Beers of South Bohemia

South Bohemia is dominated, in a beer sense, by the importance of Budejovicky Budvar – Budweiser Budvar. The town itself isn’t very big (100.000 inhabitants), but is home to one of the most famous beers in the world, and not a little of this fame coming from the ongoing legal battle with Anheuser-Busch and the American version of Budweiser.

At least now there seems to be some solution to the issue – Budweiser means from Budweis, which is in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. Not the United States of America. The European Union have realised this and have ruled that the Czechs have the same geographical copyright as the French with Champagne, Cognac and Roquefort.

However, for beer “enthusiasts” (dipsomaniacs?) there is a great deal more to explore in the region. Taking Ceske Budejovice as a central starting point, being both reasonably well placed and also the regional capital, you are within 1 hour travel to at least 5 other breweries and towns worth visiting.

A list like this is always questionable in its objectivity (well, it’s not objective at all), so as random as memory goes, towns with breweries to visit are:

Strakonice, with the brewery Dudak, is a small town roughly north of CB, home to a bi-annual international bag piping festival (Dudak means bagpiper), and has a castle dating back to the 10th century. Other things worth noting, the fez hat was made for a number of years and they were the main exporter to countries like Turkey. They are also home of the CZ motorbike factory, which later turned into the CZ weapons factory…

Trebon, home to Bohemia Regent brewery, is famous for its number of man-made carp lakes, some dating back hundreds of years. The town is well preserved with a combination of gothic and renaissance architecture.

Cesky Krumlov, with Eggenberg brewery, has too many features to mention here, but suffice to say, it’s listed as a UNESCO Heritage site. Lots of pretty and well preserved buildings. Apart from that, it’s a great place to past on the river – well worth the trip.

Protivin, home to Platan brewery and a crocodile park, a village worth visiting for both of those, and is also home of an old electrical powerplant.

Near Protivin is also another brewery, which is the closest we come to a micro brewery. Pivovarsky Dvur is owned by the director of Platan and is part of castle Zvikov, which is absolutely worth a visit.

The final brewery on our list is the oldest one in Ceske Budejovice and is called Budweiser Burgerbrau. It dates back to the German heritage of Budweis and was the first brewery that was allowed by the king. It was started by the German inhabitants, hence the German name. Some years after this, the Czech inhabitants started their own brewery, which is what we refer to when we say Budweiser beer (except the Americans…!).

Beer festival in the home of Budweiser Budvar

When you live virtually next door to the original Budweiser Budvar (Budejovicky Budvar) and there a beer festival on, you’re almost required to go. In all fairness, it’s not really a big festival, not particularly fancy either (if you’ve been to the CAMRA beer festivals in London, it can’t really be compared for size) – but, the beers are good… Very good.

Having lived in CB (Ceske Budejovice) for almost two years, I’ve started to get an understanding of Czech beer choice and consumption. However, I was a bit surprised at the beer festival. Like in the UK, beers tend to be local or regional – so, 60km from here, in Strakonice, they make a couple of nice beers, but you can’t really get hold of them in CB. The biggest beers, Pilsner Urquell, Budvar, Kozel and Krusovice can be found almost everywhere. So why were people queuing up for these, when there were microbreweries, family breweries, non-local breweries all touting their goods?

I found some amazing beer (from Pacov), unfiltered and unpasteurized, with a slight hint of vanilla and with enough sweetness to counter the slight bitterness, and wouldn’t dream of buying “factory” beers at an event like this…

In any case, their loss! Some great beers on sale, and if you missed it, come again next year!