Time for another instalment of 1980s socialist nostalgia.
In this period Czechoslovakia had the best overall beer quality of anywhere I've ever been. I never came across a beer which wasn't of at least a decent standard. Even the stuff I wasn't that keen on - such as Staropramen - was still perfectly acceptable.
Something which never seems to get mentioned nowadays is the serving method. People go on about crap like "mlíko" pours - something I never came across in the 1980s and which I suspect was just made up recently. But not the reason why Czech beer was so drinkable: air pressure. Rather than CO2, air pressure was used to pump up beer from the celaar. Much like tall fonts in Scotland. The resulting half litre had a wonderful creamy head, but wasn't overly fizzy. Being more like beer served through a sparkler in texture. Why does no-one lament the loss of this wonderful practice?
In recent years, breweries have been built as standard projects in Slovakia with an annual output of around 750,000 hectolitres, in Hurbanovo or in Banska Bystrica. This is intended to relieve the burden on breweries in the homeland of beer, Bohemia, and to generally improve quality. In the "U Kalicha", where Schwejk wanted to meet with the sapper Vodicka "at six o'clock after the war", there is now Pilsner Urquell, and this Prague restaurant is just as much a tourist attraction as "U Fleku" in Kremencova Street, where beer was brewed 33 years before Columbus discovered America.
"Rund ums Bier" by Emil Ulischberger, Leipzig, 1986, page 55.
The brewing industry was relatively undevelopped in Slovakia, which is why large new breweries were built there.
Here's a confession: despite having read Švejk in the original Czech, I've never been in U Kalicha. Too touristy, even in the 1980s. I preferred the more basic type of Czech pub. Ones in the third or fourth category in the official way of classifying pubs. The type of place that only sold 10º beer.
Of the 1,500 beer bars in Prague, however, “U Fleku” is one of the best known because, as I said, they not only serve beer here, they also brew it. The famous 13-degree dark lager has been available here since 1840 in the large beer garden and in the many stylish rooms decorated by Czech artists. The rooms have their own names, such as Jitrnice (liver sausage), Redakce (editorial office), Academy, V kufru (In a suitcase), Chmelnice (hop garden). However, there is an inimitable atmosphere in all rooms, and workers, craftsmen, writers, artists and scientists have always sat together at the beer table in cheerful and contemplative conversation, stimulated by the tasty dark beer.
"Rund ums Bier" by Emil Ulischberger, Leipzig, 1986, page 55.
U Fleku, on the other hand, was a wonderful place. Not totally swamped with tourists and genuinely having all walks of society clumped together along its long tables. And home to a magnificent dark Lager. The beer - at least the last time I was ther emore than ten years ago - was still excellent. The atmosphere, not so much so.
These are specialties in the CSSR that are often recommended to visitors, because beer drinkers quickly agree on where a good beer flows from the tap.
By the way, beer from the CSSR is served in 80 countries around the world. Recently, for tropical zones (and not only for these), beer is available in cans with “Budvar” and a “golden pheasant” on the label.
In addition to “Urquell”, it is above all “Budvar” and “Crystal” from České Budějovice, the Prague “Staropramen” and the dark Pilsner lager “Diplomat” that have a good name all over the world and are witnesses to the art of Bohemian brewing. Over 1,250,000 hectolitres of Czechoslovak beer flow in a never-ending stream all over the world - to the delight of beer connoisseurs and beer drinkers!
"Rund ums Bier" by Emil Ulischberger, Leipzig, 1986, page 55.
Currently, Czechia exports considerably more than Czechoslovakia did in the 1980s. Over 5 million hectolitres.
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