Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: brewpub

This isn't Pilsner Urquell, although the mug is a Pilsner Urquell mug. This is actually U Dvou Kocek's house brew, made in their brewery. It's an unfiltered, unpasteurized beer, like most beers sold in Prague brewpubs, and would probably be considered a Lezak, or lager.

There are several more brewpubs in Prague besides U Fleku and U Medvidku, and this is one of them. It's history has restarted several times after fires, but the current building dates mostly to the 1780's, in the era of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Supposedly he used to sit behind the kettle on the left, although I don't know if the current pub owners can prove this claim. The beer is good, and as cheap as Pilsner Urquell, which is also sold here.

This is the fermentation tank at U Medvidku. Note that it's wooden and open.

Here are two more industrial-era closed copper kettles, even if they are small. The all-paper office is a nice historical touch too, even if it appears to be fully operational (with a 1990's era phone, from the looks of it).

As in most brew pubs, the U Medvidku brewery is openly displayed to the public. To see it, though, or to drink the products, you have to go to the second (in European terms first) floor, as the ground floor is a more food-oriented pub that serves Budweiser Budvar beer and other more mainstream products. This kettle interests me somewhat as I don't know exactly what it's used for. Here I'll confess my ignorance of brewing. At first sight, it looks like an extremely old fashioned, pre-industrial copper kettle for brewing malt, but it looks too shallow for that. On the other hand, U Medvidku's output in very moderate. Note that here the kettle is empty.

Another brewpub in Prague, almost as famous as U Fleku, is U Medvidku. U Medvidku is mostly known for their X33 dark beer, supposedly the most powerful beer in the world (although 33 indicates 33 degrees Plato, rather than 33% alcohol). However, a milder, and far cheaper option is Old Gott, seen here. My understanding is that the name is a pun in several respects, referencing "God" in German, but also, probably, the now-geriatric Czech pop star Karel Gott.

Maybe the most famous pub in Prague, at least according to the tourist literature, is U Fleku. This pub supposedly used to be frequented by Jaroslav Hasek (like most of the older pubs in Prague, actually), and is a well-known brew pub as well. Their specialty is this very-rich, sweet dark beer. It isn't cheap, but neither is the pub, which is rarely frequented by locals anymore. The shot glasses in this photo have Becherovka in them, which is also passed around in this pub as if it were beer. It's not beer, though. I have photos elsewhere of the distillery for this herbal liquor, which usually has an alcohol content of about 38%, more powerful than most vodka or tequila, although there are some weaker, sweeter versions of it. In reality, though, the full-powered stuff is also pretty sweet.

This is the end product of the Novomestsky Pivovar, which although a brewpub literally translates to "New Town Brewery." This beer, while light (in the Czech sense), is nevertheless cloudy due to its being unfiltered. It's rich in taste as well, which is typical of its also being unpasteurized. Pasteurization of beer is more to increase shelf life than to improve food safety, so although its generally safe to drink, it isn't economical to bottle it usually, so a brewpub or brewery is usually the only place you can drink it.

This is one of the fermentation vats at the Novomestsky Pivovar, a brewpub on Vodickova in Prague. Most of the brewpub is located underground in medieval cellars thought to have long been connected to brewing, although the current business only dates to 1993. These vats are unusual for places like this in that they're fully modern, as in stainless steel, while most brewpubs pride themselves on using very old fashioned methods in order to improve quality. To be fair, though, these vats are open, which is old fashioned, although they're protected behind glass.

This was another shot from my first cross processed Fujichrome that I converted to black and white in Adobe Photoshop. This shot looks almost conventional as a result, kind of like an antique photo.