The Czech Republic with beer is a true love story. They say that theirs began in the Middle Ages when the idea spread that beer had a healing power and that whoever drank it did not remain ill. The belief made sense because at that time most water was unhealthy and loaded with bacteria, so fermented beers were much safer to drink. This led to beer becoming the basic drink in all Czech homes, it was even used for cooking, and was drank from children to the elderly. It was so important in the country's economy that it was popularly known as “liquid bread”.
The first official brewing school
With these precedents, it is not strange that the country became a specialist in the manufacture of beer. In fact, experts say that the key to these beers being so delicious is that they have a long tradition of brewing, which has allowed the Czech brewing school to refine its techniques and, above all, to become more professional.
It is interesting to know that the first school of brewers in the world arose in Bohemia at the end of the 18th century. At the beginning of 1800, specialization courses for beer cooking were already taught in the country and since the middle of that century the first professional middle schools appeared. The Czech Republic brewing school is the first to standardize brewing as a profession.
The country with the most beer brands
In the Czech Republic there are more than 250 commercial brands of beer and more than 1000 microbreweries. In addition, the country has turned its beer potential into an attraction for very specific tourists: beer tourism. And if you want to visit the beer city par excellence, you will have to go to Pilsen. This is a very important place in the beer universe of the country and the world. One of the quintessential national beers is made here, Pilsner Urquell (Plzeňský Prazdroj), whose relevance is such that it gave its name to the type of pilsener or pilsen beer , today one of the most widespread styles of beer in the world.
History of the Czech brewing school: Pilsen was born here
Pilsen was a city proud of having been built specifically for brewing, but by the late 1830s they were experiencing a major brewing crisis: the quality of their beers was lousy. In addition, the drink was expensive and only the pride of its inhabitants prevented them from choosing the imported beers that began to arrive in the city thanks to the Industrial Revolution.
The situation was so tense that in February 1838 a group of citizens brought 36 barrels of poorly brewed beer to the main square of Pilsen to throw their contents into the streets in protest. This quickly led local tavern owners and producers to raise funds to build a new brewery, more professional and focused on brewing bottom-fermented beer. The brewery was called the Citizens' Brewery.
A leading factory for its time
For its construction they chose Martin Stelzer and Frantisek Filaus as architect and builder, respectively. The facilities were built near the Radbuza River, which had soft water and was surrounded by artesian wells and sandy soils. This allowed cellars to be dug to store the beer. It turned out to be one of the most advanced breweries in the world at the time: an English inventor made a patented malting kiln, featuring technology that allowed malted barley to be indirectly roasted, allowing for greater control of the process to produce paler malts. .
As brewmaster the citizens hired the young Josef Groll, who lived in a quiet German town 30 km from the Czech border. The German knew very well the process of bottom fermentation and storage of beer since he had learned it in his father's factory. The brewmaster took the bottom fermentation yeast he had in Germany and combined it with his knowledge of making clear malts he had learned in England. With these two things he managed to make the first Pilsen lager.
He presented his first design for the drink on October 5, 1842, made with Moravian malts, high-purity water from the area, and Czech hops from Zatec. It was the first Pilsner Urquell , which took Europe by storm. It became so popular that it invaded Germany and they started making it too, getting to the point where they wanted to ban making light beers. The same thing happened in England, lager beer ousted porter, which was no longer produced.
communism and beer
However, despite the incredible success of the Pilsen lager beer , in the 20th century its production almost came to a standstill. Traditionally every Czech city and town had its own local brewery. Some historians point out that there were about a thousand breweries throughout the country at the beginning of the 20th century. But after the fall of the Iron Curtain the beer industry was nationalized.
This caused very large, state-controlled breweries to emerge, mass-producing beer at very low cost, while most of the small breweries had to close due to lack of funds to keep them going. Fortunately the number of microbreweries has increased steadily in recent years, thanks among other reasons to beer tourism.
Today a powerful tourist industry has been generated, which has not only created tours of different cities with beer traditions, but also allows you to stay in breweries that have been converted into hotels, such as the Purkmistr Brewery Hotel in Pilsen. Here there is even the possibility of bathing in vats of beer.
At Beer Sapiens we do not advise you to bathe in beer (it would be a bit expensive, really) but we do advise you to try this popular and refreshing beer style, now that the time is getting closer. In the next article we will give you some recommendations for Czech-style beers and some curiosities that you surely did not know!