I'd love to put a poll about favourite beers here, but it seems i'm not allowed/able to do so. So, what's your favourite Czech beer at the moment?? At the moment i'd go for: 10° Budvar 11° Zlatopramen 12° Platan Other than that Ježek (from Jihlava) tastes interesting, although it i fell it tastes a bit ashy when not on tap. Another prime choice is Dačický (Kutnohorské), one of the most thrilling beers i know... Maybe one of the moderators could create a poll with a few more beers too - staropramen, braník, gambrinus, prazdroj, kozel, klášter, Eggenberg ... .. .. (I suppose i don't need to tell you i started learning czech because i like beer...) 8)
Hi mravenec, This is a good idea for a poll. Why haven't we had one like this yet? Ok, let's start a Favorite Czech Beer poll, but before we do that, let's gather some names to put on the list. I also think that we should have separate polls for light beer and dark beer as these are two different beasts. What about distinguishing between 10, 11 and 12 degree beers? Unnecessary or helpful? Below is a list to start with (in no particular order). What does everyone think about it? Should any beers be added or removed from it? We may want to end up with no more than 10 - 15 beers to put in the poll. LIGHT: Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell), Budvar, Gambrinus, Krušovice, Krušovice Mušketýr, Kozel, Radegast, Staropramen, Bernard, Starobrno, Regent, Zlatopramen, Hostan, Šerák, Litovel, Ježek, Dačický, Braník, Eggenberg, Měšťan DARK: Kozel, Krušovice, Budvar, Staropramen, Starobrno, Zlatopramen, Kern, Platan, Klášter, Dačický, Eggenberg, Klášter, Regent Please post your feedback, so we can choose which beers to include in the poll. Thanks! Dana
I'd like to have Platan in the light beer list... And perhaps it would be better skip the 'degrees' - 10° etc. What about keeping just one Krušovice? Anyway, the list seems good to me. In fact I wouldn't have come up with a better one myself. PS. Where is Šerák brewed, don't think i've tasted that one yet(!!). :shock:
Of course Platan should be among the light beers also - my mistake. We can have just one Krušovice although I'm partial to the Mušketýr... Šerák, named after Mount Šerák in the Jeseníky Mountains, is made by the Pivovar Holba in Hanušovice, Northern Moravia. Their slogan is "Holba - Ryzí pivo z hor" ("Holba - Pure Mountain Beer"). The 11 deg. Šerák was voted as the beer of the year at Pivex 2003.
Aha! The Holba brewery! (I even have a Holba T-shirt) They make the Zubr beer as well, quite a good one if you ask me. And.. Sakra! Last week i was in Hradec Králové and Litomyšl for a few days, i should have got myself a few bottles of Šerák, Hanušovice is far away in the Czech hinterland! (No offence Moravians!) :cry: By the way, what's that beer from Svitavy called, it should go on the list! By the way (2) is nobody else on this forum interested in beer... It feels awfully quiet in this thread..
Not being the big fan of beer, so I am not able to discuss the topic a lot However, I deeply prefer Budvar, Plzeň, Radegast to Holba, Krušovice; and I hate Starobrno.. brrrr Sometimes I like to order Rádler =( half beer & half Sprite) It tastes wonderful P.S. I adore Czech rum (tuzemák)
Don't kick me off the forum for suggesting this one but I liked the beer at U Fleku... Yes, it's a silly touristy place, but I enjoyed the beer. Smooth but not bland. I suppose you can't get it anywhere else, though? Susan
All the way Staropramen, especially Granat (avatar says it all ), followed by Kozel and Pilsner Urquell. By the way, what's the difference between Staropramen Svetly and Lezak (because of my pitiful Czech the writing on the label doesn't help me much)?
The poll is up for light beers so far! Dark beers will follow at some point. You can vote for your favorite at www.myczechrepublic.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=3739. Dana
I have been visiting the Czech Republic since 1989 and I have seen a steady decline in most of the beers available. A series of amalgamations and purchases by foreign combines has all but destroyed the traditional values of the larger breweries. Home ownership is know guarantee of quality either. The Pilsner Urquell Group move their products around to whichever brewery is most economical, so forget any notion of local character. Urquel itself ceased brewing in the traditional way in 1992. And it was a fantastic beer before then. However there is hope. Outside of Prague you can still find wonderful brews athough you often find that in any given town it will be the national brews which dominate which can be very frustrating. As a couple of examples I will mention:- Strakonice is trying hard to produce traditional non pasteurised beers as well as some fairly weird and wonderful flavoured beers. The wonderful and idiosyncratic beers of Pivovar Nymburk are even available on draft in Prague. Try the full flavoured Pepin at 10 or the subtle Francin's Lager at 12. (remember they have a 'right' to use the characters from Hrabals books!)
Found a really interesting and intelligant article about Czech beer on the Radio Praha website. Have a look. http://www.radio.cz/en/html/beer2.html
Quite a nice set of articles but very far from unbiased. Antonin Kratochvil, the executive director of the Czech Association of Breweries, is quoted as saying "Saying that some beer is better and some is worse is as nonsensical as classifying women according to the color of their hair: some men like blondes, some like brunettes." But he is little more than a spokesperson for the large mainly foreign owned breweries and he is unlikely to say that most of the beers he represents taste of nothing very special is he! If you want to see what may be possible then go to http://www.pivnigalerie.cz/index.htm or visit them when you are in Prague. They will open any bottle you want from their vast collection But please ask for an Unpasturised Unfiltered beer to see what most Czech are now missing.
Depends where! In the Republic then I reckon you cannot beat the very varied beers from Nymburk which has a reasonable distribution with 1 outlet in Prague. Strakonice have a very nice unfiltered beer but you need to be in South Moravia to sample it. Polička make some lovely beers but it could be very hard to find. Generally available would be Bernard which I think should be available in UK as well.
The Sdružení přátel piva 'The party of the friends of Beer' which is ow modelling itself on England's CAMRA 'the campaign for real Ale' has just had a beer award ceremony with the following results. Best 10°: Polička Best 11°: Klášter Best 12°: Opat Best Dark Beer: Bernard Best Half-Dark Beer: Granát, Staropramen Best Special Beer: 13° Svijany Microbrewery of the Year: Richter Brewery, Prague Pub of the Year: Ferdinanda, Prague Brewer of the Year: Jana Rostová, Velké Březno Brewery of the Year: Primátor, Náchod If you drink through that lot I reckon you should have a good time!
