Czek Republic Beer

Judy and I toured the Czech Republic for two weeks this summer and were delighted with the history, the food and the beer. It was, after all, about the beer. When we hinted that we liked beer to the person who was introducing us to her country for our self guided tour, she assured us we were in the right place. Her immediate comments was, "Drink the beer, it is cheaper than the (bottled) water." She also thought that the Czech's have come a long way since the fall of communism in 1989 but that there is still a lot of potential, and regarding Budweiser, "They stole our name including the style in which it is printed, but they didn't steal the beer. She was right about all three.

In the Czech Republic it is all about the Pilsner and Urquell rules for good cause. It is available and advertised everywhere. It is clear, crisp, thirst quenching with an appropriate amount of malt flavor, and cheap, as were most things (average price $1.75 per pint ). It was our favorite.

First brewed by Josef Groll in Pilsen on November 11, 1842, after locals dumped barrels of the dark bitter porter of the day onto the street as a protest. Using locally grown Saaz hops, fresh iron rich water and local barley, he produced the "first golden beer". It is still brewed with the same recipe in the same town, "pure original pilsner from Pilsen". Although we never made it to Mecca we turned west and said our prayers everyday.

Our beer adventure in CR, other than drinking a lot of Pilsner, was walking by and almost touring or trying to tour two breweries. I believe our experience would fall under the CR has a lot of potential, or do it in high tourist season.

Eggenburg Brewery in Cesky Krumlov.

While looking at their signs, one would

think that the Eggenburg Brewery has been in production since the 1560's. I think the facts are that beer has been produce in CK since that time, but a lot has changed through the past 500 years, including Nazi and communist control. The bottom line is that the brewery was privatized, the last time, in 1993. Since then the owner changed the name of the brewery to the original families name and has increased brewing. He has also added a US or German style large brew pub and has even added soft drinks to the production line. There production is mostly for consumption by the local communities.

We were there on a cool rainy day in September and after being used to eating local food in small restaurants were turned off by the feel of the large brew pub, and it was almost empty. The tours of the brewery were not in English and not convenient so we also passed on that. We did sit at the beer garden, however, with some locals, and the pictured bar fly to test some of their beer. Granted, we should have called ahead for a tour. The beer was not remarkable.

Bohemia Regent Brewery

The Regent Brewery was another example of "We should have called first". It was another rainy day when our tour took us through Trebon. We found the brewery easily, a massive old fortress/castle like structure, but it was not as easy to get in. There was some language problems when we tried to find out about tours, but the message was clear, "NO". Next we tried to get into the retail store. It was open 12:00 to 12:30, no kidding. People were lined up and bought their kegs and cases quickly. Again, there was a language problem and we only bought 2 bottles of beer, but we felt like we were in an old Motor Vehicle Registration office in the US. There were no smiles for the tourists. Apparently they have a large outside beer garden set up, but in September and in the rain it was closed.

Regent is promoted as one of the oldest continuously run breweries in Europe. Monks were brewing in Trebon in 1379. They say some of that original equipment is still being used. The current building was built for the brewery in 1712. The best part of the "tour", however, was the lunch in Trebon. We went into a small restaurant close to the brewery and hit the jackpot. We ended up sitting next to an English speaking older local women who filled us in. It was the place the older locals went for the special soups. I had already ordered baked carp, and Judy the apricot dumplings. The waiter heard us lamenting that we missed the potato leek soup, so he brought us a cup. The fish was boney but excellent, the dumpling were way too sweet for a main coarse, but delicious, and the soup was to die for. From then on we looked carefully at soups when we ordered. The beer was good, although I cannot be more specific, one of the best dark beers I had in the CR. I was having such a good time I asked the waiter if I could buy one of the Regent beer glasses from him. He told me to go to the retail store. It was 1:30.

McNeill's Brewery

After a long ski on crusty snow - for some of us there was as much falling as skiing - we headed to Brattleboro and McNeill's brewery and bar. We had been forewarned that we were in for something of a local experience, but none of us guessed quite what an experience.

McNeill's is a true bar: it hasn't been prettied up, with just plain tables and chairs, and rough wooden floors, while it was a little lacking in the heat department (we were all wearing our coats!). While we expected a quiet Saturday afternoon crowd, since the place had just opened for the day, it turned out that they were hosting part of the Northern Roots music festival, so there was a session already in progress when we arrived.

We got our beers and settled down to listen, though the music ended pretty quickly, and a solo performer took over; as he was getting ready to take the "stage", I realized that I knew who he was (he's a professor at BU), so we listened to him sing and recite for a while and I introduced myself afterwards.

McNeill's brew their own beers, and we sampled virtually everything on offer, including two cask offerings. There were three different IPAs available - one on cask, another brewed with the roots festival in mind - and several more unusual styles, like an unfiltered Kölsch, with a general high quality of beer on offer.

Sixpoint Craft Ales

Sixpoint Craft Ales are a pretty new brewery located in Brooklyn, with their first beers rolling off the production line in 2005. They shipped some beers to Massachusetts but for production reasons they apparently weren't able to keep up with demand, and we caught the beers on their comeback launch tour.

Shane Welch, the brewmaster/co-head honcho, was at Cambridge Common when we visited to try out the five different Six Point beers they had on tap. It's always fun to try so many beers from one brewery, to get a sense of what they are about. We especially liked their Bengali Tiger IPA (it's nice to get an IPA that isn't just hops), and their Sweet Action, an American Blonde style, with hints of honey. They have a wide variety of other styles, too, and Shane seemed to imply that they would continue to produce an unusually large number of different beers compared to other craft brewers.

It was fun to get to chat to the brewmaster for the beers we were drinking. He was eager to share his enthusiasm for beer, giving us an account of his beer background and his plans for the future, as well as the intrigue of the craft brewing industry! He got his start as a brewer while in college, getting into homebrew in a big way, and hosting big parties at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. That was only his first step, though, and he dropped out and pursued his own beer education and eventually landed up in Brooklyn with the keys to his own place. It sounds as though they are in the midst of a big expansion and we're hoping that their beers will be more reliably available in Massachusetts henceforth.

Atlas Brewery

http://atlasbrewery.com/

On a recent walking tour of Scotland, our journey brought us to the front door of Atlas Brewing. After finishing our 19 mile day (day5), we were rewarded with a shorter 9 mile walk from Kingshouse over the devils staircase and the highest point on the West Highland Way, to Kinlochleven. The trail ended with a very long descent in dreary wet weather with intermittent views of the Blackwater reservoir into the former aluminum mecca of Kinlochleven. We arrived in town at 2:00. Judy had emailed ahead for our tour and we were ready to take some time off the Way and talk about beer.

Atlas Brewery is located in the former storehouse of the aluminum smelting factory. The brewery was put together and was moved into in October 2001. The first batches of Latitude and Tempest were brewed in February 2002. Norman Sinclair, a highland business man, bought the brewery in August 2006. He has since added Orkney Brewery orkneybrewery.com to form Sinclair Breweries Ltd.

We were met at Atlas by Harry, an assistant brewer, who got his job by home brewing in the right place at the right time. Some administrators of Atlas were having a barbecue next door to Harry's house and the were invited over for a brew. Apparently they liked what they tasted because he was offered a job very shortly thereafter. I was happy to hear that even with his full time job at Atlas, Harry still enjoys the rewards of home brewing. Harry gave us a wonderful, personal, in depth tour of the Brewery.

Atlas brews 36,000 pints per year, an interesting way to quantify output. Their focus is real ale. Utilizing local soft water, the "Atlas" of any beer, and western grown Maris Otter barley, the beer is top fermented 5-7 days at 20* C, cooled and keg conditioned at 9* for 4 weeks and then shipped to the pub, to be tapped as real ale and finished hopefully within one week. The majority of the ale is kegged as real ale, with only a small percent sent out for contract bottling.

After the tour, and an in depth discussion of real ales, we were treated to a glass of Three Sisters from a bottle. A keg had just been set up but not yet settled enough for consumption. Three Sisters, named after the mountain range in Glencoe, is a dark fruity refreshing ale, blended with chocolate and crystal malts as well as whole flower hops; a pleasant end to a delightful and informative tour.

Harry's favorite brew: Wayfarer IPA, a seasonal which we could not find.

Harry's favorite home brew recipe:

12 gal all grain
18 lbs Maris Otter, or Optic
1 lb Crystal
150 gm Fuggles to boil
150 gm Kent Golding to finish
65* C to mash
72* to sparge

Allagash Brewery

It being a rainy Wednesday afternoon, we decided to pack the car a head to Portland to take the tour of Allagash Brewery. We were not the only ones bored with the weather as demonstrated by the size of the tour. We joined about 20 other beer lovers in the lobby of Allagash, off outer Forest Ave., in the very industrial Riverside Industrial Park, for our tour.

Our able tour guide started us off with a very brief history and some tasting. After some well place questions we learned that the owner Rob Tod earned his degree in beer drinking from Middlebury College and worked while there at Otter Creek Brewing. After graduating, he came to Portland and set up his first brewery in some rented space in the industrial park where they are now located. No garage brewing for young Mr. Tod. Thanks to his generous father, and his vision to create an all Belgian style brewery, and some initial lonely days brewing and tasting beer, Allagash Brewery has seen steady exponential growth since. We did have a sighting of Mr. Tod, but no verbal contact.

Once we got out of the lobby,we did weasel out some important trade secrets from our guide: Allagash's water is from Sebago Lake (Portland tap water), their yeast was a fortunate contamination, in true Belgium style, and they have been able to preserve it since, the name Hugh Malone come from the Latin name of hops, Humulus lupus ( see comment on Hugh Malone review).

Tasting which was held prior to the tour included White, Dubbel, Triple, and Hugh Malone. Beer was served in plastic glasses in the cement lobby while standing. Certainly not the ambiance, personal touch or quantity which we were fortunate to get at Redhook. I asked several time about casks, which are used for storage in the cold room, but was not invited to see them. Overall, however, the tour was interesting. The tour guide was pleasant and could not be stumped, although we tried hard. We were allowed to walk on the floor during production. I stopped a worker who was very friendly and informative. At the end of the tour we showed our appreciation by being good consumers in the gift shop, and made our way to Bray's to complete our total beer afternoon.