Pivní Filosof - Beer Philosopher

You've all  heard the news  of ABIB's newest acquisition, so I'm not going to repeat it. What amazes me, though, is, on the one hand, that many people are still surprised with this sort thing, as if it was something new, and, on the other, the reactions of many of those people: sadness, anger, disappointment... I could understand it if the brewery had shut down for some reason or another and the beers that had become their favourite aren't available anymore, that could be sad, we all tend to develop a personal attachment to some products and memories don't taste as good. But that's not the case here, the brewery still there, making the same stuff they were making the day before, they could keep on buying it, if they wanted, but they choose not to. I'm not going to argue with that choice, the reasons are legitimate, but not enough to warrant anger, let alone questioning the owners' decision, as if they should have first consulted the thing with thei...

In no particular order The first beer I drink every day The beer I drink after doing some hard work The beer I drink to quench my thirst on a hot day The beer I drink with friends The beer I drink while making dinner for the family The beer that surprises me for some reason The beer I'm drinking right now The beer I'll be drinking after that The beer a friend gives me as a present or shares with me The beer I can drink straight from a lagering tank Can't argue with it, can ya? Na Zdraví! Disclainer: This list has been heavily inspired by this one here

When I first got to know something about Zemský Pivovar back in 2013, I was impressed by their ambition . New micro-breweries are a dime-a-dozen these days, and unless one is opening near where you live, they are hardly interesting news anymore, but 20,000 hl/year one? That's not something you see every day, in fact, it's something we haven't seen here since Chotěboř opened in 2009 ! But by the beginning of 2014 (if I remember correctly), it seemed that some things were not going quite well. To begin with, the quality of the beers had dropped to the point that some of the pubs that had received Zemské Pivo with enthusiasm were now reluctant to stock it (it should be said that the same was happening at the same time with Chotěboř , where Zemské is brewed). It was also about that time when I head the rumour that the future of the enterprise was uncertain. Apparently, the company was not able to raise the necessary capital, without which Prague 4, the owner of planned s...

It's been almost a month since I posted something here. I've been too busy, and brain-fried to write anything, let alone anything worth reading. Not that the following will be one of my best posts, but I do want to get back on the writing saddle, and there's no better way to do it than taking advantage of the date and look back a bit at the year that was. 2014 was, in every aspect I can think of, much, much better than 2013. It was a fairly good year, I'd say, and I hope 2015 will be at least as good. Publishing The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer was fun. Shortcomings notwithstanding, it was mostly well received and writing it together with Alan was a great experience. We had some more plans for it, but my workload made it impossible to give the necessary attention. But let's talk about beer. Most remarkable Czech beers of 2014 On tap: I could go for Únětická 10°, not only it's a great beer, but drinking it at my village's pub after a hard da...