Pivo please
Today is when this beer trek’s rubber meets the road, literally. If our 1999 trip taught us anything is that navigating the roads of a foreign land can be incredibly frustrating. I prefer to take the train whenever possible as it is very clear that a particular train will get you from point A to point B without too much hassle. Doug, on the other hand, prefers to drive. So, we got a rental car. Our friend was very kind and had arranged for a rental car to be delivered to her apartment building the day before so first thing this morning we were ready to head out.
Our major goal for today is the town of Chodová Planá, about 40 minutes northwest of Plzeň. To get there we need to drive through Plzeň (home of Pilsner beer). Luckily for us, Plzeň is a pretty big town so there were clearly marked directions as we drove through Prague. We only flubbed up once trying to leave the city and even then we managed to recover pretty quickly. Prague is a very large city. Unlike major cities in the States, Prague doesn’t have major arterial highways surrounding it, so our path to the highway connecting Prague to Plzeň required us to cut through the twisty heavy trafficked streets of Prague. Lots of stop and go and many chances for us to crash as we carefully tried to find street markers, but there were no casualties. We never did find any street markers we could recgnize on the map, so we just followed the arrows pointing to Plzeň. I doubt we’ll find our way back.
We had thought about stopping in Plzeň to do some sightseeing, and we did exit off of the highway to drive into the city center, but we couldn’t find an easy place to park. Since we did have an appointment at 2 PM at the Chodovar brewery in Chodová Planá, we thought it just better to get to our destination rather then get severely lost.
We are staying at the brewery’s hotel, Hotel U Sládka. The rooms have all the basics including private bathrooms and appear to have been recently remodeled. Downstairs in their basement is their Beer Spa which we be giving a try tomorrow morning. To get the brewery’s restaurant, you have walk outside 200 meters around the building. The entrance to the restaurant is an old entrance to the underground cellars carved out of solid granite. The cellars date back to the 12th century and seeing how large they are, it has probably taken eight centuries to carve them out with pick and shovel.
Lunch at the restaurant was basic Czech fare. I opted for my favorite Czech dish, goulash while Doug went for the recognizable smoked ham with cabbage and dumplings. Czech goulash, as I’m familiar with the dozens of times I’ve had it at Zindrick’s, the Czech restaurant at the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is made with chunks of roasted beef and a liberal amount of paprika. This yields a spicy stew traditionally served with potao and bread dumplings. Today, I was given a completely different presentation. The sauce was completely lacking in spice as the spice component was provided by two long and slender roasted green and red peppers garnishing the dish. I suppose I should expect something different as any Czech cookbook I’ve ever seen has about a dozen different interpretations of goulash. Oh yeah, Doug’s meal was good too.
The brewery traces its history back to 1573, but the brewery as it stands today was started in 1862. Compared to the other Czech breweries we will be visiting, this one is pretty small. They brew only three days a week and provide beer to about 90 establishments, mostly local. The tour didn’t give us a lot of information as the guide’s English was a bit rough and our Czech is virtually non-existent. We can say that the brewery’s operations haven’t changed that much in the past 140 years. There is no computer automation as we would expect in comparatively-sized German or American breweries. All of the equipment looks old and well-used, but they produce a really high-quality product with it. See the gallery for photos of the brewery.
With lunch we both enjoyed their Černá destilka (dark kellerbier). I’ll be perfectly honest, I’ve never been a big fan of dark Czech lagers. Something about the liberal use of Saaz hops with the sweet darker malt is perhaps to blame. Since Chodovar is so close to Germany (only about 20 km), I think their version is a bit more German in style. It certainly lacks the bitterness I was expecting. Instead, I was presented with a very smooth unfiltered beer with just a hint of malty sweetness.
Tomorrow we’ll be experiencing a bath in beer and a tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery and brewery museum in Plzeň.