Two good beer places

I do not write beer notes every time I am going somewhere. That is always good, because some times it takes away something from both the beer and the restaurant experience.

In this post I will write about two places in Prague that I have visited several times, but where I have never bothered to do any beer notes. Záležitost is a nice restaurant near the Biskupcova tram stop. It is based in the cellar, and it also has a lovely beer garden. Outside, this looks like just another Staropramen place, but if you go inside you see that the owners have an interesting beer selection.

Záležitost offers draught beers from several Czech breweries. Pilsner Urquell is of course available, but you can also drink beers from Chotěboř, Rychtář and Lobkowicz breweries from tap. The non-alcoholic beer from Lobkowicz is a treat, by the way, and is worth checking out.

The menu at Záležitost mostly consists of good, Czech courses at good prices. I have been very satisfied with both food and drinks at this restaurant.

Not far from Wenceslas Square you will find Jama The Hollow in the V Jámě street. This looks like a place for expats and tourists, and it also has a party feel over it. Some times that is what you want during a pub crawl, and then Jama The Hollow is a place to check out.

At the same time it might be the only place you visit during that pub crawl. With 12 various beers on tap, there is always something interesting to drink. Beers are mostly from smaller Czech breweries like Lobkowicz, Rychtář, Černá Hora, Ježek, Kocour and Klášter. I have not tried the food at Jama, but it has been recommended to me by locals.

Czech hotel beers

Visiting Prague means that there are hundreds of bars, pubs and restaurants to try out various Czech beers. But there is also another important place: Your hotel room!

During my last visits to Prague, I have had a few beers in my hotel rooms. Some have been my night caps, while I have enjoyed others during afternoon or evening work. Here is a presentation of some Czech beers I have tried in the comfort of my hotel rooms.

Bernard's lager is one of my favourite beers to drink at home in Norway. It is a very good unfiltered lager beer that is easily found in Norwegian Rema 1000 supermarkets. Bernard's Sváteční ležák is not available in Norway, and as this is a bottled conditioned yeast lager beer (kvasnicove) I had great expectations for this brew.

With a bottle swing top, the Sváteční ležák opens with a bang. According to people I met (and shared some Flensburger lagers with) in Germany some years ago, that is the omen of a good party coming up! The nose is fresh with scents of grains, grapes and malts. There is a lot of carbonation, and the beer builds a large head in the glass. It has a pale, but still golden colour, and in the mouth the malt dominates with hints of apples. The finish is unfortunately full of a metallic taste that I did not enjoy. I liked this beer, but the ordinary Bernard lager is a better beer, in my opinion.

During March there were posters everywhere in Prague promoting Lobkowicz's premium lager. It looked like Lobkowicz is trying to get this beer into the same level as Pilsner Urquell and Budvar in the Czech Republic. I had tried the beer from tap at Oktoberfest in Prague last October, but it was not a favourite beer for me then. From bottle this was a golden lager with much carbonation, and it had a large head. The nose was sweet with a fruitiness, and I also felt the same from the first sip with some hops present. The finish was balanced and fruity, but I would have preferred it a little more bitter. Lobkowicz premium is not better than Pilsner Urquell or the ordinary Budvar lager, but I will not turn it down if I am offered a glass of it.

The dark lagers from the Czech Republic can be very good beers. I have enjoyed some of them, while others have been more forgettable. In October I visited Budvarka in Prague and tried Budvar's dark lager. I liked it, so it was time to try it from a bottle. In the glass this is a black beer with very little carbonation. In the nose burnt notes dominate, while the beer tastes very good with a nice combination of coffee, sweetness and burntness. I felt this was a delicious beer, but it felt a little bit watery in the aftertaste.

I have liked the Klášter 11 degree lager I have tried at places like Klášterni pivnice and U Kláštera in Prague. Of course I had to try bottled Klášter lager as well! The Klášter 12 degree lager is a pale lager with some carbonation. In the nose I feel some sweetness and hints of flowers. The taste is very good, and malts, hops and mints dance along in their meeting with my palate. This is an excellent lager beer, and I hope to try it again also as a draught beer.

From the city of Pardubice comes Pardubický Porter, which is a strong beer in the Baltic style. The beer has some carbonation and has a large head in the glass. This is a very good beer, where coffee, chocolate and hints of prunes play together in the mouth. Lovely! I can really recommend this beer!

You may remember that I brought some beer bottles back from my visit to Purkmistr. I had enjoyed the draught beers I tried at the brewpub in Plzeň, but there was not time to try other beers from Purkmistr's range.

First out at the hotel room was the dark lager. In the glass it was black with nearly no carbonation and a medium sized head. In the nose a lot of coffee was present with some burnt notes. In the mouth I felt even more coffee with some hints of apples. The finish was bitter with some dark chocolate. I liked this beer, but I felt that it would probably be better with a less coffee presence in the mouth.

I am fond of wheat beers, so I also needed to try Purkmistr's Pisar. Poured into an ordinary Purkmistr glass, this was a cloudy beer with a large head and much caronation. The nose was full of yeast, banana and sweetness, and in the mouth the banana notes struggles with more yeast and bread. I liked this wheat beer, and I felt it better than some of the German wheat beers that are available here in Norway. But I feel Primator's wheat beer is a better Czech alternative than Purkmistr's Pisar.

I have had my share of Svijany's various lagers during my visits to the Czech Republic, but I have never tried Svijany's Svijanský Rytíř beer. Therefore I had to try out a bottle of the golden lager. In he glass there is little carbonation, and the aroma is sweet with some flowers and some yeast. In the mouth this is a fruity beer with some apples and pears dancing with hints of hops. Svijanský Rytíř is a really good lager beer! And of course there are more beers to be tested out on later visits to the Czech Republic!

Oktoberfest in Prague

The Czech Beer Festival is about to become a tradition. In May the festival will be arranged for the third time, and the arrangers anticipate that 100,000 visitors will attend next year's festival.

In the meantime the arrangers teamed up with several Czech breweries and the Panorama Hotel to arrange an Autumn tasting at the hotel in the Pankrac neighbourhood of Prague. Depending on what website you visit, the Autumn tasting or Oktoberfest in Pankrac was arranged from 2 October to 11 October. The arrangers advertised 14 different draughted beers, Czech food and live music. As I was in Prague at the time, I had to attend the event, and twice I took the metro to Pankrac to enjoy the beers and atmosphere.

As some of you might have read in my comments on Pivni Filosof's blog, I was mostly positive about the Oktoberfest in Prague. It was a nice opportunity to try various Czech beers, and the food was also very good.

Travelling to Pankrac was easy with the metro. The Oktoberfest itself was being held in a large beer tent near the hotel. I was there on the first night, and at 6PM the tent was nearly full. I went back six days later, and there were even more people there at 5PM. Both days it looked as if people had fun, and it was easy to stay for hours both days. There must have been few foreigners in the tent on both occations, and I only heard Czech spoken around me.

The waitresses did a great job. They were a smiling lot, and I felt very welcome in the beer tent. For payment, you could use the special tolars that were made for the first Czech Beer Festival in 2008. These are worth 40 CZK, and you chose whether to pay in cash or in tolars. A beer always cost a tolar, while you had to pay two or three tolars for most meals on the menu.

On both occations there was music. On the opening night a band played a lot of classic rock and pop songs. I had too much ABBA that night, but there was also another problem: The sound technician had turned the volume much too high. It was more or less impossible to have a conversation in the tent, and I could not enjoy the music. That was a shame, as the band really had some good cover versions of various popular songs.

On my second visit the band was replaced by a duo playing accordion and cornet. The duo played local music, and the only song I recognized was the classic Beer Barrel Polka. I enjoyed this much more than the band on the first night.

There were many opportunities for beers during my visits to Oktoberfest in Pankrac. Unfortunatly, they only sold various lager beers. I would have liked to have a more varied beer menu. The first night I tried the 11° Klášter světlý ležák, the 11° Ježek světlý ležák, the 12° Lobkowicz premium světlý ležák and the Platan 11° světlý ležák. The Klášter golden lager is a personal favourite of mine, and it was the best of these four beers. Platan was OK, while Ježek was a positive surprise that I went on to try several times later during my stay in Prague. Lobkowicz was also OK, but it was beaten by the other three.

The second day I ventured into kvasnicove beers by trying out the Klášter 11° kvasnicový ležák. This was a nice beer, but I prefer the normal version. I should also have tried the Rychtář natur kvasnicový ležák, but I forgot to order it while in the tent. Perhaps that will be for my next time in the Czech Republic? I also tried the 13° Comenius speciál from the Janacek brewery. I believe I was unlucky with the beer I was served, as I felt the stronger lager beer was not very good at all. A metallic taste went to the fore, and I felt it took away all other nuances in the beer. I could not drink all of it. Perhaps it was just being badly tapped?

I enjoyed being at Oktoberfest, and my second visit was the best one. I hope to be back for the beer festival in May, and am looking forward to it if I am able to go. If not, I am back in Prague in March to try some more Czech beers.