Traditional Czech beer is more than the sum of its ingredients, though, and, if the Agriculture Ministry and the Czech Beer and Malt Association have their way, the entire process of Czech brewing will come under European Union protection.

Much as Champagne can only come from the French province of the same name, Czech brewers want the term "České pivo" to apply only to beer produced in the Czech Republic.

Under the new protection, ingredients for Czech beer, including barley, would have to come from a geographically defined location similar but not identical to the borders of the Czech Republic.

Normally, Czechs produce enough barley to satisfy the large demand — the Czech Republic is the ninth-largest exporter of beer in the world and the largest consumer, per capita. But, in years with unusually poor harvests, like 2006, the EU requirements could limit the country's beer exports, and therefore raise both the price and status of the beer.

A poor harvest

The government filed its request two years ago and has been waiting for approval ever since. The European Commission (EC), the executive body of the EU, has recently revised its application procedures and could soon make new demands.

"Right now the proposal is in a bureaucratic machine," said Jan Veselý, executive director of the Czech Beer and Malt Association. "It is quite a procedure, difficult and complicated."

Had the "České pivo" label already been approved, beer exports would certainly have decreased this year.

Baked and pummeled over the summer by high temperatures and heavy rain, this year's barley harvest suffered through the worst growing season in 15 years.

Czech malt houses and breweries have been scrambling to import barley from wherever they can get it, and barley prices are rising as a result: from 3,000 Kč ($140) a ton last year to 3,900 Kč, according to the Agriculture Ministry. Competition is tight across the region, because crops in Germany, Poland and Slovakia suffered similarly.

The trouble has gone largely unnoticed by beer drinkers because brewers are bearing the brunt of the problem, said Eugenie Linková, spokeswoman for the Agrarian Chamber. The two largest buyers of barley in the country — the malt house Soufflet and Plzeňský Prazdroj — had different reactions to the poor harvest.

Soufflet, which supplies malt to breweries including Staropramen, lowered its quality requirements, using barley that has 12 percent protein instead of the preferred 10 or 11 percent.

Plzeňský Prazdroj raised the price of a Pilsner Urquell keg by 1.4 Kč, among other increases.

The company explicitly did not raise prices on its half-liter bottles, meaning that the price hike has largely gone unnoticed by customers.

Barley prices are expected to continue increasing into the new year.

Setting a precedent

Other regions have protected their beer styles, like Bavaria and Bremen in Germany. But no country has ever sought to protect a single style of beer before — or any other food or drink. This has caused some concern from the EC, Veselý said.

The EU provides intellectual property protection to a variety of food and drinks, said Michael Mann, EU agricultural spokesman. These trademarks are often sought when producers from outside regions try to profit from the appeal associated with a particular regional specialty by using terms like type, kind or style.

"By protecting the name, consumers can be sure that the product is the original," Mann said. Often, producers of protected products receive higher prices.

If protection is granted, beer will have to meet several standards to qualify for the label — including the technological process used to brew, the territory on which the beer is produced and the types of raw materials used, down to the water and the Czech Žatec Saaz hops.

Only three regional types of Czech beer currently have this protection from the EU: Budějovické pivo, Budějovický měšťanský var and Českobudějovické pivo.