So… did some brewery-hopping along the S7 line again. First time we had visited Řevnice and MMX, but this time it was a bit more serious - Řevnice again, Bobr in Zadní Třebaň (or, rather, its tap, U Mlýna) and then Beroun.
Meeting up at Smíchov fairly early, we were eager to visit Řevnice again, and everything went smoothly at first. Unlike last time - when there was only one beer of theirs and two Hostomice beers, now they had five taps - three hosting their own beers (10° and 12° ales and 11° lager - 25 and 30 kč), along with, interestingly, two Řeporyje beers - Ejlík and their 14° tmavé (45 kč). However… a sign said that there was a private party and that they are opening at 18:30 - which they had only announced an hour before on their FB… Eh. Still, we saw that it was quite empty anyway, entered, bought our beers and sat, nobody even lifting a finger about it. Hah! Unsure if they didn’t care as the party was in the other room and the place was far from full, or if they thought we were there for the party, but we were, in the end, warned more than half an hour later - when we were done already. The beers were okay really, nothing thrilling, but not bad either. Four ticks there as I hadn’t hed the Ejlík either - a pretty okay, very classic APA. Cool!
But it was time to get our butts back on the train and move on to the next village - Zadní Třebaň. Exiting the station there, a pretty big building for a village of not even 900 people, we noted the Mašinka pub taking up half of it, but moved on… Coming up to the main village square, we noted that their culture house had Bobr beers, but it opened much later on, so we walked across the tracks for 30 seconds further towards the brewery. The place very much didn’t look open, a Bobr sign on a sightly dilapidated building, broken windows etc. - guess they only brew occasionally in winter? Dunno. We moved on towards the entrance of the U Mlýna pub - a part of a complex with accommodation, a pet hotel and all, rather dead on a December Friday. The pub seems to have a nice patio in the summer and mentions a string of different beers (it’s a Bobr AND a Staropramen place), but that was closed. Moving towards the door we waited for a couple of people to walk out, but the woman coming out shut the grate, only opening from the inside, in our faces. Gee, thanks! Thinking we’d spent our luck in Řevnice, we rang the buzzer anyway… Saying we wanted to have some beers to the guy who showed up worked, and we were let inside. Nice, homely place, Bohemians paraphernalia, Arsenal too, snowboarding on TV, a heap of snacks and suchlike, almost like the place doubles as a store (makes sense if the only store in the village closes early). We ignored the Staropramen taps and asked for Bobr - yup, they had the 11° (28kč). Slightly atypical but still tasty enough lager. We were done fairly soon and moved towards the station.
Our train wasn’t there and there were no people on the station, so we decided to visit Mašinka. The fact that they hade Konrad 10°, a new tick for me, for 17 (SEVENTEEN) crowns for 0.5l (read, 66 Euro cents, 74 Murican cents) certainly helped. Truly an old school place… with 5-6 taps for cheap across the board, another huge surprise being some unidentified 18° Porter (Opat I reckon) for 22kč (86/96 cents), a stunning price for a beer that has to be at least 8%!!! Of course, it was a sweet malt bomb and the Konrad was even less interesting, but for that price, a win. A friendly, if bored Czechoslovakian Wolfdog nearby also helped the atmosphere.
Now, it was time for Beroun… we passed Karlštejn, then the camp in Srbsko hosting Minipivovar Srbecký lok - which functions only seasonally, hiring a brewer to brew for them at that time (who attended the RBESG 19 grand tasting and brought his nice raspberry sour from that brewery) and finally arrived in Beroun… A pretty scenic route! Exiting the train, we blundered into snow, and pretty heavy snow it was. Oh well, looking for an ATM too, we decided to forego an early visit to Berounský Medvěd nearby, and went towards the center. Beroun’s a cute, pretty little town, with a nice little Christmas market in the center - unfortunately, most producers were packing up for a day. Still, I managed to pick up a rare mead I hadn’t seen before from a honey producer before he closed for 110kč. Yay!
A lángos later, we moved on through the snow to Black Dog. A modern, American/TexMex restaurant with beers brewed for it, its Beroun locaiton receives much hype (no.1 restaurant in Beroun on Tripadvisor) and with good reason - it’s a good place with a pretty good burger (wouldn’t say best in ČR like some do but hey). Two beers of “theirs”, one brewed by Permon (the non-wintery “winter” APA) and one by Všerad (sliiiightly more Christmasy polotmavé). Pretty much Prague prices - 56/58 I think for 0.4l, but generally flawless. There’s a fridge with Všerad beers, to go too, which is a cool touch. All in all, a very nice place to get a burger! Circling around, we went back through the cold (but thankfully no snow anymore) to the train station and onwards to Berounský Medvěd. A cute little town really, Beroun, will return.
Now… BM. What a place. From the train station you go westwards, towards the overpass, passing by a lonely apartment building (train tracks on one side, bus and train stations on the other two… and then the highway - apartment prices can’t be high there ) and then under the overpass, a muddy path, old trucks… then you walk towards an old, dilapidated sugar factory that also houses a metal scrapyard. If not for a brewery sign on one of the ruined factory buildings, one might turn back… but go on and in the middle of that is the cute brewery building. 10 taps, prices from 20kč for their 8° and 40 for their 8.5% Baltic Porter, cheap PET bottles to go, nice decoration inside, good service but not really English speaking and some cheap, solid food (tasty potatoes with bacon!)… what’s not to like! Well, the beers are hit and miss and the Chodovar on the guest tap was, indeed, meh… but a pretty chill place and visiting it won’t set you back much.
And then the train back to Prague and to the Lobik tap takeover, to Beergeek where 3 small beers set me back as much as 8 small beers, three servings of fries and hot sauce set us back at BM… but which was also fun. Two different aspects of the same, wonderful world.