ABOUT CZECH BEER
Pilsner Urquell, original Czech beer
The Czechs have been drinking beer since time immemorial. Emperor Rudolf II’s personal physician held that beer was an incredibly healthy beverage and wrote a treatise to that effect. The Czech beer industry’s worldwide fame dates from the Renaissance, as does the Bohemian tavern which is famous throughout Europe. A place name that is still associated with great beer today - as is Pilsner, which is derived from the place name of the west Bohemian town of Plzen. Beer and the drinking thereof are ingrained in Czech culture, society and history. So much so, that the beer industry is considered a part of the national heritage. After the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic achieved a major beer victory: first place in beer consumption per citizen. In 2003, the Czechs drank an average of 161 liters of beer per person. That’s a bottle of beer for every man, woman, and child in the Czech lands every day.
Beer goes very well with the Czech national cuisine. It would be unimaginable for the Czech national meal (roasted pork, cabbage and the famous Czech dumplings) to be accompanied by any beverage other than beer. The best examples of traditional Czech Beer pub you can find in Prague are all restaurants managed by Kolkovna Group. Here, you will find an unmatched homemade food and a “godfather” of all Pilsner types of beer – “Pilsner Urquell”. Enjoy this very special worldwide known beer together with traditional roasted duck with red and white cabbage and potato dumplings, or Prague’s finest beef goulash with onion rings. All three restaurants are situated in the city center (you can find them easily on the map). Kolkovna Restaurant is close to Old-town Square (MAP:D2),
Celnice Restaurant is in Namesti republiky (MAP:E3) and Olympia Restaurant is on the corner of Vitezna and Zborovska street (MAP:B4). The atmosphere in all Kolkovna Group restaurants is at once welcoming
and endearing. Don’t miss this great opportunity and visit a traditional restaurant designed to 20-30 years of the 19th century.
Czechs prefer to do their beer-drinking in pubs rather than at home. Drinking beer is an opportunity to meet with friends. The milieu in pubs and country inns is gregarious, the discussion are forthright. The subjects can be anything under the sun: football, ice-hockey, politics and women. Draught beer is normally served in half-liter glass mugs. There’s light-colored (svetle) beer, which comes in ten-degree and twelve-degree varieties, and has more of a bitter flavor. Then there’s also ten-degree dark (tmave), or black (cerne) beer, which is generally sweeter. Light beer is more popular, although dark beer is gaining ground.
A famous advertising slogan once proclaimed: „Beer is the best”. It didn’t specify which brand. It is impossible to say which Czech beer is the best. Radegast has won the Czech beer of the year three times in a row. Velkopopovicky Kozel won the gold medal for beer in 1995. Gambrinus is the most popular. Of the classical beer styles, mostly bottom-fermented beer is brewed in the Czech Republic - that means lager (lezak), but especially, it means Pilsner beer. Pilsner is without a doubt the world’s most famous style of beer. Outside of the Czech Republic it is usually spelled Pilsener or abbreviated to Pils. Pilsner originally described beer from Pilsen (Plzen). For Czechs it means beer from Plzen and nothing else. The term came into use, when the brewery in Pilsen (Plzen) developed a beer in 1842 known as Pilsner Urquell. This is a pale golden-colored beer of 12 degree, with
a characteristically well-hopped palate (Bohemian hops are used of course).
Czechs drink mostly Czech beers. In order of popularity: Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, Radegast, Velkopopovicky Kozel, and then a long list of beers brewed in the smaller regional breweries. A wide range of beers is available, with more than 80 breweries in the Czech Republic.