One of the many joys of visiting the Czech Republic is the wonderful selection of beers.
From the popular large scale brands to more obscure local makes or micro-breweries, beer lovers can taste to their hearts content and hopefully find a few new favourites.
Pilsner Beer
Pilsner Urquell and Pilsner are the main brands. They are available almost everywhere, are quite cheap and relatively tasty. However, they are by far from the most exciting beers of the country and so are of little interest to connoisseurs.
Kvasar Beer
Kvasar beer comes from the Cerna Hora Brewery Company and has a taste of honey added to it. The light and golden beer has a truly gorgeous taste, the honey blunting the traditional bitter flavour. Apparently, the first written record of the brewery dates back to 1530, when the estate of the same name was owned by brothers Tas and Jaroslav Černohorský of Boskovice and it is they that first brewed the beer that is continued in production to this day.
Pivovarsky Dum
Pivovarsky Dum is a micro-brewery conveniently located within Prague. They are most famous for their beer champagne, which is billed as a dessert drink, but I prefer the Stepan. This is an unpasteruised and unfiltered beer that thus retains a great deal of the hop flavour. The brewery itself describes the flavour as ‘full’ so visitors may want to make up their own minds. The brewery also has a wide selection of novelty beers, such as the banana and coffee beers available.
Pivnice Pegas
Pivnice Pegas is a family brewery in Brno. They have four variants, the Wheat 12, Pale 12, Dark 12, and Filtered 12. I wouldn’t advise the Dark 12, but each of the other three has something to recommend them, especially the Pale 12 which was my favourite. The brewery has an attached hotel in case the sampling means a long journey home becomes impossible, and also a restaurant so the beers can be tried as an accompaniment to fine dining.
Gambrinus Svetle Beer
A personal favourite of mine is the Gambrinus Svetle beer. Dry and bitter, it has a hint of lime and is a little bit coarse. It is quite hoppy so if that puts you off perhaps this is not the choice for you. Another reviewer described it as ‘lacking refinement’ and I think this is a good point. It is a fun beer for sharing in a group when out of an evening, not for savouring at home on a cold winters night.
It is impossible to review here all the beers I want, and even confining myself to the Czech Republic has been difficult. In truth, these are recommendations others can use to start their own tasting and find brands that they like among the crowd, rather than an attempt to name the definitively ‘top’ brands.
Photo of glasses of Czech beer by Scr47chy
Topic: Restaurants & Food |
0 Comments
Tags: Eastern Europe
About the author
Will Joce is a recent graduate from the London School of Economics who has a morbid fear of working in an office. As well as travelling and writing he has worked in the UK Parliament and as a press monitor. Refusing to follow advice and get a real job he will soon be beginning a Masters degree at St Petersburg State University
Leave a comment