February has arrived, and with it, 12 Bones Brewing’s fan-favorite Italian pilsner, “Proper Pils.”

What, you ask, is an Italian Pilsner?

Most people have heard of Pilsner, a Czech-style light lager that originated in the town of Plzeň (Pilsen) back in the 1300s. Over time, quite a few iterations of the Pilsner style evolved in different places as brewers tried to copy the famous Czech brew using their own local ingredients and water.

There are German, European, Mexican, and American Pilsners, each with subtly different characteristics. But the Italian version stands out from the crowd as a much more modern invention.

Back in 1996, brewer and founder of Birrificio Italiano in Como, Italy, Agostino Arioli, attempted a German-style Pilsner. He didn’t feel the resulting brew was true to style, so he decided to put the beer through an extra step and dry hop it.

While (almost) all beers have hops added during the boiling process to provide bitterness, flavor, and aromas, brewers sometimes add hops again later in the process during or after fermentation–this is called dry hopping. Arioli chose to enhance his beer through an English cask dry hopping process using Tettnang Tettnanger hops, and he called the creation Tipopils, which is Italian for “kind of pils.”

This was the first known instance of dry hopping a Pilsner, and thus, a new beer style, “Italian Pilsner,” was born!

Arioli took Tipopils to a beer competition in Europe, where he met Matt Brynildson, brewmaster at Firestone Walker in Peso Robles, CA. The two became great friends, and Brynildson ended up creating his own variation of the Italian pilsner called “Pivo Pils,” although he used Saphir hops for dry hopping, providing a slight lemongrass character. Arioli loved the flavor of his friend’s brew and changed the Tipopils recipe to use Saphir hops too.

In a sense, you can think of the Italian Pilsner as being an Italian-American collaboration. Now that’s amoré!

12 Bones Brewing’s “Proper Pils” uses all Riverbend malt, and a blend of Saaz, Sterling, Perle, and, of course, Saphir hops to create our own take on this delicious modern classic. Enjoy mild maltiness and herbal notes on the nose that give way to a punchy lingering bitterness on the finish.

If you need a little more umph than your standard lager or want to step back from the IPA inferno of our modern beer landscape, Proper Pils is your ticket! We’ll be canning this batch on the 18th to give you another great to-go option as well.