Czech / Prague beer talk

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… :scream: Eh. Still, we saw that it was quite empty anyway, entered, bought our beers and sat, nobody even lifting a finger about it. Hah! :sunglasses: 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. :smiley: 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! :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: 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. :sunglasses: 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. :grin: 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%!!! :grinning: 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 :heart: nearby also helped the atmosphere. :smiley:

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! :grinning:

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) :cold_face: 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 :face_with_monocle:) 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! :smiley: 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. :smiley:

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Almost forgot - as someone told me, forgetting who, Novoměstský pivovar - the first brewpub, brewery even to open in the post-Communism era in Prague (and one of the first in the country) is closing at the end of this month.

Bit sad, but… I doubt a lot of people will bemoan the loss of what seemed at times to be a cynical tourist trap with beer that didn’t thrill. That said - the beer’s 28kč/0.5l until it runs out so might as well return 10+ years after I visited it for the first and only time for a couple of pints…

Interesting brewery? Surely only in the first years after “Sametova revoluce”, because it was “new”… In these times Prague was also packed with “Original Irish Pubs”… These pubs are now - fortunately - hard to find there, the thrill has gone. Same situation with brew-pubs, only “U Fleků” will never die… :grinning: :czech_republic:

Hahah, not at all. Hasn’t changed one bit since I visited it in 2009 I reckon - apart from those “flavored” beers that shouldn’t be on the site anyway. The světlé is definitely worth 28kč (not sure what the regular price was), but not much more honestly, quite drinkable, smooth some interesting, true to style flavors are there, but somehow the flavors tend to disappear - too watery. The tmavé is sadly apparently an old batch already, and got sour, though some interesting dark malt notes were underneath the tartness.

My wife and I will be visiting Prague 20-25/2.
Anyone around and wanna meet up for a beer, let me know.

Time to bump this… whew.

Been a crazy few months. The lockdown hit bars heavily, especially as the government apparently refused to help them, despite closing them down, but zahrádkas are open again, and people are flooding them. Covid likes this. But hopefully it’s been contained enough not to explode anew.

Most people adapted quickly if they could and when they could - beer delivery and web shops exploded - now even places with no patios improvise them if they can etc. Most festvals are cancelled, which sucks for my plans to get to 10 000 this year. Need to finish Ratebeer dangit!

Still not sure if some breweries were hit hard enough to close or not - guess we’ll be getting more definitive info soon enough.

Managed to get my ass to Plzeň on Wednesday to meet up with @motelpogo , Raven folk and @Mowbeer and got some scene news from them I didn’t notice being mentioned before - a brewpub is opening up in Domažlice at the location of the formerly oldest brewery in the country (1318-1996) - they should’ve been open already and the place is apparently ready, but for obvious reasons still nothing - probably June or something. It’ll be run by the local forest authority apparently. :smiley: The rest of the brewery complex is being redeveloped for other purposes, of course, but cool to have the tradition continue.

In other news - Indigo Ale Bar, a fun punky-hipstery place with a bunch of taps and a good bottle selection has moved from its old location in Opatovická (Praha 1 - Nové město) to Václavkova in Praha 6 - Dejvice - pending official opening. With Base Camp, Pivovar Bubeneč, Krkonošská Hospůdka and now this (along with a couple of other places), the Hradčanská metro station area is becoming a nice little beer hotspot. Seems like it’ll be a basement bar now, not much room for a patio where they are.

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I’m curious, which name will be used for this “new” Domažlíce brewery… The old one was well known for their “Purkmistr” pivo, but this brand is used now in the Plzeň suburbs by the minipivovar of the same name. Na zdraví!

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True! Just had a blackcurrant saison by them on Sunday. :smiley: Fun place to visit (in 2008), but will never regret the fact that the server brought 2x Černé instead of 1x Černé and 1x Černý bez, despite us repeating clearly we wanted the latter too.

As for Domažlice Prior or Radní maybe. Or maybe something generic (Domažlické pivo) or entirely new. We’ll see!

Hooh, made a loong loong beer run yesterday, Beergeek, Dno Pytle, Nubeerbar, Malý/Velký and Bad Flash Krymská. But, more importantly… I finally got the time and the will to visit the newest brewery in Prague) and one of the hardest to get to - Pivovar PanaCzech.! :smiley:

It’s a 40 minute + trip from wherever central, and it’s not fun wearing travelling in the heat in a bus with nose and mouth covered, let me tell you, but yeah, made it there in the end. :mask: It’s still very much obvious that Dolní Měcholupy is a village eaten up by Prague, fields starting just to the east of it, but it’s family houses all around. It’s Prague, but doesn’t feel like Prague - apart from a neverending stream of vehicles going through its main artery which just happens to be the road to Kutná Hora.

Located in a tiny side street of a side street, going towards the village’s football field, there’s a sign signalling its presence, and a tank peeping out from behind a wall, but it’s basically a pretty small setup, in a shed by a family house. Going in, I was greeted by a startled, barking elderly pug warning the owners that a big suspicious Croat has entered the yard :grin: , with a second dog not showing much interest in guard duties. The brewer was working in the brewery, but I was served by the lady of the house, who was sitting outside. While they generally have a 11° světlý ležák called Thor, a 11° NZ Pale Ale called Loki (appropriately) and a 16° “red imperial pilsner” (hm) called R.I.P., they were out of Loki. The beers are available in 0.5l glass bottle (interestingly, with a tear-off cap) and 1.5l PETkas (and kegs of course). No taps, so just buy and go - makes sense with you basically standing in their yard and the pandemic still being around. Paid and left for another annoying ride back to civilization. :sweat:

We’ll see how they will arrange things once they kick off - they have barely started and were immediately kicked in the face by the pandemic, but seem to be doing okay. If the setup doesn’t change much, with their beer being from today available in the center (BAR/ÁK near Florence) - and maybe elsewhere at some point, this is a hardcore place ticker trip only, to be done, maybe, when visiting the two Hostivar breweries in Horní Měcholupy as well (ten minute bus ride+walk between Panaczech and H2).

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Teasing me again ?
:slight_smile:

Thanks for the update

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Stumbling on a new place a couple of minutes after saying bye to you and finding out that there was a beer store a couple of minutes walk from the place where we met up was more than enough teasing. :smiley:

Man, hope you get to visit Prague again soon! :slight_smile:

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Weeelll now, some interesting news after a big pub crawl on saturday with Ryan (Mowbeer on RB), some of you’ve met him certainly.

So, the Nalévárna in Soukenická is not alone anymore, the brewery apparently took over an old pub called U tří hrušek, near the Nuselské schody tram station, so they have a bigger, lighter and less raunchy, but also less central (and so far perhaps less visited) new place. Hope it grows to be popular as well!

And Cvikov opened a new restaurant in the city center, near Lazarská, Sladovna - 5 regulars + 1 seasonal… not my favorite brewery, but certainly cool to add a little variety here and there and the beers are cheap. They made a lager dry hopped with Mandarina Bavaria as a seasonal… sadly, too much diacetyl for me.

It was really cool to be able to walk in the old center without masks AND without tourists all over the place. :slight_smile:

But the story of the month/year is, of course - New Broumy, or its demise as a style in Czechia.

So, at the end of April, Zichovec hinted that they will be making a NB, and they have, wanting to release it last week I reckon. Their “take” was a “DDH white IPA with orange peel and lactose”. 17°! They called it a Double New Broumy. The labels were ready already and the joking started when…

… it was discovered that in early May (4th of May), Matuška, perhaps as a reaction to Zichovec making it, actually protected the term “New Broumy”! So nobody can call their beer “New Broumy” anymore but them (and maybe they let Dva Kohouti do that? who knows), effectively killing the “style”. Probably an end to a story barely over 1 year of age.

The Zichovec version will be called New Louny apparently and should be out any of these days.

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So, according to Rozhlas, the Chinese-owned Lobkowicz group is closing its Uherský Brod brewery, formerly known as Pivovar Janáček. The 126-year old brewery allegedly fell victim to the tough situation on the COVID-19 influenced market, and the production will be moved to Černá Hora. However, from what I’m reading, the Lobkowicz group has struggled financially for a while - while they finished 2017 with a 28 million CZK plus - in 2018 they managed to accumulate a 455.1 million crown loss, and I highly doubt things are changing.

The numbers are brutal - how did they manage to go down so much within such a short period of time?

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Also, it’s interesting to see that a couple of small breweries that stopped working have gotten new tenants.

Vilém in Jince, near Příbram has closed down a couple of months ago, guess that the COVID situation finished them. Only had one of their beers at the Nepomuk fest, gutted since a restaurant near Smíchovské nádraží, where I pass every day, had one of their beers on tap regularly - just never realized that as they are a Prazdroj place otherwise. Oh well. However, the Malý Janek brewery took over the place, brewery and restaurant and pension and all.

Similar to that, but not entirely, Minipivovar Karpentná which ceased production last summer, located by the three-border area with Poland and Slovakia (near Třinec and Cieszyn) - and which wasn’t the best of places apparently, if you ask @ElDesmadre :smiley: - got taken over by some guys calling themselves Pivovar Dva Kusy - they’ve started brewing, should be out in a month or so. The restaurant/bar area is still operational though, separately and under the old name, serving stuff like PU and Radegast. Not sure if the two will merge at some point, but I doubt they won’t sell the beers brewed right there.

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Some extreme things going on in Prague…

The legendary Pivovarský Klub has closed its doors on August 26th… once the best place in town, struggling to keep up these last years perhaps, killed off by COVID-19.

U Fleků is changing policy as well. After just switching their unfilled 0.4l dark 13°’s from 69 to 59 CZK failed to attract non-tourists and tourists alike, probably because latter are hard to find, they will be, after… who knows how much time.claims they will brew a Světlý Ležák.

Yes, U Fleků is brewing a new beer! These modern times… Who knows, maybe one day they will stop trying to rip you off and force overpriced Becherovka aggressively on you…

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Czech (or not) beer question.

Recently I picked up a can of this beer:

This is what the label (it’s only in Czech) says:

“Vyrobeno v EU pod kontrolou Česká pinta pivovar s.r.o., Páleč č.p. 7, 27371 Česka republika
www.ceskapinta.cz”

The website seems like its some badly written marketing project (“Ceska Pinta is the most beauthifull full flavoured and strength beer.)” :grinning:, i.e. no real information about the brewer or the beer. And a search for legal entities reveals a company with only 10,000 koruna charter capital. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: And it appears to be owned by a Latvian citizen.

The barcode is Czech (8594200060015).

But clearly it’s not made in Czechia, because otherwise they wouldn’t use the “made in EU” line, right?

On UnTappd they think it is made by Cesu in Latvia (well, it has a foil top like a lot of Latvian macros and it’s an imperial pint can). But there’s zero information about this on the can.

Any ideas? And how should I add this to RateBeer… create a Commissioner?

In the middle of a tasting. PLEASE ping me tomorrow. :smiley: +

Speak Czech there! They are afraid about Czech speaking customers at Flek. After You say (concerning “free” Becherovaka) " Mý to nechceme!!!" no one will offer You this swill the whole day long…:blush:

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My trauma from 10 years ago is enough not to make me visit there until they get a new tick for me. And I’m a huge Hajduk Split fan so I’m supposed to love the place by default and make pilgrimages to it (the club was founded there). :smiley:

But yeah, definitely Czech next time. Maybe need to rerate the tmavé too.

Yeah, a new commissioner seems to be the way to go. Do you have the can still perhaps? A picture of the stamps on the bottom of the can might be a clue to help ID it. Especially if we can get a Cesu can to compare.