beer.
So light beer happens and it becomes, you know, so Pilsner, you know, becomes even bigger and more influential. The United States had essentially become a beer desert, but things were about to change that would lead to a whole new industry being developed by innovating entrepreneurs. you had a growing number of people. mostly home brewers and their fans. who wanted more variety.
Who were tired of these beers that all seemed to look and taste the same. And indeed, they did. They start meeting sort of underground because. Homebrewing was illegal. In the United States, just sort of a quirk of post-Prohibition America, the federal government forgot to legalize it.
They legalized winemaking coming out of Prohibition, but not homebrewing. But then that happens in 1978. There's a push-on from California, from some lawmakers and homebrew enthusiasts in California. to have homebrewing legalized at the federal level. That happens in nineteen early nineteen seventy eight.
And it takes effect in 1979. But what does that do? That sort of brings these homebrewers out of the shadows. and people begin openly sharing information. and they begin openly selling and sharing materials and recipes.
So you have this sort of blossoming of underground entrepreneurial spirit turning pro. And that's where you get the sort of first proliferation of smaller breweries in the United States. It's the late 1970s, early 1980s.
So you have this infusion of knowledge. and you have this counter reaction to the rise of light beer. If you wanted a richer tasting beer in the 1970s up to that point, You had to make it yourself or you had to like chance upon it While in Europe or something like that. But suddenly, you start to see the growth of microbrewing. Pills are still dominant, and it's still dominant today, but you now have just sort of this kaleidoscope of styles.
and breweries. Ah! Today, there are over 8,000 breweries in the United States. That's over double of what existed before Prohibition. And a big reason why these breweries exist is the Pilsner and its oversaturation in the market during the 1970s.
But everything old is new again, and today the Pilsner is having a remarkable resurgence among even the people who tried to get away from it. All those years ago. You know, history repeats itself, and beer is very much sort of a cyclical, it's a cyclical thing. I mean, people discover and rediscover different styles and different approaches all the time. And I think Pilsner is just kind of having a moment because craft brewing was a reaction to Pilsner's rise.
And now I think the sort of rise of Pilsner within craft brewing is a reaction to craft brewing's rise. The defining feature, defining characteristic of IPAs is bitterness. Is hot, you know, that bitterness from hops, and so the sort of overwhelming prickly crispness and, you know. Alcoholic kick.
So, if you want something different, what do you do? You know, you turn to a lighter-tasting, sweeter beer, and that's Pilsner. You could not have had this counter reaction toward Pilsner. without the rise of the bitterer IPAs and the heavier seasonal beers and then porters and ales and all that. Without those, you wouldn't have this reaction.
But again, you wouldn't have those without the rise of Pilsner originally.
So it's kind of funny, they've all sort of intersected. And there's no end in sight too. That's the thing. There's this, in many countries, federal governments or national governments regulate style and ingredients and proportions of ingredients in wine and spirits. But that's not the case for beers.
You can call yourself whatever you want in the U.S. as long as you follow some, you know, guidelines as far as what you put on your label. You have to. Use a certain proportion of Merlot grapes if you're going to call yourself a Merlot, if you're going to call your wine a Merlot. You don't have to use a certain proportion or a certain type of hop if you're going to call your beer an IPA.
So it lends itself to this experimentation in the marketplace. And I think that's kind of a wonderful thing because It creates this experimental dynamic. And that brings everything full circle too. Because What is Pilser to begin with? It was somebody 170 years ago.
experimenting with existing styles and ideas. until they came up with something new. And that's still going on today. And a special thanks to Monty Montgomery for that piece and Monty's, I believe Monty's passion is beer, sampling every kind possible. Also, Tom Acatelli.
A special thanks to him, he's the author of Pilsner.
Now the beer of kings. Change the world. And I keep thinking about that line where Germans go, they bring their pilsner, and think about that with Italians too, and their contribution with food, and Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans. And this is what we do here. We eat each other's food, and then we marry each other.
The Story of Pilsner. And the story of so much more American history and American life and culture here on Our American Stories. Uh Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way.
The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov slash S-E-M-I-Q.
This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org.
I'm U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all get distracted when we drive, but how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life or death. Please put your phones on silent and take a mental note to focus on driving. Fade 4 by Nitza.
With my mom and dad living in Orange County, when we bring my five and seven year old to visit, we are sometimes in for a two-hour drive that could feel like 10. No, as an avid camper, I know all about this. We'll pack up the RV and know this is either going to be the trip of a lifetime or a complete disaster. Which is why we load up the iPads with Lingo Kids before we even pull out of the driveway. It's what dreams are made of.
Lingo Kids keeps kids engaged and quiet with over 4,000 interactive games, songs, and shows that kids simply cannot get enough of. You can pack whatever you think you'll need, but Lingo Kids is the only entertainment you'll need for a stress-free car ride. Or really, any ride. Plane, train, hovercraft, whatever. Download LingoKids for free today.
Or unlock even more amazing content with LingoKids Plus. Choose the yearly plan and save up to 60%. Search Lingo Kids in the App Store or Google Play. Lingo Kids: Everything Kids Love. 'Kay.
