Local breweries are allowed to dilute beer with water and still use the European protected label Czech beer, executive director of the Czech Beer and Malt Association, Jan Veselý told E15 in an interview.
The method of first brewing beer to a higher alcohol content and then diluting it with water to attain the desired 12 or 10 degrees is used commonly around the world. But according to traditional recipes, Czech beer was brewed to the required degree without adding any water. A number of local breweries, however, are now adding water. They can do this and still use the Czech beer European protected label, which was negotiated by breweries without taking the opinions of consumers into account.
“The technology for brewing beer to a 14 degree and knocking it down to 10 degree is a very common practice now. It lowers production costs because breweries don’t need to buy new vats. When there is a high consumption of beer, you can make one batch and then dilute it with the help of computer calculations,” said Veselý.
Local breweries don’t like to talk too much about the new methods, which are looked down upon by Czech beer drinkers. But they admit that beer is being diluted more and more often. “In the 15th century, they would have chopped off their arms for that. But I can promise that something like that wouldn’t happen now,” said Jiří Fusek, president of the brewery Pivovar Černá Hora. According to Veselý, local breweries can use beer diluted with water without having to fear they would lose the European label of protection status. “We negotiated for two years about the conditions for using the label.. It was difficult and the result is a compromise that allows the majority of beers to have this label,” said Veselý.
“Our goal was be able to keep this label of protection without having to change it in reaction to technological changes,” said Veselý. The quality of Czech beer will be controlled by the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority. In the future this authority should have a list of beers that use the protected label.
Conditions for using the protected label Czech beer:
