An Out of Prague Pilgrimage

I was in Prague last week for a few days.

When I mentioned to a friend that I was going to be in Amsterdam for a conference in the middle of November, he pointed out that I may as well make use of the whole being in Europe anyway thing and hop over to Prague. Naturally I agreed entirely, and so did my best friends, one that lives in Slovakia and the other in Boston.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time in the last few months trying to decide what breweries and pubs I definitely wanted to get to, and often it came down to a choice of 2 for an out of town excursion, Únětice or Hostomice. I even considered the possibly of doing both in a single day, then looked at the logistics of public transport and train connections...um, yeah, no. It is a mere 60km, or 37 miles, from one to the other, but it would take 4 hours by public transport and train, so no. The deciding factor was the fact that Hostomice has a brewery tap in Prague itself, so we got the metro to Dejvická and bus 355 to Únětice, Na Parcelách, wandered down the hill a wee bit and stumbled into the cavernous, and practically empty on a Wednesday night brewery beer hall.

We didn't care that it was empty, only that it was open. Also need to give a shout out to the ticket inspector that we met on the way. For those who remember Prague ticket inspectors of the Noughties, you will understand the cognitive dissonance of a younger guy who was polite, helpful, and when my Czech ran out, spoke good English. My best mate that came up from Slovakia speaks very good Slovak, but as the Czech Republic and Slovakia drift further apart in terms of shared tv channels and the like, it seems fewer and fewer young Czechs readily understand Slovak. Anyway, having checked our main tickets on the metro, he then got on the bus out to Únětice, for which we had got the required additional ticket. I seem to recall him nodding appreciatively when we told him we were going to the brewery.

Any way, back to the brewery beer hall - sorry but terms like "taproom" or "pub" just don't do justice to central European beer halls, even though they serve the same purpose. I fully expected to sit down and order a half litre of 10° pale lager, yet my heart leapt when I saw the magic word "tuplák", which in Germany would be called a maß. My first beer in Únětice would be a litre of their desítka, and I knew right then that many of my favourite US made Czech style lagers would struggle for my attention when I got home.

If I remember rightly from a conversation with Evan Rail, recently the venerable 10° has been overtaken as the most commonly drunk Czech pale lager, usurped by it's stronger brother the 12°. My mate that lives in Slovakia and I though are devotees of the old school and love desítka, Únětice's is as classic a classic as you could ask for, and I may have wondered out loud more than once why it is that US made 10° lagers for all their trumpeting of authenticity and faithfulness to Bohemian beer just consistently fall a little short of the real thing, and that includes those that take the time to do decoction mashing, etc, etc. Maybe it's a sitz im leben thing, I really can't tell, and maybe it is ostalgic (not a typo) revelry on my part, maybe it's the firm 30+ IBUs that are crammed into the best Czech desítky? 

I am sure I followed the tuplák with another, this time with the filtered 10.7°, and then eventually the 12°, I wasn't taking notes, and clearly as the only 2 pictures I took are on this post, I was doing a shoddy job of thinking about blog content. That just wasn't the point of the visit, we were there to enjoy absolutely world class beer in supreme company. I do regret though not taking a picture of the game pâté that was a revelation, various forms of meat products and Czech bread were to be a feature of the trip.

Anyway, if you're ever in Prague, take the time to make the trip out to Únětice for some of the best beer on the planet and if meaty snacks with rye bread are your thing, that too.

Fuggled Beers of the Year: Pale

As Yule swiftly makes its approach, the time has come to reflect on the year's drinking and give some shout outs to the beers that I have enjoyed the most in 2021. As in previous years I will have three posts:

• Pale - basically anything that is yellow or gold
• Darker that Pale Lighter than Dark Brown - running the gamut of oranges, reds, and browns that you can easily see through
• Dark - dark brown or black

As ever I will offer up the three best examples from Virginia, the US, and the World, as well as any honorable mentions, and then pick a winner in the category. In the final post, I will add an overall Fuggled Beer of the Year. Let's dive on in with pales then...

Virginia

• Optimal Wit - Port City Brewing
• Our Daily Pils - Basic City Brewing
• Ein Kölsch - Devils Backbone Brewing

Honorable mentions: Downright Pilsner - Port City Brewing; German Pilsner - Port City Brewing.

Unlike last year, the best Virginian pale beers of 2021 are not all from a single brewery, or even from a single family of beers (Port City pale lagers dominated last year). That's not to say that standards have slipped at Port City, but just that this year I have enjoyed other beer styles, and in the case of Optimal Wit come back to a beer I would have from time to time, to discover that it hit my zeitgeist perfectly for a while. As such, the Fuggled Pale Virginian Beer of 2021 is Port City's award winning Optimal Wit, a more perfect witbier in the US is difficult to imagine, and yes that includes Allagash White.

Rest of the USA

• 10° Plato Pivo - Elder Pine, MD
• Session Pils - Notch Brewing, MA
• Captain Jack Pilsner - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, NC

Honorable mentions: Pilsner - Von Trapp Brewing, VT; Helles - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, NC; Leichtbier - Bierkeller Columbia, SC; Carolina Keller - Olde Mecklenburg Brewing, NC; Nordertor - Schilling Beer Company, NH; Landbier - Schilling Beer Company, NH; Old Bavarian Lager - Folksbier, NY; Alexandr - Schilling Beer Company, NH.

2021 has been a stellar year for pale beers from the rest of the USA, as evidenced by the number of honorable mentions, any of which could easily have made it into my top three. Of the top three, Captain Jack is the single most common Olde Meck beer I drink, Notch's Session Pils is something I have long wanted to try, and it more than lived up to expectation, and Elder Pine's desítka was a unexpected delight. The winner though of the best pale beer in the rest of the USA is actually pretty simple, Notch's magnificent Session Pils. If they are ever regularly distributed in Virginia, it would become very quickly the staple pale lager in my fridge, it is that good.

Rest of the World

• Únětické Pivo Nefiltrované 12° - Únětický Pivovar, CZ
• Hopfenkönig - Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg, AT
• Icelandic White Ale - Einstök Ölgerđ, IS

Honorable mentions: Radler - Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg AT; Plzeňský Prazdroj - Plzeňský Prazdroj, Plzeň, Czechia; Jahrhundert Bier - Ayinger Privatbrauerei, DE; Arctic Lager - Einstök Ölgerđ, IS.

One of my beer highlights of 2021 was being able to get a case of Únětický Pivovar's lovely 12° Czech pale lager from Beer Run, and then to have a Czech night by pairing it with half a roast duck and cabbage. Sitting at the beach in Florida come summer though, and it was an Icelandic witbier that more that scratched the itch for something pretty light, tasty, and refreshing to cut through the heat. I actually feel as though I should drink Einstök Ölgerđ's beers more in general as they are all excellent in my experience. The winner though of the best pale beer from the rest of the world is the unexpectedly delightful Hopfenkönig from Austria's Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg, probably better known for Samichlaus. If Austrian pilsner is a thing, then it falls somewhere between it's Bohemian and Bavarian cousins, making Hopfenkönig a go-to beer whenever it is on tap at Kardinal Hall.

It is so rare that a beer lives up to the hype that gets generated around it. I remember being a little let down the first time I had Porterhouse's Oyster Stout for example, but the overall pale beer winner more than bucks that trend. The first time I drank Notch Session Pils was in Rhode Island, visiting my best mate who has recently moved up there. We had finally managed to find a 12 pack, but it was a couple of months past it's best before date, yet still it was fantastic. When my mate returned the trip by coming to Virginia for my birthday, he bought with him a fresh 12 pack, and it was a revelation, a truly perfect Czech style pale lager. Kudos then to Notch Brewing up in MA and their magnificent Session Pils for being the Fuggled Pale Beer of 2021.

Little Claws of Beer

It will come as no surprise that I broke my beer fast with a pale lager. It will likewise comes as no surprise that I mostly drank pale lagers over the weekend. Also of no surprise to anyone that has ever paid attention to my wafflings here, the best beer I had all weekend was a Czech pale lager, as in actually from Czechia.

The beer in question is the 12° pale lager from Únětický Pivovar, based in the village of Ùnětice a few kilometres outside Prague. It was a beer that I had thoroughly enjoyed on my trip back to central Europe in 2019, and one that I have long hoped to see in this neck of woods as it is part of B. United's program that cold ships beer in bulk to Connecticut and then can it there. After badgering aplenty of the good people at Beer Run, I was able to put in an order for a case of this nectar, thus on Friday I collected 24 16oz cans to find space in the fridge for.

Having given it the best part of 24 hours in the fridge to get down to a steady proper temperature, I cracked open a can and didn't take notes. I just savoured what is clearly one of the best pale lagers, of any description, available anywhere in the US today. A bold claim perhaps, and if you want to change my mind, feel free to send me beer. At one point I handed Mrs V the glass and her single word response was "nice", but the kind of "nice" that tells you that she was having an Anton Ego moment for hospody a půlitry.

I have learnt my lesson of years past when it comes to getting back off the wagon after a month with no drinking, thus I ease my way back in and don't go nuts and have 10 pints on day 1 and a minging hangover come day 2. Thus it was that I found myself pondering what makes real Czech pale lager a more satisfying experience for me than pretty much any non-Czech made stab at the style?

Perhaps it's the decoction mash, whether triple or double? Or maybe, at least in Únětický's case, the continued use of open fermentation rather than the modern CCVs and how fermenter geometry affects yeast behaviour, leading to a longer, gentler primary fermentation? Perhaps it's the lack of fizziness? That's not to say that Czech beers are flat or uncarbonated, but they don't have that jagged edged, prickly fizz of many a US made lager. Maybe it comes down to doing things the way they have always been done, after all why fix what was never broken?

All that is not to say though that US made interpretations of the style, or any style for that matter, are uniformly sub-par. Bohemian style pale lagers like those brewed by Schilling, Von Trapp, and Champion would certainly stand up to scrutiny in Czechia. There is though something intangible that puts the likes of Únětický Pivovar, Pivovar Hostomice, and the much missed Kout na Šumavě, into the beery stratosphere, and that intangible seems to make it across the Pond.

Naturally I am open to the possibility that it is just my own personal Ostalgia, and those sharp little claws that never let go.

Prague - The New

There are few people in the world I enjoy a pint or two with more than Evan Rail.

When he came into Pivovarský klub on my first day back in Prague it was such an unexpected pleasure that it literally made my day, even though it was a fleeting moment that didn't involve us having a beer together, but we agreed to meet later in the week.

In those brief moments Evan mentioned his local pub had some of the best beer in the Czech Republic and we agreed that we would meet there. "There" was a place called Hostomická nalévárna, a hole in the wall taphouse with beer from Pivovar Hostomice, one of the many breweries to have sprung up in the decade since Mrs V and I left the Czech Republic.

Having spent the morning wandering around the Old Town, taking photos, and buying Krtek souvenirs for the twins (they love Krtek so much it does my heart good), I arrived at the pub about 10 minutes early, so naturally got a half litre of Fabián 10°.

Oh my goodness, what nectar is this? Prior to polishing off my first half litre in literally four mouthfuls I would have sworn that Albrecht 10° was my favourite Czech pale lager but this blew it out of the water. The interplay of malt and hop was delightful, neither truly dominating but both clearly evident and expressing themselves fully. Ok, so where I had thought to have a half litre while waiting for Evan, I may have had a couple, I was enthralled, it was like that first taste of Kout na Šumavě 10° way back when.

The pub itself was a throwback as well, it is a proper urban Czech boozer. I could probably, if I were vaguely handy at these sorts of things, recreate it in one half of my garage. The bar is right next to the door, the space around the bar clearly set up for standing around drinking beer. There is a space further back which has four tables, all of which had reservation notices on them, letting us know that we could sit there until 7pm, well past our window of time to hang out, drink, and discuss the state of craft beer.

With a few desítky polished off, I decided to try the 14° tmavé and it was just as lovely. Being thoroughly biased it reminded me a lot of the Morana that I designed and brew occasionally with Devils Backbone. Again notes were not being taken, come on people, who takes beer notes when you are shooting the shit with a friend you haven't seen in years? Then I did something technically illegal under Czech beer law...I asked for a řezané pivo, or black and tan.

According to Czech law, at least if I understand it correctly and I am sure folks will correct me if I am wrong, a řezané must be poured with beers of the same gravity, and there was no 14° pale lager with which to mix with the dark, so we used the 12°. It was delish. Yeah I was getting merry, and that was before the 15° březnový, that's märzen to you, turned up, another magnificent brew. I am not going to go into the details of Evan and I's conversation, which wandered down many a beery lane with a common theme about how US craft breweries simply get "Bohemian pilsner" wrong, and after a few days having my palate reset by the real thing I still haven't had a Czech style lager since I got back, I am afraid of the disappointment.

Eventually Evan needed to head home, and so I picked his brain about where to find beer by the one Czech brewery I had probably heard more about than any other...Únětický pivovar.

Cafe Frida was just round the corner from my hotel. I eschewed the tram for a head clearing half hour walk to discover the place was practically empty, so I took a seat at the bar and ordered a desítka, yep another lovely beer. Perhaps my tastebuds were just plain busted at this point, but while it was clearly a lovely beer, and one I would happily drink all day long, it didn't match up to the Hostomická desítka, though it was more my thing than Albrecht 10°. The 12° was likewise excellent, a superb demonstration of why I think Czechs make the best lagers on the planet bar none, sorry you innovative craft folks, you don't compare to the level of craftmanship on show in the Czech Republic lager world.

Gently pickled and with a bus to Germany to catch in the morning I headed back to Florenc and my shoebox sized hotel room...