The sun is shining onto the courtyard of the Strahov brewery, rays reflecting in the glasses of beer. “I have already had the amber one, the dark one too. The Easter one, then,” a middle-aged lady decided. She went out for a beer with a friend. “This Easter one isn’t bitter at all,” she said.
The number of special beers brewed for special occasions in the Czech Republic is growing. Christmas ones are strong and dark while the Easter one is lighter.
The Strahov brewery started to serve 13-degree non-filtered light green beer one week before Good Friday.
To resurrection
The tradition of seasonal special beers came to the Czech Republic from western Europe. It is common in Belgium and Sweden where the Jamtalands brewery traditionally brews Paskol beer that is of dark walnut colour with thick foam.
The Brno brewery does not lag behind in its extravagance, since this year it started offering Easter beer in green.
Pivovarský dvůr in Plzeň is celebrating a more traditional Easter. “The 15-degree special beer has a specific bitterness. It matured in tanks for 45 days before being served,” said Petr Krýsl, the brewer and concluded the interview with a traditional brewers’ greeting: “God give us happiness!”
Bazal and Břeclav
Even Břeclav has its own special beer after 10 years of the brewery being closed down. Humpolec brewery Bernard brought a new beer with a simple name Břeclav 11.
The golden lager is sold in bottles with Břeclav municipal colours on the label. “We prepare our beer using a traditional method. We observe the 20-day ageing process,” said Zdeněk Mikulášek, Bernard brewery manager.
The Ostravar brewery in the northern Moravia is betting its money on football fans. The name of the beer, Bazal, is reminiscent of the name of Ostrava FC Baník’s stadium Bazaly.
Some 6,000 people around pubs and online were choosing the name. “It was a close match between a number of favourites. In the 85th minute, however, Bazal took a lead and managed to keep it until the end of the match,” Pavel Barvík from Ostravar used football-speak to describe the voting process.
The north of Moravia has another novelty: Castle brewery Bracki in Těšín wants to introduce a new beer as part of the 1,200 anniversary of the town’s foundation. Brewers are keeping the name of the beer secret.
Chotěboř is also planning a new material for local taps. The grounds of the new brewery should be completed soon.
Traditional Czech beer with bitterness, vigour and fullness should be brewed in Chotěboř. “We do not want to brew a so-called ‘Eurobeer’ that does not offend but also does not excite,” said Oldřich Záruba, Chotěboř brewer.
“Eurobeers” age for a shorter time in tall tanks and under higher temperature while in Chotěboř the beer will age longer and part-time of it will take place in tubs.
