What is so special about Czech beer?
There are quite a few beer enthusiasts out there, who don’t feel that Czech beer is anything special. Sure, they recognize that Pilsner-style lager is the most popular beer style the world over and that the style originated in the Bohemian city of Plzen. But is that something to get excited over when Belgium boasts the most distinctive styles of beer. You don’t hear about too many American beer geeks getting excited about finding a bottle of Czech beer from some unknown regional producer, but you tell them we just received a shipment of new Belgian farmhouse ales and their eyes light up like its Christmas.
So, what is so special about Czech beer? Well, for starters it is very dear to our hearts. Doug and I are descendants of Czech immigrants who immigrated to the United States with the desire to settle in Iowa in 1868. So, just like a kolache, a decent pastry by all standards and worthy of a festival or two, Czech beer connects us to our past. Pilsner, and Pilsner-style beer (we have to acknowledge the significance of the Pilsner appellation), is also just a very quaffable beer.
Well-made Pilsners and Pilsner-style lagers have a legendary crispness that makes them so easy to drink while also having a full body and tons of flavor. There is a reason that the enormous brewery boom of the late 19th century in America was led by German and Czech immigrants where they made the tasty lager beer of their homeland and sold it by the wagon-load to their fellow thirsty immigrants. What happened to the those great American breweries is another posting.
One of our goals with this trip to the “beer fatherland” is to try and find some unique Czech brews that are a bit off the beaten path. Perhaps we’ll find some new and exciting high gravity lagers or maybe even a rare ale. Who knows. It’s an adventure.