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.

Prague Blog

Although there are endless posts we could do on the Czech Republic, Prague (Praha in Czech) was one of our favorite cities we visited whilst in Europe, and the Prague Castle was certainly one of the city's highlights.

Charles Bridge (Karlův most), which famously connects Old Town to Prague Castle, is a gorgeous 30 ft. wide bridge with 30 baroque-style statues of saints and patron saints. It's teeming with tourists during day and night, but you can always find a place for a lovely picture along the way! On the Old Town side of the bridge, the gothic Bridge Tower (considered one of the most beautiful gothic structures in the world) and St. Charles statue are also worth a look-see.

Old Town Bridge Tower, marking the start to Charles Bridge

One of the 30 gothic imposing statues along the bridge

One of the 30,000 pictures I took on the bridge...

Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) was built from the 9th century and then rebuilt/remodeled again and again up through the 18th century (yes, that's right; nearly 900 years in the making), depending on who was at war, who was in power, and who had the money to make the renovations. It has been the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor, housed many royal families (including King Charles IV, his son King Wencesclas IV, and Emperor Rudolf II), and today it is the Presidential Seat and administration center of the country.

The castle was a sight to behold at any time of day from anywhere in the city. It sits majestically above the Vltava River, and it is easy to believe how fortified and imposing it must have been to its citizens in the past, as it seems to its visitors now! The Castle grounds sprawl out to include courtyards, basilicas, palaces, art galleries, and there are lookout towers throughout the city of Prague across the river that were fun to visit, too!

Prague Castle from across the river

At night

A view of the city from the castle

St. George Basilica within Prague Castle

St. Vitus Cathedral (Katedrála svatého Víta) is the other -- possibly even more impressive -- structure on the castle grounds. It also took over 900 years to complete (can you imagine?!) and is a shining example of Neo-Gothic architecture. Both inside and out, its jaw-dropping stained glass windows and heaven-reaching flying buttresses are enough to provoke a religious conversion! It is still the most important church in the Czech Republic, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Saints, kings, emperors of Bohemia are all buried here.

The front of St. Vitus Cathedral during the day

The front of St. Vitus Cathedral at night

Side view at night

Back of the cathedral

Inside the cathedral at dusk
The sun radiantly shined through the stained glass windows to create a colorful effect on the opposite pillars
WOW!

Above: Rose Window, inspired by cathedrals of Paris

Above: Incredibly detailed, gigantic stained-glass window - one of many
Below: one of the smaller pictures from a larger windowed wall

Note the detail and how small the pieces of glass are!

German Joy

Just arrived in Frankfurt!

Outside of the main Frankfurt bus station

On July 1, James and I started what has thus far proven to be the greatest decision ever for summer plans: a trip to Germany! The flights went great, and since we are only traveling with our backpacks, customs and immigration were a breeze! The travel took so long, we actually arrived the morning of July 2, sleepy but excited, and revived by Rob and Linden Mueller, some of our best friends, who we will be living with while we are here! Linden and I have been best friends since the 4th grade, and when Rob and James entered our lives in college, the four of us got along swimmingly, and we have all stayed close through the years.

After flying into Frankfurt, we took the train to their town, Giessen, about 45 scenic minutes away. Linden had to go straight to work at the town's university (she only had to work through July 4, and then she gets a 3-month summer vacation break!). The Mullers are in Giessen because Linden is simultaneously working as an English teacher and getting her Ph.D. in Linguistics here. Rob works from home on the internet (kind of like James, except he has to work 8 hrs. a day; not free lance.). Their apartment is very cute and Euro. It's on the top floor, small and compact, but well-built for being small! The washer is in the bathroom, the refridgerator s hidden in the kitchen, and the Muellers have done a lot with their space. They completely furnished the place with IKEA furniture, which James and I love the look of. It's modern, practical, and aesthetically pleasing. Their apartment also looks right over onto the main pedestrian shopping district, which is full of cute clothing stores, bakeries, bratwurst stands, coffee shops, beer gardens, flower stores, and ice cream parlors. It is heavenly. What only makes it better is that everyone we see is young, attractive, fashionable, rides a bike, and seems much cooler than we could ever hope to be. We can't tell if this will be Europe in general, or if this is just a hip college town. It's sort of intimidating! on the other side of their apartment building there is a bar called "Bitchen" which is hilarious to us, but simply means "A little bit of Bitburger beer" but the translation makes the bar, well, bitchen!

In one of the many nice residential neighborhoods

Rob, James, and I more or less strolled around the pedestrian district, with James and I having to pick up our jaws every few feet from them falling off our faces based on what we saw. Each house could stand alone as fantastic. Each bakery was worthy of visiting. Each cute outfit begged to be tried on. Each flower needed to be smelled. Each coffee needed to be drank! We were honestly in a mixed state of delerium and euphoria from the lack of sleep and sheer joy of German life. We feel so glad that we will get to taste real German life in a smaller, non-tourist town instead of fast-paced metro Berlin or Munich where every one might be a tourist, and we might feel guilty about taking it at an easy pace.

Linden and I in front of some Beatles painted box

When Linden returned from work, we went to their favorite Doener (dooh-ner) hole-in-the-wall restaurant (the best kind of eatery, I think), truly Turkish-run! A doener is like a Gyro served in soft flat-bread, with lamb or beef, lettuce, red cabbage, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and a choice of garlic or yogurt sauce. They were humongous and tasty! We had our doeners with beer (cheaper than the water), was a filling and delicious meal. Then, because it stays light out until 10:00 pm (much better than the year-round 6:00 pm Guate curfew), the four of us wandered through some pretty neighborhood streets, with me snapping a picture every 2 feet of every building, because each building was different and full of its own detail! The mixture of old-style and ultra modern buildings kept us interested the entire time.

These two buildings, classic and modern, were right next to each other in a residential neighborhood.

We also found a beautiful church (one of many, I'm sure) in the neighborhood, too.


We found ourselves wiping stupid grins off our faces all of the time because we were so gosh-darned happy and amazed at the culture, lifestyle, and beauty of it all, guided by some of our best friends in the world. We feel so lucky to be on this vacation! After this long, long day, Rob and Linden let us sleep to our heart's desire, which ended up being 13 hours! Then, we were revived for Day 2, with no real jet lag leftover, ready for our next fun day in Germany!