"Don't drink alone!" ... oops, too late!
Trying out beer (pivo, in Czech) is probably one main reason to travel to the Czech republic. The country not only boasts of having the largest beer consumption per capita in the entire world but also of being the source for some of the world's most popularized brews -- Pilsen and Budweiser, two crisp lagers that are chugged in more places than one can enumerate.
I myself was never a beer fan - I found beer back home terrible (and could only drink some brews like Red Horse and San Mig's Cerveza Negra) and while the options in Italy were slightly better (Peroni, Nastro Azzurro, Heineken), it was easier to prefer wine. This changed after learning about Belgian beer (in this specialty pub I found in Naples) and after going to Belgium itself. Hands down, Belgium won my heart with beer (from the commercial brews to the rarer trappist ones made by monks) and I always thought it would be hard to challenge Belgium's standard.
After trying my first mug of Czech beer (a Pšeničné pivo or weissbier with a slice of lemon), I was won over - this place could give Belgium a run for its money.
Still, four days and four nights of chugging beers (and one can really only drink so much) doesn't make one an expert and what this experience of beer degustation really just did was pique my interest on the subject. That being said, I believe I still picked up quite a few things about Czech beer from my first hand experience of going around the country and drinking all the beer that I can -- one's gut can only hold so much liquid and, further, since I was traveling alone (for personal security).
I myself was never a beer fan - I found beer back home terrible (and could only drink some brews like Red Horse and San Mig's Cerveza Negra) and while the options in Italy were slightly better (Peroni, Nastro Azzurro, Heineken), it was easier to prefer wine. This changed after learning about Belgian beer (in this specialty pub I found in Naples) and after going to Belgium itself. Hands down, Belgium won my heart with beer (from the commercial brews to the rarer trappist ones made by monks) and I always thought it would be hard to challenge Belgium's standard.
After trying my first mug of Czech beer (a Pšeničné pivo or weissbier with a slice of lemon), I was won over - this place could give Belgium a run for its money.
Still, four days and four nights of chugging beers (and one can really only drink so much) doesn't make one an expert and what this experience of beer degustation really just did was pique my interest on the subject. That being said, I believe I still picked up quite a few things about Czech beer from my first hand experience of going around the country and drinking all the beer that I can -- one's gut can only hold so much liquid and, further, since I was traveling alone (for personal security).
| The first stop of my beer adventure was Pivovarsky Pegas in Brno. Pivo, in Czech, means beer and pivovar means brewery (-sky, I think, is a diminutive) and Pegas is held to be one of the best in the country, making it a mandatory stop in my short stay in the city. In Pegas, they brew and serve four different types of beer: two lagers or lemak (a pale one and a dark one), a golden strong lager (which they call Pegas Gold, 8% alcohol) and their highly-recommended wheat beer or psenicne pivo. I first tried the wheat beer, which was served with a couple of slices of lemon. Given that my limited experience, I found this one quite smooth, easy and refreshing. The taste of hops (bitterness) was not as dominant and the addition of lemon adds a vibrance that makes it just perfect as a starting beer. While enjoying my wheat beer, my food also arrived in the form of pork ribs, potatoes and sides. In the middle of eating, I finished my wheat beer and ordered a pint of Pegas Gold. This one is more congruent to my idea of beer - it tasted like a lager (a good one at that) with a nice balance of hops and malt taste. While I easily preferred the previous one, I found that this one wasn't as bad and went down smoothly as well. I found it challenging to finish though (along with my food) since I was so full already (about halfway through the pint). Still, I decided to plow through and eventually finished both. At a total of 1L of beer (apparently, these Czechs take 0.5L as the basic measurement), my stomach was full and I hoped I did not disappoint (I expect that these Czechs could drink more than a couple of pints in a sitting). |          Pegas is located just one block north of Namesti Svobody (the main square of Brno). |
My first half pint of Pilsner Urquell
My next chance to drink more beer came in lunch the following day, in Prague. While exploring around Powder tower, I was lured into this place inside the town hall which seemingly offered cheap daily menus together with Pilsner Urquell, Czech republic's most popular and most famous beer.
While the food was good (though not as cheap as originally thought due to fine print in the signs that I wasn't able to read), the beer highlight here was really getting to try Pilsner Urquell (Plzeňský Prazdroj) - whose name means "Pilsner, the original source". I found the beer, a pale lager, to have more hops flavor than the lager I tried the night ago (though that was, of course, stronger and probably sweeter... hence, less bitter) though not altogether unpleasant. I would easily prefer this pilsen to others I've tried before (e.g. back at home) and this became be my benchmark on what a "classic Czech beer" is -- a nice and crisp lager that is refreshing on a hot day and that one could drink a lot of.
While the food was good (though not as cheap as originally thought due to fine print in the signs that I wasn't able to read), the beer highlight here was really getting to try Pilsner Urquell (Plzeňský Prazdroj) - whose name means "Pilsner, the original source". I found the beer, a pale lager, to have more hops flavor than the lager I tried the night ago (though that was, of course, stronger and probably sweeter... hence, less bitter) though not altogether unpleasant. I would easily prefer this pilsen to others I've tried before (e.g. back at home) and this became be my benchmark on what a "classic Czech beer" is -- a nice and crisp lager that is refreshing on a hot day and that one could drink a lot of.
| After a day of sightseeing around Stare Mesto (Old Town) and a quick camera-charging break at my hostel, I stumbled accidentally upon U Medvidku while on my way back to the city center. U Medvidku is a must-visit for any beer enthusiast in Prague - not only is it the smallest brewery in the city but, more importantly, they also brew the strongest beer in the world (X Beer 33). They also serve beer ice cream made from Oldgott, their own unfiltered and unpasteurized lager (a "live" beer that is teeming with minerals and nutrients). For my first visit, since it was still early evening, I decided to come in to try their beer ice cream (as a sort of late afternoon treat). One of the waiters approached me and asked for my beer order (I guess there's a mandatory beer order whenever one sits down) and, since they had Budweiser (Budějovický Budvar), I decided to get a pint of that as well, the pale one. First, on the Budvar, I found that it is somewhat milder in the hops and malt flavor and somewhat sweeter and actually more pleasant (with some light honey notes) while still drinking as a nice crisp lager - I would easily pick this one over Pilsner (re: Pilsner vs. Budvar). The beer ice cream though was quite interesting - it clearly accentuated the caramel taste of the parent beer with the right touch of sweetness but it lacked the creaminess of normal ice cream (so it really is more like frozen/slushied lager or like a beer sorbet) and its probably why they serve it with a lot of cream. I'd recommend it for people to try, just for sheer novelty. |             U Medvidku is located a few blocks south of the Old Town Square, in Na Perstyne. |
X-beer 33, the strongest beer in the world!
Two days after, before leaving Prague, I decided that I can't leave the city without getting to taste their X Beer so I decided to return to U Medvidku to grab some dinner (quite near the closing time) in the restaurant area, ordered some roast boar with spinach and a pint of their dark Budvar (for a change). The rich flavor of the dark beer worked very well with the hearty dish I ordered and it has the richer and fuller flavor one expects from dark beer (without much of the sweetness).
The real anticipation of the night, however, was getting to try the X-beer. As it wasn't available in the main dining area, I had to move to the bar/brewery area to get it (along with a list of other beers they had). At 100Kc for 0.3L (versus the normal 25-30Kc for 0.5L), the beer costs quite a bit more since it's a rarer commodity (they brew it only once a month). The menu and labels also precaution you that you should not drink it alone (which I did, anyway), presumably because you could get drunk quicker by drinking a lot of it.
The first thing I noted when I tried the X-beer was really just how sweet it is -- there was the nice rich flavor you would associate with dark beer but it is somehow masked by a huge amount of sweetness. This makes it really hard to chug in one big gulp (unlike the usual "Czech classics") and one really has to take time to finish it. The feel of the beer is really more like a dark rich Belgian ale (confirmed by this American couple I was sitting beside with in the bar). I was surprised that I would even find a beer like this in the country and, much more, that it will be called a lager, by the brewers though I guess it is a lager by way of brewing (low-temp bottom fermentation, typical of Czech breweries). While I did get to finish it, the last third was somewhat hard because I was starting to grow tired of it (nakakasawa, in Filipino) and I really needed something fresher (later in the night: I followed it with abinsthe!).
The real anticipation of the night, however, was getting to try the X-beer. As it wasn't available in the main dining area, I had to move to the bar/brewery area to get it (along with a list of other beers they had). At 100Kc for 0.3L (versus the normal 25-30Kc for 0.5L), the beer costs quite a bit more since it's a rarer commodity (they brew it only once a month). The menu and labels also precaution you that you should not drink it alone (which I did, anyway), presumably because you could get drunk quicker by drinking a lot of it.
The first thing I noted when I tried the X-beer was really just how sweet it is -- there was the nice rich flavor you would associate with dark beer but it is somehow masked by a huge amount of sweetness. This makes it really hard to chug in one big gulp (unlike the usual "Czech classics") and one really has to take time to finish it. The feel of the beer is really more like a dark rich Belgian ale (confirmed by this American couple I was sitting beside with in the bar). I was surprised that I would even find a beer like this in the country and, much more, that it will be called a lager, by the brewers though I guess it is a lager by way of brewing (low-temp bottom fermentation, typical of Czech breweries). While I did get to finish it, the last third was somewhat hard because I was starting to grow tired of it (nakakasawa, in Filipino) and I really needed something fresher (later in the night: I followed it with abinsthe!).
| Back to my first day in Prague, having sated my curiosity with the beer ice cream and after doing a bit more sightseeing and picture-taking, I decided to go for one my main beer stops in this trip and that is the Prague Beer Museum located about 5-10 minutes on foot from the Old Town Square. There's a danger that the place might actually be a tourist trap being that the name is totally in English (I don't even know if it has a Czech name) but the fact that they boast of having 30 different types of beer available on the tap (Tankova, in Czech) was worth the risk. Being that I was alone, I decided to sit in the bar so as to be able to ask and engage with the bartenders (they're the best source of beer information, right?) and since I wasn't really feeling that outgoing to just go and converse with random people. The two guys who were working (one Czech guy and one Colombian guy) were pretty nice and were eager to make recommendations. While deciding on what to eat, I decided to go with a 0.5L mug of their "best beer", Raptor, an India pale ale which went down pretty well (though not my favorite for the night). Since their grill was not working, I was left pick from their small spread of bar food (no one really goes to eat here!) and got a plate of chicken wings. I probably spent at least 3 hours in that place just tasting beer, eating my wings and chatting with random people in the bar including a couple of British friends (whom I thought were a couple) who were in town for their MBA business project, a Serbian businessman who was flirting with one of the female bartenders and a couple of random Czech girls (who can't wait for their orders). It was good that they offered a tasting portion of 0.15L which allowed me to drink as many types as I could (I probably tried up to 10 beers that night) excluding sips of ones I was cautioned from taking (i.e. the bad ones). While it's hard to remember or, further review, each type that I tried - I do remember some of the standout beers of the night: Demon (an amber lager from Munich, which had a good balance of sweet caramel-y and bitterness for me), Merlin (a dark lager that is reminiscent of a stout, which appealed to both my taste and that of the two Brits) and the Grapefruit beer - which is striking since I normally shy away from fruit-beer combos (even Kriek, the sour cherry beer in Belgium doesn't quite appeal to me) but I learned that citrus works pretty well with beer. |            To go to the Prague Beer Museum from the Old Town Square, just head straight along the road at the north-eastern corner of the square (Dlouha) until you see it on the right side of the road (about 5-10 minutes walking). Interested? Check out their beer selection before you go in their online beer menu, though slightly outdated as I think not all the types available are on it. |
The Tyn Church is still beautiful even after a few beers.
The not-so-winners (read: disgusting) ones of the night were the Chocolate beer (Opat) and the Smoky beer that one of the Brits passed to me to try. The Chocolate beer smells like chocolate but the taste is just terrible (the Colombian guy let me taste it before giving me the real portion). The Smoky beer was just as strange and equally terrible. This eliminated all specks of curiosity I had for the Banana beer (which I didn't even think of trying after). I also didn't try a lot of the fruit beers though the Serbian guy beside me got a big mug of the Blueberry or Raspberry beer (well, maybe it's not so bad).
At the end of the night, I felt slightly bloated from the volume of liquid I consumed not to mention slightly buzzed from the mixture of different beers my system was now swimming on (though this is nothing compared to the disaster which happened in my next big beer stop). While I was for sure no longer walking in a straight line (though not quite swaying around from pole to pole), I did manage to walk the 1 km back to my hostel, mentally gloat at the drunk Americans vomiting in the Old Town square and be able to wake up early to hit the sights the next day.
At the end of the night, I felt slightly bloated from the volume of liquid I consumed not to mention slightly buzzed from the mixture of different beers my system was now swimming on (though this is nothing compared to the disaster which happened in my next big beer stop). While I was for sure no longer walking in a straight line (though not quite swaying around from pole to pole), I did manage to walk the 1 km back to my hostel, mentally gloat at the drunk Americans vomiting in the Old Town square and be able to wake up early to hit the sights the next day.
| The last main stop in my beer adventure was in another famous microbrewery in Prague, Pivovarsky Dum where they brew and offer at least 8 types of beer (though more types are available bottled). This is probably one the more memorable experiences in beer tasting I've had, for better or for worse, since (foreshadowing the results) my experimentation actually ended badly with me getting a really rumbly and disturbed stomach. That being said, there are nice beers to be tried from this place which is famous for experimenting with what beer purists might call "trendy stuff". Since I already ate goulash when I had early dinner, I decided to just order some classic fried Czech cheese and the 8-beer tasting set (0.1L of each beer was poured in each shot glass, thank God it wasn't more). I knew the beers I was getting from the menu: I got two of their classic lemak or lagers (pale and dark), their psenicne pivo or wheat beer, a special brew for March (Marzen) and four specialty beers (coffee, banana, sour cherry and nettle). If you check the photos above, you'll see that a circular piece of paper with the prescribed order of the beers is actually inserted on the tasting tray. Yeah, I didn't really see that so I ended up drinking whatever it was I wanted and that's probably what caused the main bad result of the evening (anyway, moving on...). I thought "hey, what if I start with the weird stuff first so I end up finishing with the nice stuff" which sounded pretty good at the moment. I started with the Marzen (March-special) and followed it by the disgusting combos of coffee, banana and sour cherry, blinked and thought wildly about the green beer (nettle, which is not even a fruit) and finished with the normal ones, the two lagers and the wheat beer. The Marzen was a surprise and it was probably the beer of the night - special flavor, caramel notes and a pleasant amount of sweetness. The lagers were, of course, reliably good (like any Czech classic) but probably no better than what I could get elsewhere as was the wheat beer (having been wow-ed by Pegas' wheat beer, this was okay). The green nettle beer had a surprising taste that reminds one of both herbiness and green tea, qualities which I think are not that repulsive when combined with beer so the net result was somewhat a pleasant though strange. Both coffee and banana beers were terrible (as predicted) - lots of aroma upfront but the taste doesn't come true and the beer part ends up flat with nothing to complement the bitterness of the hops. The sour cherry was also a disappointment, compared say to Kriek, that sour cherry-flavored Belgian lambic which I don't necessarily like but find better than this one. |          Final Verdict/Rationalization: Over-all, I wouldn't say it was a total loss as the Marzen was quite good (too bad I started with it so everything else after ranged from lackluster to sucky) and it's probably the reason why it was placed last in the preferred beer order. The penalty I had to pay, for experimenting, though was a rumbly and disturbed stomach which woke me up the morning after so I could sprint to the toilet to well... you get the story. And me? Now, I'm a beer purist! :-) |
Green beer anyone?
Outside of these "decidedly beer adventures", it's not hard to get good beer in the Czech republic largely because beer gardens and pubs abound (showing how much beer drinking is really a part of their culture) and the beer quality, on the average, is pretty good (i.e. if one sticks with Czech classics which are lagers, specifically pilsen, and not stray off much to try other things like stouts, ales and banana beer).
I can't say that I've tried each and every single one they have, obviously, and I did miss quite a number of Czech classics - Gambrinus, Prague's Staropramen, Brno's Starobrno (though I presume all of them are crisp lagers like their more famous cousins - Pilsner and Budvar), some darker beers as well as the Green beer shown in the picture and I wasn't able to nail each and every important beer garden/microbrewery in Prague (U Fleku has eluded me though it's been known to be quite touristy) but then those are always the stuff you leave for your next visit (or so I tell myself).
At end of it all, I learned quite a bit about Czech beer (and beer in general) and it's easy to summarize it in the following important points/recommendations for fellow drinkers:
Lastly, beer is always better with company. As the X-beer glass says, "Never drink alone!" or, at least, try not to... Even if traveling alone, try to find company, engage the people sitting beside you or, hey, even talk to the bartender! It prolongs your drink and allows the liquid to pass through your system (allowing you to drink more, perhaps) and it satisfies the innate role that beer and drinks have in our society and that is social lubrication - it catalyzes interaction with other humans (friends or strangers) and there really is nothing more to that.
Na zdraví!
I can't say that I've tried each and every single one they have, obviously, and I did miss quite a number of Czech classics - Gambrinus, Prague's Staropramen, Brno's Starobrno (though I presume all of them are crisp lagers like their more famous cousins - Pilsner and Budvar), some darker beers as well as the Green beer shown in the picture and I wasn't able to nail each and every important beer garden/microbrewery in Prague (U Fleku has eluded me though it's been known to be quite touristy) but then those are always the stuff you leave for your next visit (or so I tell myself).
At end of it all, I learned quite a bit about Czech beer (and beer in general) and it's easy to summarize it in the following important points/recommendations for fellow drinkers:
- Classic Czech beer is good because it's light, crisp and you could drink a lot of it - whether to wash down decidedly meat-laden and heavy Czech meals or as a nice and simple quencher for the summer heat.
- When beer is available from the tap (vis-a-vis from a bottle or a can), get it - one could imagine it being better as it holds its intended body more (bottling or canning probably unduly "stresses" the liquid, or so I think). It's akin to drinking wine straight of the barrel or picking your citrus fresh from the orchard - the beer maintains the level of head and mouthfeel it's supposed to have so one can judge it's quality better (in the end, you still may or may not like it).
- Other than citrus (and maybe... just maybe other sour fruits like berries), try to shy away from what appears to be "cool and trendy" combinations like coffee beer and banana beer - unless a friend really recommends them, they probably don't taste good so it's better to stick to the classics. (Disasters might ensue -- case in point, my adventure at Pivovarsky Dum!)
Lastly, beer is always better with company. As the X-beer glass says, "Never drink alone!" or, at least, try not to... Even if traveling alone, try to find company, engage the people sitting beside you or, hey, even talk to the bartender! It prolongs your drink and allows the liquid to pass through your system (allowing you to drink more, perhaps) and it satisfies the innate role that beer and drinks have in our society and that is social lubrication - it catalyzes interaction with other humans (friends or strangers) and there really is nothing more to that.
Na zdraví!
RSS Feed