Visiting the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Plzen, Czech Republic

July 19, 2008

We spent ALL of Friday, July 18, walking around Prague, so we took Saturday a little easier and headed over by train to the town of Plzen for some relaxed exploring. Plzen was a town I wanted to visit ever since I saw it featured on the old PBS series "The Beer Hunter" because it's home to one of the most influential and famous breweries, the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. It's influential because the style of beer known as "pilsner" or "pils" originated here, and more than two-thirds of all beer produced in the world owe their inspiration to the Plzen original. Budweiser/Miller/Coors/Corona--their beers are all pilsner style, though lighter and watered down compared to the original.

Quick history on the brewery and beer

The city of Plzen traces it's connection with beer all the way back to 1295 when its founder King Wenceslaus II granted a brewing license to 257 city houses, allowing them to malt, brew, and serve beer. Sadly, for the next 700 years the beer produced was lackluster and the city struggled to keep up with competition. In 1839, the residents had had enough and dramatically emptied 36 barrells of undrinkable beer in front of city hall. This spurred the town authorities to combine forces and build a modern brewery. In 1842 the Mestansky pivovar (Burgess' brewery) opened its gates and welcomed their first brewer, Josef Groll. Later that year, and before his 30th birthday, Josef succeeded in producing the first golden, crisp, and delicious bottom-fermented beer--Pilsen lager. The renown of Pilsen beer quickly spread beyond the Bohemian borders, and the rest is history!

When we arrived in Plzen, we made our way to the city center, which was a short walk from the train station. The main square was expansive and lined with lovely old buildings that are well-maintained; a large, old church and tall clock tower provide the main focal point. We climbed the narrow and steep stairs to the top for the best view of the city.

After briefly exploring the city center, we made our way to the brewery in time for the 12:45 English-speaking tour. Walking up to Pilsner Urquell, the famous gates greeted us into the impressive grounds that house the original and new factories, visitors center, brewing museum, bottling center, water tower, and gift shop. The brewery is a big tourist draw, and we witnessed full groups of Germans and Japanese taking tours. Our group was around 20 people, and our guide was a local Plzener in his late 20s.

The Tour

The tour was impressive, informative, and fun, and not just for me, but for Rob, Linden, and Beth, too. It started off in a spacious theater with a well-made short film about the brewery's history. Next we walked outside to hear explanations of all the buildings, with the oldest dating back to 1849. We then went into the old brewery-now-historical museum, riding up the largest elevator in Czech Republic (*an odd fact*) and entered another theater. This one was unique in that we all stood on a revolving platform in front of screen that wrapped around 3/4 of the room. We watched another film, this one explaining the origin and process of making the Pilsner Urquell beer. It was really cool! They utilized the screen and rotating platform to present the info in a really engaging way.

Bottling line (and a cool shot using the color accent mode on the camera)

We then went on to a room with information and samples of the special barley, malt, water, hops, and yeast that go into making the beer. You could touch and taste everything. That was followed by a walk-through of a room housing the old copper mashes (which mix the ingredients when making beer) before making our way into the new brew room. The new facility is state-of-the-art and totally computer-controlled, not to mention very warm and smelling like hay! Only five people at a time are needed to oversee the process of making all the beer during this stage of production.

Linden playing with the barley.

The Cellars

The last leg of the tour was the best. We got to see their underground cellars which were hewn out of the sandstone beneath the brewery and stretch to the unbelievable length of five and a half miles. The ceilings feature a unique cooling method by suspending blocks of ice overhead. The place felt like a cold, murky labrinth, with halls splitting off everywhere and full of gigantic barrels. Despite the brewery's upgrade to an ultra modern factory, beer is still produced in a small section of the cellars using a variety of wooden containers that follow the traditional method of open-air fermentation (no lid on the barrel). This beer, while offered for tasting to the visitors as a special part of the tour, is also used to make constant comparisons of the taste and quality of the beer produced using the traditional method and the modern method.

Our guide explains to us the map of the cellars.

Linden looking up at the suspended cooling units while Rob and I marvel at the size of the barrels.

Open-air fermentation in progress. The scum on top doesn't look too appealing, but what eventually pours out sure does.

The Beer

Tasting the fresh and unfiltered beer straight out of the holding barrel was the highlight of the tour. Compared to the bottled variety you can pick up in stores, this one was cloudy (due to it being unfiltered), brighter and more orange than golden yellow, had a noticeably stronger and fresher aroma and flavor, and had a fuller, softer body. Mmmmm! Following the tour, we chatted with our guide about a good place to eat in town and have another beer. We were surprised and delighted to learn of the Na Parkanu restaurant, the only other place that serves the traditional beer we just sampled. So, following our hearty Czech lunch and more sight-seeing, we played cards and enjoyed one more round before catching our train back to Prague.

Brewery worker pouring us our beers straight from the barrel.

Linden, Rob, James, and Beth enjoying their beers underneath the brewery.

Tasty, traditional Czech food and beer

The restaurant where we enjoyed more of the special beer.