MdV: Merchant du Vin beer e-newsletter – Thursday June 14,
2007: Beer in the Czech Republic
We’re very pleased to announce a
fine new addition to our beer portfolio, Green’s, the only Gluten-Free Belgian
Ales available in the US. Look for Green’s after July 1, 2007.
A press release of 114 KB is right
here:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/greens_intro_6_7_07.pdf
Media coverage of Merchant du Vin’s fine
beer portfolio continues to grow: Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter is featured in the
current issue of chefs’ specialty magazine “Art Culinaire;” Samuel Smith’s
Imperial Stout is listed as a “top choice” in Market Watch’s “Last Call;” and
the June Beeradvocate magazine picks Innerleithen, Scotland – where Traquair
House is located – as one of “Nine Great Beer Towns You Didn’t Know Were Great
Beer Towns.” Plus, beer festivals,
dinners, and events are offering beer lovers all across America more
chances to discover and enjoy great beer.
Full national news & MdV event
listing at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/news.html
Beer Chat from the Beer Court Jester:
Beer in the Czech
Republic
To us, annual world per-capita beer consumption
is interesting: even with competition from some great beer nations like Belgium, Germany,
England, Ireland and the US
the record is perennially held by the Czech Republic. Year in and year out, folks in the Czech Republic
drink an average of about 160 liters of beer each, something like 42 gallons
per year. Ireland,
the second-place nation, is around 130 liters per person per year; Germany
is third at under 120. The US is not in
the top ten, at about 82 liters per person per year. (Sources: Euromonitor,
realbeer.com, Wikipedia.)
Before WWI, this Central European region
was part of Austria-Hungary;
with what is now the Slovak Republic it became the independent nation of Czechoslovakia
in 1918. Occupied during WWII, Czechoslovakia
became a Communist nation after the war, in 1948. The Communist era ended with the Velvet
Revolution of 1989, and in 1993 Czechoslovakia
split into the Czech and Slovak
Republics.
To beer drinkers around the world,
the Czech Republic is famous for producing the
world’s first pale-colored lager, a golden, fairly full-bodied, malty beer with
a signature elegant hop aroma and flavor.
Originating in the town of Pilsen (“Plzen” in Czech) in 1842,
this style took the world by storm and today something like 95% of the world’s
beer volume is based on this original style.
Here in the US, we clearly have
a wide diversity of beer choices – imports from the world over, and great
American beers. We drink ales, lagers,
hybrids, lambics, barrel-aged beers; they are straw-colored, jet black, or
anywhere in between. Flavors in beers
found here range from subtle & light all the way to roasty, deep, super
bitter, sour, and/or beyond extreme.
In the Czech
Republic, people generally drink one
style of beer: all-malt lagers, of medium strength, brewed in the Czech Republic.
So the people of the world’s
greatest beer-drinking nation drink their own national style. What does this mean? Could this mean that Czech lagers, really, are
the ultimate beer style? With tongue
only somewhat in cheek, we suggest that a real Czech lager – beer made from only
soft water, Czech barley, the famous indigenous Zatec hop (known to many
English-speakers by its German name, Saaz), and a traditional lager yeast; beer
produced via a decoction mash & carefully lagered – just might be the style
that appeals to every beer drinker, from the seeker of a simple moistened
whistle to the most advanced and demanding beer geek.
We invite you to form your own
opinion by trying Zatec Bright Lager, now available in the US for the
first time.
The Zatec Brewery is located atop a
hill in the center of the town of Zatec, west of
Prague, in the middle of the Czech Republic’s
hop-growing region. There are records of
brewing taxes paid in the city of Zatec
in 1004 AD, and the current brewery began production in 1801. Small and independent, the Zatec brewery
proudly produces beer following Czech traditions. The beer is clean and crisp,
with a solid barley malt middle and beautifully elegant hop aroma and flavor.
Zatec gains complexity from a double decoction mash, and a clean,
fresh-baked-bread vitality from open primary fermentation and 45 days of
lagering. Here’s some more about Zatec:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/5_breweries/zatec_beer.html
(The term “bright lager” is used in
the Czech Republic to indicate an all-malt golden
lager of medium strength, brewed with Czech barley and hops. The term “pilsner” or “pilsener” is used
around the world, sometimes with a very generic meaning, but in the Czech Republic
it means specifically “beer from the city of Pilsen/Plzen.”)
Currently, it’s a time of change in
the Czech beer scene: privatization and new brewing technologies have jeopardized
time-honored but costly brewing traditions. Tourism is booming, and the Czech Republic
joined the European Union in 2004. Two well-known, large Czech breweries have
even aligned with two well-known American brewing rivals for distribution and
sales, one a couple of years ago and one just last winter.
But Zatec Brewery plans to keep
producing great Czech beer in the time-tested way, and we’ll help them bring it
to Americans.
If your local bar or store doesn’t
have Zatec, let them know that the same local distributor who sends them Samuel
Smith, Lindemans, and Ayinger can get it for them. If you still can’t find it, please let us
help: beercourtjester@mdvbeer.com
If you are reading this newsletter
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Merchant du Vin, America’s
Premier Specialty Beer Importer Since 1978
http://www.merchantduvin.com