budvar

I tried it, it is a very good lager beer.

Where are you from Igor? Just curious

I have had it many times... add some more "malt" flavor to regular St Pauli girl, and you have Budvar IMHO. in other words, I like it plenty... For a light lager it's one of the world's best.

I've drunk many many gallons of it over the years.

It is a "bohemian pilsner" somewhat like Pilsner Urquell, but I think it is a somewhat lighter bodied version, closer to a German Pilsner, such as Warsteiner, but still having some peppery Saaz hop character.

Here in the US they sell it in six packs of 12 oz green bottles, which I avoid, because of potential skunkiness. But fortunately they also sell it in half liter brown bottles, for about US$2.29 here in CA now-a-days (plus tax and CRV).

Slainte, John

oliver wrote: : Hey everyone. I just had an online chat with Josef Tolar, head : brewmaster of Budvar, or Czechvar beer. Has anyone tried it? Did you : like it? What's it like? :

I like it but find it overpriced in the USA compared to other Czech Pilseners -- Why buy Czechvar at $9.00 per sixpack when I can get Starobrno for $5.00?? They're very similar beers and I doubt that I could tell them apart in a blindfold test.

Others have described it, and I agree that it's a great beer. I can especially recommend the unfiltered Budvar (in the Czech Republic the locals call these "yeast beers"). As far as I know the unfiltered is only available at the brewery, and perhaps at some other local pubs in Budejovice.

Brewing a "yeast beer" appears to be standard practice for many of the Czech breweries - it never travels far though, so you've got to be either at the brewery or a pub very nearby to try on.

Was just at the brewery and the brewery pub last month, and no unfiltered available...dammit. Eggenberg in Ceske Krumlov did have one, and it was noticeably better than their 12...though neither of them was a patch on Budvar 12, or the new Budvar Dark, which was excellent.

I was told that it's a seasonal thing - I was just lucky I guess :-)

Agreed on that - did you tour the Eggenberg brewery? I really liked the open fermentors: looked kinda like oversized, communist era hot tubs!

Ceske Krumlov was such a cool town, too. I totally enjoyed that outing.

Well, that's one way to look at it. Looks different from my perspective!

No one around, and we were flying low, jamming folks in cabs and grabbing beers...well. We were in the grip of beer mania, to be honest. Remembering it brings a grin to my face, though!

I'm ready to go back to the Republic just to see Ceske Krumlov again. That place is gorgeous.

Remembering

What?! You mean the beer wasn't stupefyingly boring?! You mean it actually wasn't the WORST MISTAKE OF YOUR ADULT LIFE to go on a beer trip to CR?!

Scott K's got some 'splainin to do.

Hmmm. That's right. I forgot that. Beer in CR was good. And somewhat varied. And it was great to just tear into beer after beer after beer. It's just embarrassing (journalistically and all) to admit that the very best major brewery beer we had were the Budvar 12 and the Budvar Dark, which were, of course, made by the people who were paying my way over there. Tough luck, someone had to win. The regular lager at Pivovarsky Dum edged the Budvar 12, but mainly because it was more in a German style, with bolder hopping: judging strictly on merits would be a tough call. I didn't get the dark lager at St. Norbert's, up by the castle, but those who did said it was outstanding. I've made many worse mistakes.

"Lew Bryson" wrote in news:_%Rge.1644$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com:

Like I said.

I can do that in any city in the world.

Well, there we have it. "The very best major brewery beer."

Ooh. I can't WAIT to go for the beer.

Scott

Well, I think it really does depend on what you like. Having just got back from there, I guess I half agree with you. If I'm going somewhere exclusively for the beer, I'd probably take Belgium or the UK over the CR. Belgium for obvious reasons and the UK because I really love real ale...

But the beer *is* good and often excellent in the CR. And I think it's unique enough that any beer geek worth his or her salt should visit. Unfiltered Budvar was, how do you guys say it around here... FG? And many of the dark lagers were phenomenal - including budvar, but especially Primator 21. The malt in that was like no beer I've ever tried before.

I also really liked Pivovarsky Dum, even Samp their "champagne" beer. They had some incredibly unique beers, and even stuff like their coffee beer was to me far better than any North American example that I've tried.

And while U Fleku was touristy, their dark was *excellent*.

You know, just thinking about it makes me want to go back...

I'm not 100% certain but I'd guess that's the degrees plato of the wort prior to pitching. At least that would seem to correlate well with the final alcohol %.

Well - you aren't going to get a strong argument from me on that, simply because the Czech Republic has so much going for it that it would be worth going to even if beer didn't exist in the country. But imo, the beer is *much* better there than you imply.

Since Lew isn't sharing with us as he should, I hope he doesn't mind my putting this link up:

What I get from Lew (and many others before him) is that it *is* in fact one of the greatest beer destinations. Not for variety, but for how thoroughly beer is integrated into the whole culture, like a nation-sized Duesseldorf. Where else can you get that? Belgium certainly, parts of Britain, parts of Germany, *maybe* Ireland... that's about it. And of those, it's no worse than all of Britain or great swaths of Germany in terms of variety (and it kicks Ireland's ass).

By your standards, I really don't see how you can consider Britain a great beer destination. A 1001 similar interpretations of a single subtle style- whoopie! It's just a style you happen to like a great deal. By my standards, both Britain and CR are great beer destinations, and for exactly the same reasons. It's in the culture, man!

Americans can't swing a zwickel without knocking over a larger variety of beers than either Britain or CR will ever know. There's just about nothing we can't get here. Variety and novelty are all America have going for it WRT beer, and are no longer things that make a place a "beer destination." What America doesn't have at all is any sort of beer culture. As far as that goes, we're still a barren, lite beer sippin' WASTELAND.

So I *really* want to go to CR.

Here's this, though: If CR were a shithole with nothing else going for it but beer (like Belgium), I wouldn't want to go there (like Belgium). Beer's the icing for me, not the cake. It's the refreshing reward for hours of museum stomping, architecture gazing, and scenery watching, not the destination itself.

So, at least as for as CR goes, we're in complete agreement, even though we disagree so thoroughly.

Niiiice crushjob. But hey, Lew's been there, I've been there, Jackson's been there, other lurkers have been there, so WTF do we know?

Scott, keep fightin' that good fight as you, um, travel the world by bottle. That way, you can continue to equate a fine old locals' pub in Prague with a corner tavern in Newark.

Not a bad idea. I'd stop there this summer, but decided to check out Krakow this time 'round. If I'm lucky, I'll scare up a Polish porter to set everything right.

Um... whafuck?

Y'know, maybe it's a reading comprehension and/or irony comprehension problem here, but Belgium isn't anywhere near "a shithole with nothing else going for it but beer." Brugge has been a damn nice destination for longer than, say, Cesky Krumlov, and it's still worth visiting on its own merits - as is Cesky Krumlov. Belgium has plenty going for it besides beer.

Sure is. But the cake's good in both Belgium and the Czech Republic, just as it is in Germany and the UK. The icing is just has more swirly colors in Belgium.

Got you covered in all of the above. Thing is, in Belgium, you get this nice added bonus that some of the beer & brewing are also part of the museum stomping - like a certain lambic maker in Brussels, f'r instance. You no longer find that link to the long-gone-by past in the Czech Republic, because, well, history can suck sometimes, and much of 20th century sucked for the Czechs, so their old brewing traditions - pre-1842, say - have pretty much been swept by the wayside.

Yeah, but you disagree so agreeably.

Except for PR0TLAND OREGON, dude!!!1!11!!!1!

So where *is* Nick these days?

nothing

I leave this juicy, stinking bait out for two days and all I land is this one lousy old carp? Sheesh! Either this pond is totally fished out or I've lost my touch.

Yeah, I would like to spend a day or two in Brugge, and I could no doubt amuse myself sufficiently for a day in Brussels, but Belgium will never be a primary Euro-destination for me.

I think you're seeing Belgium through your beer goggles. I'm not buying it. Sorry. The list of places I want to see far overloads the time I'll ever have to see them, and Belgium is definitely towards the bottom of that list.

fwiw, of all the places I've visited in Europe Brugge is possibly my fav

- regardless of the beer. It is simply gorgeous and has a *lot* going for it besides beer. I think that if you go, you will be pleasantly surprised.

In any case, it's pretty easy to go to Europe and fit in stops in France, Belgium and Holland in the same trip without doing a whirlwind...

It think you've caught Scott's bug, in your own perverse way. There must be something in the California water. There's plenty of worthwhile stuff in Belgium - antiquity, history, culcha, all that. You're selling the place short, beer or no beer.