Our trip theThe Czech Republic and the Pilsner Urquell Brewery

[pjj2ba]

Well we are back from our all expenses paid trip courtesy of Pilsner Urquell (SABMiller). We had a great time!! We packed an awful lot into the 3 days we were there.

We started out in Prague with a guided tour

St Vitus Cathedral

Us on the Charles bridge

Cool highly modified tuba we saw on the Charles Bridge (dixie band)

Beer tanks in the restaurant we had lunch in. They fill these from a tank truck!

 

[pjj2ba]

Pilzen and the Pilsner Urquell Brewery

The view from our Hotel room.

Antique bottling equipment and the brewery museum in Plzen

The view when you pass through the gates. The main brewhouse is on the left

 

[pjj2ba]

In the malting facility. This is not part of the standard tour.

These are at least 5 ft deep!!

This barley had a day or so more to go.

The grain was turned twice a day.
The malting starts with a 2 hr soak of the grain, drain, let breathe 24 hrs, then a 2 hr soak again, then drain and transfer to these beds which have a "mesh" bottom to allow good air circulation to prevent rot.

 

[pjj2ba]

On to the standard brewery tour.

These are from the old now retired brewhouse, now set up for tours and close examination

These are retired mash tuns. The upper photos are the ones for the decoction.

Apparently sometimes the decocion would get plugged up while being returned to the main mash tun so the workers would beat on the pipes to lossen it up!

 

[pjj2ba]

Now on to the current production brewhouse.

Mash tuns

Boil Kettles

View of both.

The Lauter tuns

 

[pjj2ba]

End of the tour.

The still do test batches the old way to make sure it tastes like the stuff produced in the modern fermenters. This was in the cellars and we got to try some beer right from a giant keg down there. Awesome!!!

We will definitely be making a return trip someday!

 

[Big10Seaner]

Very cool!

 

[passedpawn]

Nice. I'm so jealous. After the initial pils Urq contest thread, I made 4 successive batches of the stuff (in kegs now). Mmm. Thanks for the motivation, and great pics above.

 

[BeerCrafter2011]

congrats pjj2ba! Say hi to the misses for me! haven't seen her in 6 years!

 

[Gridlocked]

WOW! What a great trip - I bet that didn't suck at all!

 

[Yooper]

Those pictures are great! It sounds like a trip of a lifetime and I'm so jealous. Thank you so much for sharing your photos with us!

 

[jeffd10]

What a Trip !!!!

 

[runningweird]

holy crap that looks like fun. How was the food?

 

[pjj2ba]

holy crap that looks like fun. How was the food?

The food was pretty good. We didn't get to do our normal travel tasting as much as we can. We only had lunch and dinner the first day on our own. After that every meal was a buffet at either the brewery or our hotel. Oh and other than the first evening, I had unlimited access to all of the Pilsner Urquell I could drink - free. I drank about all I could on top of all of the food. I could have drunk more if I hadn't been so full!

 

[FoundersBrew]

Those pictures are great! It sounds like a trip of a lifetime and I'm so jealous. Thank you so much for sharing your photos with us!

What she said!

 

[Rob_B]

Very cool experience, congrats!

 

[DieterVonBrauhaus]

Don't forget to check out the original Budweiser original Czech Budvar Brewery, great beer!

 

[pjj2ba]

Not that I'm biased because of the situation, but I definitely prefer Pilsner Urquell. I only had one night free so my Czech friend and I did a little bar hopping in the old town of Prague. I figured that later, it would be all PU all the time (which it was). We stopped at U Fleku for their "famous" house brew. Meh, actually this was my least favorite beer. It's starting OG is 13° and it tasted like its FG was 7°! Tasted like dark, half-fermented wort. I liked Master (also dark) much better but it was a bit weird too (made by Pilsensky Prazdroj - the PU folks). Had Budweiser, it was OK. Had Gambrinus 10° and 13° (made by Pilsensky Prazdroj) liked them better. The 13° not surprisingly had more flavor and body. I also enjoyed Breznak. It was nothing special, but found it a pleasant easy drinker.

 

[michaeltrego]

I'm drooling! Great pics and trip report Phil - you must have been in heaven with that unlimited beer pass - totally jealous! The banged up copper mash pipe was classic - the universal fix - if it's not working, whack it with a hammer!

 

[DeanRIowa]

Nice pictures, I am jealous as well.

Closest I got was a case of Pilsner Urquell brought smuggled over the border to Austria while I was in college in the 80s. I still remember it tasting better than what I buy now in the stores.

Dean