I can offer a UK perspective here – it’s different in each country.
Historically – across Europe – beers were typically top fermented ales – with a range of colour, but imagine from gold to brown. Hopping began in the Low countries, reached England by the 15th century.
Things begin to change in the 18th 19th centuries – as industries like brewing move from something that monsteries or small home based people did and industrial brewing began.
In England the dark beer porter became particularly popular in the 18th century – especially through London and around. That Guinness started in the 18th century is no surprise.
As we move into the 19th century, there is a shift towards what is called “pale ale”. This beer is “pale” in so far as it is not black/dark brown, but maybe not straw yellow like a modern Budweiser or something. In particular we encounter the “india” pale ale – allegedly extra hopped to transport to colonial India and survive the journey – although it appears it was in fact also sold in the home markek (the Boak and Bailey blog is v. intereesting on these questions). By the end of the 19th century the dominant beers in England are strong Burton Ale, Pale ale – or as it’s known today “bitter”, but the most popular was Mild – a low hopped, lower alcohol ale, typically dark brown to black in colour. All of these beers are what are known today as “real ales” – they are brewed with no additional carbonization, top fermented, and yeast is left in the cask so they do secondary fermentation and naturally carbonate.
WW1 sees changes in pub opening and alcohol contents lower and start to resemble what we have today in the ale tradition: 3-5% beers. In the 50s and 60s, brewers start to experiment with “keg” beer – this is ale that has been pasteurized and is served wtih additional C02 like a modern craft beer. The problem is that it was very low quality in flavour. Hence the birth of the infamous CAMRA – campaign for real ale, that has effectively saved the UK’s traditional ale brewing industry. However, this period of beer declining in quality opened the door for a new product to break in lager – the sort of beer the OP is thinking of. Now lagers had been in the UK, usually bottled, for ages, but in the 1970s with clever marketing – and their clean crisp taste, combined with a perception that ale was low quality, lager took over the UK market. I’ve no problem with good lager, but personally i’ll drink real ale any time I can…anyhow that’s the market moment it capitalized on in the UK.
But where did the lager come from, you ask. So let’s rewind – middle ages ales are being made all over Europe. IN the 19th century, experiments in bottom fermentation pick up and pale beers start being made particularly in central Europe, Bavaria and Bohemia being two typical areas. These beers need to be aaged somewhat – or lagered in German – hence the name. Still if you went to Munich c. 1840 expecting golden pints of crisp German Helles, you probably would not get it. The carbonated golden beer the OP refers to was invented in the Czech town of Pilsen – hence the name Pilsner in the 1870s – and was a huge hit, and pils spread as a style *everywhere*. In what is modern Germany many traditional styles basically vanished (think Altbier, or Kolsch etc) in favour of these new pale lagered bottom fermented beers. German beer was seen as the height of excellence in Europe and countries without a brewing tradition would hire Germans to start their industsries (e.g. the Fix brewery in Greece, is a hellenisation of the German Fuchs). Germans took their beer with them when they emigrated throughout the end of the century.
In the US for instance, brewing had been traditionally difficult in the early colonial period, so remained quite small scale – or even rejected by English protestant immigrants, while Scots and Irish immigrants had their own alcohol traditions, so that’s what a lot of Germans were involved in mid-late century brewing in the US. And prohibition meant onyl the biggest, usually German style, breweries survived, leading to the beer homogenisation a standardisation that characterised US beer by the 70s 80s (arouund the same time real ale was slowly making a comeback in the UK).
So what was the next step? North America was dominated by mass produced pale lagers, in Europe while there were more brewers, they tended also to make German/Czech style beer. To answer the OP’s question – this is just what people came to associate with “a beer”. The ale tradition only really continued in England, Belgium and a little bit in Holland, and “real” ale only in England.
But this is where the craft beer boom began – Americans, disatisfied with only having their Buds, Millers or Coors or whatever (again, these are all fine if that’s what you like!) looked at the English brewing scene, the Belgian scene, saw all these other styles and started making them in the US – reigniting Ale as a serious part of the beer market. Still, pale lager remains the market leader given how long it was dominant!.
Anyhow sorry it’s a long answer. It’s a really complex question and covers so much social history as well as just beer history The TLDR is cold carbonated beer dominated from the late 19th century to today, but that there are othe beer tradtions making a comeback. Happy to do questions if I know the answer.
I would recommend the Boak and Bailey blog, and I recently read a good book called “brew britannia’ on beer in England.
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