Czech Republic
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Last Updated : 07/02/12 |
he Czech Republic, or Czechoslovakia as it's
still known by those not up with world affairs (the 2 countries split in 1993 in
the so-called "Velvet divorce") is seen as the cradle of Lager brewing.
Certainly there are some superb beers brewed there and not all of them are in
the classic pale lager style - some of the dark lagers are personal favourites - but thanks to the free-market
and globalisation most of the larger breweries
in this great country are now owned by international conglomerates with
predictably dire results on the beer. Thankfully there are a growing
number of micros and brewpubs which are making some decent beer, some of the regionals are still independent and,
happily, general beer quality seems to be improving with a new emphasis on
unpasteurised and unfiltered (kvasnicové
or nefiltrované)
beer in many bars, even those owned by larger
brewers.
A good streetmap of Czech is available here; you don't need to use the accented characters, just stick in standard English ones and it'll find the address for you! It can even switch to a photo-map and display tram stops... To get up-to-the-minute gen about breweries, use this excellent one here or this one or the following blogs here and here. A bit of gen from the English language Prague Post is here, and a great report featuring almost everywhere in the country is here!
See my occasionally updated page about the burgeoning Prague beer scene here.
The rest of my Czech gibberings is here...
Chris Greenwood's epic tour of Czech is now here....
The report of our November 2008 visit to Plzeň is finally here...
The story of my search for the elusive Sucholdský Jeník "student beer" is online!
My 2008 report on our Prague visit.
A Google map of Prague's beery delights
Czech beer - commodity or craft?
Brno (and Bratislava) 2005, updated September 09 with new Brno gen.
A collection of Czech beermats from all around the country.
