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Czech Republic: Britain's Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the world's largest beer consumer group, claims the increasing dominance of international brewers and their skimping on ingredients and techniques is ruining Czech beer's unique and traditional taste.

"The quality of Czech beer produced by some of these breweries has deteriorated. They are perhaps skimping on the quality with cheaper malt and hops and reduced lagering times. There is also less choice of brands for consumers," CAMRA's research and information manager Iain Loe told AFP. Another of CAMRA's concerns, said Loe, was that some Czech beer brands were increasingly being brewed abroad under licence. "Consumers are being fooled into believing these are genuine Czech beers when they are a shadow of their former selves," he said.

Loe particularly singled out Plzensky Prazdroj, owned by the SABMiller group, which controls 47 percent of the Czech beer market. Prazdroj, brewer of the world-famous Pilsner Urquell, brews its beer under licence in neighbouring Poland and Slovakia and, more recently, Russia. "Pilsner Urquell now is nothing like the full-bodied beer it was three or four years ago. The brewing time has been cut while the company is increasingly brewing under licence," said Loe.

But brewers strongly refute the claims with Jan Vesely, chairman of the Czech Brewing and Malthouse Association, describing them as "unfair, incompetent and insulting". "What can the Brits tell us Czechs about the quality of beer? It's as if we Czechs went to France and told them how to make champagne," hit back Vesely.

Plzensky Prazdroj insists its brewing methods and ingredients have not changed, with the exception of a new type of tanks which, it says, has not affected its beer's quality. Prazdroj is particularly angry that it has been singled out for attack. "This criticism is unfair towards our very experienced brewmasters. There is no change in the quality of our beer -- if anything it is constantly improving," Prazdroj spokesman Alexej Bechtin told AFP.

Bechtin insisted laboratory tests showed the beer was the same today as it was a century ago and defended the quality of its beer brewed under licence. "The whole brewing process takes more than 40 days, which our experts are convinced is the optimal period. That has not changed since we installed cylindrical-conical tanks in 1992," he said. Vesely said he feared the comments could affect Czech beer sales, particularly abroad.

This year Czech beer exports are set to reach a record 2.4 million hectolitres, 13 percent up on 2003's 2.13 million hectolitures, said Vesely. Czechs annually drink 160 litres (42 gallon) of beer per head, more than any other nation and brewers say this year's sales are on target to match that level. But Czech brewers are increasingly looking abroad as the domestic market has reached saturation point. Neighbouring Germany is the largest export market followed by Slovakia, Britain and the United States. Exports to Britain rose by more than one third in the first half of 2004.

"We wouldn't be heading for record exports or maintaining the domestic market level if our beer was deteriorating," said Vesely. Vesely insisted quality has improved since the fall of communism in 1989 after breweries were privatised. "After 1989 brewers increasingly invested into equipment. Czech beer is undoubtedly better than it was before," said Vesely. But Jaroslava Lstiburka, deputy chairman of Czech brewing group Drinks Union, agreed that some brewers were under pressure to reduce their costs to improve their bottom line. "The quality of some labels is falling and they are becoming 'Eurobeers' thanks to the interests of shareholders," he said.

"But many Czech brewers continue to brew their beer in the traditional way and you can't say the quality of Czech beer in general is getting worse. It's up to consumers to choose and they would drink something they didn't like the taste of," he added.


01 December, 2004