E-Malt.com News article: Czech Republic: Microbreweries becoming increasingly popular

As the Czech Republic’s beer sales and production swell, it is not just the giant industrial breweries that are thriving. Microbreweries are becoming increasingly popular and many are using unique tactics to maximize their gains, CBW reported January 7.

Sit down with a beverage menu at Pivovarský dům, a Prague 2-based pub-restaurant with its own on-site microbrewery, and the beer section immediately grabs your attention. In a city where Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, Staropramen and Budvar seem to have hijacked the taps, pub goers here can choose from a variety of flavored beers such as banana, vanilla and nettle.

The different flavors succeed to varying degrees. Flavors like sour cherry and coffee add pleasant hints to the distinctive malty taste, while the sweetness of the banana flavor becomes a little cloying, but for many customers the appeal is doubtlessly just in the novelty of trying out these new tastes.

However, the break from the norm doesn’t stop at the flavors on offer. Some customers have a “giraffe” on their table. This is a long cylindrical container from which four liters of beer can be dispensed, with the bonus that you can drink eight beers for the price of seven. Also on the menu are alcohol-free beer, beer brandy and beer champagne. There is also the possibility of a brewery tour if business permits, and a collection of souvenirs and collectables such as a beer travel book and postcards are on display. The beers are also available to take away in 5-liter kegs or in bottles.

Aleš Dočkal, partner and manager of Pivovarský dům and its Florenc branch Pivovarský Klub, said that sales are up and beer production has now reached the point where a further increase is impossible due to the microbrewery running at its maximum capacity.

Dočkal added that Pivovarský dům was only the second microbrewery in downtown Prague when it opened in 1996 but that since then several more have opened and more are under construction. “This indicates the popularity of microbreweries,” he said.

The Czech beer industry as a whole is flourishing. Beer is currently being produced by 48 industrial breweries as well as 60 smaller ones owned by restaurants or microbreweries. On Nov. 21, the Czech Beer and Malt Association (ČSPS) announced that breweries in the Czech Republic had raised beer production by 1.6 percent year-on-year to 15.4 million hectoliters in the January to September period.

Exports grew by 4 percent to 2.796 million hectoliters and domestic sales also increased. Jan Veselý, the executive director of ČSPS, said he believed that in the full year the Czech beer industry would see a record 20 million hectoliters.

But while standard beer might be flowing in copious amounts, Dočkal said that unlike the large breweries, Pivovarský dům’s unfiltered and nonpasteurized beer and its uunusual flavors are what brings people to the microbrewery and keeps them coming back. “[Flavored beer] was unheard of a few years ago and is still rare today. I mean you might find cherry beer now, but we sometimes make really unusual flavors. We have one type that changes throughout the season. Now it is vanilla beer. We are still trying something new, and this is something that is very unusual within the beer market,” he said.

Brew your own batch

The different angle at Pivovarský klub is that customers can make their own batch of beer under the supervision of an expert brewmaster. The microbrewery there is used for trial beers rather than for a steady production and in April it made the news by bringing out its first ever potato beer. It sounds fairly unappealing but its makers claimed that a casual drinker might be unable to tell any difference between it and any other Czech lager.

Dočkal added that while Pivovarský dům has become more popular with tourists due to being mentioned in various city guides in many languages, they avoid making reservations for large groups of tourists at the pub-restaurant.

“We have been trying to keep it a Czech restaurant. We never show preference to tourists and the majority of patrons are local. You must get a feeling this is a living place, that it is a Czech restaurant where common people come otherwise it doesn’t make sense. And tourists who come and want to see a typical Czech pub and restaurant and see groups of 40 Japanese and 25 American tourists there will feel they are in a tourist trap,” he said.

Prague’s famous microbrewery at the U Fleků beerhouse-restaurant on the other hand seems happy to be a popular tourist group destination. Busloads of tourists arrive for a menu that includes old Czech dishes as well as U Fleků’s own 13° lager. Each of the venue’s rooms has its own individual design. An ancient Czech hall, an academy hall, the hop-garden and a cabaret hall are among the possibilities. The beerhouse-restaurant also offers tours around its brewery, which is more than 500 years old. A museum showing the old history of beer production in Prague is enclosed in the former malt house building.

Another Prague brewpub goes for punch over playful flavors. U Medvíků’s range of beers includes variations on the strongest beers in the country. Some of the beers, which are brewed to a gravity of 30° or more, are more potent than many wines. The brewery’s own X-Beer has an alcohol content of 12.6 percent, while wines often clock in at 11 percent.

Many other lesser-known breweries around the country have something special to offer

Klášterní pivovar Želiv in South Bohemia is located on the ground floor of an ancient Premonstratensian monastery. It brews a beer called Castulus, which combines a bitter beer taste with the sweetness of mead and claims it is the only beer that goes with a dessert.

Chodovar brewery in Chodová Plana, East Bohemia, offers a real beer spa where the surface of the bath is covered with characteristic beer foam and the air is scented by the smell of freshly brewed dark beer (see “Czech Spas Target Foreign Markets,” CBW, July 23, 2007). Chodovar also runs a pub and restaurant underground in a former granite mine.

Zámecký pivovar Dětenice in East Bohema is a restaurant with a medieval theme—think grilled meats, dense bread, serving wenches and no cutlery. The venue has its own brewery.

Bohemia Regent brewery in Třeboň, South Bohemia, is a historic beauty. Situated near a chateau, the ornate building has castle motifs and a smoky pub on site.

Hostinský pivovar Moritz in Olomouc, North Moravia, is taking a simpler approach. On its opening, it was the first brewpub to in the whole country to announce it has a completely nonsmoking environment.


11 January, 2008