Czech Beer Day 19.6.2019

I was lucky to be among the beer writers and drinks trade people invited to the Czech Beer Day at the Embassy of the Czech Republic on Wednesday 19 June, 2019.

A welcome greeting from CzechTrade's Eva Provot was appreciated. The useful programme started with a printed welcome 'Na zdravi!' from: Libor Sečka, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic. A feature by CzechTrade's Martin Macourek explained the differences between Real Bohemian Lager and normal beer that include 'double mashing and double fermentation' and that maturation takes place much longer than normal lager.

Details of available beers available were listed including those from the eight breweries in the newly formed Czech Beer Alliance.

The CBA website includes further details about the breweries and Bohemian brewing history.

Later I would meet Martyn Railton, MD of Euroboozer, an import and distribution company that works alongside the Czech Beer Alliance and is also featured in the programme.

The Czech Beer Day is held on the private lawn behind the embassy which is also overlooked, from the east side, by the embassy of the Slovak Republic (on the right of the photo above).

Although Jeff Evans was unable to attend today he advised me in advance that the beer from Budvar would be reliably good. 

At the Budvar bar I was served by Josh who regularly visits Budweiser Budvar in the southern city of České Budějovice from his Budvar UK Bristol base. Josh says there are regular direct trains from Prague costing £5. He recommends visiting the state-owned brewery in colder months when the temperature difference between the outside air and the Budvar storage cellars is less than in the summer.

Josh also mentioned that the Original (5% ABV) lager, which I was drinking, is matured for 90 days in the cellars. I noticed that you need a strong arm to lift a full 50cl heavy glass of Budvar! Budvar dark lager and Budvar Kräusened unfiltered lager (pronounced Kroy-Zened) were also available.
Any visit to the brewery could be combined with a visit to picturesque Český Krumlov, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 15 miles further south.

(Official Photo by Mrs Šárka Kotzinová _MG_0231)

Music from a singer with keyboard accompaniment carried across the lawn. It was a surprise to hear him singing 'From Russia with Love' at one point! 

 Dodging the unwelcome rain, I reached the long white open tent on the west side of the lawn.

The attractive label design drew me to the stand for beers from the Jarošovský brewery which reopened in 2015. The design by Little Greta creative consultancy won a Gold in the World Beer Awards 2017. Tereza explained that the brewery takes its name from the town of Jarošov in the south east of the country.

Cvikov Klíč 12° (4.9% ABV), a favourite beer from the previous month's Real Bohemian Lager workshop at the Czech Embassy, was the next beer to enjoy, as the rain continued. The town of Cvikov, in the north of the country is close to the German border. The craft brewery uses only water from its own 80m deep well, Czech hops and Czech malt. 

(Official Photo by Mrs Šárka Kotzinová _MG_100)

I asked about travelling from Prague to the brewery and was advised to hire a car. However, subsequent research shows that it is possible to travel by train to nearby Svor in about three hours by train, changing at Mladá Boleslav.

Pivovar Kutná Hora also takes its name from its place of origin. Kutná Hora was once the favourite residence of several Bohemian kings. Situated about 40 miles east of Prague, the historic town can be reached by train in about an hour with some journeys requiring a change at Kolín.

Having tasted only pale lagers so far, it was time to try a semidark lager from Bohemia Regent (Pivovar Třeboň). Petr Vok (5.3% ABV) is brewed with Pilsener, Munich and Caramel malts coupled with Herkules, Aurora, Saaz and Kazbek hops. 
The traditional brewery is located in Třeboň, a spa town, about 90 miles south of Prague. Trains from Prague require a change at Veselí nad Lužnicí. Trains from České Budějovice, which is less than 20 miles away by road, take an indirect route which also requires a change at Veselí nad Lužnicí.

The rain eased and people gathered to watch a cooking demonstration at the Retigo combi oven stand. Joining this gathering would soon be rewarded with a plate of freshly cooked food without having to get too wet while waiting! 

I met up for a chat with a group that included John Cryne, standing under the shelter of the white marquee.

From the north of the country, near the Polish border, the long established Pivovar Frýdlant is situated beside the river Smědá near Frýdlant castle. The unfiltered / unpasteurized draught beers available were 11° Albrecht pale lager (35 IBU), 12° Kateřina dark lager (50 IBU) and 15° Albrecht India Pale Ale (87 IBU). These beers are also supplied in 700ml flip top bottles.
Frýdlant v Čechách railway station is served by trains from Liberec. However a journey to/from Prague would involve at least one more change of train.

My last beer at the Czech Beer Day was from Pivovar Matuška. The brewery was established in Broumy by experienced brewer Martin Matuška in 2009. The team includes his son Adam Matuška who graduated in 2009 and art director Jakub Matuška aka Masker responsible for the brewery logo featuring hops and barley.

I enjoyed Matuška Apollo Galaxy from a gold rimmed glass. The 5.5% ABV pale ale (61 IBU) is brewed with Pilsner, Bavarian and Carapils malts together with Apollo, Galaxy and Citra hops.
Lying just inside the Central Bohemia district, Broumy is in the Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area of deciduous forest and the Berounka river valley. The nearest station to the brewery is Zdice about 8 miles away. Zdice is served by trains from Prague, Pilsen / Plzeň and Ceske Budejovice. 

Martin Macourek & Libor Sečka - (Photo by Mrs Šárka Kotzinová _MG_0017)

After 6pm there was an official greeting from Libor Sečka, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic. This was followed by Martin Macourek announcing several prize winners from the guest list who came forward to collect their beer-related prizes. Perhaps I will be a lucky winner next year?!
 
Hopefully there will be an opportunity to try Czech beers again locally, in Newbury, either from a pub with a wide range of bottles like the Catherine Wheel or a shop like Inn at Home.

Thanks to everyone involved in organising this much appreciated event. Let's hope the weather will be more summer like in June 2020.

Real Bohemian Lager

If you can't sample real Bohemian lager in the Czech Republic itself then surely the next best place must be the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London?

I was lucky to be invited by CzechTrade to attend a Real Bohemian Lager workshop at the embassy on 16 May 2019. The event was organised in conjunction with Euroboozer, a leading UK importer of fine speciality craft brewed beers.

My preparation for the event involved a look at Evan Rail's Good Beer Guide Prague & the Czech Republic (2007) which I had last used on my first and only trip to Prague in 2008.
The Czech Republic has the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world according to Wikipedia 143.3 litres (2016). In contrast, 25th placed UK beer consumption is 67.7 litres (2016).

Situated east of Notting Hill Gate and west of the embassy of the Russian Federation, the 1970 building of the Czech embassy was designed as a tribute to the avant-garde Brutalist style. A lot of concrete and glass was used in its construction! After a major remodelling, the Czech embassy reopened in November 2017.

On arrival it was nice to be welcomed by Eva Provot of CzechTrade and Mitch Adams of Euroboozer and find myself in the company of Britain's best beer writers and judges. A useful welcome pack included a map showing industrial and craft breweries (above) and a Beer Guide to Prague which can also be found online.

OnTheWorld map shows Bohemia in west of Czech Republic

Ushered into the cinema we were welcomed by Martin Macourek of CzechTrade. He introduced Czech master brewer Jan / Honza Kočka linked with Kocour brewery and now involved with the Nomád project, a 'flying brewery' that brews on the equipment of others. 

We were informed that there would soon be a new website for the Czech Beer Alliance of eight breweries including Cvikov. Two representatives from Cvikov brewery had flown to London to join us for the workshop. 

page from Pivovar Cvikov website showing tanks and brewing vessels

A video was screened showing scenes from Cvikov brewery that included the 22 horizontal lager / maturation tanks and a healthy young man carrying a sack of malted barley over his shoulders up a flight of stairs. It was surprising that a lift or hoist did not exist for this task?!

Martyn Railton, the 'Austrian Londoner' of Euroboozer, mentioned his lifelong interest in collecting beer glasses. Martyn also provided a useful modern history of Czech brewing. A key date was the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 after which Heineken moved in and breweries were consolidated. More recently business people have been buying up old disused brewery buildings and remaining equipment to set up new independent breweries. Many of the independent breweries have adopted the double or triple decoction mashing style which involves extra time and effort.

Katarina Hobbs, from Czech Tourism, admitted that Czech beer was her favourite drink. She mentioned that cycle and hiking trails to breweries have been developed and that there are beer festivals like the Brno festival (31/7/-3/8/2019) and the Sun in the Glass festival at Purkmistr brewery, Plzeň (Pilsen) which feature smaller breweries.

Czech master brewer Jan / Honza Kočka of Nomád brewing project was the final speaker. Jan said it was a visit to CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival in 2000 that opened his eyes to the wide realm of beer. After visiting the Great American Beer Festival later that year he was 'totally into beer'.
He mentioned that prior to 2000 it was difficult for microbreweries in the Czech Republic to succeed but afterwards the concept began to catch on.
Real Bohemian Lager is brewed with Czech malt and the Saaz hop producing a quaffable and thirst quenching pilsner in the 4%-5.2% ABV range. However, if dry hopping is involved it should not be called pilsner but rather lager or IPL.
Although many traditional and some new independent breweries use double or triple decoction, his Nomád brewing uses the simpler single decoction which is good enough for pilsner.
Jan recommended visiting the Czech Republic as it is a small country, with relatively short distances to travel around and visit breweries and historic towns.

He particularly recommended visiting the beer festivals that feature small breweries. The festival at Prague castle gardens 14-15 June 2019 includes over 60 breweries. The Sun in the Glass festival at the Purkmistr brewery on the outskirts of Pilsen 20-21 September 2019 includes 70 breweries.

The afternoon continued with a beer tasting led by Jan / Honza Kočka. Our tables were set with glasses and a sheet listing the beers to be tasted.

Without any previous experience of a serious beer tasting exercise I was lucky to be sitting at the back, near Jeff Evans, Chairman of the International Beer Challenge, who I could follow without any major breach of etiquette. Key points are not to fill your glass to the brim and not to drink all the beer in the glass.
Relevant details for each beer on the sheet were projected on a screen e.g. Cvikov 12° / Draught / Style: Premium pale lager / Malts: Pilsener / Hops: Saaz hops, Premiant / ABV 4.9% / IBU 32.

We started with shared bottles of Holba 11°, Bohemia Regent 12° (with CzechTrade Export Special label) and Kutna Hora 12° poured into straight glasses.
The draught beers served in stemmed glasses were Muflon 11°, Cvikov 12°, Albrecht 11°, Kanec 12°, Kanec 12° Vienna.

Large bottles with flip tops from Frýdlant brewery were for different styles. We enjoyed Albrecht Philipp 13° (American Pale Ale with Victoria Secret and Enigma hops) and Albrecht Katerina 12° (Czech Dark Premium Lager with Czech Light, Munich, Caramel, Chocolate and Black malts).
Finally we reverted to a draught Real Bohemian Lager - Cvikov 10° to finish the tasting on a lighter note.
A useful tip from Jan / Honza for roughly converting degrees Plato (or Balling) to ABV is to subtract 2 and then divide by 2 so that 12° becomes 5% ABV.

Jan / Honza could now relax with a lager! 
The lagers I was keen to taste again were Albrecht 11° and Cvikov 12°.

My thanks go to all involved with the workshop. I look forward to the next event and to visiting beer festivals, breweries and bars in the Czech Republic!