Franconian Beer Message Board

OT: Visit to Czechia Conclusion!
Posted by pivnizub on 2017-10-11 06:24:26
There are four slightly different versions of Urquell available in Bohemia, all are brewed to the same recipe, but differently "treated": 1. The "usual stuff", You can get everywhere in the world, filtered and pasteurized, in bottles, cans and kegs. 2. The "tankovna" stuff, filtered but not pasteurized and NOT tapped with CO2, but - the beer is in a big "sack" or bag - with compressed air, that does not touch the brew. 3. The unfiltered and unpasteurized version, which is - like all other versions - fermented in cylindroconical tanks and served only in the pub "Na Parkanu" in Plzeň. 4. The version, that is served during brewery-tours deep down in the cellars: unfiltered, not pasteurized and FERMENTED in open wooden vessels. The versions 3 & 4 are the best IMHO.
But there other great Lagers of the Urquell-type available in the Czech Republic, the ones from Unětice and Kout' are absolutely worth a try, in Prague You should pay a visit to the Vinohradský pivovar in the quarter of the same name, their light Lagers are hardly worse than Prazdroj.
B.t.w.: You surely saw at the "Pivni tramvaj" the Weizen from Náchod ("Primator"); Weizen was hardly known in Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution, because no beers from the capitalist countries were imported. First the czech beer-drinkers looked very sceptical at these new styles, because they were hazy or cloudy and that meant in the communist times that the (czech) beer was already spoiled and sour!