THE WORLD OF CZECH LAGERS IS MOSTLY HIDDEN TO THOSE OUTSIDE EUROPE. WE KNOW OF “BOHEMIAN PILSNERS” AND ASSUME THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO THE COUNTRY THAT INVENTED THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS STYLE. BUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC HAS A LAGER TRADITION NEARLY AS RICH AS GERMANY’S AND IF YOU HAVE THE GOOD FORTUNE TO VISIT, YOU WILL FIND MORE THAN GOLDEN LAGERS THERE. THE THING WE KNOW AS PILSNER IS CALLED “LIGHT LAGER” (SVĚTLY LEŽÁK) IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC—“PILSNER” IS RESERVED FOR THE BEER MADE AT THE URQUELL BREWERY. BUT YOU’LL ALSO FIND THINGS CALLED TMAVÉ, ČERNÉ, AND POLOTMAVÉ IN HUES RANGING FROM LIGHT AMBER TO BLACK.
The Czech system for producing beer runs along two axes: strength and color. On the one side you have beers of different strength categories based on the Plato scale. These are actually legal regulations, and they changed slightly in 2011. They are:
■ Stolní pivo, table beer up to 6° Plato. The pronunciation is roughly Stole-nyee Pee-voh.
■ Výčepní pivo, from 7° to 10° Plato. Strangely, výčepní comes from the word for taproom, and the term literally means “draft beer.” It is applied to all beer in this range, irrespective of package. Pronounced Vee-chep-nyee Pee-voh.
■ Ležák, from 11° to 12° Plato. Again, to add to the confusion, ležák literally means “lager”—and again, it applies to all beer in this range whether lager or ale. Pronounced Leh-zhak.
■ Speciál, strong beers above 13° Plato. Pronounced Spet-zee-al.
Colors are slightly more straightforward, although if they’re arranged out of order, it becomes even clearer.
■ Světlé, or pale-colored. Pronounced Svet-leh.
■ Tmavé, or dark. Pronounced T’ma-veh.
■ Polotmavé, which literally means “semidark” or “half-dark,” refers to a color in the amber band. Pronounced Poh-loh-t’ma-veh.
■ Černé, or black. Pronounced Cher-neh.
If you imagine a grid, with strength running across the top and color running down the side, you’ll have a clear sense of how this works. It won’t always track exactly; strong beers may not be described by color, and černé and tmavé don’t have precise ranges (sometimes černé will look lighter than tmavés and vice versa).
But that’s just the overview. When you get into a pub, you’ll find even more terms. In Good Beer Guide Prague, Evan Rail warns ominously: “The most difficult thing to get your head around is that there might be two words for the same beer, or two very different beers with the same name, and the terms can stack up like VWs in an ice storm: Primator’s hefeweizen can also be called “upper-fermented, light, wheat yeast beer.” Actually, it’s probably not that hard. Armed with these designations, you need know only a few other key words:
■ Kvasnicové pivo. Literally “yeast beer.” It is a specific preparation that involves adding yeast or fermenting wort to fully lagered beer—called kräusening in Germany—right before kegging. It brings a liveliness to the beer that has Czech beer geeks in a swoon. Pronounced Kvass-nit-so-veh Pee-voh.
■ Nefiltrované pivo. Unfiltered beer. Slightly confusing because both kvasnicové and nefiltrované will appear less than perfectly clear, and both may enjoy the benefits of richer, brighter flavors. Unfiltered beer does not have fresh yeast added. Pronounced Neh-fil-tro-va-nay Pee-voh.
■ Pšeničné pivo. Wheat beer. Weizen-style beers are becoming popular, and you’ll see these words with fair regularity in the pubs. Pronounced P’shay-neech-na Pee-voh.
■ Tanková. Tank beer. This is a relatively new way of serving a brewery’s regular product. The beer is pumped into large tanks at a pub. The beer is unpasteurized and carbonates naturally in the tank, resulting in sharper, more vivid flavors. Pronounced Tank-oh-vah.
Czechs have also come to the craft brewing party, so in addition to lagers, you may find ales, including IPAs (often called “eepah” by locals)—though probably mainly in Prague. And if you go to Prague, skip the eepahs—it’s those amazing kvasnicové lagers you’ll want to try. Outside the Czech Republic, there’s nothing like them.