Being new to drinking in Prague I had with me Evan Rail's guide, Ron Pattinson's stuff and Gazza Prescott's. I found that Gazza's is the most practical in that he really understands the basics of beer hunting best. His directions are idiot proof and that's what really counts. Cheers Gazza.
One or two immediate observations. By and large beer in Prague is nothing special, though when it is good it can be spectacularly so. All guides reflect the author's impressions and that has to be taken into account when using them and lastly, while tankovna beer is much better than pasteurised beer, we are starting from a base that is lower than it should be. Some of the pubs are brilliant as pubs. U Fleku is a deserved world classic and so in its own way is the Tramway. The waiters, by and large are surly. If you get polite indifference, then they have really taken a shine to you and finally, it isn't as cheap as it ought to be, though we did find 10 degree beer for around 11 crowns.
Prague airport PilsnerUrquell outlets are a shocking rip off with the beer being 135 crowns a half litre. It was a pleasure to see the robbing bastards were very empty.
More soon. I've got washing to do.
Oh - and the tram system is brilliant!
I had to look up 'tankovna' and the description made me wonder what pilsener beers were like in the days before pasteurisation, kegs, tanks, and gas pressure. For instance what were they like in the nineteenth century? We know what British ale used to be like because real ale is, obviously, still around.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether any continental brewers of bottom-fermenting beers make and serve anything in the manner that must have existed before they became all hi-tech. I am aware of Schiehallion and Cains lager, but I'm not thinking of British brewers.
Cripes, back already? And did the brilliant trams look like this?:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/43t8ws
Skoda (made in Plzen) streetcars in Portland, Oregon.
Agree entirely about that airport bar. A real disgrace. I spent my last coins in one last time I flew out of Prague, and it's the most expensive beer I've ever had in the country. Even the beer at Goldfingers isn't that pricey. Indeed, it's more expensive than a pint of PU here in London.
ReplyDeleteRednev, in the communist time, pretty well all draught beer in the Czech Republic was unpasteurised and dispensed by air pressure, a method similar to that still used in Scotland. I fear this dispense may now be extinct in the Czechg Republic.
ReplyDeleteThere used to siupposedly be one place in the Prater in Vienna that sold Budvar on air-pressure. Not sure if that still exists, either.
Glad to be of help with the directions; I write them as I'd want to be directed myself, and I'm bloody useless at finding places so they are quite idiot-proof!!!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your Kacov experience though - it really was excellent when I had it, although it was almost clear so maybe yours was a dodgy brew? Although, glad to hear you agree on how good the pub is!