Prague 2017

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BHS Prague Trip July 2017 (2).jpg
BHS Prague Trip July 2017 (3).jpg
BHS Prague Trip July 2017 (4).jpg
BHS Prague Trip July 2017 (1).jpg

Introduction and Summary by Peter Dyer

Tuesday 18th July 2017 The group of six – Ed Wray, Ken Smith, Tim Holt, Martyn Cornell, Peter Dyer, Mick Connors – met our local contact Max Bahnson in Hostomická nalévárna, a pub Soukenická street. Max is an Argentinian living in the Czech Republic, aka the Beer Philosopher, who has written the Pisshead’s Guide to Prague. He seems to know every pub and brewery in the country. As the name implies, the pub sells beer from the Hostomice microbrewery.

Then to Loď pivovar, which, again as the name implies, is a brewery on a boat on the river Vltava.

Wednesday 19th July 2017 An excursion by train and bus to the small Bohemian town of Kostelec nad Černými lesy. The local brewery closed in 1987 and was later bought by Milan Starec and others, who have been working on restoring it for years now, under the name Černokostelecký zájezdní pivovar. It is obviously a labour of love. When the old brewery will start brewing again is unknown, but in the meantime a microbrewery has been installed in part of it; it produces a draught dark beer Černá svině and a bottled Baltic Porter, under the name Minipivovar Šnajdr. Milan is also the author of articles on Czech brewing history.

We were shown round by Milan. The old brewery, remarkably, is wood fired. The coolships are impressive. There is a historic malt mill building; the mill was powered by a horse walking round and round (the technical name in Czech is ‘žentour’). The restaurant in the brewery serves their own beers and a 10° beer Kněžna from Rychnov nad Kněžnou. The T-shirts are pink (M Cornell bought one).

Back in Prague, we had dinner at a new brewpub, Nota Bene Beerpoint, on Mikovcova.

Thursday 20th July 2017 Train trip to Plzeň (Pilsen). Visit to Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell), the original Pilsner brewery. The first ‘Pilsner’ beer was brewed in 1842. The brewery was recently sold by SABMiller to Asahi. Inside the famous gate is not only a very large-scale brewery but also one of the biggest tourist destinations in the country. There are guided tours in Czech, English, German and Russian. The visitor centre includes a film theatre and a portrait gallery of the head brewers from the famous (notorious?) Josef Groll onwards. Visitors are taken by bus from one part of the site to another. We were shown round by Markéta, who studied at Oxford and is well acquainted with many Oxford pubs.

We saw the old and new brewhouse (the new one still has pairs of copper vessels for triple decoction mashing), the new bottling plant (from Krones), and the old cellars which extend for many kilometres underground. We didn't see the archives. Only a small part of the cellars is still in use, where batches of beer are fermented and lagered in wooden barrels. It is said that the millions of hectolitres of beer produced in the CK tanks are checked for flavour against these batches. It is also said that the recipe for Prazdroj is unchanged since 1842.

We didn’t have time for the Pilsen Brewing Museum, but visited the Beer Factory microbrewery, whose beers include a black beer and an IPA. Another microbrewery Pivovar Groll was closed. Some of the party complained about a few drops of rain (actually, it was a torrential downpour.).

Friday 21st July 2017 The party met at VÚPS, the Czech Beer and Malt Research institute, which is at Lípová 15 in the upper part of the New Town of Prague. We were received by Martin Šlabý, head of the Technological Department, who showed us the two experimental brewing plants, and also the statue of the famous pioneer of Czech brewing, F.O. Poupě. Downstairs is the Pivovarský Dům brewpub, with a 2-vessel brewhouse from Pacovské strojirny, so the building is probably the only one in the world to contain three breweries.

Then to Únětice, a village a few kilometres north-west of Prague, reached by metro to Dejvická and then the 355 bus (it took a long time to buy the metro tickets; getting six BHS members to agree on anything is like herding cats). A new brewery has been reinstalled in the buildings of the old brewery. It is too large really to be classified as a microbrewery; annual production is about 12 000 hl. The beers are classic Czech 10° and 12° pale beers. We were shown round the brewery, which surprisingly – probably uniquely – has its own indoor pétanque pitch inside (the local club is United Balls of Únětice).

Max took us to a pub in the Bubenec district of Prague, Krkonošská hospůdka, Muchova 7, to taste Bob & Dave’s beer (Bob is Robert Franěk, brewer at a very recently opened microbrewery in Kamenice nad Lipou, Dave is the landlord of the pub), as well as an IPA from Kamenice. We finished in Ferdinand (Opletalova), one of two Prague pubs belonging to the Ferdinand brewery in Benešov. Their beers include Sedm kulí (Seven Bullets), named in honour of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated in Sarajevo, who owned the brewery.

Some also visited other Prague brewpubs Národní, Marina, Šedivák, Victor Žizkov and U dvou koček, and pubs such as Na Rokytky (opposite the old English brewery), U Šumavy, the First Beer Tram and the Shot-Out Eye.)


A photography essay of the trip

Tuesday 18th July 2017

Hostomická Nalevárna v Praze, Soukenická 17

Wednesday 19th July 2017

Černokostelecký Pivovar

Thursday 20th July 2017

Pilsner Urquell, Plzeňský prazdroj, U Prazdroje 7, 304 97 Plzeň

Pilsner Urquell.jpg


Friday 21st July 2017

Research Institute of Brewing and Malting (Výzkumný ústav pivovarský a sladařský) Lípová 15, 120 44 Praha 2


Únětický pivovar