Czech Republic Beer

I recently traveled a little around central Europe and spent most of my time in the Czech Republic. The architecture and history in this Central European crossroad is almost surreal at times. By escaping most of the bombing during the World Wars, the Czech Republic was able to preserve their history, architecture and culture with out having to rebuild. The country itself is kind of split into two regions; Moravia and Bohemia. While their is quite a bit of wine production in Moravia, The Czech Republic is most famous for "Pilsner" Beer hailing from the Bohemian region, and more specifically the town of Plzen; or Pilsner.
Pilsner has kind of become the generic name for any bottom fermented beer. The people of Pilsner wanted to distinguish themselves from other Bottom fermenters, especially Bavarians (Southeastern Germany), so they renamed their beer in 1898 to Pilsner Urquell. Pilsner Urquell is probably the most recognizable brand exported from the Czech Republic now, and simply translates to "Pilsner from the original source." This brewery dates back to 1842 and can attribute its recipe to a brewer named Josef Groll. Its said that Groll acquired a strand of yeast from a runaway monk and the brewery can still trace their unique pilsner strand back to this period. The combination of this unique strand of yeast, Bohemian and Moravian Barley and noble hops from the Saaz region combine to make a truly delightful and refreshing beer.
Because this style of beer has gained so much popularity throughout the world, the original recipes and techniques have been repeatedly imitated, but to much disappointment not duplicated. Big commercial breweries have in my opinion butchered the true pilsner style lager and just used the name for marketing reasons. A perfect example is "Budweiser", which is one of the worlds most famous beers, the "Budweiser" name comes from the city of Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, which has its own original type of beer, also called "Budweiser." The Czech company has the rights to use this name in Europe, but Anheuser-Busch has continually tried to dominate the small Brewery through European Court Systems, and even tried to buy the brewery several times. The Company refuses to associate its name, and rightfully so. No offense, but Budweiser is far from an original pilsner style lager. This is a great example of how bigger corporations have to a certain extent tainted the cultural aspect of manufacturing high quality craft beer through less than authentic imitations and questionable marketing schemes.
Regardless, they are still making this unique and wonderful beer in the Czech Republic. Beer is a huge part of Czech culture and it shows through one of the highest beer consumption rates in the world. Beer is part of everyday life, so why put up with bad quality. Czech beer is made to be slowly savoured and relished, not just drank. Its unique flavor is a gift to us beer drinkers, so branch out and give a true original beer a try. We have Pilsner Urquell, Chechvar(or budvar in Czech), and Zatec all available at the West Vail Liquor Mart.

Enjoy,

Nick WVLM