Pilsner Urquell 2

Pilsner Urquell is a beer that I manage to have at least once a week. In London it is widely available and reasonably priced. In short, if I were to blog about this everytime I had a pint, there would be a lot of posts about it!

Anyhow Prague is not really the home to Pilsner Urquell, but even when I am in Prague, it is my beer of choice. For this reason alone, I chose to spend my new years eve in Kolkovna, an original Pilsner Urquell restaurant which has a restaurant housed in an old mail room with a cellar bar well, in the cellar! The food here is amazing, with a wide selection of traditional Czech food ranging from wild game sausage to goulash with dumplings and everything in between. Being a connoisseur of the gastronomic delight that is Pork Knuckle, this was my choice which I washed down with several glasses of Pilsner Urquell. Anyhow we finished up in the restaurant at about 11.45pm and headed to the old town square to count in the new year. Following the festivities we braved thousands of misguided youths throwing homemade firecrackers at people and made a dash for the hotel, in a drunk and merry manner.

This caps off the year 2008 in beer for me. I think it is the first time I have actually set out a new years resolution and actually kept at it. In saying this, I actually really enjoy blogging but the format and subject matter of the original endeavor tends to get a little bit stale after a while and I feel like I am a ticker trying to sound intellectual about beer. The real reason I started this blog was to show my wife that there is more to beer than just drinking, and also so she could keep track of what I am drinking (It was felt by the Mrs that a crate of cheap lager a fortnight was too much booze). I have never really taken things seriously and I now feel that beer is something to be enjoyed, and the actual taste of the beer is just a small part of this and it's the environment and company in which it is consumed that really matter. So tomorrow will see a number of changes in the format of this blog. Along with a new look and feel, there will be content changes with my opinions/rants about various beery things as well as stories of my travels and beers consumed. Thanks to all those that supported the old format, I hope you continue to enjoy reading in the future.

PS. I have a new resolution for this year as well, and that is to write a book outlining some historical Sydney pub and beer walks. if you have any ideas/suggestions please forward them on.

Kozel Dark

Also in the 24 hour non-stop across the road from my hotel in Prague was a bottle of Kozel Dark (3.8% abv). I had to pay a 'premium' of 30 crowns (~ £1) for this gem, but it was worth the extra.

My first experience with Kozel was on my last trip to Prague and I remember clearly how different it was to German Schwarzbiers such as Köstritzer. Where the German offering was dark pretty much in colour only, the Czech brewed Kozel is full of melanoids and a thick full body. This difference is something which is rarely acknowledged in craft brewing circles where Bohemium dark lagers tend to get lumped into the generic schwarzbier category with their softer German neighbours.

I don't need to go to much about how good this beer is. I am pretty suire that 90% plus of readers would already be educated in the delights of this gem. I did find this little paragraph here though which sums up my feelings.

"This beer came in its standard Czech 500 ml bottle and poured a dark ruby red, near black colour with a light tan head that swelled to about an inch before slowly settling. It had very little aroma, but I could sense the Saaz hops and slight burnt malt in it. The first taste had a full, but not too heavy taste of malt, and the Saaz could be felt on swallowing. Subsequent sips wend down smooth and easy.
It was a good drinking experience, and would likely go well with a steak dinner. But I don't think I would pay the full price for it. If I see it in the bargain bin again, I'll grab it."

http://www.kozel.cz/

Gambrinus Premium

On New Years Day we caught the train from Vienna to Prague. I was last in Prague back in 2006 or was it early 2007? I'm not entirely sure, but anyhow the place has become even more dominated by tourism since my last visit, and it appears that every second shop is now selling tacky souveniers. The taxi ride to our hotel was full of adventure with the driver getting lost even with the use of a SatNav.

This aside I was lucky enough to have a nice 24 hour off license type place across the street which was selling Gambrinus Premium (4.9% abv) on offer. I know that this is not exactly the best of Czech lagers, but it was one I had not had before and I was keen to pick something up with the few crowns change I had in my pocket.

Gambrinus is brewed by Pilsner Urquell and is the most popular beer in the Czech republic dominating with 25% of the market. The beer is ok, and was much needed after the drain of the train ride and the taxi adventure but still did not 'excite*' me in the way and unpastaurized glass of Urquell or Kozel does. But it still whet the whistle adequately!

Website:http://www.gambrinus.cz/

*No erections were observed during this excitement. I don't get hard, or even semi over beer.