The Great ‘Bud’ Debate
The Urquell Brewery is located in the town of Plzen and you can tour the deep cellar where they store the beer.
The Czech Republic produces the best beer in the world and that largely accounts for Czech's consuming 188.5 liters of beer per capita, the world's top consumers!
When we arrived in Plzen (Pilsen) it was raining heavily so we sought shelter in the underground beer cellars.
THE URQUELL BREWERY
The Urquell Brewery is located in the town of Plzen or Pilsen where you can tour the Pilsner Urquell brewery, descending deep into the dark, damp cellars where they’ve made beer since 1842.
Cheers from Plzen…
The subterranean temperature nurtures the beer to perfection and you can help yourself to unfiltered, unpasteurised pilsner straight from a massive oak barrel, a beer lover’s wet dream! I tried my best to ‘accidentally’ get lost among the barrels but our tour guide had seen it all before and shepherded us along the dank corridors like a knowing collie dog!
FROTH FANATICS
“Back above ground, we continued our education! Did you know you can pour pilsner in several different ways? ”
Czech’s like a good head on their beer!
‘Na dvakrat’ leaves less body with a good measure of foam.
Czech connoisseurs are so attuned to their national drink that they request a certain pouring style. The classic is called ‘Hladinka’, a smooth, creamy rendition leaving about an inch of head while ‘Na dvakrat’, the most popular, leaves less body with a good measure of foam. Some Czechs ask for the ‘Mliko’ which to all intents is pure foam said to release the most aromatic sweetness from the beer. Being a Scot, I’d feel cheated if I didn’t see a good measure of golden nectar in my glass.
THE GREAT ‘BUD’ DEBATE
The other two famous Czech beers that we shouldn’t forget to mention are Staropramen which I did frequently see on tap in Scottish pubs and Budweiser Budvar.
The most widely exported is Budweiser Budvar and it’s important, nay critical to distinguish between Czech Budvar and the American “Bud“ since they have very little in common - apart from the fact that they’re liquid and sold in cans or bottles! Oh, and of course the name!
IT’S ALL IN THE NAME
‘Budweiser’ was the original name of beer brewed in the Czech city of Ceske Budejovice. Germans, just across the border referred to the town as ‘Budweis’ and someone from Budweis was called a Budweiser - like Hamburg and Hamburgers… (yes, the first hamburgers did come from Hamburg).
Similarly, a couple of Americans from St. Louis, Adolphus Busch and his friend Carl Conrad, made a trip to the region in 1876 and decided to develop a "Bohemian-style" lager and the name Budweiser was applied, clearly without much thought. Anheuser–Busch has been involved in a trademark dispute ever since! I believe they should capitulate, get taken over by the Czech company and deliver Americans some decent beer!
Closely followed by the next-door neighbours! Germans are fanatical (in a disciplined, efficient, well-ordered sort of way) about beer’s purity. The ‘Reinheitsgebot’ is Germany’s gold standard seal of brewing which states there should be only three ingredients. Actually, there are four but yeast hadn’t been identified as part of the brewing process back in 1516 when Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria insisted that “nothing other than barley, hops, and water” should be used.
