NA ZDRAVÍ! — TO YOUR HEALTH!
A GUIDE TO FIVE PRAGUE MICROBREWERIES
Pilsner is king in Prague! And why not? It was invented right here in Bohemia.
It’s next to impossible to visit the city and not drink the pilsner-style lager that is served at pubs on every corner and with every meal. With such excellent national labels as Pilsner Urquell and Krusovice, some with histories stretching back for 500 years, it’s not surprising that Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other nation.
Now microbreweries are springing up all across the Czech Republic, bringing local brews back to the people.
These five Prague microbreweries are conveniently located near tourist sites, making it easy to slip them into your visit to the city, even if your partner doesn’t share your enthusiasm for the brew. (“Hey honey, I think there’s a good local restaurant just down this street…”)
If your traveling companions do share your love of a good lager, they’ll thank you for guiding them to these distinctive tasting experiences! Expect a crisp, cold, light or dark lager with a firm head, the way the Czechs like it. And they should know, as the home of the original Pilsner, although in the Czech Republic the name Pilsner has always been reserved for breweries actually in the town of Plzen.
The first three microbreweries are located in Nové Mesto, or New Town (that’s pre-1700 in Praha!) and are easy walking distance from one another.
Directions— take the red C metro line to the Museum station, or the yellow B line to Mustek, at either end of action-central, Wenceslas Square. Walk half way down the square and turn onto Vodičkova U; continue 3 blocks, the brewpub is in the end of an art-nouveau style shopping mall.
1. Novomeský pivovar (Pivovar means brewery)
Explore the labrynth of rooms and corridors leading deep into — well, more rooms. Novoměský Restaurant can seat 368, but the small size of the many, traditionally decorated rooms makes it seem much more intimate. The kitchen serves a full menu of hearty Czech favorites.
For a beer bargain to start your day, at Novomeský pivovar it is discounted from 10 am until 12 noon, when it’s only about a buck for half a liter! After noon the price soars to two dollars.
Points are earned for the huge baked pretzels for fifty cents that hang from wrought iron stands on the tables. Giant copper kettles glow in the main brew house dining room, a feature of many of the brewpubs. And lets not forget the accordian player who wanders the room.
Tours of the brewery are available only for groups of 20 or more.
Vodičkova 20, Praha 1, Phone: 222 232 448, www.npivovar.cz/en
— continue along Vodičkova to Lazarská, stopping to admire the New Town Hall. Cross Spalena to Mysilkova, then right onto Křemenkova.
2. U Fleků
This 500 year old brew pub is the oldest on the list, and the first to re-open as an independent microbrewery in 1991, after the end of the communist era. Now it‘s a bonafide tourist attraction, in fact its medieval buildings and courtyard restaurant are almost a theme park.
Capable of serving up to 1200 guests in the 8 rooms and halls and the garden courtyard, in the summer it is a popular stop for bus loads of mainly German tourists who also enjoy the cabaret, as well as the brewery tour and museum tour, for eight and a half and three dollars respectively. Call ahead if you are interested in joining an English speaking tour.
Formerly the haunt of local people, including more than one famous author, they seem to have been alienated by the prices and the emphasis the new management places on tourism. The place was virtually empty on the October day that we visited. Barely 20 people sat at long wooden tables and benches in the courtyard, serenaded by another accordian player playing familiar, but not Czech, standards..
The food is simple, traditional Czech pub fare: grilled sausage with bread and coleslaw, at just over $7. We found that everything was priced higher than the other microbreweries.
They make one beer, a dark, 13° lager, that is made according to an old, original recipe. Although produced in updated premises, the huge, solid oak barrels they use as fermentors in the fermentation cellar are impressive and were made according to their own historic specifications.
The beer was served in .41 litre mugs, as opposed to the .5 most places offer, for about $3.20. It arrived unordered, as did the liqueur, which we had to be quick to reject to prevent it from being added to our tab.
There was no bill, just the tab, which in the end was 36 czk more than we had estimated – probably either for service or the bread on the table. We were just happy to get out with the shirts on our backs.
But the beer is good, the 500 year old setting undeniably fascinating and atmospheric, and the prices are not really so high by North American standards (lunch with beer for two was just over twenty dollars), so I’d say it was definitely worth a visit.
Křemenkova 11, Praha, reservations: +420 224 934 019-20,
+420 602 660 290, open: Mon-Sun 09.00 - 23.00, http://www.ufleku.cz./
— walk along Karlovo Náměstí park, left on Ječná U to the corner of Lipová.
3. Pivovarský dům
The buzz on the brewpub trail heralded this next stop. In the words of the three guys from Las Vegas that we met at one of our previous stops, “This is nice, but have you been to Pivovarský dům? Did you try their mushrooms in batter? We are on our way back there again right now!”
This place was our favourite too, for the great food, the quality of the beer, and the local pub atmosphere. It’s bright, clean and modern. Locals eat here, dropping in for a beer with friends after work. Even though it’s slightly off the tourist track, the English speaking waiter happily brought us a menu in English.
This brewery and restaurant was opened in 1998 by members of Pivo Praha, or Beer Prague, a consulting group serving most of the breweries in the Czech Republic as well as some abroad, and who had a hand in the opening of 26 of the new microbreweries.
These guys know beer. Ok, maybe they go a bit over the top with banana beer and sour cherry, and the strawberry beer was definitely a failure, according to Václav Potěšil, co-owner of Pivo Praha. But their traditional brews, both a light and dark lager, were excellent. Try a mix of the two, a popular way to dink beer in Prague. Prices were good — half a liter for less than two dollars.
Tours are available if enough people are interested, so you are best to call ahead.
The food was also great. Dumplings stuffed with smoked pork was a winner, as well as the Svíčková na smetaně with knedlíky, (beef with a delicious sauce served with the favorite Czech style dumplings). Either one is seven dollars and change.
And by all means try the battered mushrooms.
Ječná at Lípová 15, Praha 2, Tel.: 296 216 666, www.gastroinfo.cz/pivodum
— hop on the #22 or #23 tram heading back past Karlovo Nam., riding along Spálená. Get off when the tram turns onto Národní U. and continue straight for one block along Na Perstzne.
4. U Mevídků
A bit of a wild card, the original brewery started in 1466 but production ceased early in the twentieth century, although it has continued to function as one of the largest beer halls in Prague, selling the traditional Czech Budweiser.
In 2005 they opened the “House of Beer” in the former malt-house, which includes a museum of beers and the largest shop of beer and brewery souvenirs in the Czech Republic. (Who wouldn’t want to pick up a few of those?) The upper floor of the historic building has been turned into an upscale hotel.
At the same time they also started the smallest microbrewery in the Cech Republic, brewing X-BEER, the strongest beer in the land. The first brewing produced only 500 bottles, each one numbered, like a piece of art, with an alcohol content of 11.8% and a taste to match. And yes, that’s per cent, not the un-fathomable Czech rating system of Plato °s. Try it if you dare.
Na Perštýně 7, Praha 1, Phone +420 2-24 21 19 16, www.umedvidku.cz/
— jump back on the #22 or #23 and ride across the bridge over the river and continue up the hill, past Prague Castle, and get off at the large white gates of Strahov Monastery.
5. Klášterní Pivovar and St. Norbert Restaurant
The Strahov Monastery was founded in 1140 and the monk’s brewery first mentioned at the end of the thirteenth century. A new brewery was built in 1628 and functioned until 1907 when it fell into disuse.
The brewery was reborn in 2001. It opened along with the St. Norbert Restaurant, which has a total of 380 seats, divided between the small intimate brewpub, the Brewery Courtyard, and a hall suitable for large groups.
The brewery produces a dark lager at the high 14°, coming in at 5.5%, and a pale lager, 13°, at 5%. Both have a strong, bitter, hoppy flavor. It is served in smaller sized .25 l. and .4 l. mugs for less than two dollars and just over three.
This restaurant is somewhat classier, and slightly more expensive, being close to the castle and catering more to tourists.
But the kitchen serves up delicious traditional Czech cuisine, featuring “old Bohemian beer cuisine”. We tried the Czech sausage cooked in dark beer with bread, and chicken in dark beer with red cabbage, and both got top marks.
Strahovské nádvoří 301,Praha 1, http://www.klasterni-pivovar.cz/,
reservation email : zuzana.pivovar@seznam.cz
— leave by the other Monastery gate and follow the signs to the castle. It’s an interesting ten-minute walk past vineyards and through the delightful, baroque, Malá Strana district to Prague Castle, a stunning site you won’t want to miss.
In Prague it’s often a case of so much beer, and so little time. Take this tour and decide for yourself if original Bohemian beer is really the best.
