Pale lager is a very pale to golden lager beer with a light body and a variable degree of noble hop bitterness.

The brewing process for pale lager was developed in the mid-19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale and malt brewing techniques to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied them to existing lagering (low-temperature aging) methods.

The result was a more stable and consistent, but still dark, beer. This technique was applied by Josef Groll, the famous Bavarian brewmaster, in the city of Pilsen in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, using less roasted grains, resulting in the first pale lager, Pilsner Urquell, in 1842.

The resulting pilsner beers – pale yellow or golden in color and stable – gradually spread around the world to become the most common form of beer consumed in the world today.