Pivní Filosof

A report of the opening day of this year’s Czech Beer Festival. Did it leave up to the hype and expectations? Read and find out.

Pivo a Párek, a fast food joint in Vinohrady that delivers just what its name promises, and delivers it very well.

A neighbourhood Nápoje that sells a wider range of regional beers than most supermarkets and, on top of that, would like to see people change their beer ways.

So, Molson-Coors are Staropramen’s new owners. Some historical background and a few thoughts on this news.

The image isn’t the only (and certainly not the most important) change that the firth edition of the Czech Beer Festival is bringing, there are several others.

Czech Radio invited me to a tasting of Czech shandies. In an expectedly unimpressive lineup, there was one that stood out from the crowd, but for all the wrong reasons. Other than that, Gambrinus might have lost the plot.

I have earned a reputation of someone who knows Prague’s beer scene like few others, something I’m childishly proud of. But with the said beer scene being so dynamic at the moment, even a committed pisshead like me is having trouble with keeping up with the news and changes.

Warm fermented beers have become a common thing for both brewers and punters. Most will either be Pale Ale or India Pale Ale brewed with American hops, nothing wrong with that, but there are some for whom that model is not enough. Two new beers on the market are proof of that.

Budvar, Budvar, everyone seems to be talking about Budvar these days, or rather, about its likely privatisation. Here’s what I think of the whole affair.

Last week’s post on the new beers from Prazdroj and K-Brewery (sorry, Pivovary Lobkowicz, I can’t get used to it) was all about the news and the marketing and what have you, but nothing about the beers themselves, nothing about the thing that really, or only, matters, what’s in the glass.