The right place, at the wrong time

Sure, beer blogging is about finding the perfect place you want to return to while having more of the fantastic beers served there. And of course: Bragging about it afterwards. Or it could be like this: Pure unluck, bad timing and terrible planning.

I had my share in Prague earlier this month. After reading about the new Czech wheat beers at both Evan Rail's blog and Pivni Filosof's blog, I spent a Saturday searching for these beers. I started up by taking a tram to Letenske Namesti to check out Svijany's new wheat beer at Svijanský Rytíř. This is a stronghold in Prague for the Svijany brewery, and it is known for having more or less the whole Svijany lineup on tap. Bad move. Svijanský Rytíř is closed for the public on weekends, so I had to make do without the beer.

So I jumped on the tram again. This time towards Dejvice, as I knew there was a restaurant serving Černá Hora beers at the Československe armady street. I found the place, but no luck once again. Zlaty Rosen was also closed.

I then took the trip to Žižkov and a pub I have visited several times, Království.

Interior at Království.

Království also sells beers from the Černá Hora brewery, but the new wheat beer Velen was not to be found on the menu. That was a shame, but it was my shame. If I had asked the waiter if they sold the beer, he would have answered in the affirmative.

According to Pivni Filosof, the wheat beer is available in bottles at Království, but they do not advertise the fact.

That Saturday I ended up in the neighbourhood at U Sadu having a Primator weizen instead. It is a lovely wheat beer, so in all there was no problems for me.

On the following Sunday I met up with Pivni Filosof, and we took a trip to the Krušovická pivnice near the Czech national theatre. According to Evan Rail, they sold the new Dožínkové wheat beer from the Czech Heineken breweries at the hospoda. No such luck. The beer was sold out, so we ended up drinking Krušovice's dark lager instead. A nice beer, that fortunately lacks a lot of the sugary feel of Velkopopovický Kozel.

I also went back to Svijanský Rytíř a few days later. This time the restaurant was open, and there were very few people at the tables. But they would not let me sit down. According to the waitress, the place was packed and there was no room for more guests. Go figure! So once again, I had to leave the place without saying mission acccomplished.