Prague Xperience

Beer in the Czech Republic has a long and important history. The first brewery is known to have existed in 1118. The city of Brno had the right to brew beer from the 12th century, and the two cities most associated with Czech beer, Plzeň and České Budějovice (Pilsen and Budweis in German), had breweries in the 13th century.

Hops have been grown in the region for a long time, and were used in beer making and exported from here since the twelfth century. The Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capita in the world.

History

In 1842, a brewery in Plzeň employed Josef Groll, a German brewer who was experienced in the new cold fermentation lager method. Their beer at the time was not of very good quality and they needed to compete. Groll developed a golden Pilsner beer, the first light coloured beer ever brewed. It became an immediate success, and was exported all over the Austrian Empire. A special train of beer travelled from Plzeň to Vienna every morning. Exports of Czech beer reached Paris and the United States by 1874.

Originally Pilsner was a specific term for beers brewed in Plzeň (with Pilsner Urquell being registered as a trademark by the first brewery), and Budweiser for those brewed in České Budějovice. Both terms have lost their original meanings by different means, Pilsner because all the imitations of the original style used the name, Budweiser because of the American Budweiser brewery, set up by a German immigrant. The problem is that the name Budweiser Bier does not historically belong to either of them, since it was used for the first time in 1802 by the “Burgess Brewery”, which exported its beer under that name to the USA in 1875 while Anheuser-Busch started operation in 1876 and their first trademark registration is from 16 July 1878. In 1911 an agreement was settled that Anheuser-Busch may use the Budweiser name in North America and in 1939 it was banned from using Budweiser by Czech breweries there.

Nearly all beer brewed in the Czech Republic is bottom-fermenting. This varies in colour from pale (Světlé), through amber (Polotmavé) and dark (Tmavé) to black (Černé) and in strength from 3-9% abv. Top-fermented wheat beer (Pšeničné pivo) is also available.

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