Our US guests say the tank Pilsner Urquell tastes completely different than the thing they get there.
When you have a beer from the keg, it is important that you drink it as fresh as possible. We buy Pilsner Urquell for our NYC pub from the local distributor and always make sure it is not older than two months. We want the kegs to be all empty within three months of production.
What is interesting that the wholesale price of Pilsner Urquell is nearly the same here as it is in the US. The difference is in the markup. Cheap beer is a Czech tradition: for nearly 50 years, the Communists centrally planned beer production and they just made two types of beer in huge numbers with a set price. Just domestic barley and hops, no imports for specialty beers. The production was motivated politically.
In the 17th century, we had 3000 breweries in the Czech Republic. Tiny ones. Every town had at least one. Before WWI, the number dropped to about 600, and at the end of WWII, we only had 200: the wars really took their toll. And at the end of 1989, we only had 48 huge breweries. Now we are seeing a revival of smaller breweries: we have 46 big breweries and about 240 smaller ones. The funny thing is that we have nearly 300 breweries but only 90 master brewers. :-)
Besides Pilsner Urquell, what beers do you like?
I love small, craft breweries. I travel around the world and try them. On principle, I like any beer that is well poured. And that’s a problem. We have good beers but the bartenders don’t know how to pour them. Antos is great, and I have liked Matuska for a long time. Well, there are many. I chose Antos for Nase maso because it goes well with the meat. Now they’ll have the 10 degree beer for the summer. It’s great.
Do you miss any beer on the market?
Many. I still miss high-quality beers. We still have reserves. We can do better. For instance, the cyclist’s 8 at Hostivar brewery is fantastic.
